[spectre] Futuresonic 2007 dates and themes announced

[Drew Hemment]

FUTURESONIC 2007
10-12 May, Manchester UK
http://www.futuresonic.com

Futuresonic, the urban festival of electronic arts and music, is  
moving from July to May, back to the Spring date it occupied in 2004.

See below for next year's highlights and special advance discounts on  
delegate passes.


FUTUREVISUAL
http://www.futurevisual.org

In 2007 the centrepiece of Futuresonic Live will be a celebration of  
all things audiovisual and a homage to 40 years of multimedia events.

40 years ago there were the first multimedia events of the kind that  
we would understand today. While the rest of the world was  
celebrating the soft-centred Summer of Love, a fusion of artforms and  
a crossover between avant garde and popular was taking place. This  
was the moment when events like Futuresonic became possible...

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of these seminal events,  
Futuresonic Live goes back to the future - revisiting one of the  
inspirations of the first Futuresonic festival in 1996 - to look at  
the cutting edge of immersive sound and image today.


URBAN PLAY
http://www.urban-play.org

Urban Play is the art and technology strand of the festival featuring  
exhibitions, workshops and interactive projects in the city streets.  
It was introduced in Futuresonic's 10th anniversary year, reflecting  
Futuresonic's focus since 2004 on artworks in urban space, and has  
since been mirrored in other events in the UK and Europe.

Thirty years after Brian Eno's MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS, Futuresonic 2007's  
Urban Play presents ART FOR SHOPPING CENTRES, an exhibition of  
interactive artworks in a major shopping centre.

Urban Play will also feature FREE-MEDIA activities in association  
with Mongrel, MediaShed and Access Space, including a UK first  
implementation of the free-media Video Toolkit developed by MediaShed  
and Eyebeam (more TBA).


EVNTS
http://www.futuresonic.com/07/evnts.html

A competition and showcase for the best new and ground breaking  
events from around the world.

EVNTS is a strand of the Futuresonic festival which enables artist  
groups and event organisers to participate in the festival. Since its  
introduction in 2005, EVNTS has grown into a community of people who  
each year return to give the festival an extra edge.

INVITATION FOR SUBMISSIONS: Futuresonic now invites anyone working in  
music or media arts to take part in EVNTS 2007, with the EVNT  
Competition offering financial support for a limited number of events.

For further details announced soon. Visit www.futuresonic.com/07/ 
evnts.html for more info, or sign up to Futuresonic's subscriber list  
to receive regular updates.


SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES SUMMIT
http://www.socialtechsummit.org

A major international conference exploring the creative and social  
potential of new technologies, bringing together leading figures to  
explore "a whole new way of doing things in the air".

In 2007 a focus of the Social Technologies Summit is FREE-MEDIA. Free- 
media is about finding inspiration and resources in our built and  
natural environment that were previously dismissed as being without  
value or irrelevant. It doesn't cost much because it makes use of  
public domain Free and Open Source Software, and recycles freely  
available old equipment, waste materials and junk (FOSS). Free-media  
increases access to media technologies, especially to the people who  
need it most and can afford it the least, and lowers environmental  
impact of the media we produce and consume.

The 2007 Summit will also host a network meeting for ENVIRONMENT 2.0,  
a new initiative joining the dots between locative media and  
environmental calamity, being launched by Futuresonic to assess and  
offset the environmental footprint of future arts and culture.

And it will play host to THE MAP DESIGNERS, an event drawing together  
map hackers, artists, cartographers, DIY technologists, architects,  
game programmers, bloggers and semantic web philosophers.

Delegate Pass - Advance discount available. See Below.


GET INVOLVED!
http://www.futuresonic.com/07/get_involved

Visit the website or subscribe to Futuresonic updates for upcoming  
calls for submissions, job offers and volunteering opportunities.


ADVANCE DELEGATE PASS DISCOUNT ... SAVE £20
http://www.futuresonic.com/07/bookings.html

Delegate Pass - £25 (Normally £45)

The Delegate Pass gives you access to all Futuresonic seminars and  
talks, the Social Technologies Summit, and entrance to Futuresonic  
Live events over the festival weekend. You must reserve your  
discounted Delegate Pass before December 31st 2006 and make payment  
by January 31st 2007. To reserve email tickets2007 at futuresonic.com  
stating your name, address and contact details. You will be sent  
purchasing information from the festival box office by January 8th 2007.


*Futuresonic 2007 may burn when exposed to oxygen.