[spectre] Futuresonic 2008 - Programme Announcement

[Drew Hemment]

Futuresonic 2008
Urban Festival of Art, Music and Ideas
1 - 5 May Bank Holiday
Manchester, UK


Transforming Manchester into a space of experimentation, making it  
come alive

Occupying the orbits of both digital culture and music, Futuresonic  
returns for May Bank Holiday with its largest and most ambitious  
programme to date. This year's festival features a sideways glance at  
social networking and a cross-section of art, music, events,  
exhibitions and live performances in over 30 venues across the city.  
Advance Delegate Pass, Weekender Wristband and individual event  
tickets now on sale.

Further info and tickets
http://www.futuresonic.com


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Futuresonic Art

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Freeing urban space, making it come alive

Social Networking Unplugged features new commissioned artworks and  
many world firsts from an array of international artists across the  
city, and is the focal point of the first comprehensive and creative  
look at social networking by an art festival. Futuresonic plans to  
pull out the plug in order to take the new social spaces apart, see  
how they work, and put them together in new ways. The exhibition will  
give a sideways glance at the world of web 2.0, create spaces for  
social interaction, and explore the seam between open source culture  
and the public sphere in the city. Including the winner of the £5000  
Futuresonic Art Award Commission supported by Piccadilly Partnership,  
Grennan & Sperandio's Rubbing Shoulders, and many more. The ART  
strand will be presented at various venues across the city, both  
expected and unexpected.

New commissioned artworks in Social Networking Unplugged include:

Thomson & Craighead ::: The Social Networking Suite
plan b ::: MySpace - OurSpace - YourSpace
Grennan & Sperandio ::: Rubbing Shoulders
Simon Yuill ::: FSF 'the free social foundations project'
Aram Bartholl ::: Friends
Rajni Shah ::: Small Gifts: Give what you can, take what you need
Last.fm & Futuresonic ::: Last.fm Lounge
Improv Everywhere ::: Time stops
picidae (Christoph Wachter & Mathias Jud) ::: Wang Ba Manchester
You And Me featuring Cybersonica ::: Pub Safari
David Merrit and Julian Priest ::: Terms of Endearment

Plus many more exhibitions, artists and art events city wide.

For more info and to buy advance tickets now visit
http://www.futuresonic.com


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Futuresonic Music

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"A glimpse of tomorrow's music today" BBC

The RZA - the genius behind Wu-Tang Clan and producer of soundtracks  
for Kill Bill and Ghost Dog - headlines as Bobby Digital in a  
showcase of leftfield hip-hop, celebrating the creative spirit behind  
contemporary experimentation in the genre. Plus Venetian Snares, Luke  
Vibert, Flying Lotus, Chrome Hoof, Rustie, Rolo Tomassi, Zombie  
Zombie, The Chap, MIT and many more in a full-on programme of  
international mavericks, risk-takers, boundary-breakers and radical  
music-makers at over 30 venues city-wide.

This year's music and club highlights include:

The RZA as Bobby Digital
Venetian Snares
Flying Lotus
Chrome Hoof
Luke Vibert	
Rustie
Sequence
Dirty Projectors	
Rolo Tomassi
Claro Intelecto
The Chap	
MIT
Allez-Allez	
Gay Against You
Agaskodo Teliverek
Bogdan Raczynski	
Tim Exile
Computer Controlled
Mike Paradinas	
N>E>D
Skeletons and The Kings of All Cities

And many more to follow - For more info and to buy tickets visit
http://www.futuresonic.com

Buy Weekender Wristbands and advance tickets now at
http://www.futuresonic.com


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Futuresonic Ideas

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Futuresonic Conference: The Social Technologies Summit

Contact Theatre, Manchester
1 - 2 May with supporting events 30 April & 3 May

The Futuresonic Conference brings opinion formers, futurologists,  
artists, technologists and scientists from the digital culture, music  
and art communities together around shared issues to do with  
technology, society, art and the city. The theme Social Futures:  
Online, Mobile and Unplugged Social Networking is explored by leading  
figures developing the next generation of social software alongside  
Richard Stallman founder of the Free Software movement and Gerd  
Leonhard on the future of music, plus keynotes, critical debates,  
demos, experiences and open sessions on mobile social software,  
freeing space in the augmented city, how game design can  
revolutionise social software, OpenID and who is keeping an eye on  
the kids. Reflecting the 'social' theme, the conference will combine  
keynotes, critical debates, demos and experiences with open and  
participatory sessions, promising a fun and engaging number of days.

This year's conference participants include:

Gerd Leonhard, Media Futurist, Author, CEO
Richard Stallman, Founder, Free Software Foundation
Jonas Woost, Co-founder & Head Of Music, Last.fm	
Matt Jones, Founder, Dopplr
Scott Cohen, Founder, The Orchard
Matt Fuller, Reader in Media Design, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam
Matt Locke, Commissioning Editor, Channel 4
Ravikant Shama, Sarai, India
Felipe Fonseca, Bricolabs, Brazil
Adrian Woolard, Head of Innovation Culture, BBC
Justin Hall, CEO, PMOG
James Wallbank, Founder, RTI / Access Space
Beryl Graham, University of Sunderland / CRUMB
Paul Coulton, Lancaster University & Nokia Innovation Network
Gabe Sawhney, Founder, Wireless Toronto
Katie Lips, Director, Kisky Netmedia
Mark Shepherd, Artist / Architect / Researcher, TSG Toolkit
Ronald Lenz, Locative Media Research Programme, Waag
Ele Carpenter, Curator	
Tapio Makela, Researcher & Media Artist
Drew Hemment, Futuresonic & ImaginationLancaster

Many more speakers to be announced. For more information on  
Futuresonic Conference and to buy a Delegate Pass please visit
http://www.futuresonic.com


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Futuresonic EVNTS

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Futuresonic's Art and Music Strands are also supported by EVNTS - an  
open or wiki strand of the festival which enables artists groups and  
event organisers to present autonomous events. Since its introduction  
in 2005, EVNTS has grown into a community of people who each year  
return to give the festival an extra edge. Full EVNTS programme  
announced soon.


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For more info and to buy advance tickets now visit
http://www.futuresonic.com

Futuresonic is supported by Arts Council England, Manchester City  
Council, Piccadilly Partnership, Lancaster University,  
ImaginationLancaster, Art Attack, Contact and Cube.

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