Kruno Jošt

Social Technologies Summit Futuresonic is international festival trying to answer questions of tomorrow: how will we interact with each other and nature around us in future. Futuresonic festivals fringe at Arcspace in St. Wilfrid’s Enterprise Center answered the question trough its grassroots movement created events that hosted, among many other events, CultureRobot installation.

Arcspace is situated in ex-church building that is turned into St. Wilfrid’s Enterprise Center  since 1992  – a unique architecture where insides of the church are transformed into enterprise center for ethical businesses and NGOs. St. Wilfrid’s Enterprise Center is situated in Hulme, an  area near to Manchester city center. Hulme was mapped not only as a territory but also as a specific part of the city with vibrant activist community and a history. ArcSpace was visited by people of different age and heterogeneous needs and activities, exchanging their beliefs, stories and producing new possibilities for exchange and collaboration in spirit of free culture.

Culture Robot installation was created by help of the community from the start to the end. Materials were collected or borrowed instead of purchased or rented, help with programing for interactive part of the installation was done by  friends and volunteers, and installation debuted at Saturday on the open, community day, that hosted events inside and outside the Center.CR 3.0 installation created a new relationship between local community and this art piece. More than ever people were active in collecting material, discussing and managing to interconnect installation with other events during Futuresonic fringe.

CR 3.0 mapped more than just Hulme, it mapped its people, relationships, how they feel about city development, architecture, organizations working with art and culture in Manchester and how financing is a part of the culture and where does it lead culture to, it showed community strength and grassroots development.  During the open days, all ethnic, age, academic and other walks of life were united and exchanged opinions, questions and ideas.

Guerrilla busking was happening in the city throughout the day, graffite artists were spraying on the vans and trailers (an identifiable vehicle in the Redbrick’s area of the Hulme – where travelers and free people of all sorts live). People from recycled biodiesel group, local bcycle repair man, drummers, community artists, foreign guests, local volunteers and experts were united to make a truly social event, creating bridges between cultures, people and technology in universal feeling of unity.

Read “Report From FutureSonic 2009” By Jonah Brucker on Rhizome.org

Photolog on Futuresonic Fringe at Arcspace >>