FutureEverything to unveil a new multimedia art installation, SuperGestures

“I am really grateful for the enthusiasm and creativity that the 50 young people brought to this project. We had an incredibly diverse group of participants and it’s essential that they get the chance to explore and express their relationship with technology and policy making in the city, especially given that they are the future generation and will be impacted the most.” 

Ling Tan, SUPERGESTURES Artist

“SUPERGESTURES is a new way for a city to speak to its citizens. It gives young people a voice and metamorphoses that voice into a thrilling visual spectacle. The result is a totally unique participatory survey and demonstration of young residents’ hopes and fears for their city”

Drew Hemment, Founder & Creative Director of FutureEverything

SUPERGESTURES has been commissioned by CityVerve in partnership with FutureEverything as part of its FAULT LINES talent development and commissioning programme and responds to the development of smart cities and Internet of Things (IoT).  

Ling, one of seven artists selected as part of FAULT LINES, has been collaborating with young people across Manchester in a series of workshops that culminated in a large-scale outdoor multimedia performance through which people expressed their relationship to the city and their visions for the future with body gestures performed using wearable technology. 

During the workshops 50 young people from across Manchester gathered to co-create SUPERGESTURES – collective actions, postures and gestures performed with a wearable power suit laced with technology, including body gesture sensors, vibration actuators, LEDs and audio feedback.

Coordinated through social media as well as local community groups such as The Proud Trust (the only LGBT purpose-built centre in Europe), The Hideaway, (the oldest youth group in Manchester), and students from Manchester School of Architecture, the young people recorded and shared stories of freedom, pride, technology and ownership while laying out their visions for Manchester’s future.

Later, in a dramatic public spectacle, another group of 30 members of the public donned the SUPERGESTURES power suit, lit up with animated LEDs and triggered by a high tech sensor system, to listen to, ‘embody’ and perform all the co-created stories, visions, and gestures at key locations around Manchester. The hour-long semi-choreographed interactive walking performance was designed to lead people across several different neighbourhoods and immerse them in a future envisaged by the young people of the city, who will be most affected by current policy and technology decisions, some being driven by the CityVerve project. 

SUPERGESTURES is a deep dive into burning issues for the Internet of Things and Smart City. It uses wearable IoT technology developed by the artist herself using open hardware. Fundamental themes were brought to light including freedom, homelessness, safety, public transport, and caring for one another.

SUPERGESTURES puts CityVerve in a class of its own among big tech projects, and shows how the ‘CityVerve way’ is to put people at the centre. Here young people in Manchester are more than “users” of technologies the companies want to sell. They are the true stakeholders, the life blood of the city.

As the lead for the Culture and Public Realm theme for CityVerve, we are delighted and proud to have worked with Ling Tan on this groundbreaking new participatory IoT artwork for CityVerve. SUPERGESTURES represents exactly the type of artwork FutureEverything is aspiring to achieve, empowering communities to bring positive change through art and open technology.”

All the interaction during the performance was recorded to be exhibited at Future Sessions, the culmination of Every Thing is Connected, a three-day ‘conference-as-lab’ exploring the findings from local and international Smart City projects.

Led by Manchester City Council, CityVerve is a consortium of 20 organisations from the public, corporate, SME and academic sectors, who have united to transform the city and create endless possibilities for the people that live and work there, a smart, innovative, inspiring Manchester. The CityVerve partners include FutureEverything, Manchester Science Partnerships, the University of Manchester, Cisco and BT.

The final goal of the FAULT LINES programme is to develop new forms of sustainability for the creative practice of digital artists working today, encouraging cross sector collaboration and providing resources for art from beyond the arts. It is supported with public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The SUPERGESTURES exhibition will premiere at the Future Sessions launch party on Wednesday 21 March 2018 and be on show to the public from Friday 23 March to Thursday 29 March at the Bright Building, Manchester.