Message from Futurecity Founder & CEO Mark Davy:
“Whilst COVID-19 continues to shut down our physical movement and limits our interaction with others of our species, it has also cultivated a vast outpouring of imagination and creativity. The virus has created a cocktail consisting of unlimited personal time, access to human-scale technology and our natural curiosity. The result is a virtual petri dish in which to experiment with new ways of using the arts to re-order, process and critique a world unravelling before our eyes.
The pandemic has sparked a wave of virtual galleries, museums and music venues and in this period of turmoil and change, artists are finding ever more ingenious ways of disseminating their work, becoming cultural pathogens, colonising, hijacking and multiplying their art through social media. Finding willing (and unwilling hosts) through the viral networks of the Internet. Even artists who formerly eschewed the virtual world, and who are now deprived of a physical audience and the freedom to travel, are taking hesitant steps to test a new environment, where original ideas can flourish.
Recent criticism has accused artists of failing to provide a commentary befitting the huge problems besetting our world. But what an opportunity our confinement offers! This is the time for artists to treat the internet and social media as microorganisms in a biology experiment. COVID-19 won’t stop artists making art, but it does provide the laboratory conditions for experimentation, dialogue and distribution on a global scale, art filtered through retina and lens, made visible via glass-portal and light and heard through bony-labyrinth and cochlea.
As institutions are forced to close their physical doors, Futurecity is looking for new ideas, new spaces and changing behaviours, the list below is just a glimpse into the many ways culture has been germinating in the digital sphere and will be updated as we go along. If you know of any other initiatives, we’d love to hear from you. Tag @futurecityblog (Twitter, Instagram) and #DigitalPlaceshaping so that we can share with our network instantly.”
Mark Davy / Founder / Futurecity
10 Digital Culture Highlights
Lawrence Abu Hamdan has uploaded low res exports of his last three films on YouTube until the venues that were planning to screen them can reopen: Walled Unwalled (2018), Once Removed (2019), Rubber Coated Steel (2016).
“Louise Bourgeois: Drawings 1947–2007,” an online exhibition at Hauser & Wirth.
Dr.Corona Online by Ye Funa, an interactive online work. Dr.Corona is not a virus, nor a real human being; it is an artificial-intelligence-doctor, answering and solving the problems that may have caused by the coronavirus.
Daata commissions original, digital artworks by established and emerging artists, allowing you to stream or download high-quality digital artworks on any device.
“Giallo Camera,” a 3D tour of an exhibition at Studio Trisorio.
BBC “Culture in Quarantine” virtual arts festival combining museum, theatre, dance and classical music (coming soon)
Sadler’s Wells Theatre’s Digital Stage, an online platform for free dance performances and workshops.
Miranda July’s Covid International Arts Festival (March 22 Edition) awards ceremony. Artists sent in their poems, drawings, songs, dances, movies, and more to participate in a truly world-wide festival — with submissions from Istanbul to Hertfordshire.
A digital archive of talks and discussions held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, during the period 1982-1993, featuring leading writers, artists and filmmakers.
“Bubble” by Kieran Hurley, a play set entirely on Facebook, online until 23 April.