As part of London Festival of Architecture 2021, Futurecity joined Jacobs’ series of events which explored the theme ‘Caring for the City’ with Futurecity partner Sherry Dobbin joining the panel for the ‘Public Realm 2.0’ event. The panelists reflected on social progress, digital community engagement, digital placeshaping, and how the physical and digital dimensions can come together to create a dynamic post-pandemic public realm.
Futurecity focused on positive ways that arts can engage with digital technology to create positive cityscapes for our hybrid lives. Sherry took the audience on a whistle stop tour of the current cultural strategies and artistic interventions exploring layers of our cities in new and exciting ways from Virtual Reality to Kinetic Art to Cyborg Art.
‘Digital placeshaping is a way in which we can realise creative placemaking. We intentionally leverage the power of arts, culture and creativity to access digital technology and engage people.
– Sherry Dobbin, Partner, Futurecity
As we can now create digital installation which can respond to the movement of our bodies, changes in temperature or generative data, we can consider how to balance environments that can otherwise feel overwhelming. ‘Site-specific’ used to mean responding to fixed architecture and past narratives. Now, our digital lives draw in a dynamic sense of ‘site-specific’ – both physical and infinite online ones.
Watch the video of the Public Realm event here.
Read on to learn more about our recent work in the sphere of Digital Placeshaping.
IT4Arts Audience & Visitor Engagement Workshop
Sherry took part in this workshop for IT4Arts presenting ‘Digital Placeshaping: a contemporary narrative for our town and cities.’ She discussed the concept of ‘A Gallery without walls’ and how we can collaborate with our digital world.
Cultural Heart of London Strategy
Futurecity developed the Cultural Strategy for the Heart of London Business Alliance(HOLBA) Business Improvement District designed to develop its organisational structure to connect, lobby, promote and advocate for the creative talent that makes the West End the epicentre of our global city of culture.
CIRCA Art
CIRCA is an innovative new platform showcasing digital art, every day both online and in a democratic, accessible and public space in the heart of London – the Piccadilly Lights. Futurecity was proud to support June’s celebration with David Hockney, by connecting to Times Square Arts Midnight Moment, established by Sherry in 2012.
Augmented Reality Art Gallery
Since 6th May, Art of London’s Augmented Gallery has been offering a free cutting-edge public art experience showcasing paintings from London’s leading institutions through an accessible augmented reality app; bringing a new way of seeing art, and a new way of experiencing an art exhibition. This collaboration is a direct result of the Cultural Heart Of London strategy.
Little Amal on Piccadilly Lights
Little Amal took over the Piccadilly Lights to celebrate World Refugee Day as part of the ‘The Walk’ – a festival of music, dance and theatre in support of refugees produced by Good Chance Theatre. From the Syria-Turkey border all the way to the UK, The Walk will bring together celebrated artists, major cultural institutions, community groups and humanitarian organisations to create one of the most innovative and adventurous public artworks ever attempted and weekly messages will be communicated to London. Futurecity is proud to support as a Partner for The Walk.
Future\Pace
FuturePace was a two-year initiative by Futurecity and Pace that combined the curatorial expertise of Pace Gallery with the cultural placemaking experience of Futurecity.
Self & Other (for the Victoria Embankment)
Self & Other (for the Albert Embankment) is Random International’s first public, outdoor commission in London, and is the collective’s latest work to explore identity, the representation and perception of the self-image, and the reflected human form.
Message from the Unseen World
In 2014 Futurecity was appointed by British Land to develop a Culture & Placemaking Strategy for Paddington Central in London. As a result of the strategy, Arts collective United Visual Artists (UVA) won a sculpture competition with their proposal Message from the Unseen World, inspired by Alan Turing, one of the founding fathers of modern computer science, mathematician, and WW2 code-breaker who was born in Paddington.
See More Here
Echelon at St. Giles’s Square
Echelon (2020) by Danish digital art group Vertigo is an interactive audio-visual installation, that was temporarily exhibited in February 2020 through April 2020, at the foot of London’s Centre Point, in the newly opened St Giles Square. The artwork was curated by Futurecity for Almacantar, the development company behind the rejuvenation of the iconic brutalist building.See More Here
Transitions
Michal Rovner’s site-specific, 16-metre-long screen-based artwork Transitions was unveiled on the 3 October 2019 at Crossrail Place, Canary Wharf station.
Razzle Dazzle Boogie Woogie
The cultural strategy for the Rennaissance mixed use development in Lewisham, set out ideas for creative industry spaces and a commission for Martin Richmann to design a kinetic artwork for the energy centre. Artist Phil Coy was commissioned to develop a playful response to the glass façade, which wrapped around the building.
Carnaby Echoes
Carnaby Echoes investigates the musical history of Carnaby, over a 100-year period from the opening of Murray’s club in Beak Street in 1913, up to the present day.
Watch the video of the Public Realm event here
Read the blog post on our website here
For Futurecity Projects in the Digital Realm click here
For Futurecity’s Public Art Commissioning Projects click: here
Images:
1. Cultural Heart of London Strategy Cover / Credit: Ocean Outdoor / Courtesy of Futurecity
2. CIRCA Art, David Hockney Commission, May 2021 / Credit: @futurecityblog / Courtesy of Futurecity
3. Image credit: Equestrian Portrait of Charles, by Anthony van Dyck, about 1637-8 © The National Gallery, London
4. Little Amal in London / Credit: Good Chance Productions
5. Future\Pace / Courtesy of Futurecity
6. Self & Other / Credit: Ron Bambridge / Courtesy of Futurecity
7. Message from the Unseen World / Credit: Ron Bambridge / Courtesy of Futurecity
8. Echelon by Vertigo / Credit: James Burns / Courtesy of Almacantar
9. Michal Rovner / Artists Right Society (ARS), New York / Courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery
10. Razzle Dazzle Boogie Woogie / Credit: Ron Bambridge / Courtesy of Futurecity
11. Carnaby Echoes / Courtesy of Futurecity