The acclaimed choreographer and Present Futures curator speaks to us about the festival s digital programme, and the future of live arts beyond the pandemic
With its focus on our complex and ever-evolving relationship with technology, the return of Present Futures fourth edition has perhaps never been more timely. Many of us have turned increasingly to screens and tech as a means of coping with and navigating the lockdown restrictions imposed by COVID-19, whether it be Zoom meetings with colleagues, or long telephone calls with distant loved ones. Present Futures interdisciplinary vision of arts and digital technologies thus feels uniquely suited to exploring and suggesting new ways of conceiving potential futures, as we imagine the end of the pandemic and what that might mean for our society and arts communities.
TECHNOLOGY and its impact on humans is the focus of a three-day online festival this week featuring artists who specialise in digital creativity. Present Futures will highlight Scottish and international artists whose work operates between performance, film, visual art and sound. Highlights include Feel My Metaverse, a gaming-engine CGI film about the world following a climate apocalypse by Keiken, a Berlin-London based collaborative practice known for their installations and film work merging the physical and digital. Drawing on queer and bicultural ancestral mythologies, Australian artist Justin Shoulder will present Carrion, exploring what it means to be human in an era of destructive influence over the planet, while Tim Murray-Browne and Panagiotis Tigas’ world premiere of Sonified Body will be accompanied by a conversation about the new use of AI seen in the piece.