Futurefarmers
Encyclopedia
Futurefarmers is an international artist collective
practicing a form of cultural activism
that exploits the interactive potential offered by new media
and public spaces. Aligned around an “open practice of making work that is relevant to the time and space surrounding us,” they create work that explores a variety of social and environmental issues.
founded Futurefarmers as a means to bring together multidisciplinary artists to create new work. The name, Futurefarmers, is a play off the nomenclature of an agricultural organization established in the early 20th century, the Future Farmers of America. The same year also marked the beginning of the Futurefarmers’ artist in residence
(AIR) program that offers a platform for collaboration and research. The program has hosted over 22 artists from 12 countries and forms the basis of a distributed network of artists who make up the collective.
Futurefarmers‘ emphasis has been on channeling funds and technological resources from commercial design projects with such clients as MTV
, NASA
and Lucasfilm
into self-generated works with deeper meaning.
There are currently 6 members of the Futurefarmers:
and database development to interactive sculptures and installations, most of their works share the following core values:
Interaction
Futurefarmers investigates social issues through participatory art projects. Furthermore, every effort is made to encourage participation without precisely controlling what will happen.
Play & Accessibility
The fact that many Futurefarmers come from a background in commercial design and advertising might explain why they feel the need to make their art an enjoyable experience. They are conscious of the fact that “playing around” offers up a way to let down ones guard when dealing with serious issues. For Futurefarmers, play
provides their audience with a sense of freedom that cannot be found in a sanctioned panel discussion, meeting or classroom.
Visualization of Abstract Ideas
Complex social and environmental issues are often illustrated through a visual, tactile, or spatial metaphor. Processes that remain invisible or seem very distant from our lives are rendered more present and immediate through a form of recontextualization.
Local
The issues presented in various projects often pertain to issues affecting a particular locality or a specific community.
The Power of Connection
Their art aims to elicit and inform their viewership about the relationship between distinct yet related processes or entities. Their art also encourages collaboration between individuals in reaching a common goal. Franceshini considers their work to be "both artwork and democracy in action."
The People's Roulette is a temporary, interactive public sculpture located in the Nashan District of Shenzhen
, China as part of the 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. Amy Franceschini
and Dan Allende of Futurefarmers constructed an octagonal, rotating wooden sculpture measuring 30 feet in diameter and hosting a 9-foot spinning centerpiece.
The inspiration for the piece began with an image of the 1950s Human Roulette Wheel at Coney Island
in Brooklyn, New York. The formal shape of the piece mirrors the literal aspect of Shenzhen as a sub-provincial or prefecture city as well as the physical layout of the city that is surrounded by the world renowned factory area. Passengers are invited to sit upon the center piece while an operator controls an increasing rate of rotation. Passengers must stay close to the center point or will be tossed off to the periphery which is lined with used tires. Circling the piece are spectators who wait in anticipation to participate and to see who will survive the spinning of the center stage.
The sculpture is a dynamic response to what the city represents in terms of global capital and the changing economic landscape of China. In particular, the sculpture suggests the mass migrations that accompanied China’s urbanization
. The event catalogue describes the installation as "part carnival-ride and part performance piece, personifying the endless movements of ‘the masses' between center and periphery under a paradigm in which such distinctions have grown increasingly diffuse." Whether the message behind the piece was in the forefront of the participants’ minds is questionable. However, the work functions as a place to pause, gather, and socialize in what would otherwise be an ordinary thruway. In doing so, the work encourages play but also encourages critical and progressive thinking on local contemporary issues. Similar to other Futurefarmers works such as Lofoten and Game for the Masses, the sculpture employs a playful, tangible and visual approach to the challenging issues facing the local population.
They Rule (2001)
They Rule is a flash-based interactive website designed by Josh On with the support of Futurefarmers. It seeks to explore ideas about information visualization
, the Internet
as a social construction as well as to reveal an aspect of the relationships of the American ruling class. They Rule utilizes a database of information about corporate board members to visualize the connections between American companies.
They Rule takes as its focus the boards of some of the most powerful U.S. companies, a number of which share the same directors. Through diagrams of corporate power structures, specifically their boards of directors, the minimalist symbolism—CEO's are represented as an iconic male or female holding a briefcase—highlights connections and gives the ruling power elite a kind of uniformity. The directors’ weight increases proportional to the number of boards they sit on. They Rule allows users to browse through interlocking directories and run searches on the boards and companies. Additionally, a user can save a map of connections complete with their annotations and share their maps with others.
They Rule utilizes the Internet’s potential for universal access and transparency of data to create a qualitative description of these relationships, employing the features of networked technologies, such as dynamic mapping, hyperlinking, and instant searches, to create its own subnetworks of power systems. In doing so, Futurefarmers illustrates the internet’s potential as a democratizing medium.
On and Futurefarmers were not the first to tackle the subject of corporate power in their artwork. They Rule’s aesthetics are similar to those of drawings by American artist Mark Lombardi
who chartered suspicious ties connecting scandals, government officials and big business. On’s piece also invokes C. Wright Mills
’ book, The Power Elite
(1956), which documented the interconnections among the most powerful people in the US at that time.
Victory Gardens (2006)
Victory Gardens is an ongoing civic works initiative devised by Futurefarmers artist/founder Amy Franceshini and developed in conjunction with the city authorities of San Francisco and the Garden for the Environment association. The title refers to the agricultural project set up by the US government during World War II
to deal with the food shortages caused by the conflict. Inspired by the historical model of the Victory Gardens
, the Futurefarmers project provides participating citizens with a kit to grow vegetables in their homes and workshops on how to best utilize the productive potential of their small urban spaces. The principal goal of the project - the promotion of alternative forms of urban agriculture based on reducing the production chain and using eco-compatible practices - explores a common environmental theme scattered throughout their body of work: the conflicting rituals of humans and nature.
Aside from the home gardening component, the initiative also consists of several “demonstration gardens” in visible public areas in the city of San Francisco. The summer of 2008 was the first time since 1943 that an edible garden found itself in the shadow of City Hall. This component of the project, like many other works by the collective, disseminates information through a “wonderful and fantastical image."
Futurefarmers announced the launching of GardenRegistry.org, a site that allows participants to register where they’re growing or to list what kind of extras they have to share. Consider in addition the scheduled planting days and food donations to the needy and the project begins to resemble the cooperative, community based nature of all the collective's projects.
Artist collective
An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims...
practicing a form of cultural activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
that exploits the interactive potential offered by new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
and public spaces. Aligned around an “open practice of making work that is relevant to the time and space surrounding us,” they create work that explores a variety of social and environmental issues.
Background
In 1995, Amy FranceschiniAmy Franceschini
Amy Franceschini is a contemporary American artist and designer. Her practice spans a broad range of media including drawing, sculpture, design, net art, public art and gardening.She is a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow....
founded Futurefarmers as a means to bring together multidisciplinary artists to create new work. The name, Futurefarmers, is a play off the nomenclature of an agricultural organization established in the early 20th century, the Future Farmers of America. The same year also marked the beginning of the Futurefarmers’ artist in residence
Artist in residence
Artist-in-residence programs and other residency opportunities allow visiting artists to stay and work so that they may apply singular focus to their art practice....
(AIR) program that offers a platform for collaboration and research. The program has hosted over 22 artists from 12 countries and forms the basis of a distributed network of artists who make up the collective.
Futurefarmers‘ emphasis has been on channeling funds and technological resources from commercial design projects with such clients as MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
and Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman and CEO, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....
into self-generated works with deeper meaning.
There are currently 6 members of the Futurefarmers:
- Amy FranceschiniAmy FranceschiniAmy Franceschini is a contemporary American artist and designer. Her practice spans a broad range of media including drawing, sculpture, design, net art, public art and gardening.She is a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow....
- Josh On
- Dan Allende
- Sasha Merg
- Stijn Schifeleers
- Michael Swaine
Artistic Philosophy
While this group of artists works across a variety of disciplines from web designWeb design
Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...
and database development to interactive sculptures and installations, most of their works share the following core values:
Interaction
Futurefarmers investigates social issues through participatory art projects. Furthermore, every effort is made to encourage participation without precisely controlling what will happen.
Play & Accessibility
The fact that many Futurefarmers come from a background in commercial design and advertising might explain why they feel the need to make their art an enjoyable experience. They are conscious of the fact that “playing around” offers up a way to let down ones guard when dealing with serious issues. For Futurefarmers, play
Play (activity)
Play is a term employed in ethology and psychology to describe to a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment...
provides their audience with a sense of freedom that cannot be found in a sanctioned panel discussion, meeting or classroom.
Right now I’m very much like: aesthetics are really important. That’s what people respond to, it lures people in, it lures in people who maybe wouldn’t have looked at it in the first place, and if they only get to that surface level, fine. At least they got there.
-- Amy Franceshini
Visualization of Abstract Ideas
Complex social and environmental issues are often illustrated through a visual, tactile, or spatial metaphor. Processes that remain invisible or seem very distant from our lives are rendered more present and immediate through a form of recontextualization.
Local
The issues presented in various projects often pertain to issues affecting a particular locality or a specific community.
The Power of Connection
Their art aims to elicit and inform their viewership about the relationship between distinct yet related processes or entities. Their art also encourages collaboration between individuals in reaching a common goal. Franceshini considers their work to be "both artwork and democracy in action."
Selected works
The People’s Roulette (2009)The People's Roulette is a temporary, interactive public sculpture located in the Nashan District of Shenzhen
Shenzhen
Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones...
, China as part of the 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. Amy Franceschini
Amy Franceschini
Amy Franceschini is a contemporary American artist and designer. Her practice spans a broad range of media including drawing, sculpture, design, net art, public art and gardening.She is a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow....
and Dan Allende of Futurefarmers constructed an octagonal, rotating wooden sculpture measuring 30 feet in diameter and hosting a 9-foot spinning centerpiece.
The inspiration for the piece began with an image of the 1950s Human Roulette Wheel at Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
in Brooklyn, New York. The formal shape of the piece mirrors the literal aspect of Shenzhen as a sub-provincial or prefecture city as well as the physical layout of the city that is surrounded by the world renowned factory area. Passengers are invited to sit upon the center piece while an operator controls an increasing rate of rotation. Passengers must stay close to the center point or will be tossed off to the periphery which is lined with used tires. Circling the piece are spectators who wait in anticipation to participate and to see who will survive the spinning of the center stage.
The sculpture is a dynamic response to what the city represents in terms of global capital and the changing economic landscape of China. In particular, the sculpture suggests the mass migrations that accompanied China’s urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
. The event catalogue describes the installation as "part carnival-ride and part performance piece, personifying the endless movements of ‘the masses' between center and periphery under a paradigm in which such distinctions have grown increasingly diffuse." Whether the message behind the piece was in the forefront of the participants’ minds is questionable. However, the work functions as a place to pause, gather, and socialize in what would otherwise be an ordinary thruway. In doing so, the work encourages play but also encourages critical and progressive thinking on local contemporary issues. Similar to other Futurefarmers works such as Lofoten and Game for the Masses, the sculpture employs a playful, tangible and visual approach to the challenging issues facing the local population.
They Rule (2001)
They Rule is a flash-based interactive website designed by Josh On with the support of Futurefarmers. It seeks to explore ideas about information visualization
Information visualization
Information visualization is the interdisciplinary study of "the visual representation of large-scale collections of non-numerical information, such as files and lines of code in software systems, library and bibliographic databases, networks of relations on the internet, and so forth".- Overview...
, the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
as a social construction as well as to reveal an aspect of the relationships of the American ruling class. They Rule utilizes a database of information about corporate board members to visualize the connections between American companies.
They Rule takes as its focus the boards of some of the most powerful U.S. companies, a number of which share the same directors. Through diagrams of corporate power structures, specifically their boards of directors, the minimalist symbolism—CEO's are represented as an iconic male or female holding a briefcase—highlights connections and gives the ruling power elite a kind of uniformity. The directors’ weight increases proportional to the number of boards they sit on. They Rule allows users to browse through interlocking directories and run searches on the boards and companies. Additionally, a user can save a map of connections complete with their annotations and share their maps with others.
They Rule utilizes the Internet’s potential for universal access and transparency of data to create a qualitative description of these relationships, employing the features of networked technologies, such as dynamic mapping, hyperlinking, and instant searches, to create its own subnetworks of power systems. In doing so, Futurefarmers illustrates the internet’s potential as a democratizing medium.
On and Futurefarmers were not the first to tackle the subject of corporate power in their artwork. They Rule’s aesthetics are similar to those of drawings by American artist Mark Lombardi
Mark Lombardi
Mark Lombardi was an American Neo-Conceptualist and an abstract artist who specialized in drawings attempting to document financial and political frauds by power brokers, and in general 'the uses and abuses of power'.- Biography :...
who chartered suspicious ties connecting scandals, government officials and big business. On’s piece also invokes C. Wright Mills
C. Wright Mills
Charles Wright Mills was an American sociologist. Mills is best remembered for his 1959 book The Sociological Imagination in which he lays out a view of the proper relationship between biography and history, theory and method in sociological scholarship...
’ book, The Power Elite
The Power Elite
The Power Elite is a book written by the sociologist, C. Wright Mills, in 1956. In it Mills calls attention to the interwoven interests of the leaders of the military, corporate, and political elements of society and suggests that the ordinary citizen is a relatively powerless subject of...
(1956), which documented the interconnections among the most powerful people in the US at that time.
Victory Gardens (2006)
Victory Gardens is an ongoing civic works initiative devised by Futurefarmers artist/founder Amy Franceshini and developed in conjunction with the city authorities of San Francisco and the Garden for the Environment association. The title refers to the agricultural project set up by the US government during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to deal with the food shortages caused by the conflict. Inspired by the historical model of the Victory Gardens
Victory garden
Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply...
, the Futurefarmers project provides participating citizens with a kit to grow vegetables in their homes and workshops on how to best utilize the productive potential of their small urban spaces. The principal goal of the project - the promotion of alternative forms of urban agriculture based on reducing the production chain and using eco-compatible practices - explores a common environmental theme scattered throughout their body of work: the conflicting rituals of humans and nature.
Aside from the home gardening component, the initiative also consists of several “demonstration gardens” in visible public areas in the city of San Francisco. The summer of 2008 was the first time since 1943 that an edible garden found itself in the shadow of City Hall. This component of the project, like many other works by the collective, disseminates information through a “wonderful and fantastical image."
Futurefarmers announced the launching of GardenRegistry.org, a site that allows participants to register where they’re growing or to list what kind of extras they have to share. Consider in addition the scheduled planting days and food donations to the needy and the project begins to resemble the cooperative, community based nature of all the collective's projects.