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Allow FutureEverything's Data Dimension to blow your mind

FutureEverything

There's no need for a flux capacitor, because the future has come to us with 2011 FutureEverything festival.

No longer "the preserve of the geeks", the digital age now reaches out to all of us, and Large was delighted to be a part of this iconoclastic festival and to get a first-hand view of all of its techriffic trappings.

With a cool glass of Absolut Cranberry in hand, we sauntered through FutureEverything's Data Dimension in the swish Four Piccadilly Place building, an exhibition which boasts of some seriously mind-blowing pieces of work. Our personal favourite is Absolut's very own FlavourCollider, a mechanism that uses a Neurosky EEG headset to project the brain's response to certain tastes and sensations into a stunning lighting display. Volunteers were given Absolut mixtures to test their brain's reaction, and such delectable cocktails could only produce a wonderful spectacle!

There are plenty of other discoveries to be made in The Data Dimension. These range from the grandiloquently wild, such as the pixelated Lit Tree, to the Data Art's charmingly simple News Cloud (which can be accessed online at www.data-art.net). There are even plenty of servings for those who don't have tech-fever, such as Nadeem Haidary's thought-provoking Food of Art, which lists the nutritional content of the food displayed in such masterpieces as Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans.

It's a shining testament to The Data Dimension that despite the musical names FutureEverything has managed to attract, such as Das Racist and 65daysofstatic, and the numerous conferences it is holding, this exhibition could well be the toast of the festival. The future is now, and it's in Manchester!

The Data Dimension

FutureEverything 2011 Exhibition

11-22 May, 12pm-8pm (11th-14th), 12pm-6pm (15th-22nd)