2018

About

FACT

FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) is the UK’s leading media arts centre, based in Liverpool. It is a space where people, art and technology meet. Since the opening of the award-winning building in 2003, FACT has welcomed nearly four million visitors, and every year over 300,000 people visit the three galleries, café, bar and four cinema screens.

Last year FACT commissioned 18 new artworks, and presented 53 ambitious restagings of existing work. FACT’s commissions and exhibitions also toured across the UK and to Australia, South Korea, Spain and France, resulting in 486,000 visits.

FACT’s critically acclaimed Learning Programme experiments with the notion of the art-tech centre as an expanded classroom for lifelong learning, a space for critical dialogues, artistic experiences and intergenerational encounters.

In 2018, the exhibitions and public programme are an invitation to play with FACT, celebrating a decade since Liverpool was European Capital of Culture. This feeds into FACT’s mission to originate, articulate and present a programme of excellent innovative art through three keys strands: Exhibition & Public Programme, Learning, and Research & Innovation.

FACT is currently looking for partners and collaborators to help realise its exciting programme of work, and has multiple and diverse entry points across the year.

About FACT / 2

‘FACT is a “think-can-do” tank. Simply put, we get technology into the hands of artists and audiences to make amazing things happen. Art should be for everyone, that is why we create unique projects with artists in settings you wouldn’t expect. For us that means working out in Toxteth to reimagine urban space, bringing CERN into our galleries, and rethinking what the technology of the future might mean for the world of work.

‘In 2018, we recognise 15 years of FACT’s building, as well as a decade since Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture year. To celebrate, our galleries will be full of some of the world’s most exciting artists, our audiences will be able to get involved more than ever, and we are looking for partners, collaborators and provocateurs to join us. If that’s you, get in touch.’

Mike Stubbs, Director

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States of Play: Roleplay Reality22 March – 17 June 2018

States of Play: Roleplay Reality is a collaboration with Crafts Council, UK, around the ways in which play shapes our lives and the world around us. The exhibition at FACT serves as a second chapter to States of Play: Part I (opening in Hull, June 2017) focused more around traditional games and their contemporary development.

States of Play: Roleplay Reality looks at games as radical interventions, as opposed to nostalgic arcades, and brings discussions around gender, race and identity in the digital sphere to the fore.

The exhibition is made up of immersive installations and episodic activity to question what a game can be, and explore its role in our lives through a playful and thought-provoking design.

The exhibition champions the female perspective within the digital and games industries and is co-curated by Lucy Sollitt and Lesley Taker, FACT.

Liverpool Biennial 201814 July – 28 October 2018

Curated by Kitty Scott, Liverpool Biennial and FACT will work to design, produce and stage an ambitious exhibition.

The 10th edition of the UK biennial of contemporary art will be titled Beautiful world, where are you? and is both a lament and an invitation to reconsider our past, advancing a new sense of beauty that might be shared in a more equitable way.

Responding to the summer period and audiences, the Public Programme will include a series of artist films and accessible activities for families and young people.

COLLIDE22 Nov 2018 – 3 March 2019

This extensive programme around art and science will mark FACT’s 30th Anniversary and a decade since Capital of Culture. Celebrating the initial three-year partnership with CERN, this will be a major exhibition that showcases artworks resulting from the COLLIDE Artists Residency Award, alongside artworks that explore the relationships between art and science.

The COLLIDE Artists Residency Award is a three month programme at CERN, Geneva, and FACT. Current COLLIDE artists are: Yunchul Kim and studio platform hrm199, led by artist Haroon Mirza. A third will soon be confirmed.

FACT and CERN have led the creation of ScANNER, which is supported by Le Lieu Unique (FR), CCCB (ES), iMAL (BE), an international production consortium. It will support COLLIDE artists to translate their research into artworks for an exhibition which will then tour to each institution. This programme will also include a publication, academic symposia and research events.

Exhibitions / 4

“If there was a film that truly stole the show [at Liverpool Biennial 2016] it was

Lucy Beech’s Pharmakon at FACT” – Artnet, 2016

“This bold new show at Liverpool’s FACT takes the idea of an observatory but flips

it [...] Charlie Brooker would approve.” – The Guardian, 2017

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The Future World of WorkJune - September 2018

The Future World of Work is an initiative instigated by FACT and Liverpool City Council. Coinciding with the International Business Festival and UNI Global conferences, the programme is designed to look at the near future of employability, in world where nearly half of today’s jobs will be gone in ten years.

The Future World of Work includes a large scale participatory art commission, residencies with Liverpool City Region businesses and a broader public programme. It is designed to give hands on experiences to young people, communities, visitors, artists, academics, entrepreneurs and employers

After The End of The WorldOctober 2018 – October 2019

Starting with the analysis of the 1995 Paris agreement, After the End of the World will reflect on the state of the planet after two centuries of radical intervention. In the second half of the 21st century we will have to stop emitting CO2 into the atmosphere forever. It is a year long campaign about how we will reach the world of the latter half of 2100, and about our society’s responsibility to the generations who will be born and grow up in it.

The exhibition is divided into the past, present and future of the planet, realised through eight highly immersive artworks that will be realised across three galleries in Liverpool and the public realm.

The exhibition and UK activity is realised by FACT, RIBA North, and Bluecoat (28 March – 16 June 2019), and the learning developed through the mobile lab will be a seminal part of the UK exhibition.

After the End of the World premiered at CCCB, Barcelona (October 2017 – April 2018), and was delivered in partnership with Barcelona Council.

Curator: José Luis de Vincente. Artists: Benjamin Grant (US); Natalie Jeremijenko (US/AU); Charles Lim (SG); Rimini Protokoll (DE); Tomás Saraceno(AR/GE); Superflux (UK/IN);

Unknown Fieleds Division (Kate Davies + Liam Young) (UK). The exhibition also includes a staged prologue by Kim Stanley Robinson (US) and an essay-cum-installation in five chapters by philosopher, Timothy Morton (UK).

Rewire21 September - 7 October 2018

Rewire will take over the iconic Toxteth Reservoir to create a physical and digital landscape that will reimagine what it is to play in urban space and translate the Internet of Things (IoT) into a participatory rIoT.

FACT, in partnership with Liverpool City Council, has engaged interactive arts studio Invisible Flock to reimagine outdoor art as a spectacular and immersive experience driven by digital innovation.

Rewire will explore what it means to be both an individual and a collective. Each night over three weeks, participants will be able to access the neighbourhood; a playful sandbox world that has been rewired and reconfigured, waiting to be brought to life.

Strata - Rock - Dust - Stars28 September 2018 - 10 March 2019

Strata - Rock - Dust - Stars references William Smiths’ ground breaking geological map, Delineating Strata, which identified the delineation of the layers of the earth, and transformed the way in which the world was understood.

This exhibition features moving image, new media and interactive artwork which examines not only strata of mineral formation, compression and change, but also suggests a poetic layering of human curiosity, exploration, material exploitation and reflection on the universe.

It is co-produced between FACT and York Art Gallery, and is timed to coincide with York Mediale 2018.

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FACT has a young and loyal audience. Among all the visual arts organisations in Liverpool it has by far the largest make up of young people, with 21% of visitors aged 25-34 and 39% of visitors aged 16-24. On average FACT’s visitors visit the organisation six times per year, and 59% of people live in Liverpool.

FACT’s audience is highly digitally engaged, with 80% of the audience using social media. Of those 90% use Facebook, 71% use YouTube, 58% use Twitter and 55% use Instagram.

The majority of individuals use these channels to find out about events and exhibitions, offering a unique and valuable opportunity to tap into an audience who is already looking for an evening, social offer.

FACT has an established Marketing and Communications team, which specialises in digital marketing, and has a strong online presence with more than 43,300 Twitter followers, over 10,300 Instagram followers, and 18,800 Facebook ‘Likes’.

In the last 12 months, the FACT website (www.fact.co.uk) has received a total of 359,020 unique browsers, 704,508 site visits and 1,812,455 page impressions. FACT has considerable international reach, with 13% of web visitors coming from outside of the UK. Fortnightly newsletters are sent out to over 10,000 active users, promoting the programme.

In 2016-2017 FACT was included in numerous local, national and international publications; The Guardian, Wired, New Scientist and Art Monthly. The AVE value for this period was: £1,977,315.

Audience and Reach / 8

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Learning

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FACT’s Learning programme has been recognised as excellent nationally and internationally. Realised as two complementary strands: Children and Young People, and Adults, it brings acclaimed artists into contact with some of the most under-represented groups to make amazing things happen. In 2018, FACT has an ambitious programme which includes the following strands.

Schools

In 2018 FACT will launch Schools at the Lab, a two year programme that will work with schools in low income areas to: upskill teachers to learn how to use creative technology, support pupils to visit FACT’s exhibitions, and create resources to ensure that the widest range of people can participate. This training will be designed and given by the Fablearn Fellow group, and is supported by Stanford University.

FACTLab

FACTLab is a collaborative action-based research space embedded within FACT’s building. It pushes the boundaries of what technology can do across disciplines, and engages with artists, communities, educators, scientists, technologists and the creative industries. This space is the hub of FACT’s artists in residency programmes, developing new technical skills and innovative research outputs. Last year there were over 1,000 applications to FACT’s open calls.

FACTLab is also a key place to work with young people, and places diversity at its heart to bridge gaps in gender and socio-economic disparity.

Digital Ambassadors

This long-term engagement programme works with older adults in the community, shifting from a passive mode of digital literacy to an active sense of digital agency. Participants have the opportunity for hands-on experimentation, including coding and 3D printing as well as using basic hardware, before being empowered to teach their peers in hard to reach settings, such as residential care homes.

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literacy to an active sense of digital agency. Participants have the opportunity for hands-on experimentation, including coding and 3D printing as well as using basic hardware, before being empowered to teach their peers in hard to reach settings, such as residential care homes.

Conflict / Justice: Veterans in Practice and Prison Programme

These two strands are unique long-term projects with military veterans and adults within the criminal justice system. Through using and developing models of socially-engaged art practice, participants work with acclaimed artists to create powerful commissions that can change the sense of self, and empower those who have experiences of trauma.

The results of these programmes have already been nationally recognised, and FACT is committed to continuing and expanding the outcomes.

Intergenerational

FACT champions intergenerational learning both through traditional family sessions such as Do Something Saturday and innovative commissioning, such as artist collective BeAnotherLab,

The Machine to Be Another by BeAnotherLab is a system that offers users the possibility to see themselves in a different body. Working with psychologists and neuroscientists, the project investigates the science of empathy and the effect of embodied perspective on the sense of self.

LCR

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Activate

LCR Activate is led by Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), in partnership with FACT and the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP); it is a three-year programme designed to support digital businesses in the Liverpool City Region to innovate products and services, it is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

Using the world class capabilities at STFC’s Hartree Centre and other key innovation assets in Liverpool, the initiative supports entrepreneurial creatives from a broad spectrum of disciplines to grow their businesses. LCR Activate includes sector-specialist events: workshops, advice, mentoring, facilities and a grant scheme for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to adopt new digital technologies.

Product and service development is supported across emerging technology markets including Big and Open Data through the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data/High Performance Computing (HPC), Merging Data and Cloud technologies.

FACT operates in a unique capacity bringing SMEs into contact with artists and new R&D methodologies across digital, cultural, creative and academic sectors. The main focus of FACT’s activity will be content businesses and arts and culture SMEs.

Embedding co-design at the centre of the process, this long-term programme shows the unique assets that the arts and culture sector can bring to the wider economy in terms of skills and job creation.

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Support an Artist or Commission

FACT is looking for financial support to realise an ambitious programme of new commissions and restagings in 2018.

As well as supporting production, FACT also welcomes organisations who wish to support emerging talent through residencies hosted within the building and wider city region.

Partnering with FACT not only helps develop the practice of artists by supporting career enhancing commissions, but promotes international cultural sector development.

Receive a Commission or Exhibition

FACT’s artistic programme has toured extensively across the world, and in the past 12 months exhibitions have visited Spain, France, South Korea and Australia, gaining 486,000 international visits.

Working with FACT enables host organisations to bring in high quality work to their spaces, which is scaleable and adaptable. The curators and FACT will work closely with the curatorial team at the partnering venue to ensure that the experience is recreated, while taking into account site-specific features of the gallery spaces.

Learning Programmes

FACT’s team has experience working with and within communities of low arts engagement. Previous projects have worked outside of the gallery in settings such as prisions and high-rise social housing.

The young people’s learning team champions use of creative technology throughout curricula and can work with education bodies, schools and arts organisations to share best practice.

Support an Exchange

Members of FACT’s Artistic Programme and Operational Teams can host and visit peers to share best practice. Specialisms within the team include socially engaged practice, new media commissions, public realm artworks and creating exhibitions for audiences under 30.

Participate and Visit

FACT will welcome international delegations to attend exhibition openings, participate in conferences and contribute to online publications.

Share Information

The 2018 programme will have a dedicated marketing and communications plan which has dynamic content across digital channels. FACT will provide a deck that all partners and supporters can use to promote their participation and partnership.

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Contact

Mike StubbsDirector

mike.stubbs@fact.co.uk

Ana BotellaHead of Programme

ana.botella@fact.co.uk

Rachael White Head of Development

rachael.white@fact.co.uk

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FACT88 Wood Street

Liverpool

L1 4DQ