Futurefarmers

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.

In 1995, Amy Franceschini 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:

While this group of artists works across a variety of disciplines from web design 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.

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