UK's award-winning Future Art and Culture team up with Ristband for groundbreaking live music and mixed reality showcase at South by Southwest

06 February 2025 - Press release

Other Future Art and Culture world premieres include major collaborations focused on the cosmos and national identity

Panel events explore the use of tech, VR, XR and AI to benefit disabled people and to improve mental health and wellbeing

Award-winning individuals and organisations working at the forefront of creativity and technology are heading to SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST^® (SXSW^®) in Austin, Texas, this March, as part of the latest programme presented by the United Kingdom's Future Art and Culture.

Future Art and Culture (FAC) has over the past decade built a reputation for premiering major work by artists, technologists and scientists, collaborating to explore new ideas about the human condition, society, the world around us, and the furthest reaches of space.

The innovation showcase is curated and produced by British Underground, with funding from Arts Council England and additional support from British Council. Many of the artists and creatives it has presented previously at SXSW have picked up awards at the festival and subsequently elsewhere. This year's FAC Ambassador, Hatsumi's Sarah Ticho won the SXSW XR Special Jury Award last year for Soul Paint, an immersive experience which invites participants to embody their feelings.

FAC are teaming up with award-winning creative studio Ristband who return for a brand new Future x Music showcase, the biggest they have presented at SXSW. Taking over UK House, which FAC are sponsoring for the first time, it includes a groundbreaking live music mixed reality concert performed by artist and producer Venice Bleach, a diverse lineup of live bands and DJs - and an entirely new spatial audio installation that pulls the audience into a world of digital distortion and immersive soundscapes, where live performance, VR and digital become indistinguishable. Pushing the frontiers of the live music experience, this event also kicks off the SXSW Music Festival and closing XR Festival, bringing together the music, tech, film and gaming communities, and offering a window into the future of entertainment.

The 2025 FAC programme also includes the world premiere of Proof As If Proof Were Needed by the Taiwanese artist Ting-Tong Chang and the internationally renowned Brighton-based interactive artist group Blast Theory. Proof As If Proof Were Needed is an interactive video installation, which invites visitors to move around the floor plan of a Taiwanese house. As you explore the house, you discover the history of a couple who lived there. They have returned to their deserted home to tidy up the secrets they hold from each other. The work is both a closed loop and a story that unfolds progressively - the order in which you explore the rooms opens up different interpretations. Proof As If Proof Were Needed is a vivid cinematic work that follows the logic of dreams as you wander through the debris of a relationship breakdown.

Also receiving its world premiere at SXSW is Cosmos in Focus by Emmy and Bafta award winning Atlantic Productions, created in partnership with University of Sussex. This new immersive work has been developed thanks to the latest advances in space travel and telescopy, which are creating images that are both stunning in detail and offer profound learnings hidden deep within them. Utilising images from Euclid, Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, Cosmos in Focus takes you from looking up at the night sky to the final frontier at the farthest reaches of the observable universe, as scientists working with NASA and ESA comment on what the images reveal, and how they are shaping our understanding of space.

The FAC programme includes a series of timely panels exploring urgent issues, including how the advances being made with VR, XR, AI and other technological developments can be utilised to improve mental health and well-being; address the representation of overlooked experiences and underserved communities; and improve disabled access to arts and culture. There will also be a panel focused on how the UK can build on its world-leading success in the field by enabling artists of all backgrounds to access the resources needed to create XR and immersive works.

Amongst those taking part in the panels are dance company AΦE (AI),  who work with live performance, tech and AI; access scheme All In; award winning creative studio Anagram; Atlantic Productions; artist Thomas Buckley; music, disability and technology innovators Drake Music; creativity & wellbeing consultant Tasha Golden; multidisciplinary agency Hatsumi; Hume AI; women-led neuroaesthetics agency Kinda Studios; immersive studio Kost Inc; experiential art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast; funding agency Immersive Arts; creative technologist incubator open-ended; Royal College of Art; University of Sussex; University of Southern California; disabled arts commissioning organisation Unlimited.

 

Tonya Nelson, Executive Director, Enterprise and Innovation, Arts Council England said:
"We are proud to support the creative talent forming this year's Future Art and Culture showcase at South by Southwest. Innovation in new technologies is crucial for the future growth of our creative industries, and for the UK's position as a world leader in this space. We look to forward to witnessing the latest explorations in cross-sectoral collaboration and cutting-edge technology by British talent on this important international stage."

Joel Mills, Head of Music, British Council, said:
"Future Art and Culture has been making waves through the support of UK artists and creative organisations working at the helm of cross-disciplinary arts, new technologies and science.  We're delighted to support Future Art in Culture in partnership with British Underground and Arts Council of England to ensure this vital platform showcase UK arts and innovation internationally."

British Underground CEO Crispin Parry comments:
"We're really excited to be bringing our Future Art and Culture programme to SXSW again, giving a platform to some of the brightest and best UK creative talent at the biggest art and tech event in the world. We're presenting some amazing world premieres and brilliant panels reflecting on important research and contemporary issues, from science and cosmology to well-being and look forward to building on the impact of previous years."