When the Future Comes is a series of artist’s interventions each witnessed by a mysterious and mystical artwork – Future Machine.
Future Machine is appears in five places across England, at the same time every year as the seasons change – in an urban park in London, a public garden in inner city Nottingham, the watersheds of Cumbria, a woodland and common in rural Oxfordshire, and in a village and on a cliff overlooking a nuclear power station in Somerset. Newly formed rituals or special occasions are emerging as the Future Machine appears over time in each place.
Future Machine’s journey to each place is due to continue, if and however possible until 2050. Each of the interventions in each place experiment with the different ways we can mark, interpret and respond to environmental change as the future comes. These interventions ask questions about the importance of science, data, myth, art, and ritual to how we navigate the impact of environmental change in our everyday lives.
When the Future Comes is a collaboration between the lead artist Rachel Jacobs, and collaborating artists Frank Abbott, Juliet Robson, Wallace Heim, Caroline Locke, Esi Eshun, musicians Alexandre Yemaoua Dayo and David Kemp, creative programmer Robin Shackford, computer scientist Dominic Price and climate scientist Prof John King.
2019
Future Machine was designed and built with participants in public workshops, engineer Matt Little and carpenter Ian Jones. researchers from the Horizon Digital Economy and the Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham and Prof Esther Eidinow, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Bristol.
2021
The project was awarded National Lottery Project Funding from the Arts Council of England, match funded by Horizon Digital Economy, University of Nottingham (ESPRC/RCUK).
2023
The project was awarded another National Lottery Project Funding from the Arts Council of England to develop The Cabinet of Curious Places as a third element to the project, alongside Future Machine and the artist interventions in each place.
2024
When The Future Comes became a collective, hosted by the award winning artist collective Active Ingredient as a way to support the project to be sustainably maintained, evolve and emerge in response to whatever the future brings to the people, places and ecologies collaborating on the project, over the next 25 years. When The Future Comes has three physical bases – at Rachel’s studio at Primary in Nottingham, at the Commons/Jamboree Hut as part of the Commons Residency Project in Finsbury Park, and in Windermere, Cumbria.
When The Future Comes follows on from Rachel Jacobs‘ and Active Ingredient‘s previous work including: Performing the Future which took place in 2017-18, The Prediction Machine which was built in 2015 and is continuing to tour nationally, Relate (Timestreams) and A Conversation Between Trees two international co-productions that took place across the UK and Brazil between 2011-2013.
Partners in Nottingham
Mixed Reality Lab and Horizon Digital Economy Research, University of Nottingham – Prof Steve Benford, Dominic Price, Jocelyn Spence
Nottingham City Council
Primary Studios
Mellers Primary School
Partners in London
Furtherfield Gallery and Commons, Finsbury Park, London – Ruth Catlow & Charlotte Frost
Haringey Council
The Drumming School, Finsbury Park
Partners in Cumbria
The Lakes School
Partners in Somerset
Cannington Bell Ringers
Cannington Primary School
Other Partners/advisors
Prof John King – British Antarctic Survey
Prof Esther Eidinow – University of Bristol