Participation
A History of the Future
Tyneside
January - February 2001
A Northern Architecture project for Tyneside Cinema delivered in collaboration with The Arts Council of England, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Globe Gallery, Nexus, Northern Architectural Association, Northern Arts, The Photographers' Gallery, Waygood Gallery and Wimpey Homes. Inspired by 20th Century cinematic visions of the built environment of Earth in the 21st Century and beyond, 'A History of the Future' comprised twenty separate initiatives centred on a screening programme of eleven science fiction films which ranged from Metropolis to The Matrix. Supporting projects included the display of Tod Hanson's epic painting produced during a Year of the Artist residency with Northern Architecture. An education project inspired by the work was delivered by BALTIC with eleven secondary schools in Gateshead. BALTIC commissioned artist Vuk Cosic to produce a hacked ASCII version of the official Warner Brother's web site for The Matrix (1999) at www.thisistherealmatrix.com. Calum Stirling and Rob Kennedy composed and performed a new soundtrack to Metropolis (1926). Architect Cedric Price spoke about his work at the University of Newcastle. Partick Flynn, Alexsandra Mir, Matthew Smith and Alison Unsworth exhibited their work at Waygood. Alexander Gorlizki exhibited at Globe. The work of photographer Julius Shulman documenting progressive West Coast homes from 1947 to 1963 was exhibited by Wimpey Homes at their East Quayside development. Other films included Things to Come (1936), Forbidden Planet (1956), Alphaville (1965), THX1138 (1970), Sleeper (1973), Blade Runner (1982), Gattaca (1997), The Fifth Element (1997) and Dark City (1998).
