Future Art Ecosystems (FAE) is a project for building 21st century cultural infrastructure: the systems that support the production, distribution and financialisation of art and advanced technologies as a whole, and respond to a broader societal agenda. This project is embedded in the Arts Technologies team at Serpentine. Through briefings , R&D Labs and a growing community FAE is sketching out and prototyping strategies for art and advanced tech (AxAT) to serve the public.

Art practices intermediate between contemporary culture, technology and society. Both as processes and outcomes, they demonstrate the variety of roles that art can play in innovation, advocacy, creation of civic spaces and collective imaginaries. As the team at Serpentine working specifically with emerging tech, our work focuses how art and advanced technologies (AxAT) ecosystems offer supportive contexts for interrogating and reimagining technology as a social and creative medium in societies where technological development is largely driven by interests of commerce and control.

In 2018, when the idea of the Future Art Ecosystems project was first born, we were inspired by a new generation of artists working directly with advanced technologies: AI, simulation technologies, synthetic materials, etc. Analysis of their activities and approaches suggested an urgent need for a long- term strategic vision for an art ecosystems dedicated specifically to the advancement of art x advanced technologies (AxAT) with a public mission.

Launched to the public in 2020 with R&D Labs , the Future Art Ecosystems strategic briefing series has been crystallising nascent dynamics and opportunities in relationship to AxAT. To this extent, FAE briefings provide concepts, references, language and arguments that can be integrated into operational agendas for 21st-century cultural infrastructure: the systems that support the production, distribution and sustainability of art and advanced technologies as a whole, and respond to a broader societal agenda.

The work of Future Art Ecosystems serves as a foundation for new organisational experimentation (from A B). In all of this work we are focused on four mandates [link to mandates page] which will propel
us toward a public-mission-driven AxAT ecosystem: advanced production capabilities, organisational interoperability, new ownership and distribution models, and new systems of measurement.

In addition to continuing our annual briefings , hosting R&D labs , FAE now unites, platforms and propels efforts that are directed towards building out new systems through live, collaborative projects .

Importantly, this must necessarily be a shared vision and process, because the challenges and opportunities in play are systemic; they extend beyond the interests of any one artist, cultural institution, tech corporation, government agency, etc.