Factory+

From video series and podcasts to editorial takeovers, artist experiments and virtual worlds - it’s all here at Factory+.

Series

Factory Sessions

Discover live performances from the best in the business and Manchester’s next gen of musicians.

In the Studio

Artists and collectives show us the space where their ideas come to life.

MIF X NOWNESS

Explore our collaborations with global video channel NOWNESS which showcase incredible artists, directors and filmmakers.

Editor in Residence

  • Factory+ Editor in Residence Kemi Alemoru wears a pink trench coat and smiles at the camera

    Photo by Marieke Macklon

    Kemi Alemoru

    Introducing our very first Editor in Residence: Kemi Alemoru. Taking over Factory+ for the next month, Kemi is exploring radical ideas about space. A writer and editor originally from Manchester, Kemi is the former Culture Editor of gal-dem – the editorial platform dedicated to centring people of colour from marginalised genders – and has worked as a presenter for BBC3 and Channel 4. 

    For Factory+, Kemi has commissioned some of the most exciting voices in contemporary UK writing to explore the theme of space. Through a series of articles and deep dives, Kemi has curated a range of viewpoints and opinions on the political nature of space and who gets to occupy it – from the sticky dancefloors of club culture to safe spaces for queer communities. 

    Read Kemi's editorial

Games

  • We Dwell in Possibility

    The latest digital work in our Virtual Factory series is a queer gardening simulation by Robert Yang and Eleanor Davis.

  • Your Progress Will Be Saved

    LaTurbo Avedon journeys inside Fortnite Creative for the first work in our Virtual Factory series

  • Songs of the Lost

    Paloma Dawkins' magic-realist game odyssey through a surreal and absurd digital landscape.

  • Lost Memories Dot Net

    MIF’s first ever game commission, courtesy of one of the most innovative and individual video game designers working today - Nina Freeman.

Art

Postcards From Now

Postcards from Now presents five distinct perspectives on the Global Pandemic from leading international artists of every stripe – choreographers, musicians, visual artists, theatre-makers, animators and more. Commissioned and created at the height of the lockdown, these films explore everything from community to communication, patriarchy and power. And in very different ways, they consider the question that we’ve all been asking ourselves and others: what happens next?

‏‏‎ ‎

Breathless Puppets [Akram Khan & Naaman Azhari]

00:16:39

Download & Run Zoom [Lucinda Childs & LA(HORDE)]

00:17:28

Love Campus ABCD 2019-2021 [Ibrahim Mahama]

00:17:39

Eve(s) [Angelique Kidjo]

00:14:34

An illustration of two men, drawn in white outlines against a black background

Breathless Puppets [Akram Khan & Naaman Azhari]

Interactive

  • To the Moon

    In this interactive essay, Laurie Anderson shares how she drew inspiration from constellations to create a new work in VR for MIF19, To the Moon.

  • Big Ben Lying Down With Political Books

    Explore Argentinian art pioneer Marta Minujín’s participatory artwork alongside comprehensive archives of her work.

  • Portrait Of Black Britain Online

    This online gallery profiles a range of Black people living in the UK today, the contributions they make and the roles they play in society

Experiments

Immersive Tech In Performance

In 2019, we began a major piece of research and development exploring how audiences of the future will experience live performance. Fifteen specialist organisations, including MIF brought together their expertise in theatre and performance, the music industry, video production, gaming and the research sector to explore what it means to perform live using technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.

To celebrate the completion of this research many of the findings have been published at Findings In The Future, a collection of panel discussions and technical documents that share insights into the making of DYSTOPIA987, Dream and more.

‏‏‎ ‎

Adapting Story, Character & Performance for XR

00:58:10

Performance, Puppetry and XR Stages

01:05:37

Cross Sector R&D

00:44:10

Physical and Virtual Counterparts: Blending Real and Virtual Worlds

00:52:49

Podcasts

MIF Originals

Adania Shibli and Adam Thirlwell on stage at the MIF19 Press Launch, introducing their production Studio Creole

Polyglot Radio [feat. Adam Thirlwell]

00:35:36

A photograph from Tao of Glass, showing Phelim McDermott sat at a miniature grand piano while two puppeteers construct an oversized wig for him using large pieces of sheet music.

Chasing Phillip Glass [feat. Phelim McDermott]

00:33:51

A photograph of a room at Manchester Art Gallery which has been converted into a temporary classroom, with bright green walls on the left and right of the frame. A class of adults are listening intently as the tutor, with her back to us, leads a cookery class.

The School Of Integration [feat. Tania Bruguera]

00:26:39

An illustration showing a group of animals in profile - a pigeon, hedgehog, rabbit, human child, tortoise, dog, cow, mouse and a squirrel.

A Podcast For All Animals [feat. Sibylle Peters & Lois Keidan]

00:35:02

A photograph of a dancer stretching their right arm out of the top of the frame

Alphabus [feat. Young Identity]

00:18:14

Virtual Tours

Explore the Tours‏‏‎ ‎

A photograph of a building with a large text installation applied with white adhesive vinyl. The text reads "[THE SOUND OF BSL ASKING WHY THERE ISN'T ONE UNIVERSAL SPOKEN LANGUAGE".

Tour of Captioning The City by Christine Sun Kim

00:02:37

A photograph of a man walking past 4 posters showing artwork from Poet Slash Artist while talking on the phone.

Tour of Poet Slash Artist with curators Lemn Sissay and Hans Ulrich Obrist

00:11:40

A screenshot of LaTurbo Avedon in Fortnite Creative - they are shot from the left side, and their face is lit by the blue light of the phone they are looking at.

Tour of Your Progress Will Be Saved with artist LaTurbo Avedon

00:22:23

Talks

Laurie Anderson

00:58:58

Forensic Architecture

01:07:55

All Of This Unreal Time

00:46:30

Marta Minujín

00:47:47

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