The Prediction Machine is showing at May Fest

The Prediction Machine is a new interactive artwork that marks ‘moments of climate change’ in our everyday lives, tracked and recorded by a machine that prints out predictions based on end of the pier fortune telling machines. And it is coming to the University of Nottingham’s May Fest on Saturday 9th May.

The Prediction Machine tracks the local weather live at a weather station on the Jubilee Campus at the University, and this is combined with projected temperatures for the year 2045 and predictions written by local people.

The artwork marks ‘moments of climate change’ in our everyday lives – snow on a summers day, the hurricanes, tornados and floods we’re getting like we’ve never seen in places we would never expect, 3 months of drought, 2 months of rain in half an hour, the apple tree that blossoms and fruits at the same time.

The machine prints out a ‘climate fortune’ that visitors to the machine can take away with them. This will tell them whether a ‘climate change moment’ is likely to occur in the near future or give them a prediction for 30 years in the future and propose an action to do in response based on suggestions by the local community, in collaboration with the scientists. Visitors will also be able to send their own ‘promises, wishes and predictions’ which will inform future predictions.

So come along to May Fest and interact with the Prediction Machine…….

The Prediction Machine has been created by Rachel Jacobs, in collaboration with Matt Little, Ian Jones (Sherwood Wood), Matthew Gates, Robin Shackford, Juliet Robson, Dr Candice Howarth and Dr Carlo Buontempo and people who took part in workshops.  Developed with the ‘Performing Data’ research team at the Mixed Reality Lab/Horizon Digital Economy Research, University of Nottingham. With financial support from the Arts Council of England, University of Nottingham, EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account, EPSRC, RCUK and Radar LU Arts.