Top 3: FutureEverything Festival from £5 inc Blast Theory + Koreless

FutureEverything enters its 20th year as a large scale cultural event (encompassing art, music and discussion) with new technology and playful social experiments. Bringing together thinkers, developers, coders, artists, designers, urbanists and policy makers, the idea is to inspires collaboration. This year’s themes looks at how our lives have been transformed by the rise of digital over the past two decades. Here are three events we like the look of, but there’s plenty going in the conference, live, art and film programme too. Check out our FutureEverything live overview here with additional recommendations for Ariel Pink (Sat 28 Feb) and Olafur Arnalds (Thu 26 Feb).

World Premiere: Blast Theory’s Too Much Information
This unique 45 minute walking tour is scored by The Human League’s Martyn Ware and takes us through Manchester, using smartphones to find audio recordings of intimate moments hidden around the city. Discovering interactions between people across a spectrum of ages and social divides, we see the human condition at play.
Fri 27 Feb – Sun 1 Mar, promenade around Manchester, times vary, from £5, www.royalexchange.co.uk

Haunted Machines
As we become more connected through devices, a surge can also be witnessed in surveillance, hacking and black boxes. Six speakers: thinkers, writers, designers and artists, explore hauntings and the supernatural in this new technological climate.
Fri 27 Feb, times & locations to be announced, part of the FutureEverything Conference, www.futureeverything.org

Festival Opening Gala ft Koreless, Biard and more. 
This hour and a half double bill features work from three compelling electronic artists: ‘Simple Harmonic Motion for 16 Percussionists’ by digital artist Memo Atken is an awe-inspiring sound and light performance that stimulates the senses, inspired by natural and mathematical phenomena. Live visual artist Emmanuel Biard and electronic musician Koreless collaborate in ‘The Well’, featuring Koreless’ compositions alongside a laser mirror and lighting structures courtesy of Biard.
Wed 25 Feb, Royal Northern College of Music, 124 Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9RD, 8-9.30pm, from £7, www.rncm.ac.uk