Drew Hemment is Director of The New Real and Festival Futures at Edinburgh Futures Institute and Professor of Data Arts and Society at Edinburgh College of Art within University of Edinburgh. He is a Turing Fellow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Over thirty years, Drew has played a leading role in the emergence of a digital culture in Europe, and has worked with cities and nations representing culture and research at the highest level. In 1995, Drew founded FutureEverything, named by The Guardian one of the top ten ideas festivals in the world, and in 2016, he founded the GROW Observatory, the world’s first continental scale citizens’ observatory. He is presently working to develop a transformative research agenda for the coming decade on AI and the Arts, and to build a national capability for the UK in this area. Drew is a frequent public speaker and regularly appears in the media, including as expert witness on BBC’s Moral Maze, and film critic for BBC Radio Scotland. His work has been recognised by 14 international awards including Soil Award 2019 (Winner), STARTS Prize 2018 (Honorary Mention), Lever Prize 2010 (Winner), and Prix Ars Electronica 2008 (Honorary Mention).
