Lexalytics & FutureEverything Capture Opinion of 2012 Olympics

Lexalytics, a leading provider of text and sentiment analysis software, announced its participation in emoto, a pioneering Cultural Olympiad art project by FutureEverything for the London 2012 Festival. ‘Emoto’ has been designed to capture the international online audience sentiment about the nations, teams and individuals competing in the Games.

‘Emoto’ launched this week, in succession with the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, and provides a unique real-time view of the worldwide mood in response to the events taking place in London 2012. It tracks Twitter for themes related to the Games, and analyzes the messages for content and tone.

The data is available for the public to see in a series of interactive digital displays, including; the emoto website and the ’emoto in London’ app. The data will also be available through a sensory data installation and data sculpture in Trafalgar Square as part of the WE PLAY Expo.

Created by artists Moritz Stefaner, Drew Hemment and Studio NAND, ’emoto’ is a FutureEverything project with MIT SENSEable Cities Lab for the London 2012 Festival, the spectacular 12 week nationwide celebration running until September 9, 2012 bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK.

The artistic representations are based on insights provided by Lexalytics, through its Salience Engine. The software analyzes tweets to detect positive or negative sentiment in real-time.

Comments Drew Hemment, director of the FutureEverything Festival in Manchester and co-creator of ’emoto’: “We are delighted with the results and are happy to be working with a leading company in the field of sentiment analysis. Emoto is an ambitious project, and by working with the best in the industry we are together achieving some great results.”

“It has been a pleasure to work with Lexalytics, a company that shares our passion for innovative big data applications.”

Mike Marshall co-founder and CTO of Lexalytics commented: “We’ve been updating our technology for nearly a decade, integrating our software into different applications and services, but this is a truly unique and rewarding project to be part of. It’s fascinating to see our sentiment scores being transformed into art, in the heart of London and these Olympic Games.”

About FutureEverything
FutureEverything (formerly Futuresonic which was established in 1995) is an award-winning multi-arts festival, based in Manchester. It comprises a conference, art exhibition and live music programme that focus on the impact of digital culture on our everyday lives — by curating playful and experimental projects which invite audiences to bring the future into the present.

FutureEverything has a strong global network and international profile, and is recognised around the world for leading pioneering projects and important international debates. The organisation delivers a range of benefits, including mass engagement, awards, international networks, local advocacy, training and thought leadership, and explores themes including innovation, technology, art, society and the environment. It is embedded in academic research and business support networks, and is central to the innovation ecology in the UK. www.futureeverything.org