What's your Faster Horse?
Introducing Faster Horse. A project led by BOM centring on the brilliantly playful work of international artist Bruce Asbestos. Faster Horse is a sculpture, commissioned by BOM for Birmingham Tech Week in partnership with West Midlands Growth Company.
Faster Horse is a 6-metre inflatable sculpture by Bruce Asbestos. Inspired by a quote widely attributed to car designer Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”. The phrase has become shorthand for the idea that genuinely transformative technologies are difficult to imagine before they exist.
As an emblem for disruptive innovation, Faster Horse has also inspired West Midlands Growth Company’s new It Starts Here campaign, spotlighting disruptive innovators from across the region. Faster Horse will be launching on Frontiers Day at Birmingham Tech Week.
Inspired by Bruce’s sculpture, BOM has created a Faster Horse mobile game (play the Multiplayer version at the CreaTech Expo at Frontiers Day!). Turning the West Midlands into a playable racetrack, discover innovations along the way and have fun!
Bruce Asbestos by West Midlands Growth Company for It Starts Here.
Photography of Faster Horse by Angela Grabowska
Faster Horse
Bruce Asbestos, Faster Horse (2026)
Inflatable sculpture (PVC, Nylon)
Commissioned by BOM (Birmingham Open Media), for Birmingham Tech Week in partnership with West Midlands Growth Company.
Faster Horse explores the excitement and uncertainty that accompany moments of technological change. Throughout history, innovations have often seemed strange, unnecessary or threatening before becoming part of everyday life. The motor car replaced the horse, the internet transformed communication and artificial intelligence represents another moment of profound disruption.
Faster Horse invites audiences to consider how societies adapt to new technologies and who gets to shape their future. The oversized horse is both a spectacle and a provocation, a playful and monumental object that draws people together before opening a conversation about much bigger ideas. By using humour rather than fear or technical jargon, the work creates a space for audiences to reflect on the relationship between people, technology and innovation.
Ultimately, Faster Horse celebrates bold, unconventional thinking while reminding us that technological progress should always put people at its centre.
Bruce Asbestos
BOM, with partnership with It Starts Here, a campaign by West Midlands Growth Company, has commissioned Bruce Asbestos to bring his inflatable sculpture, Faster Horse, to life.
Bruce Asbestos is a UK artist creating large-scale participatory installations, sculpture and immersive environments that combine contemporary art with pop culture, fashion, folklore and contemporary image culture. His work transforms galleries, museums and public spaces into playful shared experiences, inviting audiences to become active participants. Working across sculpture, installation, performance and painting, Bruce develops ambitious projects in which spectacle, recurring characters and participation become artistic materials. Drawing on the structures of fashion, entertainment and popular culture, Bruce explores how audiences gather, interact and produce meaning within cultural spaces.
Bruce has exhibited internationally at Tate Modern, the Venice Biennale, the Hayward Gallery, SXSW (USA) and the Bangkok Biennale. He has worked with organisations including the National Trust and has work held in the Government Art Collection and the National Justice Museum as was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Breakthrough Fund.
Launching at Frontiers Day
Wednesday 21st October 2026
Faster Horse launches on Frontiers Day at Birmingham Tech Week, outside The Rep on Wednesday 21 October. There will be a special performance from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire at 15:15.
Find out more about Frontiers Day and register for free tickets at Birmingham Tech Week here.
Faster FuturesMobile Game
Faster Horse is a mobile game developed by BOM inspired by Bruce Asbestos’ Faster Horse sculpture.
The game is a free, browser based game which turns the West Midlands innovation story into a playable race track. The game is simple, race around the track, collect power ups inspired by the region’s innovations whilst dodging slower ups and innovation blockers. Players will discover inventions, history and places that have shaped the Midlands, building curiosity and regional pride through play.
The game is part of our Faster Future’s schools programme and the focus of workshops which engage young learners across the Midlands. Tap the button below to play the game (desktop and mobile compatible).
Faster FuturesSchools Programme
Working with school groups to inspire the next generation of innovators, learners will consider how transformative technologies have transformed industries and continue to shape the world we live in. Through engaging design challenges, pupils will explore transformational technology and develop playful concepts for the online game.
Throughout the sessions, we will explore:
- Inventions and innovations
- Ideas and developments linked to Birmingham
- Creative problem-solving
Through a series of workshops, learners will use the ‘Faster Horse’ concept to think critically, be imaginative and understand how breakthrough ideas can change the way we do things.
From better questions to real-world breakthroughs
Faster Horse challenges us to look beyond the obvious and rethink what innovation could look like. Across the West Midlands, businesses are turning that same thinking into real-world technologies.
What if an electric motorcycle could charge from any standard plug socket? What if detecting bladder cancer didn’t have to start with an invasive camera?
Through the It Starts Here campaign, West Midlands Growth Company is spotlighting disruptors who are challenging established thinking and finding new ways to tackle familiar problems.
Their stories demonstrate how the region’s engineering talent, research expertise and industry connections are helping turn ambitious ideas into commercial reality.
This project is in partnership with the West Midlands Growth Company's 'It Starts Here Campaign' which celebrates the region as a premier hub for technology, innovation and investment. Partners on this project include CreaTech Frontiers and Birmingham Tech Week
