Waves of technology-driven change now regularly disrupt industry, culture and society. The challenge of navigating this turbulence grows increasingly complex, requiring deep examination of overlapping trajectories in search of hidden insights.

Research of this kind necessitates synthesis from varied disciplines, viewpoints and areas of expertise. However as the speed of change accelerates, new forms of collaboration are required — forms capable of producing original, far-reaching perspectives from the cutting edge of cultural and technological transformation.

The robotics artists Adrianne Wortzel and Catie Cuan have begun their dual residencies at ThoughtWorks.

Adrianne has been exploring the expressive potential of the non-humanoid MekaMon, manufactured by Reach Robotics. During her residency, Adrianne will be initiating a project to develop a social and psychotherapeutic tool for nonverbal expression through gesture.

In her TED talk, former resident Karen Palmer discusses the inspiration behind her immersive, emotionally responsive film RIOT.

Karen begins the presentation with a simple question, ‘how would you respond in a riot situation?’ This is the question she asked herself beginning in 2014 as she watched riots unfold across the world.

We are pleased to announce that the Mechanical & Movement: Robotics residency has been jointly awarded to two artists, Adrianne Wortzel and Catie Cuan.

The ThoughtWorks Arts team made their final decisions on April 16th in collaboration with input from jurors at Baltan Labs in Eindhoven, Netherlands and the Consortium For Research and Robotics hosted by Pratt Institute at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The work of ThoughtWorks Arts artists were exhibited together at the closely-watched SPRING/BREAK Art Show in March 2018. The exhibition took place at 4 Times Square as part of New York’s Armory Week.

The exhibition, sponsored by the media art center Harvestworks, was comprised of works incubated by ThoughtWorks Arts programs over the last four years. This includes work from Art-A-Hack and the ThoughtWorks Arts Residency, and by the directors of these programs, Andrew McWilliams and Ellen Pearlman, who are also practicing artists.

Many of us are familiar with the idea that Artificial Intelligence systems are regularly making benign decisions, like recommendations on Netflix or Amazon. What about decisions that have a significant impact on someone’s life though?

Should AI systems be used in life-changing situations, like criminal sentencing?

The first silicon-based “dummy” wearable for cyborg Neil Harbisson’s “Time Sense” prototype is now ready, and Neil has been testing it for comfort and fit.

In this post, I’m going to talk about the industrial design process undertaken on this project, from design to deployment of the first silicon wearable.