Art-A-Hack project Dual Brains by Eva Lee and Aaron Trocola, and Noor: A Brain Opera by ThoughtWorks Director Ellen Pearlman were highlighted in a Redshift article exploring the use of brain-computer interface technology (BCI) in art.

BCIs enable a communication pathway between a wired brain and an external sensor device. Artists like Lee, Trocola and Pearlman are using this emergent brainwave technology to create new artistic experiences and are currently leading the charge in exploring potential applications of the technology.

We are pleased to announce that Adrianne Wortzel and Catie Cuan will join ThoughtWorks Arts this summer as our newest residents, exploring issues of movement and robotics.

Adrianne Wortzel is an acclaimed artist who creates unique and innovative interactive web-based works, robotic and telerobotic installations, performance productions, videos, and writings. During her residency at ThoughtWorks Arts, Adrianne will be initiating a project to develop a social and psychotherapeutic tool for nonverbal expression through gesture.

Karen Palmer, filmmaker and “storyteller from the future” has spent the last 6 months at ThoughtWorks as our Artist in Residence, focused on AI for her emotionally responsive immersive film, RIOT.

During the residency, ThoughtWorks developers have written and open-sourced an emotional expression analysis system named EmoPy, building on the work Karen did with AI researcher Dr. Hongying Meng of Brunel University in London.

We are thrilled to announce that ThoughtWorks Arts has teamed up with Harvestworks to stage ThoughtWorks Stranger Than Life Hacks, a special projects exhibition for the 7th annual SPRING/BREAK Art Show (part of Armory Arts Week) at 4 Times Square, March 6 - 12, 2018.

For the opening night VIP event on March 6th, 5pm - 9pm, we will be presenting alive performance of Dual Brains, an Art-A-Hack project that uses shared empathy between two brains to create a visual and sonic environment.

Art-A-Hack™ special edition for CYFEST 2018 kicked off on January 17th in central St. Petersburg, Russia.

Artists, programmers and other creative practitioners met each other for the first time to start discussing their project ideas in preparation for the first workshops.

This fall the RIXC Art Science Festival, Virtualities and Realities, in Riga, Latvia hosted three members of the ThoughtWorks Arts community. RIXC Art Science Festival is an internationally renown gathering for artists and scholars working at the intersection of arts, digital humanities, and science. The Festival includes conferences, exhibitions, performances, and VR artwork showcases.

Director Ellen Pearlman was a conference keynote speaker with her topic: The Approaching Storm: AI, Biometrics, Big Data, Immersion and Surveillance. Director Andrew McWilliams’s multimedia installation Insulin, and Art-A-Hack alum Annie Berman’s video and VR experience, Utopia 1.0, were all included in the festival’s contemporary digital art exhibitions.

Over the summer, Director Andy McWilliams spoke at TEDxVilnius, and shared different examples of how artists are using art practice and technology as a mechanism to explore emergent futures.

“Sometimes looking into the future can be scary, because by definition it is unknown. But with art and technology, we can tell real stories about what is coming, and bring these issues into the light.”