Congratulations to Residency Director Ellen Pearlman, who has been awarded a Fulbright Specialist Grant to Liepaja University in Liepaja, Latvia. The program pairs highly qualified U.S. academics and professionals with host institutions abroad to share their expertise, strengthen institutional linkages, hone their skills, and learn about other cultures while building capacity at their overseas host institutions.

There she will expand her groundbreaking Art-A-Hack art and technology collaborations, assist program directors at Liepaja University with international digital project proposals, run faculty training and development seminars, and lend her expertise toward the design of an M.F.A. Program in art and technology.

Ellen will also be co-chairing the Open Fields Conference at the Arts Academy of Latvia, National Arts Museum.

Parsons School of Art and Design, where Ellen is on faculty has said, “Ellen continues to be an academic leader in the field of new media arts. As a critic, writer, lecturer and internationally recognized new media artist, Pearlman approaches design curriculum, practice based learning outcomes, and teacher-training, with an unparalleled understanding of new digital technologies and design education.”

Welcome to New Resident Karen Palmer

A warm welcome to Karen Palmer, a London based digital based filmmaker and storyteller, who will be starting her AI residency with us later this month. Karen will be further developing her interactive film RIOT. The film is an emotionally responsive, live-action film with 3D sound using AI technology, machine learning, and facial recognition to navigate through a dangerous riot in progress.

Directors and Alumni News

Past resident Neil Harbisson is mentioned in Man-Machine: How bio-hacking can change the future of music in FACT and See the world from a cyborg’s point of view: A chat with Neil Harbisson in Techly.

Cyborg Futures, a class taught at Parsons School of Design by Resident Director Ellen Pearlman, past resident Neil Harbisson and past resident Moon Ribas are all mentioned in Sense Hacking: The Real-Life Cyborgs of the DIY Augmentation Scene in How We Get to Next published by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Past resident Heather Dewey-Hagborg’s work will be on view at the Etopia Center for Art and Technology in Zaragoza, Spain from September 21, 2017 – January 10, 2018.

Art-A-Hack alum Javier Molina is mentioned in this Forbes article From Storytelling To VR ‘Storyliving’: Future Marketing Communications.

RIOT by Current Resident Karen Palmer will be shown at Victoria and Albert Museum in London as part of Digital Design Weekend, September 23rd and 24th and at Lucid Realities in Montreal, Canada. Listen to an interview with Karen.

Residency Director Ellen Pearlman’s articles A Brief History of Contemporary Art in Myanmar and An Artist-Run Nonprofit Helps Open Up Myanmar to Contemporary Art, appear in Hyperallergic.

Past resident hannes bend presented presented a virtual reality (VR) project and spoke at the Frost Science Museum for Blue Mind Life: The Seven Ages of Water.

Residency Director Ellen Pearlman and past resident hannes bend will be presenting VR projects and moderating panels for Jump into VR Fest.

Residency Director Ellen Pearlman represented Thoughtworks Arts at the Net Gain Retreat to analyse and discuss the “Quantified Society”. Past resident Heather Dewey-Hagborg and representatives from MacArthur, Open Society, Ford, Mozillia, Open Technology Fund, Harvard University Data Privacy Lab, Georgetown University Center on Privacy and Technology, ACLU, Data and Society, EFF, AINow were also there.