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.

The exhibition features artists from the Thoughtworks Arts residency and Art-A-Hack™ working at the nexus of art and new technology utilizing biometrics, Artificial intelligence (AI), digital storytelling, genetics, Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) for empathy and surveillance, and other emerging technologies. Get your tickets now before they sell out.

Artists whose work will be included in the show are: Eva Lee and Aaron Trocola; Javier Molina and David Gochfeld; Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Shoili Kanungo and Iliya Fridman in collaboration with Chelsea Manning; hannes bend and Lewey Geselowitz; Annie Berman; Karen Palmer; Sofy Yuditskaya; Andrew McWilliams; and Ellen Pearlman.

Art-A-Hack projects from CYBERFEST 2018 in St. Petersburg

For the first time ever, Art-A-Hack™ was in St. Petersburg, Russia for CYFEST 2018, produced in collaboration with CYLAND MediaArtLab. Artists, programmers and creative practitioners teamed up to develop their ideas over two consecutive weekends before presenting final projects in a public opening at the Berthold Centre in St. Petersburg on February 10th.

Projects from this Art-A-Hack included Digital Hologram, a projected, animated hologram that responds to a typed question asked to a Google AI API; Word Cloud, that produced sonic and visual elements relating to questions asked to the ‘emotional’ response of IBM’s Watson API;  and Blinking, which used Open CV to detect nuances in an observer’s blinking to edit a movie. Hologram will be shown at Tate Modern’s Tate Exchange special program, March 6 - 11, 2018.

News from Art-A-Hack Alumni Sam Arsenault-Brassard & Javier Molina

Samuel Arsenault-Brassard is working on a new VR/AR focused gallery in Montreal, LiL Pocket Gallery. The inaugural AR show, Illusive Sympathy opened on February 23rd with work by street artist Cryote.

Javier Molina is pursuing a PhD in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and has been invited to join as faculty at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. See Javier’s project from Art-A-Hack, To Be With Hamlet, a live theater performance in Virtual Reality that allows viewers anywhere to have an intimate experience of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in the Thoughtworks exhibit at SPRING/BREAK Art Show.

TWA Director Ellen Pearlman Awarded Residency at Quartaria in Russia

Thoughtworks Arts Director, Ellen Pearlman, has been awarded an artist residency at Quartariata in Russia. The Q-Residence is an experimental center for audiovisual arts and technology, combining a country art residence and a multifunctional site for cultural and educational events in the field of multimedia, cinema, photography, performative art, modern choreography, subject design, architecture and urban planning.

Ellen will use the residency to work on a new brain opera that incorporates emotionally intelligent AIs and robotics. Ellen’s previous brain opera, Noor, will be on display at the Thoughtworks exhibit at SPRING/BREAK Art Show.

OPEN CALL: Thoughtworks Arts Summer ‘18 Residency in Robotics

Applications are now being accepted for our next Thoughtworks Arts residency for Summer 2018: Mechanics and Movement.  We are looking for artists who are actively exploring these realms to produce surprising twists and turns in the non-verbal dance between code, gears, blood, flesh and inspiration. Although language is an important aspect to this field, we are more interested in non-verbal cues and responses. Please help spread the word and share the Open Call. Deadline for applications is March, 26th, 2018.  

Cyborg Foundation launches the Transpecies Society

Past residents and Co-Founders of the Cyborg Foundation, Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas, have launched a social project called the Transpecies Society, a membership-based organization for people who identify as or would like to transition to non-human identities.

The Transpecies Society is an association that gives voice to non-human identities, raises awareness of the challenges transpecies face, advocates for the freedom of self-design, and offers the development of new senses and organs.

Directors and Alumni News

Exhibitions

Heather Dewey-Hagborg (Past resident)
IFVA Festival
Hong Kong Arts Centre
March 6, 2018 - March 20, 2018
Hong Kong

I am here to learn: On Machinic Interpretations of the World
Frankfurter Kunstverein
February 15, 2018 - April 8, 2018
Frankfurt, Germany

Stranger Visions
McGlothlin Center for the Arts
February 12, 2018 - March 9, 2018
Emory, VA

Strings: Data and the Self
California Museum of the Arts
January 19, 2018 - April 15, 2018
Thousand Oaks, CA

Big Bang Data
MIT Museum
October 11, 2017 - March 30, 2018
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Publications

Heather Dewey-Hagborg (Past resident)
Photos of the Week
The Atlantic

The Best Photos From Around the World This Week
Refinery29

Presentations

Heather Dewey-Hagborg (Past resident)
Conversation with Chelsea Manning
March 15, 2018, 5pm
Michigan Theater, University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Conversation with Chelsea Manning
March 20, 2018 6:30-8pm
McConomy Auditorium, Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(Tickets required)

Ellen Pearlman (Director)
Open Lecture on ‘Noor: A Brain Opera’
ITMO University
St. Petersburg, Russia

Blog Posts

• How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming the Criminal Justice System by Stephanie Weber
• Industrial Design Process for the ‘Time Sense’ Prototype by Oryan Inbar
• Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Chelsea Manning show at Fridman Gallery by Ellen Pearlman
• Welcoming Karen Palmer to the Thoughtworks Arts Residency by the Residency Team
• Presenting Our Art & Technology Projects at TEDxVilnius by Andrew McWilliams
• Karen Palmer Awarded Thoughtworks AI Residency by the Residency Team
• Three Views on Biometrics and Immersion for Creative Tech Week by the Residency Team
• Why We Are Investigating the Biases of Artificial Intelligence by the Residency Directors
• Welcoming Hannes Bend to the Thoughtworks Arts Residency by the Residency Team
• Suppressed Images: Advocating for Chelsea Manning’s Release by the Residency Team
• How I Became a Cyborg by Stefanie Grewenig
• Cyborg Senses: Weaving the Materials by Caihong Liu
• Heather Dewey-Hagborg Begins Residency at Thoughtworks by the Residency Team
• Developing a Cyborg Time Sense: Research and Experimentation by Andrew McWilliams
• Global Visioning Session with the Cyborgs by Andrew McWilliams
• Inside Our Brand New Lab at Thoughtworks NYC by the Residency Team
• Discussing the residency on dotNYC with Jeff Jarvis by Andrew McWilliams
• Introducing the Cyborg Foundation by the Residency Team
• Announcing the Thoughtworks artist residency by the Residency Team

Love this newsletter? Please forward it to your friends and share our subscription page.