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.

For a detailed recap on the Festival including Director Ellen Pearlman’s keynote presentation, check out Rhizome’s Report from the Second Annual Open Fields Conference.

Meetup on Ethics of Emerging Storytelling Tech with Karen Palmer

Storytelling is as old as time itself. But with the advent of emerging technologies such as virtual/mixed/augmented reality, and AI storytelling, technology has the power to effect and impact our cognitive and neurological faculties like never before. What’s new? What’s not? In the age of information and unrest, when facts are under so much scrutiny, at least we know we can trust our feelings. Right…?

Join us on Tuesday, December 12th, 6:30 PM at Thoughtworks NYC for a conversation about the ethical considerations of these forms of storytelling featuring Karen Palmer (http://karenpalmer.uk/), current Thoughtworks Artist-in-Residence, and TED Fellow.

Sign up here.

Announcing Art-A-Hack™ Special Edition CYBERFEST 2018

We are excited to announce a special Art-A-Hack™ in collaboration with CYBERFEST at the Cyland Media Art Lab in St. Petersburg Russia on January 21, 22, 28, and 29, 2018.

The topic of this year’s program is “Weather forecast: digital cloudiness,” and we will bring together artists and technologists to build projects exploring this theme.

More details here.

Directors and Alumni News

Exhibitions

Andrew McWilliams (Director)
Creative Climate Awards 2017
Human Impacts Institute
November 16, 2017
New York, NY

Virtualities and Realities
RIXC Art Science Festival
October 19 - 21, 2017
Riga, Latvia

Annie Berman (Art-A-Hack)
Virtualities and Realities
RIXC Art Science Festival
October 19 - 21, 2017
Riga, Latvia

Heather Dewey-Hagborg (Past resident)
Unreal. The Algorithmic Present
Chronus Art Center
November 11, 2017 - January 21, 2018
Shanghai, China

.com/.cn
K11 Art Foundation
November 9, 2017 - January 3, 2018
Shanghai, China

Postnature
Etopia Center for Art and Technology
September 21, 2017 - January 10, 2018
Zaragoza, Spain

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

Publications

Ellen Pearlman (Director)
Artificial Intelligence has Vast Artistic Value
Tallinn University

After Darkness, Southeast Asian Contemporary Art at the Asia Society, New York
Art Radar

Karen Palmer (Current Resident)
RIOT Project Log
Thoughtworks Arts

The outcome of this virtual riot depends on your emotions
Engadget

Heather Dewey-Hagborg (Past resident)
Is the New iPhone Face ID an Invasion of your Privacy?
Tech.Co

October 2017 Cover
Leonardo Journal

Review of A Becoming Resemblance
Art Forum

Presentations

Ellen Pearlman (Director)
Panel Speaker - Brain Surveillance and New Media Art
Worlding the Brain 2017
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Lecturer - Brain Surveillance and New Media Art
Baltic Film and Media School
Tallinn University School of Digital Studies
Estonian Academy of Arts
Tallinn, Estonia

Lecturer - Brain Surveillance and New Media Art
Leipaja University
Leipaja, Latvia

RISEBA University
Riga, Latvia

Neil Harbisson (Past Resident)
Human Hardware
Mazda Space
Barcelona, Spain

Neil Harbisson, Oryan Inbar/Cyborg Foundation (Past resident)
Envision Conference
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ

Heather Dewey-Hagborg (Past resident)
Keynote Speaker
Data Protection Congress
Brussels, Belgium

Blog Posts

• 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

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