global technology research lab
Each of the programs and projects incubated at Thoughtworks Arts are staffed and supported by a wide range of technical and creative practitioners. In addition, our work is guided and influenced by a partner network and employees across the commercial Thoughtworks organization.
The team below connect and coordinate these operations, enabling project production, research and artistic collaborations to take place.
Program Director
Andrew McWilliams is a New York-based artist, technologist and program director. He is a Director of Thoughtworks Arts, and a Lead Consultant at Thoughtworks. Andrew has exhibited work at HarvestWorks New York, Currents New Mexico, and AlphaVille Festival in London. He is Director of Art-A-Hack™ and the Hardware Hack Lab.
Program Director
Dr. Ellen Pearlman is a new media artist, curator writer and critic. A Fulbright World Learning Specialist in Art, New Media and Technology, she received a prestigious European Union Vertigo STARTS Laureate Award to develop "AIBO" an emotionally intelligent AI brainwave opera on the work of her first brain Opera “Noor”, an interactive immersive brainwave opera in a 360° theater. Ellen is a Fellow at MIT's Open Doc Labs, Senior Assistant Research Professor at RISEBA University in Riga, Latvia, and a contributing editor to Performance Arts Journal (MIT Press). She is also President of Art-A-Hack™ and Director of the Volumetric Society of New York.
Curatorial Consultant
Born in Brussels, Julien Deswaef is a software artist, experience designer and interface developer based in Barcelona. Active both in visual arts as well as in free / libre and open source culture, he has the ability to transform ideas into digital realities. He regularly collaborates with artists in the world of entertainment, music and fine arts. His art practice usually questions copyright, authorship and the impact of technology on our society through generative graphics and social media bots.
Communications Manager
Paige King is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York, and a Communications Manager working internationally with art and technology organizations. Paige has helped organize public programming at Goldsmiths University in London, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, CYFEST in New York, USA, St. Petersburg, Russia, and Venice, Italy, during the Venice Biennale.
