Milan, Italy — April 24, 2026 — CODAME ART+TECH presents The New Human, a one-day public exhibition during Milano Design Week as part of the Fuori Salone featuring 11+ interactive installations, performances, and prototypes at Google Milan HQ. Doors open at 14:00.

The works emerge from a global Creative Hackathon launched March 6 across Milan, San Francisco, and beyond — not a competition, but an engine: a space to prototype futures with questions instead of answers. Visitors are not observers. They are participants in a living system still in motion.

Also launching publicly for the first time on April 24: ARTEX, a new medium for living digital art — art that responds to presence, evolves through interaction, and stays alive over time. Alongside it, CODAME Print Club introduces a physical format for collecting living art: limited, tangible, made to be held and traded.

A Living Exploration of The New Human

This year’s theme of the ART+TECH Festival, The New Human, asks fundamental questions:

• When cognition is shared between humans and machines, where does thinking end and authorship begin?

• As bodies become augmented and programmable, what remains deeply human?

• In a digitally connected world, how do we design for care, connection, and agency?

Rather than offering answers, the exhibition creates space for direct experience. CODAME frames this approach as a “White Mirror”—futures shaped by imagination, care, and collaboration.

One Shared Space, One Vision

What began as individual explorations now converges into a shared space.

Installations, performances, and prototypes—exist side by side, not as isolated pieces, but as part of a larger living system. A collective expression of The New Human in motion.

Each project is designed to respond, evolve, and invite participation—blurring the line between artwork and experience, between observer and presence.

Projects were shaped through four creative archetypes:

• The Alchemist — transforming ideas into tangible form

• The Storyworld Architect — shaping narrative and meaning

• The Systems Imagineer — designing implications and systems

• The Embodied Explorer — grounding work in human experience

Explore projects: codame.com/showcase
Discover artists: codame.com/artists
Meet mentors: codame.com/mentors

Introducing ARTEX — A New Medium for Living Art

From this shared exploration emerges ARTEX—a new medium for living digital art.

Launching publicly for the first time on April 24, 2026, at Google Milan during Milano Design Week, ARTEX enables artworks to evolve in real time—responding to presence, environment, and interaction.

Rather than static outputs, ARTEX introduces a model where art remains alive: adaptive, experiential, and continuously transforming.

Event Details

📅 Thursday, April 24, 2026
📍 Google Milan — Milan, Italy
🕖 Doors open at 14:00

Held during Milano Design Week, the event is part of a global program spanning Milan, San Francisco, Berlin, and Shanghai.

🎟️ Register: https://luma.com/saelwstl

About CODAME ART+TECH

Founded in San Francisco, CODAME is a global nonprofit community, as part of Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, exploring the intersection of art and technology. For over a decade, it has brought together artists, engineers, and thinkers to create new forms of expression and challenge how we experience the future.

Looking Ahead

The New Human is not a single event, but an evolving journey.

Projects emerging from the Creative Hackathon will continue to develop through ARTEX and programs such as the CODAME Print Club—expanding new possibilities for creation, exhibition, and collection.

Following Milano Design Week, CODAME will bring this work to a global stage, with upcoming activations in Milan, San Francisco, Berlin, and Shanghai.

For institutions, cities, and partners interested in hosting the festival or collaborating with CODAME—this is the moment to engage.

Press Contact

For press inquiries, interviews, or collaboration opportunities:

Bruno Fonzi (Milan) — Jordan Gray (San Francisco)
CODAME ART+TECH
Email: press@codame.com
Website: codame.com

Phone: US: +1 415 9351345 — IT: +39 02 82372 517

Media kit and additional materials, including ARTEX previews, available upon request.

International Women’s Day is a moment to pause and recognize something that has always been woven into the fabric of the CODAME community.

The women who bring their creativity, generosity, and vision to this shared ecosystem.

CODAME has always been a living network — shaped by the people who participate, share ideas, mentor others, and experiment with new forms of expression at the intersection of art and technology. Over the years, women across our community have played a vital role in helping this culture grow and evolve.

They create new artistic languages.

They explore emerging technologies.

They mentor others and open doors.

They transform gatherings into meaningful collaborations.

Artists such as Amy LaViers, Meltem Şahin, Char Stiles, and many others across the CODAME network continue to expand how we think about robotics, generative systems, creative coding, design, and new digital mediums.

But the impact goes far beyond any individual name.

It lives in the volunteers — like Elif Okut, Saba Soltanshahi, Van Hoang, May Parra, and many others — who help bring events to life.

In the mentors, including Anouk Wipprecht, Chiara Canali, Yosun Chang, and Vanessa Chang, who guide emerging creators.

In the artists who experiment with ideas that might not yet have a name.

And in the spirit of collaboration that defines this community.

CODAME has always believed that the future of technology is not only engineered — it is imagined, designed, and shaped through creativity and human connection. The women of this community are an essential part of that process.

Today we simply want to say thank you.

Thank you for your creativity.
Thank you for your generosity.
Thank you for the perspectives and possibilities you bring to this shared exploration of art and technology.

Happy International Women’s Day.

Photos in alphabetical order: Amy LaViers, Anabella Costa, Anouk Wipprecht, Antoinette Bumatay-Chan, Camila Blanco, Catie Cuan, Char Stiles, Chiara Canali, Elaine Miu Cheung, Hanamaro Chaki, Hen/i, Jiabao Li, Manuela Magni, Meltem Şahin, Monica Mura, Nora, Vanessa Chang, Zeo Zhang — and many more amazing humans across the CODAME community.

Discover more artists from the CODAME network: codame.com/t/artists

There are moments in history when a new technology destabilizes art — not by replacing artists, but by forcing them to rethink their role.

Photography did this in the 19th century.

And today, artificial intelligence is doing it again.

To understand this moment, it helps to look at how artists responded the last time the ground shifted.

When Photography Changed Painting

When photography emerged, painting lost its monopoly on representation. A camera could capture likeness, detail, and realism with mechanical precision.

So painters asked a radical question:

If a machine can reproduce reality, what is painting for?

The answer did not lead to the end of art.

It led to transformation.

Movements like Cubism — pioneered by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque — abandoned single-point perspective and naturalistic representation. Instead of painting what the eye sees, they painted multiple perspectives at once. They painted memory, structure, and inner perception.

Photography pushed painting inward.

It liberated artists from imitation and invited them into interpretation.

Pistoletto’s Crisis and the Mirror

Born in 1933 in Biella, Italy, Michelangelo Pistoletto emerged in the early 1960s during another period of artistic uncertainty. Painting, as traditionally practiced, no longer felt sufficient.

Rather than abandon painting, he redefined it.

He began creating what became known as the Quadri Specchianti (Mirror Paintings): life-sized photographic images transferred onto polished stainless steel surfaces.

The effect was radical.

The viewer’s reflection became part of the artwork.

The surrounding environment entered the composition.

Time itself moved through the piece.

The artwork was no longer a static image. It was a living relationship.

Pistoletto later became a central figure in Arte Povera, a movement that rejected traditional hierarchies and embraced everyday materials and conceptual experimentation. But the mirror works were foundational — not just aesthetically, but philosophically.

They asked:

• Where does art end and life begin?

• Who completes the artwork?

• Is the viewer separate from the work — or inside it?

The mirror did not compete with photography.

It used photography — and surpassed it.

Instead of capturing a frozen image of reality, it reflected living presence.

In a moment of artistic crisis, the mirror became a tool of reflection — literally and metaphorically.

Beyond Representation: Art as Social Practice

Pistoletto’s thinking did not stop at the gallery.

In 1998, he founded Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, an interdisciplinary laboratory connecting art with education, economics, ecology, politics, and social transformation.

For him, art was not isolated from society.

It was a catalyst within it.

The mirror expanded from a physical surface to a societal one.

AI as the New Mirror

Today, artificial intelligence confronts artists with a similar tension.

AI can generate images, text, music, and video in seconds. It can emulate styles, remix aesthetics, and simulate creative processes that once required years of practice.

Again, artists ask:

If a machine can generate images, what is left for us?

History suggests the answer is not retreat — but depth.

Just as photography freed painting from representation, AI may free artists from surface production.

AI can reproduce.

But it does not experience.

AI can simulate.

But it does not embody.

The opportunity, then, is not to compete with the machine on speed or volume — but to move into territory it cannot inhabit:

Embodied experience.

Ethical responsibility.

Contextual meaning.

Human intention.

AI becomes a reflective surface — much like Pistoletto’s mirror.

When we interact with generative models, we see reflections of our datasets, our culture, our biases, our imagination. The machine reflects us back to ourselves at scale.

And like any mirror, it can provoke discomfort — or insight.

The New Human: A Space for Reflection

At CODAME, as we explore The New Human, we are not asking whether AI will replace artists.

We are asking how artists, technologists, and thinkers respond creatively to this inflection point.

Just as Pistoletto used the mirror to confront his own artistic crisis and transform it into a new language, we now stand before a different kind of reflective surface.

The New Human Creative Hackathon is an invitation to step into that reflection.

Not to race against AI.

Not to fear it.

But to explore what it reveals.

• What does authorship mean in the age of generative systems?

• How does participation evolve?

• How do we design responsibly?

• What remains profoundly human?

Photography once pushed artists toward abstraction and interiority.

The mirror turned the viewer into co-creator.

AI now challenges us to redefine creativity itself.

The hackathon becomes a living laboratory — much like Pistoletto’s mirror — where technology is not an endpoint, but a surface for inquiry.

The future doesn’t arrive all at once.

It emerges through how we respond.

And just as Pistoletto once stood before a mirror and discovered a new artistic language, we now have the opportunity to stand before AI — to reflect, to question, to build — and perhaps shape the next movement.

The movement of the New Human.

Lukacs suggests that while “rewiring” implies the engineered precision of a circuit board, the brain is actually more akin to a forest—a living, breathing, and messy ecosystem that grows and adapts in ways far more complex than simple toggles or cables.

Why this matters for The New Human:
The theme of this year’s CODAME festival posits that the future is built from the “debris of the past—a coral reef of human traces, layered into new bodies, minds, and worlds.” If we view ourselves only as machines to be reconfigured, we lose the organic, emergent quality of what makes us human.

⬩ From Circuitry to Ecology: “The New Human” isn’t just a hardware update. It’s an exploration of how we evolve when we embrace our biological complexity alongside our technological tools.

⬩ Art as Inquiry: Just as Lukacs calls for better metaphors to understand our minds, our artists use tech to challenge the rigid definitions of humanity, moving beyond “fixed paths” toward “dynamic connectivity.”

Are we “rewiring” ourselves, or are we growing into something entirely different? Join us at the CODAME ART+TECH Festival as we peel back the metaphors and build the future of the human experience.

Explore the theme: The New Human

Read Peter Lukacs essay on Aeon: Can you rewire your brain?

Michael Bervell’s Untitled (Booth #513) wasn’t a stunt.
It was a philosophical intervention.

At the National Retail Federation’s annual conference, TestParty nearly got kicked out—not for disrupting the event, but for exposing an assumption no one wanted to name.

The booth didn’t look like a booth.

No LED monoliths.
No branded carpet.
No desperate swag.

Instead:
A table. Broken. Disassembled. Exposed.
Next to it, a sign: “Ceci n’est pas une booth.”

Inspired by René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images, the work challenged a deceptively simple idea:

A representation of a thing is not the thing itself.

A painting of a pipe is not a pipe.
A pile of parts is not a booth.
And a website that cannot be navigated, read, or understood—
Is it really a website?

The reactions were immediate.

People stopped.
Stared.
Photographed it.

Some were amused. Others confused. A few angry.

Eventually, NRF staff intervened.
“This isn’t a booth,” they said.
“It’s unprofessional.”

That was the moment the work completed itself.

Because 96% of websites fail basic accessibility standards.
Screen readers can’t parse them.
Keyboard users can’t navigate them.

They are technically websites in the same way this was technically a booth.

The barriers are invisible to most users.
But for the 1.3 billion people living with disabilities worldwide, they determine who gets to exist in the modern economy at all.

This philosophy runs consistently through Michael’s work.

During a visit to the Picasso Museum in Málaga, he reflected on Picasso’s line:

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

In an AI-first world, execution is no longer scarce.
You don’t need to code.
You don’t need to design.
You don’t need to hire a team.

You can “vibe” your way from idea to reality.

Which means the real constraint is no longer capability—it’s imagination.

And imagination, for Michael, is not about novelty for novelty’s sake.
It’s about seeing what systems quietly normalize—and choosing to question them.

Untitled (Booth #513) reframes accessibility not as compliance theater, but as craft.

Not decoration, but foundation.
Not overlay, but infrastructure.
Not spectacle, but care.

The exposed table offers no place to hide.
Only structure.

Viewers are encouraged to approach.
The work is not complete without you.

Sometimes, to help people understand that something is broken, you have to stop pretending it’s whole.

Ceci n’est pas une booth.
And that’s the point.

The article is a timely meditation on how art, technology, and shared cultural spaces shape not only innovation, but meaning. Looking back at moments such as 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering and Cybernetic Serendipity, it reminds us that some of the most transformative shifts in technology emerged when artists and technologists worked side by side, supported by environments that valued curiosity, embodiment, and collective imagination.

Rather than celebrating tools alone, the essay calls for the rebuilding of modern “cathedrals”: living cultural ecosystems where experimentation is protected, uncertainty is welcomed, and human values are allowed to evolve alongside machines.

This perspective deeply resonates with us at CODAME.

CODAME’s Contribution: A Living Practice Since 2010

Since our founding in San Francisco in 2010, CODAME has worked — often quietly, always collaboratively — to help sustain exactly the kinds of spaces the article describes.

Through our ART+TECH Festival, creative hackathons, performances, workshops, and installations, CODAME has consistently brought artists and technologists into shared, hands-on environments. These were not conferences or product launches, but temporary cultural commons: places to prototype ideas, relationships, and new creative languages together.

We’ve supported emerging artists in experimenting with code, sensors, sound, AI, and interactive systems — not as novelty, but as material for artistic inquiry. Just as importantly, we’ve emphasized artistic ownership, open exchange of knowledge, and community-driven learning, ensuring that technology serves expression rather than defining it.

Our contribution has never been about scale or spectacle. It has been about continuity — showing up year after year to create conditions where trust, experimentation, and collaboration can take root.

CODAME, Gray Area, and Shared Stewardship

CODAME is proud to be part of the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, a San Francisco–based nonprofit that continues to have a meaningful and positive impact on the city’s creative and cultural life through initiatives like the Gray Area Theater and its broader art + technology programs.

We are grateful to be in this ecosystem alongside people who actively shape these spaces. Barry Threw, co-author of the article, is the Executive and Artistic Director of Gray Area, and Scott Moore, co-author, serves on Gray Area’s Board of Directors. Together, Gray Area and its community have helped sustain San Francisco as a place where art, technology, and civic imagination remain deeply intertwined.

CODAME’s Perspective: Toward The New Human

Since the beginning, CODAME has believed that art and technology are not separate domains, but co-evolving forces that shape how we sense, think, and relate to one another.

As we move toward CODAME ART+TECH Festival 2026 — The New Human, the ideas in Cathedrals and the Silicon Soul feel especially urgent. The New Human is not a finished figure, but a being in motion — learning to co-create with intelligent systems, navigating hybrid physical and digital realities, and redefining authorship, presence, and agency.

CODAME gatherings function much like the cathedrals described in the article: living systems rather than fixed institutions. They evolve through participation. They privilege process over polish. They create room for bodies, machines, and ideas to encounter one another in real time.

In a moment when efficiency often outpaces reflection, we see this work not as nostalgia, but as preparation — rehearsal spaces for futures that are still being written.

With gratitude to Barry Threw and Scott Moore for articulating this vision so clearly, and to Gray Area for continuing to make it tangible in San Francisco.

Let’s keep building — not just technology, but the cultural spaces where The New Human can emerge.

Happy New Year from all of us at CODAME ✨
As we step into 2026, we extend our deepest gratitude and curiosity to every artist, maker, mentor, collaborator, and explorer who shapes this global community.

In the CODAME ART+TECH universe, a new year is more than a date — it is a creative threshold. A moment to pause, to begin again, and to imagine what’s possible.

We enter this year guided by intention: choosing inquiry over answers, experimentation over certainty, and community over isolation. We believe the future is not something we wait for — it is something we actively practice, together.

CODAME is artist-driven, practice-centered, and collectively imagined.

In 2026, CODAME returns with its most expansive and participatory Festival yet. Centered around the theme The New Human, this edition explores how bodies, minds, cultures, technologies, and communities merge into new, hybrid possibilities.

The New Human is not a fixed definition — it is a living inquiry.
A way of asking how the future is shaped not by machines alone, but by the entangled traces of humanity itself: memory, language, biology, emotion, and code.

The Program

• Creative Hackathon (March 6–7, 2026 · Milan)
  A focused, collaborative moment where artists and technologists prototype, experiment, and unlock imaginative directions around The New Human.

• Milano Art Week & Milano Design Week (April 13–26, 2026)
  Hackathon outcomes evolve into public experiences — exhibitions, performances, rituals, and conversations that blur disciplines and invite wonder.

• Global Creative Encounters
  Follow-up gatherings in San Francisco and Shanghai, extending the Festival across geographies and strengthening global creative exchange.

Why It Matters

This Festival is not about answers — it is about asking better questions.
Each interaction, collaboration, and experiment contributes to a collective design of emerging human futures, shaped through art, technology, and shared imagination.

How to Join

Build. Imagine. Organize. Mentor. Or simply explore.
Creativity flows in many directions, and everyone is invited to take part.

We are all artists.
The future isn’t coming — we are practicing it.

Here’s to a joyful, curious, and generative 2026. Happy New Year 🥳

Why This Matters

As intelligence becomes distributed and cognition grows atmospheric, the question is no longer whether humans and machines will merge — but how we will evolve together. The project began as a collaboration between Loop Exit™ and CODAME ART+TECH, weaving foresight research with participatory creation. It acts as both a manifesto and a creative inquiry into what it means to be human amid the rise of synthetic cognition, sensory technology, and ecological interdependence.

Step into The New Human — not as an idea, but as an experience.
A moment. A gesture. A sensation.
Something you can inhabit.

This is a space to prototype worlds, not predictions —
to feel the future rather than explain it.

Don’t describe what’s coming.
Make it felt.

The World You’re Entering

The Reef Society — a world built from our traces.
Every click and gesture layers into a living system that keeps reshaping itself.
Something new is emerging.

Welcome to The New Human.

Let’s imagine The New Human in ten years (2036)

What you might consider and some questions for you…

Mind
When cognition is shared between humans and machines,
where does thinking end — and where does authorship begin?

Body
As bodies become augmented and programmable,
what remains deeply personal, emotional, and human?

Society
Living inside a digital nervous system,
how do we design for care, agency, and connection — not just efficiency?

These are not problems to solve,
but spaces to explore through art, technology, and experience.

A Choice of Futures

Every reef holds shadow and possibility.

Black Mirror shows what breaks.
White Mirror shows what we can build.

CODAME chooses the White Mirror —
futures shaped by imagination, care, and collaboration.

The Archetypes

Four creative forces shape our teams:

The Alchemist — turns ideas into tangible form
The Storyworld Architect — shapes narrative and meaning
The Systems Imagineer — designs implications and ripple effects
The Embodied Explorer — grounds the work in human sensitivity and experience

Find yourself in one.
Together, they form powerful world-building teams.

Play Slides Presentation

The New Human theme will be explored in a series of Aperitivos, part of the CODAME ART+TECH Festival (2026) leaning toward the Creative Hackathon in 2026, we’ll reimagine together what it means to be human in the age of collective intelligence.

A Playground where Artists and Technologists co-create the Future(s).

Invitation

The future is alive, messy, growing — and you belong inside it.
Join the CODAME Creative Hackathon: The New Human.

Join Hackathon

Read the Full Foresight Research & Curatorial Project

📖 The New Human: loopexitnow.com/the-new-human
Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Created in collaboration with CODAME ART+TECH

Call for New Humans

Be part of ART+TECH Festival (2026) Exploring The New Human. Let’s design the future — playfully, together. 👉 Join as a volunteer

Mentor or simply explore how art and technology connect us all. Be part of a creative community in Milano and San Francisco.

As our cognition becomes atmospheric, our bodies networked, and our societies algorithmic, The New Human asks: how do we stay human together?

Together, we’ll prototype The New Human — layered, adaptive, and beautifully unpredictable — through a series of events in Milano, San Francisco, and beyond.
This is more than a hackathon: it’s a living cultural R&D playground for human–tech co-evolution, where artists, designers, and technologists explore what it means to be human in the age of intelligent machines and sensory AI.

👉 Submit your interest: codame.com/p/call-for-new-humans

Dal 2010, CODAME è cresciuta fino a diventare una piattaforma internazionale, che riunisce artisti e tecnologi. Con eventi a Milano e San Francisco, il festival di quest'anno metterà in luce la creatività e la collaborazione all'avanguardia dell'arte e della tecnologia.

L'essenza del festival

Il tema Essence incoraggia i partecipanti a esplorare domande fondamentali: qual è l'essenza della creatività? Cosa rimane quando eliminiamo la superficie? Da una pennellata a una riga di codice, i partecipanti esamineranno come arte e tecnologia si fondono per creare nuove forme di espressione.

Per tutto il mese, il festival presenterà un mix unico di workshop esperienziali , performance e installazioni progettate per ispirare la connessione e la collaborazione tra creativi da tutto il mondo. I partecipanti esploreranno il ruolo dell'arte e della tecnologia nel dare forma alla nostra esperienza umana collettiva.

Momenti salienti del festival:

Date: mese di ottobre 2024

Luoghi: Milano, Italia e San Francisco e San Jose, California

L'edizione 2024 del CODAME ART+TECH Festival offre un programma diversificato di eventi, tra cui:

• Dialoghi esperienziali: discussioni stimolanti sulla creatività umana e l'intelligenza artificiale. Affronta dilemmi etici, creazione artistica collaborativa e il futuro delle opere generate dall'intelligenza artificiale.

• Sessioni MatchBox: workshop pratici in cui artisti e tecnologi collaborano in tempo reale per esplorare la convergenza tra emozioni umane e precisione delle macchine.

• BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer): una galleria digitale immersiva in cui artisti visivi e tecnologi trasformano lo spazio con luci e forme, offrendo uno sguardo al futuro dell'arte interattiva.

PRENOTA I BIGLIETTI

Crescita e impatto del CODAME

Dalla sua fondazione nel 2010, CODAME ha ospitato più di 100 eventi e workshop, supportando oltre 300 artisti e coinvolgendo una comunità globale di 35.000 tecnologi, designer e innovatori.

Il co-fondatore di CODAME, Bruno Fonzi , afferma: 

"Essence parla al nocciolo di ciò che guida la creatività, che si tratti di una pennellata, di un pezzo di codice o di una collaborazione tra uomo e macchina. Il festival di quest'anno ci sfida tutti a sbucciare gli strati e a rivelare ciò che è veramente al centro del nostro processo creativo".

Comunità e supporto

Con una comunità di oltre 35.000 ingegneri, designer e artisti, CODAME ha ottenuto il supporto delle principali aziende tecnologiche, tra cui Google, Salesforce, GitHub, Box, Adobe e Autodesk , tra le altre. Queste partnership sottolineano il ruolo fondamentale di CODAME all'incrocio tra arte e tecnologia, promuovendo collaborazioni che spingono i confini creativi.

Espansione internazionale: Milano incontra San Francisco

Per la prima volta, CODAME abbraccia pienamente la sua presenza internazionale espandendo la sua impronta in Europa. Con eventi significativi che si svolgono contemporaneamente a San Francisco e Milano, il festival sottolinea la missione di CODAME di colmare i divari geografici e costruire un mondo di arte e tecnologia più interconnesso.

Jordan Gray, co-fondatore di CODAME, sottolinea l'importanza di questa portata globale:
"CODAME ha sempre avuto come obiettivo quello di connettere le persone, attraverso aree geografiche, settori e tecnologie. L'espansione di quest'anno a Milano ci consente di arrivare ancora più lontano, creando una piattaforma globale per artisti e tecnologi. Costruire questi ponti internazionali può innescare l'innovazione in modi che non avremmo mai immaginato".

Bruno Fonzi, co-fondatore di CODAME, aggiunge:
"Milano offre un'incredibile opportunità per CODAME di interagire con nuovi artisti e tecnologi, ampliando la portata della nostra piattaforma. Questo scambio interculturale porterà a progetti e collaborazioni ancora più innovativi".

Sin dalla sua fondazione nel 2010, CODAME è cresciuto fino a diventare un movimento globale all'intersezione tra arte e tecnologia. Il festival di quest'anno si basa su quell'eredità con traguardi impressionanti:

• Oltre 35.000 membri della comunità

• Oltre 100 eventi e workshop

• Oltre 300 artisti in primo piano

• Oltre 80 progetti che spaziano tra installazioni, performance e collaborazioni

Unisciti a noi a Milano o a San Francisco.

Diventa parte di qualcosa di più grande: un evento che riunisce le menti più innovative del mondo per ridefinire la creatività. Che tu sia un artista, un tecnologo o semplicemente un curioso, il CODAME ART+TECH Festival 2024 offre un'opportunità irripetibile per entrare in contatto, creare e ispirare. Unisciti a noi a Milano o a San Francisco per contribuire a dare forma al futuro dell'arte e della tecnologia.

Per un elenco completo degli eventi e informazioni sui biglietti, visitare https://www.codame.com/p/arttech-festival-2024

Informazioni su CODAME
Dal 2010, CODAME è all'avanguardia nell'innovazione, unendo i mondi dell'arte e della tecnologia. Con una fiorente comunità globale e una reputazione per festival, workshop e installazioni pionieristici, CODAME continua a spingere i confini. La nostra missione è ispirare l'esplorazione e promuovere la creatività, rendendo l'arte e la tecnologia accessibili a tutti.

I nostri principi guida sono:

• Promuovere l'innovazione abbracciando la creatività e l'esplorazione

• Condividere il valore dell'arte all'interno della comunità tecnologica

• Rendere la tecnologia accessibile agli artisti di tutto il mondo

Per maggiori informazioni su come supportare o essere coinvolti, 

visita https://www.codame.com/p/the-essence-of-the-next-arttech-festival

Contatto stampa:
e , co-fondatori di CODAME
press@codame.com 

Unisciti a noi su codame.com !

Social Media:

Instagram |X | LinkedIn​​​

Comunità :

 Telegramma | Discord | WhatsApp

CODAME è parte di “Gray Area Foundation”, un’organizzazione non-profit 501(c)(3), che garantisce che tutte le sue iniziative e programmi siano in linea con i più alti standard di supporto e trasparenza della comunità.

Since 2010, CODAME has grown into an international platform, bringing together artists and technologists. With events in Milan and San Francisco, this year’s festival will spotlight creativity and collaboration at the forefront of art and technology.

The Essence of the Festival

The Essence theme encourages participants to explore fundamental questions: What is the essence of creativity? What remains when we strip away the superficial? From a brushstroke to a line of code, attendees will examine how art and technology merge to create new forms of expression.

Throughout the month, the festival will present a unique blend of experiential workshops, performances, and installations designed to inspire connection and collaboration between creatives from around the world. Participants will explore the role of art and technology in shaping our collective human experience.

Festival Highlights:

Dates: Multiple dates in October, 2024
Locations: Milan, Italy & San Francisco, USA

The 2024 edition of the CODAME ART+TECH Festival offers a diverse program of events, including:

• Experiential Dialogs: Thought-provoking discussions on human creativity and artificial intelligence. Engage with ethical dilemmas, collaborative art-making, and the future of AI-generated works.

• MatchBox Sessions: Hands-on workshops where artists and technologists collaborate in real-time to explore the convergence of human emotion and machine precision.

• BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer): An immersive digital gallery where visual artists and technologists transform the venue with light and form, offering a glimpse into the future of interactive art.

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CODAME’s Growth and Impact

Since its founding in 2010, CODAME has hosted more than 100 events and workshops, supported over 300 featured artists, and engaged a global community of 35,000 technologists, designers, and innovators.

CODAME co-founder Bruno Fonzi remarks, 

“Essence speaks to the core of what drives creativity—whether it’s a brushstroke, a piece of code, or a collaboration between human and machine. This year’s festival challenges us all to peel back the layers and reveal what’s truly at the heart of our creative process.”

Community & Support

With a community of over 35,000 engineers, designers, and artists, CODAME has garnered support from top tech companies, including Google, Salesforce, GitHub, Box, Adobe, and Autodesk. These partnerships underline CODAME’s pivotal role at the crossroads of art and technology, fostering collaborations that push creative boundaries.

Expanding Internationally: Milan Meets San Francisco

For the first time, CODAME fully embraces its international presence by expanding its footprint in Europe. With significant events co-occurring in San Francisco and Milan, the festival underscores CODAME’s mission to bridge geographical divides and build a more interconnected world of art and technology.

Jordan Gray, Co-founder of CODAME, highlights the significance of this global reach:
“CODAME has always been about connecting people—across geographies, industries, and technologies. This year’s expansion to Milan allows us to reach even further, creating a global platform for artists and technologists. Building these international bridges can spark innovation in ways we’ve never imagined.”

Bruno Fonzi, Co-founder of CODAME, adds:
“Milan offers an incredible opportunity for CODAME to engage with new artists and technologists, expanding the reach of our platform. This cross-cultural exchange will lead to even more groundbreaking projects and collaborations.”

Since its founding in 2010, CODAME has grown into a global movement at the intersection of art and technology. This year’s festival builds on that legacy with impressive milestones:

• 35,000+ community members

• 100+ events and workshops

• 300+ artists featured

• 80+ projects spanning installations, performances, and collaborations

Join us in Milan or San Francisco.

Be part of something bigger—an event that brings the world’s most innovative minds together to redefine creativity. Whether you’re an artist, technologist, or simply curious, the CODAME ART+TECH Festival 2024 offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to connect, create, and inspire. Join us in Milan or San Francisco to help shape the future of art and technology.

For a full list of events and ticket information, visit https://www.codame.com/p/arttech-festival-2024

About CODAME
Since 2010, CODAME has been at the forefront of innovation, bridging the worlds of art and technology. With a thriving global community and a reputation for pioneering festivals, workshops, and installations, CODAME continues to push boundaries. Our mission is to inspire exploration and foster creativity, making art and technology accessible to all.

Our guiding principles are:

• Driving innovation by embracing creativity and exploration

• Sharing the value of art within the technology community

• Making technology accessible to artists around the world

For more information on how to support or get involved, 

visit https://www.codame.com/p/the-essence-of-the-next-arttech-festival

Press Contact:
Bruno Fonzi & Jordan Gray, CODAME Co-Founders
press@codame.com 

Join us at codame.com!

Social Media:

Instagram |X | LinkedIn

Community:

 Telegram | Discord | WhatsApp

CODAME is fiscally sponsored by “Gray Area Foundation,” a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, ensuring that all of its initiatives and programs align with the highest standards of community support and transparency

Where: GitHub, 88 Colin P Kelly Jr St, San Francisco, CA

When: Oct. 25–27, 2019

RSVP: Reserve your ticket now!

“We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.” — Buckminster Fuller

Space is a province of the known…and the unknown. As the film camera captured the transformation of the modern world, so, too, do emerging digital media point their lenses toward the future. Through art, as we architect space, we envision the future.

The 2019 CODAME ART+TECH Festival explores the many facets of space. How do technologies like virtual reality allow new ways of living, being, playing, and moving in space?

How might robotic prosthetics extend our bodies in space? How do radical mapping projects redefine our relationships to our world, and to each other?

In this exhibition, we aim to expand our space and transcend borders. CODAME encourages participation from international artists!

We love to hear from you, submit your project proposal now or contact us if interested volunteering or just to say hi!

Submission for 2019 ART+TECH FESTIVAL『 SPACE 』

Deadline: June 16, 2019
http://codame.com/pages/call-for-proposals

Desert X, the hot (quite literally) California biennial set to take place again in the arid Coachella Valley in February 2019, has just had an off-season and off-road surprise: the creature known as Shybot has been located in Palm Springs, near Gene Autry Trail — not exactly alive but fairly well.

In the run-up to its first edition in 2017, Desert X curator Neville Wakefield often mused about the desert as a place where people go to get lost. One participating artist, Norma Jeane, ran with this idea with from and co-created as his project a small six-wheeled desert rover engineered to evade human contact. The escape plan worked: Norma Jeane released the rover, dubbed Shybot, in Palm Springs that February, and she soon disappeared and her GPS tracking device stopped emitting. Her location was listed on the exhibition’s website as “everywhere and nowhere”. Desert X posted a $1,000 missing-bot reward but hopes dwindled — until an email came in this month.

Kyle Gomez, a 31-year old maintenance worker from nearby Cathedral City, spotted Shybot while driving his Jeep off-road. He scanned a QR code on the rover that connected him to Desert X and offered to hand over the bot, tires shredded and body a bit banged up but otherwise intact. (And yes, the organizers plan to give him the reward.)

When asked for his reaction, Wakefield sounded more philosophical than ever: “To me Shybot always represented the idea that there was something out there — the something that, whether in religion or horror, we can’t help but search for. There’s been a lot of speculation as to what happened during the past 16 months — bot-napping, pilgrimages to Mecca etc — but for the faithful she was always there, proof again that we only truly find ourselves in the places that we are least present.”

Staring at some reputed masterpieces of modern art and at some images produced by A.I. systems, many lay people prefer the latter. Many people think that the art produced by the machine is more beautiful than the art made by humans and certified by art historians, galleries and museums (not to mention wealthy collectors). Many people even confess that they feel moved by the art produced by the machine. That is, of course, until someone tells them that the art was made by a machine.

This prompts several questions

• “What is Art?” Is it Art only if it is made by humans? Can animals, rivers and machines also make Art? Who decides what is Art and what is not?

• “Who made the art?” Human beings designed and implemented the A.I. system that produced the art: who should take credit for the art?

• What is fundamentally different between an A.I. system and traditional software? We don’t think of our email system as a system that “writes” emails, but simply as a tool to write emails. At which point does software become a subject rather than an object?

• What is the difference between a conscious mind and a tool that can be as creative as the conscious mind?

• As machines become more creative, how does our relationship with them change?

Explore this questions with Piero Scaruffi, a cultural historian and a veteran of Artificial Intelligence, moderates a panel with roboticist/artist Alexander Reben, art critic Meredith Tromble, and philosopher John Campbell at this year’s CODAME ART+TECH Festival, codenamed #ARTOBOTS. June 7, Thursday, 1.30pm-2.30pm at The Midway, San Francisco.

Piero Scaruffi

Piero Scaruffi is a cultural historian who has lectured in three continents and published several books on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, the latest one being “The Nature of Consciousness” (2006). He pioneered Internet applications in the early 1980s and the use of the World-Wide Web for cultural purposes in the mid 1990s. His poetry has been awarded several national prizes in Italy and the USA. His latest book of poems and meditations is “Synthesis”(2009). As a music historian, he has published ten books, the latest ones being “A History of Rock and Dance Music” (2009) and “A History of Jazz Music” (2007). His latest book of history is “A History of Silicon Valley” (2011). The first volume of his free ebook “A Visual History of the Visual Arts” appeared in 2012. His latest book is “Intelligence is not Artificial” (2013). He has also written extensively about cinema and literature. He founded the Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) in 2008 and the Life Art Science Tech (LAST) festival in 2014. Since 2015 he has been commuting between California and China, where several of his books have been translated.

Meredith Tromble

Meredith Tromble is an artist and writer who has worked in “in-between” spaces throughout her career: mixing drawing, performance, and installation; writing about her own creative process and the work of others; and engaging crossover points between art and science. She has been artist-in-residence at the Complexity Sciences Center at the University of California, Davis (UCD), since 2011. Her ongoing collaboration with UCD geobiologist Dawn Sumner, the interactive 3-D art installation “Dream Vortex,” has been presented internationally at ISEA2015, Vancouver and Creativity & Cognition, Glasgow School of Art, 2015, and nationally at more than a dozen public lectures at American universities ranging from Stanford University in Palo Alto to Brown University in Providence. A related dance performance “The Vortex,” a collaboration with choreographer Donna Sternberg, will debut at The Odyssey in Los Angeles April 20–21, 2018. Tromble is also the co-editor, with Charissa Terranova, of “The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art & Architecture; editor of “The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson,” from University of California Press; and author of hundreds of short form writings on art including a paper for the Artnodes Journal special issue on Art & Research, Winter, 2018.

Alexander Reben

Alexander Reben is an artist and roboticist, who explores humanity through the lens of art and technology. His work deals with human-machine relationships, synthetic psychology, artificial philosophy, and robot ethics, among other topics. Using “art as experiment,” his work allows for the viewer to experience the future within metaphorical contexts. Reben’s artwork and research have been shown and published internationally, and he consults with major companies, guiding innovation for the social machine future. He has exhibited at venues including The Vitra Design Museum, The Vienna Biennale, ARS Electronica, VOLTA, The Whitney Biennial, TFI Interactive, IDFA, ArtBots, The Tribeca Film Festival, The Camden Film Festival, Doc/Fest, and The Boston Cyberarts Gallery. His work has been covered by NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, Fast Company, Filmmaker Magazine, New Scientist, BBC, PBS, Discovery Channel, Cool Hunting and WIRED, among others. He has lectured at TED, SXSW, TTI Vanguard, Google, UC Berkeley, SMFA, CCA, MIT, and other universities. Reben has built robots for NASA, and is a graduate of the MIT Media Lab, where he studied human-robot symbiosis and art. He was a 2016–2017 WIRED innovation fellow, and is the Director of Technology and Research at Stochastic Labs.

John Campbell

John Campbell is currently the Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and before that, Wilde Professor of Mental Philosophy at the University of Oxford. His main interests are in the philosophies of psychology and psychiatry, with a developing interest in social robots. He’s written three books, Past, Space and Self (1994), Reference and Consciousness (2002), and (with Quassim Cassam), Berkeley’s Puzzle (2014). He’s held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships, and was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize in 2017.

On June 30, experience the most innovative, experimental and game-based projects from top thought leaders, influencers and creators at the 3D Web Fest. Artists working with WebGL, WebAudio, Javascript, CSS, HTML5, Three.js, and VR will showcase their creations in a mind-blowing festival of bleeding-edge tech. This year’s theme is “connection”.

The third annual 3D Web Fest is a fundraiser benefiting non-profit CODAME ART+TECH whose mission is to embrace innovation through creativity, play, and collaboration between companies, artists and technologists, building immersive, engaging, out of the ordinary experiences.

Anxiety Brain

How do you describe your piece for the 3D Web Fest?

We caught up with two artists who will perform their work at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre; Eve Weinberg and Marpi.

Why are the 3D Web and WebGL exciting to you?

Eve: ‘Anxiety Brain’ is a chance to step inside the mind of an anxious artist, explore her thoughts, and silence them one-by-one. The 360 visuals and spatialize sound invite online users to explore the 3D space. The 6 looping thoughts are sung as a harmonious 6-part acapella harmony. Each thought is accompanied by custom background musical tracks and a looping animation. The entire piece is a collaboration between myself and Aaron Montoya.

Marpi: Two years in a row I launched my new projects at 3DWebFest. It’s always been a great crowd. In both cases I was able to put together vast 3D environments, with music scores made by my friends, creating full audiovisual pieces. This year I will hopefully present a complete ‘music album’. But yep, it will still be 3D 😃

Eve: The web is the easiest way to reach the most people. It’s arguably one of the more democratic entertainment platforms, barring the issues with ensuring net neutrality. As the web becomes for ubiquitous, the graphics also improve at an amazing pace. WebGL allows for better graphics to render faster, even to a mobile device.

Phones will be the #1 most used augmented reality devices, so the graphics have to be good!

Eve, you volunteered for the festival last year, and now you’re returning as an artist. What made you take the leap from volunteer to performer?

Marpi: I am of course a huge fan of 3D, WebGL, whatever gives me the depth I can ‘sculpt’ in, but I think the web aspect is the interesting part — the way we have blurred the lines between apps and web and fragmented the technology into the internet of things — we can reach anyone, everywhere, and connect them together in a virtual space. And then there’s WebVR, WebAR, and a whole range of exciting upcoming technologies, in the future we’ll be able to visit all the 3D worlds via a URL.

And this future is not that far away.

Odra

Marpi, who are you looking forward to seeing this year?

I saw the amazing work last year and had two thoughts, “I have a piece that would show well on this giant stage!’ And “Why are there no women up there?”. This year I submitted my piece and now I’m excited to share it!

I’m a big fan of Matt DesLauriers’ work, and I’m looking forward to finally showing him around California. I’ve been following Nick Sheltron diving more into his SDF shaders for a while, I’m super curious what crazy audio-visual thing he’s been working on. I’ve met Eve Weinberg couple years ago, it’s been great seeing her progress. And I’m super happy to do another show with Yağız Mungan and hopefully his 3D AI Illy.

Eve Weinberg

Eve Weinberg is an Interaction Designer II at frog design in San Francisco. She has been animating and designing for over a decade and loves telling stories with animation and interactivity. She has directed graphics for documentaries that can be seen on Netflix and acted as creative director for several startups.

Marpi

Marpi is a technical and creative developer with a background in art, technology, and live performance. He uses code for building 3D worlds, immersive experiences, and storytelling in style and difference. His work spans across digital installations, virtual reality, music visualization, projections and experiential web.

3D Web Fest [2016]

Watch the trailer, above.

Share the Facebook event and prepare to have your mind blown on June 30 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco! Get tickets and learn more at www.3dwebfest.com.

Sponsors include Autodesk, Lagunitas, Mozilla, Nespresso, and Salesforce.

— -

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on June 11, 2017, by Stephanie Wells, Marketing Manager at Autodesk

Stephanie Wells

San Francisco Mission resident Dat Phan built a whole body scanner out of a gaming computer, wheel bearing, plywood, and an Xbox Kinect. He scanned his father and then printed a little replica. I spoke with Phan about the whole adventure and what he sees in the future for technologically based art CODAME project ModBod

How did you become interested in whole body scanning?

At a previous CODAME event a group of artists from Paris called Unicorn did 3D scanning. It sounded like an interesting process. Since these guys were from France and can’t easily attend more events, I was asked to collaborate.

We emailed the French artists and got rough instructions on how to do 3D scanning ourselves Our first scanning event was a wedding for the manager at Geekdom.

I started doing research and thinking about how to do full-body scanning in an efficient way. The most basic method is holding the sensor by hand and walking around people, dragging the cords behind. I found some designs on how to build a turntable that a person could stand on. I also adapted a camera slider design to shuttle the Kinect sensor up and down. I also determined what kind of computing power was needed to drive the 3D scanning and model generation.

Is there something special about the computer or its configuration to do this scanning?

It requires a very powerful graphics card to be able to process the scan data. Most of the calculations are done on the graphics card rather than the CPU.

Typically what kind of computer could be used for scanning?

Gaming computers. The same sort of computer that works for gaming does a good job on scanning. Gaming computers are made to churn through a lot of 3D data, the same sort of 3D data that’s involved in 3D scanning.

I saw some of the scans you made at the last CODAME event in particular your dad. What other things have you scanned?

Just people. I really haven’t tried scanning anything else like objects yet. It would be cool to scan a piece of furniture, and then use the scan for 3D modeling. The scanned object could then be modified from the scanned mesh. Then the result could be 3D printed or cut out with a CNC machine.

Have you ever reversed the process? You know placing the scanning track on the turntable and scanning something like a room?

No, but that would be a good way to scan a room. That’s a cool idea I haven’t thought of that. I think it would work pretty well. You would be able to get a pretty good scan of a room. The dimensions would be pretty accurate, well, close enough. I am sure within a couple inches.

Have you formally studied computers?

I studied computer science in undergrad. I took a lot of computer graphics classes then, along with a computer gaming class. When I finished my undergraduate studies I really didn’t get a job in computers.

It wasn’t until recently that I started playing around with computer technology in order to create art. I went to Intel’s and Vice’s Creators Project festival that they had here a few years ago at Ft. Mason. That inspired me to merge computers and art; it was stuff I knew how to do and the results were novel and really profound.

What sort of things did you see that created the biggest impression?

I saw a really great interactive installation that used graphics technology to place the viewer into the art. The piece was Chris Milk’s Treachery of Sanctuary I watched visitors interact with the installation, making it come alive with their presence.

You said you did some graduate work as well. Was that in computer technology as well?

I went to graduate school in kinesiology at San Francisco State. I found that academia was not my thing.

Why were you attracted to Kinesiology?

It is the study of how the body works, sports, and exercise. I really like physical activity and interpreting the physics involved. This morning I went to the rock climbing gym and biked over here. I have always been a very physical person.

Do you think the study of Kinesiology somehow helps your view of 3d modeling?

Not directly, but it does help with how I think about art installations and how people perceive movement. It also helps me understand how people use their bodies to interact with things.

Where do you see the art in technology going?

It will be commonplace just like other forms of art. The art we are doing reflect the technology that is available. People will play with whatever technology is out there. Like the shift from acoustic sounds to more electronic instruments and sounds in music. As more electronic music equipment and software became available, music also changed.. As more technology emerges, people will discover new ways to create novel interesting stuff

Do you see electronic art going places where no previous media could go?

Yes, there are lots of different ways computer technology allows for lots of options for art , which were previously unavailable. For example, you could work on larger projects alone or in a very small team. You are not as limited by physical space. can be created virtually, remotely. Actually, this has been the case for some time now with video games and things like that.

What are the new frontiers that you see technological art approaching?

Virtual reality is a very active space. The technology for it has improved a lot in recent years, making it more friendly and feasible compared to back in the 90s when I first heard about VR. Head mounted displays and input interfaces have changed a lot. I don’t know how widespread it would be with cost, access etc, but I can imagine people creating powerfully immersive experiences in that realm. With the way VR immerses people, I bet there will be some pleasantly disturbing, jarring experiences, akin to roller coasters. In a more practical sense, I think tech art will add to our everyday experiences in more subtle ways.

How would our lives be enriched?

For example, if you are doing a workout rather than just looking at a basic LCD screen with beats per minute you could have a computer voice coach and guide you, relaying your stats in a fun, engaging way. The same info could be shown on a heads up display, such as Google glass, in an attractive animated graph.

What did your dad think when he saw the 3d print of the scan you made?

He was really amazed by it. When I gave him the 3d print of himself he was speechless. I think he was thinking of everything that happened between the scan and a recreation of him on a miniature scale. Then he wanted to know how much a 3d printer would cost.

Are other members of CODAME eager to use what you have developed?

We will be using it on a more frequent basis as the workflow is smoothed out. We did a wedding. Perhaps we will do scanning at corporate events as well.

Where do most of the CODAME members live?

Most of them live in San Francisco. Pretty much all over the city. Some also live in the east bay and along the peninsula. Bruno Fonzi and Jordan Gray started it. They were producing electronic dance after parties during programming conventions. They decided to make it a repeatable production. Later they expanded to other areas of technology, including 3d printing, fashion, video games and dancing. A lot of the events combine dancing with digital projection art. There are about 10 regularly active members of the group who help coordinate events. There are many more artists who solely contribute art.

Where is the hotbed for technical art? Is there any particular place where more is happening?

I really don’t know enough to say internationally but in the U.S. the San Francisco Bay Area seems to be the most active… Of course there is a lot going on with computer graphics on the academic side and in-house at private companies.

Support ART+TECH

Bring ModBod for your events!

The Dutch fashion tech designer Anouk Wipprecht became world famous with her bizarre robot dresses. The main themes in her work are connections between people and between people and technology. Interfacing she calls it. We talk to Anouk about the slow evolution of fashion technology.

Originally published at ideas.bright.nl by Miranda Hoogervoost

My first encounter with Anouk last summer in Berlin at the event Fashion Tech. It’s still difficult to catch her; her phone number is unreachable. Later when we were in a low-noise plastic talking bubble she admitted she threw away her phone. “It is an experiment because I am sometimes tired. When I open my phone and see two hundred unread emails I get a heart attack! We have the technology to make our lives easier, but it causes stress because it is not consistent with how we feel. It would be great if your phone knows that you are too busy for an interview and saves the incoming call for a later time. “

Hep Svedja Wipprecht and her Spider Dress

Spider Dress

Anouk Wipprecht studied fashion and interaction design and has been experimenting with technology because they wanted to give her clothes more features than warmth and comfort. “My idea of fashion has always been that clothes should be able to respond to our needs and moods. Spider Dress for example, is about fear and social issues. When people come into your personal space than the dress reacts to protect you. I find it very interesting to design from those basic human emotions.”

The Spider Dress was developed in cooperation with the Austrian hacker Daniel Schatzmayr and the first version appeared in 2012. During the Consumer Electronics Show early last year launched Anouk version 2.0. The dress has spider legs — ok, there are six instead of eight, but that’s creative freedom — and is based on a proximity principle by Edward T. Hall. The dress has 12 states or behavior: from friendly and encouraging to avoiding and aggressive. All parts are 3D printed and she uses chips from Intel, a partner she’s worked closely with for years.

Her 2012 Smoke Dress also responds to changes in personal space. Anouk made ​​the dress with Aduen Darriba, with whom she studied. Sensors trigger a mechanism that can create a smokescreen so that the wearer can “hide”. The inspiration for this dress came from how the squid protects itself.

Unfriending

In late February, Anouk was a guest at the two-day design event FITC Amsterdam. On the first day, we met her informally in the back of the room at English illustrator Mr. Bingo’s presentation. We talked about the clash between College Tour and Daan Roosegaarde and the head-above-the-ground-climate in the Netherlands. She responded diplomatically but crisply: “Here there’s a lot of stiffness you might say. If you do something good, you can just be taken down again. This really played into in my decision to go to the US — I left the Netherlands in 2009. [In America] there are interesting opportunities for me, of course. There’s not very much room for challenging projects in the Netherlands, and I think America is really forward-thinking. That’s why tomorrow I’ll announce big news.”

Our official interview was scheduled for the following day, so I had to wait for the news. While we watched more of the hilarious “Hate Mail” clip of Mr. Bingo, in came an American lady from a New York fashion tech consultancy. She was struck by Anouk and asked if she was available for a day of brainstorming in New York: “Mail me your price and quickly please because I need it to know 16:00 this afternoon.” Anouk: “Jeez, what should I ask for?” They make the deal around with an amount where I should write articles for ten Bright-and I note in Evernote: “course programming search.”

Ralf Ruehmeier Wipprecht speaking at an event in Berlin.

Anouk is world-famous in the fashion tech world. She travels the globe for lectures, exhibitions and collaborations. Additionally, she curates avant-garde events where she invites geniuses from the world of technology, design and fashion shows to collaborate with her. Yet we see her surprisingly little in the Dutch media. “They approach me often but usually without seriousness. [They just want] purely audience ratings and sensationalism — I don’t want to be a part of that. I’ve worked with Humberto Tan, because he was really interested in my research. I joined him on the RTL Late Night show in the Spider Dress. I also think that’s why I like Ivo Niehe. This area deserves a lot more respect than is currently portrayed in the Dutch media. It’s important to keep pushing fashion tech.“

Brain Scan

The next day at FITC Anouk rapidly (and energetically) presented her famous dresses. They also showed a sneak preview of her latest work for the Audi A4 Collection — her fifth dress series. “We have this dress for this series of motors, and there’s something else but I can’t remember right now” The new Audi dress will come in the second half of this year.

Also impressive is the Unicord brain scanner used in children’s neurological research (see the photo at the beginning of the article). It’s a playful place of terrifying head sets that the children now get on their head: “The children now get to wear these terrifying headsets playfully”

A New Collaboration Between the Netherlands and Silicon Valley

After the presentation we met up in the media space. We ask directly to the big news that she has forgotten to tell. Laughing: “Yes, sorry, the presentation went quite differently than we planned it. Anyways, yes, the important news! I’m in cooperation with CODAME from San Francisco to organize a large tech design event from 5–8 October at Fort Mason. The theme is INTERFACE, so it’s wider than just fashion. I also invited many designers and engineers from the Netherlands and linked to designers, engineers and Silicon Valley companies. We want to try to create the next generation wearables.”

“I want to build a bridge between Netherlands and San Francisco because I think there are many more cool ideas in the Netherlands than what we see now. I also think that the Netherlands can learn from these initiatives and hope that this event will lead to more innovative entrepreneurship between the two places.”

In the next few weeks Anouk will be working with CODAME founder Bruno Fonzi

to curate the artists and technology companies, who will then go to work in the lab on new projects. In October, all the projects created will be displayed.

The lack of collaboration between fashion companies and technology companies is currently the bottleneck in the fashion tech industry. “The tech sector really does its best to get things off the ground, but the fashion industry does not show much interest,” Anouk observes, “even though it’s clear we need good conversations around washability, power, maintaining electronics as well as designs for bandwidth and networking of the wearer.”

“There is a big communication problem. The average fashion designer finds it difficult to work with a classical engineer, because fashion is focused on tactile and visual experiences instead programming and mathematics is rather abstract matter. Not all developers are very open to the extravagant ideas of fashion designers. I often hear developers looking down at design technologies. Technology in their eyes much more value than what something looks like. While there should be a perfect balance, a symbiosis.”

The Fashion Industry Needs to be Overhauled

The biggest problem is perhaps the fear of the fashion industry to change. When fashion is ready to support the demands of fashion tech, then we’ll have the important pillars in place to allow the fashion industry to change. Like a scaffold. A dress with sensors requires interaction with the public; no static front row catwalk. “The fashion system is based on what’s hot and what’s not, and it’s always presenting new designs. The next generation of tech fashion designers will work with digital updates and upgrades. Moreover, the conventional fashion industry is highly polluting; the cotton processing alone is extremely harmful. Fashion Tech clothing is certainly not disposable fashion; it lives and changes with the carrier. You would not just discard it.”

An influential fashion institute that could generate a lot of attention to fashion tech is the Metropolitan Museum of Arts. The Met gala on May 2 in New York — sponsored by Apple — has been a major media event and is also the start of the new exhibition Manus X Machina, or “Hands Versus Machines”. There you can see the work of Iris van Herpen and Anouk has also been approached by the museum.

“They asked if they could borrow something from me for the exhibition, but I’d rather make something new in their theme. Never do something twice is my motto. It’s nice if I can do something for them, but I do wonder what it now is really tech fashion. It seems they are mainly concerned with the creative process and not the wearables, e-textiles and other technology-infused ideas. That would be unfortunate, but we’ll see.”

Whether at the gala or not, Anouk will generate a lot of international media attention for fashion tech with CODAME Labs: its participants list includes impressive names in design, fashion and other creative disciplines. The Dutch names she already has told us: Local Androids, Maartje Dijkstra, Aduen Darriba, V2 Labs and Ricardo O’Nascimento. Make sure to put the @CODAME ART+TECH Festival in your calendar this year, stay tuned for more more announcements coming up…

Main Photo: Marije Dijkema // by Marije

Originally published at ideas.bright.nl by Miranda Hoogervoost

Over the past year, San Francisco and the Bay Area have come to be defined in the national sphere by the think piece. In the constant stream of articles about gentrification, the Ellis Act evictions, artist displacement, and arts non profits closing left and right in response to the city’s rising population and booming tech industry, it might be surprising to note that a number of tech companies are investing increasingly in artist residency programs. In fact, two of the biggest tech companies in the region — Facebook and Autodesk — maintain active residency programs. For companies without the infrastructure for such endeavors, local art and technology non-profit CODAME offers to pair tech companies with artists for individual projects through their “Adopt An Artist” program. While there is a lot of conversation (and concern) in the Bay Area regarding the tech industry’s lack of support and philanthropy for the arts, the questions seem skewed towards trying to figure out how to cater to tech wealth, rather than thinking through art’s role in the tech industry itself. This text surveys corporate residency programs in the Bay Area which exemplify how artists engage with this industry, and begins to sketch out possible implications — or potential — for the art infrastructure and its relationship with tech creativity.

Autodesk’s Pier 9 Artist-in-Residence program is housed in the corporation’s immense facility in Pier 9 along the waterfront in downtown San Francisco. Artists apply for four-month residencies at the space, which provides access to their workshop, a stipend, and the ability to work directly with the company’s engineers on their projects. The program maintains a diverse pool of applicants who range from fashion designers to chefs, architects, and technologists as well as fine artists, who have access to Autodesk’s high-end equipment, materials, and software, plus training and skillshare programs. Although it is not an explicit part of the program, the focus on “makers” over “fine artists” benefits Autodesk as well. The company launched Autodesk 123D in 2009 as free 3D modeling software designed for the general consumer, and they acquired the DIY info sharing website Instructables in 2011. The AIR program began at Instructables before their purchase by Autodesk, who developed it into a much larger initiative. All AIR residents are required to post their projects to the website, so there is a direct tie into the site’s content. Envisioning how people create with their tools, or their competitor’s tools, in a variety of scenarios is clearly a valuable asset to the company, especially as the mainstream culture moves into a maker culture.

Autodesk Pier 9 Workshop.

Autodesk’s Pier 9 AIR Program Manager Vanessa Sigurdson describes the environment at Autodesk as an “office full of artists, not an office with artists” and they aim to have active interchange between the resident artists and engineers. Former resident artists Joseph DeLappe and Adrien Segal felt that the environment was very supportive and encouraging for visiting artists, with an “anything goes” atmosphere. DeLappe created rubber stamps for In Drones We Trust, while Segal used water consumption statistics to build a canyon-like bench. Both mentioned that the workshop helped to foster the company’s culture of bustling, creative energy. Sigurdson referenced the Xerox PARC artist-in-residence (PAIR) program as an important inspiration for the residency, a project that similarly brought artists and technologists together in collaboration.

Like Autodesk’s Pier 9 AIR Program, Facebook’s artist-in-residence program is a recent and growing initiative. Originally launched by Drew Bennett for their Menlo Park campus almost three years ago, their AIR program grew out of the Analog Research Lab, a printmaking studio within Facebook’s Graphic Design department. The posters created in the Analog Research Lab by Facebook employees, the Graphic Design department, and AIR residents can be found strewn all over the walls of Facebook’s immense campus. Some posters are art projects initiated by residents or staff graphic designers, others promote events (like Gay Pride) or display slogans. The posters yield a colorful, collegiate, cafe vibe to Facebook’s many corridors.

Jeff Canham installation at Facebook headquarters. (Photo: Drew Bennett).

Alongside the posters, one of the primary outcomes from the Facebook AIR are site-specific installations, which pop up throughout the facility. Adrien Segal was a resident at Facebook directly after her time at Autodesk, and she noted that the Facebook program was much smaller in scope, with only two artists in the residency at any given time. Like Autodesk, artists are given free reign on their projects, and can decide the locations and space for their work. Bennett and his team then help the artist with fabrication and production, much of which does occur onsite at the Analog Research Lab’s shop. The projects range widely, from floral graffiti murals by Jet Martinez to delicate hanging paper sculptures by Val Britton. Residents are required to do a social event for Facebook employees related to their project, whether it be an artist’s talk, workshop, or skillshare.

Given that the residency program grew out of the Graphic Design department and the Analog Research Lab, it’s no surprise that much of the work by Facebook resident artists is graphic in nature, for example in the cases of Jeff Canham, Tucker Nichols, and Jane Kim. There’s also a heavy regional focus, with a vast number of artists coming from the Bay Area. When asked what he seeks in the artists he selects for the residency, Bennett said he brought in artists that “help to reinforce our values…whose work is in dialogue with the high level ideas of the company…The message, the story being told through this art is all about the utility of art as a creative force and an inspirational force. It doesn’t need to be framed or pedestaled, it’s uninhibited inspiration and curiosity- which can run up a stairwell or around a lightwell or spill out onto the floor — it could happen anywhere.”

Jane Kim Installation at Facebook headquarters. (Photo Credits: Kelly Hsiao + Richard Morgenstein).

The five year old non-profit arts organization CODAME is better known for their art and technology events in San Francisco, which in the past have featured live music, presentations, interactive installations, and hack-a-thons. More recently, they launched an “Adopt an Artist” program that pairs artists with tech companies, who support specific projects, residencies, performances and talks. CODAME functions as an intermediary, helping to solicit companies in support of artists within their roster. Rackspace, Organic, Shopify, Geekdom and Box are a few of the companies who have participated in the “Adopt an Artist” program. The collaborative coworking space Geekdom is currently hosting the artist ANI in residence, who is building out her iPad instrument sBASSdrum and developing an iOS app for CODAME. When I spoke with ANI, she said she was initially drawn to the “organic atmosphere” and “inspirational, experiential art” found at CODAME’s events.

I attended CODAME’s “Art + Tech: Virtual Reality” at Mozilla and it felt like a networking event for creative technologists — part trade show, part rave. The presentations by Eddie Lee on his game Collider (which he described as “DMT for Oculus Rift”) and John Carpenter, a UX designer at Mozilla building an Oculus Rift-enabled web browser called mozVR, were a reminder of the truly wild things being developed in the Bay Area. CODAME professes to “embrace innovation through creativity, play, and collaboration between artists and technologists” — a statement that resonated with the motivation behind the other two residencies, who also cite innovation, creativity, and play as primary drivers. The Xerox Parc PAIR program came up in many of my conversations as a cultural touchstone indicative of the values and goals of these residency programs. Resonant with the unfettered utopianism of the Californian Ideology, Xerox Parc brought artists, scientists and technologists together in order to ferment a cross-disciplinary “knowledge ecology” and create “new ways of looking at the world.”

Reflecting on this new generation of artist-in-residence programs at technology corporations, I wonder, what happens when art becomes just a vehicle for innovation? Is there room in these artist-in-residence programs for artists to act as critical voices?

To think about the impetus behind these corporate artist-in-residence programs, it’s worthwhile to compare them with corporate private art collections. For better or for worse, the finance industry is a major pillar of support for the art system, and it has helped shape it. As an example, UBS, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America all possess major art collections. In the most basic terms possible, the bottom line for finance is investment, assets which accrue value over time. For the tech industry, the bottom line is in solutions—tools and services for people to use. This requires investing in design, which demands process. If the art object on display in the corporate lobby is a symbol of accumulated wealth and financial stability, the artist-in-residence studio or workshop in the tech company becomes a showroom of ingenuity and creativity. (Think of the silkscreened and letterpressed posters across Facebook’s campus, or the steady stream of tours through Autodesk’s workshop to their clients, colleagues, etc.) The process, not the object, is placed on view.

Analog research lab at Facebook headquarters. (Photo: Drew Bennett.)

Over the past year, anxieties have been expressed about design and popular culture’s appropriation of contemporary art. I think of Hal Foster’s worrisome declaration about the establishment of “total design” collapsing the aesthetic and utilitarian realms as much as Ed Halter and Lauren Cornell’s Mass Effect conversation about popular culture’s absorption of contemporary art. If tech is the Bay Area’s main industry and export, with its emphasis on making, creating, and, above all, innovative design, then how can (or should) that translate into the art infrastructure here, and elsewhere? As Mat Dryhurst and Brian Rogers put it in their Re-Engineering interviews for Art Practical, the Bay Area has a rich, radical history in both art and technology, offering “a perfect place to stage a new paradigm of collaboration and antagonism between arts and tech.” I fully agree. It seems there’s a real opportunity to nurture art that can work in and against technology, in and against design, beginning with the imperfect corporate residency frameworks described. There should be more models, platforms and mutations for this kind of work.