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Culture & Religion —

Art + Technology = The Future

A conference that recently brought artists and technologists together glimpsed at the future which, among other things, consists of 3-D printing and online graffiti. 

What’s the Latest Development?

Inspired by a 1966 event called “9 Evening: Theatre & Engineering” which paired artists and scientists to create duo performances, the Manhattan-based “Seven on Seven” conference recently supported the collaboration of technophiles and artists to create something in just 24 hours. The results? Three websites, one app, one musical instrument, a deck of cards and a multimedia art piece. One pair’s idea was to project the faces of loved ones onto physical models created using a 3-D printer. Another project created a website that allows users to anonymously create ephemeral comments and images on other websites.

What’s the Big Idea?

The results of the latest “Seven on Seven” conference suggest that the influence of design in our daily lives will continue to grow. Lauren Cornell, Curator of the New Museum, says that art and technology are a field in which “some of the most influential and important ideas happen.” Ms. Conell was responsible for selecting the field of artists and technologists who would collaborate with each other. “I chose people who I thought were really generous and collaborative. People who could participate and succeed in a framework like this, which really entails being open and supportive of another person’s ideas,” she said. 

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Guest Thinkers
Happy New Year
It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth). Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay. Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.
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