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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. 
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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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Related
In a world where the future of seemingly everything is online, museums — those repositories of the past — seem to resist the internet’s full digital embrace. It’s a question that’s increasingly crossed my mind thanks to a series of unrelated stories that share two common questions — how do people use museums now and how will they in the future? For every digital breakthrough enticing us to step on the virtual gas comes a cautionary tale reminding us to pump those virtual brakes. Ultimately, the online revolution is coming to museums, but is the future of museums really online?

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