State Of The Art

Latest Episodes:

E50: The State of The State of the Art Sep 06, 2018

Show notes

It's a 50th Episode Celebration!

Listen in while host Andrew Herman chats with former host and founder of the the State of the Art, Ethan Appleby about the future of the podcast. You'll hear an update on the vision of the podcast, some of the new rebranding of State of the Art, and what Ethan and Andrew have been up to in their personal lives, too!

Cover art by Graydon Speace

A look back with Former Host & Founder Ethan Appleby Sep 03, 2018

Show notes

A look back with former host & founder Ethan Appleby featuring the sound bites from 2017, his thoughts on 2017 art trends and his predictions for 2018. Was he spot on?

The Art of Shared Ownership: Francesco Bellanca, CEO & Co-Founder of Feral Horses Aug 23, 2018

Show notes

Feral Horses is a relatively new online platform which, in 2017, launched a radical approach to democratizing art ownership. In response to the high cost of contemporary "fine art" and the subsequent alienation of potential collectors and patrons, Feral Horses proposes communal ownership of single artworks, essentially allowing users to purchase portions of the pieces they love for a fraction of the whole's price. In this episode we speak with Francesco Bellanca, CEO & Co-Founder of Feral Horses, about how the platform works, how it benefits artists and patrons, how Feral's wild team distinguishes between the democratization of ownership versus investment and, ultimately, if such a distinction should matter.

-About Francesco Bellanca-

Francesco Bellanca is the CEO and co-founder of the art and tech startup Feral Horses, he has a background in Data Science, holding an MA from King’s College on Big Data in culture and society, and project management. He is part of the new generation of art entrepreneurs and is an enthusiastic defender of transparency and inclusion in the art market. His vision is to heal the broken interaction between people and art and he is building a platform that uses art co-ownership as a tool to do so.

-About Feral Horses-

Feral Horses is an online trading platform enabling users to acquire and sell shares of artworks for investment purposes. Feral Horses aims at providing a very comprehensive service that brings both liquidity and transparency and facilitates access to the benefits of art in a responsible and sustainable way. The brand has three diverse targets: art enthusiasts, professional traders, and curious achievers. The company operates within the contemporary art investment field, which is overly elitist and underdeveloped. Therefore, the naming had to express the business vision of freeing art investment. The outcome of this reflection is "Feral Horses".

Learn more about Feral Horses here

Tweet them @FeralHorses

Follow them @FeralHorses

The Art of Collecting Memories: Gabriel Barcia-Colombo, Artist Aug 16, 2018

Show notes

We were introduced to the fascinating work of Gabriel Barcia-Colombo when we stumbled across his TedTalk "Capturing memories in video art" in which Gabe discussed his memorialization of friends via virtual and cellular means. His piece, Animalia Chordata, reads like a cabinet of curiosity displaying people trapped in glass jars, individuals who seemingly respond to one's presence; others are a little less humorous and a tad unsettling, like his DNA Vending machine which grants patrons the opportunity to purchase actual DNA samples. In all of his projects, Gabe explores and plays with capturing memories, the role of technology in society, the virtual and physical identities we create across platforms, and so much more.

In this episode, we speak with Gabe about his mixed-media, interactive work, his personal trajectory from cinema to digital art, his projects with Soethby', the reception and role of tech art in the art world, and the future of art and ownership.

-About Gabriel Barcia-Colombo-

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo is a mixed media artist whose work focuses on collections, memorialization and the act of leaving one's digital imprint for the next generation. His work takes the form of video sculptures, immersive performances, large scale projections and vending machines that sell human DNA. His work plays upon this modern exigency in our culture to chronicle, preserve and wax nostalgic, an idea which Barcia-Colombo renders visually by “collecting” human portraits on video.

Gabriel was commissioned to be the first digital artist to show work at the New Fulton Terminal Stop with the MTA Arts & Design program in New York City. His work has been featured in the Volta, Scope, and Art Mrkt art fairs, Victoria & Albert Museum as well as Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library. He recently received an Art and Technology grant from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where he created "The Hereafter Institute," a company that questions the future of death rituals and memorials and their relationship to technology. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Gabriel served as a member of the artist advisory board at the New York Foundation for the Arts, as well as the education committee member at the Museum of Art and Design. In 2012 Gabriel gave a TED talk entitled "Capturing Memories in Video Art," and in 2014 he gave another entitled "My DNA Vending Machine" and was awarded a Senior TED fellowship.

In 2016 Gabe founded Bunker.nyc a pop up gallery showcasing emerging art made with technology. Bunker became the first pop up digital art gallery to open in the Sotheby's Auction House in New York Summer 2017. Gabe is a New York Foundation for the Arts grant awardee and faculty member at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

You can learn more about Gabriel Barcia-Colombo here

Follow Gabe @gabebc

Tweet him @gabebc

Cover art by Graydon Speace

The Art of Collaborative Experimentation: Joel Ferree, Art + Technology Lab Program Director at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Aug 09, 2018

Show notes

From 1967 to 1971, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) ran a revolutionary program which facilitated the partnering of emerging artists with tech and science companies of the time. Among the roster of artists who participated in the first iteration of LACMA's Art + Tech program are Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and James Turrell. Today, LACMA's Art + Tech Lab (est. in 2013) continues this spirit of cross-disciplinary collaboration, funding artist-led projects that wouldn't be achievable without the financial and advisory support offered through the Lab. In this episode, we speak with Joel Ferree, Art + Technology Lab Program Director, about the history of the Lab, the various projects and partnerships that have are offered, and LACMA's commitment to providing the time, space and resources to make possible these creative projects.

-About LACMA's Art + Tech Lab-

Inspired by the spirit of LACMA's original Art and Technology program (1967-1971), which paired artists with technology companies in Southern California, the Art + Technology Lab at LACMA supports artist experiments with emerging technology. Through our sponsors, the Lab provides grants, in-kind support, and facilities at the museum to develop new artist projects. To date, 20 artists from around the world, including Ghana, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland, have received awards through the Art + Technology Lab.

Learn more about the Art + Tech Lab here

Cover art by Graydon Speace

The Art of Fashion Innovation: Matthew Drinkwater, Head of Fashion Innovation Agency (FIA) at London College of Fashion Aug 02, 2018

Show notes

Often times when we think of the convergence of fashion and tech, our minds go to fashionable wears and accessories that compliment or facilitate our mobile technology; in other words, wearable tech. But the Fashion Innovation Agency (FIA) at London College of Fashion asks student designers to think beyond how tech can be fashionable, and ask how tech can revolutionize and further empower how we experience the world of fashion.

In this episode, we speak with Matthew Drinkwater, head of FIA, about the diverse projects he and his students are pursuing, from using augmented and virtual reality to offer new ways of experiencing the runway, to how tech can facilitate the consumer experience.

-About Matthew Drinkwater-

Head of Fashion Innovation Agency (FIA) at London College of Fashion (LCF)

Matthew works at the crossroads of Fashion, Retail and Tech to head up LCF’s Fashion Innovation Agency; Partnering the most exciting designer talent in London with the very latest fashion-tech to create ground-breaking brand collaborations and consultancies across the fashion, retail, lifestyle, cultural and digital industries.

Matthew delivered the world’s first digital skirt for Nokia, wireless charging clothing for Microsoft, a 3D-printed bionic arm to help celebrate the launch of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and what Forbes described as ‘the first example of truly beautiful wearable tech’ for Disney. He was named in the 100 most influential in the world of Wearable Technology, amongst the ‘Top 15 people in UK tech’ by BBC3 and as a ‘fashion-tech trailblazer changing the course of retail’ by Drapers.

Tweet him @drinkmatt

-About the Fashion Innovation Agency-

The Fashion Innovation Agency (FIA) are experts in working with emerging technologies to help designers and brands change the way they make, sell or show their collections. FIA has delivered ground-breaking and award winning projects in wearable technology, AR/VR and Blockchain, and is currently working on major developments within Nanotechnology, IoT and Robotics.

Learn more here

Cover art by Graydon Speace

The Art of Disruptive Innovation: Domhnaill Hernon, Head of Experiments in Arts and Technology (E.A.T.) at Nokia Bell Labs Jul 26, 2018

Show notes

Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) connects artists and engineers to create innovative solutions for humanity's challenges. Together, artists and technologists at E.A.T. actualize projects that truly seem like science-fiction, often exploring human communication, including empathy and emotion transfer, and always aiming to break beyond the limitations of today’s technology. In this episode, we speak with Domhnaill Hernon, Head of E.A.T. at Nokia Bell Labs about Bell Labs legacy of innovation, the current projects under production, and the program's dedication to expand the role of the artist in contemporary society.

-About Domhnaill Hernon-

Domhnaill Hernon is Head of Experiments in Arts and Technology (E.A.T.) at Nokia Bell Labs. He graduated with a B.Eng in Aeronautical Engineering, a Ph.D in fundamental fluid mechanics from the University of Limerick and an Executive M.B.A. from Dublin City University, Ireland. He is passionate about turning research/ideas into reality and exploring the bounds of creativity to push the limits of technology. Domhnaill was previously responsible for turning Bell Labs disruptive research assets into proto-solutions that could be tested at scale in the market, and he established new methods to overcome the “Innovation Valley of Death”. He is currently responsible for Bell Labs global activities in E.A.T. where he collaborates with the artistic and creative community to push the limits of technology to solve the greatest human need challenges.

Learn more about Domhnaill here

Follow him @hernon.domhnaill

Tweet him @DHernonBellLabs

-About Nokia Bell Labs-

Nokia Bell Labs is a global collective of the world's brightest minds, creating the network of the future. Bell Labs has a legacy of developing game-changing technology with eight Nobel Prizes in physics and many other scientific accolades. Today, Bell Labs researchers are focused on new ways of compressing and sharing data while developing disruptive innovations for the next phase of human existence.

Learn more about Nokia Bell Labs here

Follow them @BellLabsNokia

Tweet them @BellLabs

-About Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T)-

Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T) program was founded in 1967 by Bell Labs engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer, and artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman and was a seminal event in the fusion of art and technology. E.A.T launched with the bringing together of ten New York artists with 30 engineers and scientists from the company. The project? To create collaborative performances that incorporated aspects of art and new technology.

Today, Nokia Bell Labs E.A.T continues to connect artists and engineers to build-out innovative solutions exploring human communication, including empathy and emotion transfer, and to push beyond the limitations of today’s technology. Nokia Bell Labs E.A.T’s projects expand the role of the artist in contemporary society by bringing them directly into the fold within a large technology company.

Learn more here

The Art of Aesthetic Judgments: Dorothee Chabas, Neuroesthetician Jul 19, 2018

Show notes

In this episode we speak with artist and medical professional, Dorothee Chabas, about her work as a neuroesthetician. With 25 years of medical experience under her belt, Dorothee uses neuroscience to explore and understand aesthetic experiences at the brain level. Why do certain colors attract us? What is it about art that moves us? What is going on when artists create artworks and how do viewers process them? These are the questions Dorothee's work as a neuroesthetician aims to answer and learn more about.

-About Dorothee Chabas-

Dorothee is a French-American painter and MD PhD (neurologist) based out of San Francisco. She shares her time between painting and neuroesthetics.

Dorothee has been drawing all her life. She practiced live model painting more formally in the nineties at the Ateliers des Beaux Arts de la Mairie de Paris, France, and then at the Sharon Art Studio, San Francisco, CA. More recently, she spent three years painting and drawing full time at the San Francisco Studio School.

Dorothee has practiced Neurology for many years, first in Paris, then at the University of California, San Francisco, where she co-founded the Regional Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center. Her research work on multiple sclerosis performed at Stanford University and UCSF has been internationally recognized.

Learn more here

The Art of Cultural Strategy: András Szántó Jul 12, 2018

Show notes

András Szántó's consulting foundation assists with all aspects of building museums, cultural organizations, commercial brands, foundations, and educational institutions worldwide, at any point of their conception. From launching concepts from the ground up, to implementing new programming and marketing initiatives, Szántó's expertise in the industry has enabled several projects across the world with collaborators such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Absolut, Art Basel, BMW, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

In this episode, we discuss Szántó's background in sociology which allowed him to closely study the dynamics of the art world in the 1980s, his mentorship under art critic and philosopher, Arthur Danto--who famously coined the term "art world"--and his perspective on demystifying the arts.

-About András Szántó-

András Szántó, Ph.D. is writer, researcher, and consultant in the fields of art, media, and philanthropy. He is the former director of the National Arts Journalism Program and the NEA Arts Journalism Institute at Columbia University, a regular moderator of the Art Basel Conversations series, and oversees the annual Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Learn more about András Szántó here

Follow him @andrasszanto

ARTOBOTS: CODAME'S Art + Tech Festival @ The Midway SF • Part 2 Jul 06, 2018

Show notes

We continue our discussion with speakers from CODAME's Art + Tech Festival, ARTOBOTS, held at The Midway in June. Part 2 features one-on-one, on-site conversations with robotics professor Amy LaViers, technologist and performer, Catie Cuan, and NPR correspondent, Laura Sydell.

In this episode, collaborators Amy LaViers and Catie Cuan from the Robotics, Automation, Dance (RAD) Lab at the University of Illinois discuss their research on incorporating natural movement into robots, how dance plays a role in this study, and their performance piece, Time to Compile. We conclude the episode with an amazing conversation with NPR Digital Culture correspondent, Laura Sydell, who shares insight on how and why artists and criminals will shape the future of technology.

Thank you CODAME for inviting us to cover this awesome event, and a special shoutout to Vanessa Chang, CODAME curator, for personally extending the invitation to us. You can listen to our interview with Vanessa Chang here.

-About Amy LaViers-

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering — University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Amy develops high-level abstractions for expressive robotic systems and study human-machine interaction. She lead two interdisciplinary teams toward this end: her research group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Robotics, Automation, and Dance (RAD) Lab, and her start up, AE Machines. Amy is also passionate about teaching engineers to write and roboticists to dance and about bringing artists into the design of technology. This work applies to manufacturing, national defense, personal robots, entertainment, engineering education, somatic practices, and art -- to name a few!

Tweet her @alaviers

Learn more about Amy here

-About Catie Cuan-

Catie Cuan is an artist and technologist based out of Brooklyn. As a performer she has worked with the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lisa Bielawa/KCET, Katherine Helen Fisher, Clare Cook, NY Fashion Week, and CATAPULT Entertainment, as well as Broadway choreographer Peggy Hickey. Her own choreography has been presented at venues and festivals such as the Actors Fund Arts Center, DanceNOW Raw, the Brooklyn Dance Festival, Zellerbach (Berkeley), NY Theater Barn, New York Musical Festival, and The Tank, where she won the inaugural XYZNYC Choreography Competition. Her passion for technology is evidenced by her previous work experience at Google/YouTube and Bain & Company before joining Color + Information, a digital creative agency, as Vice President. She is currently a digital consultant and avid VR researcher. She graduated with High Honors from UC Berkeley with a dual degree in Business Administration and Dance and was a visiting student at the University of Oxford, New College.

Catie Cuan is also a 2018 TED Resident and ThoughtWorks Arts Resident.

Learn more about Catie here

Follow Catie @itscatie

-About Laura Sydell-

Laura Sydell fell in love with the intimate storytelling qualities of radio, which combined her passion for theatre and writing with her addiction to news. Over her career she has covered politics, arts, media, religion, and entrepreneurship. Currently Sydell is the Digital Culture Correspondent for NPR's All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and NPR.org.

Sydell's work focuses on the ways in which technology is transforming our culture and how we live. For example, she reported on robotic orchestras and independent musicians who find the Internet is a better friend than a record label as well as ways technology is changing human relationships.

Tweet her @Sydell

Learn more about her interest in artists & criminals here

-About CODAME-

Sparked by the network of creative coders, designers, and artists that Bruno Fonzi and Jordan Gray knew from around the world, CODAME was founded to celebrate their passion for art and technology. The CODAME brand of immersive, engaging, and out of the ordinary experiences was coined at the inaugural CODAME ART+TECH Festival in 2010 on a foggy rooftop in downtown San Francisco. CODAME builds ART+TECH projects and nonprofit events to inspire through experience.

Follow them @codame

Tweet them @codame

Learn more here

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