Rashaad Newsome

Seven Artists, Seven Technologists, 24 Hours
05/20 | Nozlee Samadzadeh

This past Saturday, digital arts champion and non-profit Rhizome held its second annual Seven on Seven conference at the New Museum. The premise is simple: seven artists and seven “technologists” – their term – pair up, and each team brainstorms, builds, and ships a project within 24 hours. High-profile artists Ryan Trecartin and Tauba Auerbach were involved in the inaugural Seven on Seven, and notably, this year the newly rebranded AOL was a major sponsor, an affirming move for the scrappy but well-recognized Rhizome that enabled participants to fold Microsoft Kinect gaming systems and Apple iPads into their work. (The event’s official hashtag was #AOL7on7; ironically, the basement auditorium in which the presentations were held had zero phone reception.) What transpired was a day full of surprising clashes and harmonies between the art and tech worlds.