Recommended to us by former SOTA guest, Carla Gannis, SOTA is very excited to speak with conceptual artist, Rachel Ara, about her immersive installation, Transubstantiation of Knowledge. The holographic, mixed-reality journey, Transubstantiation of Knowledge, opened at the Victoria & Albert Museum in September 2018 installed in the V&A’s Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. The piece takes the form of an audio guide and uses a Hololens allowing visitors to interact with and hear the stories of Franciscan nuns occupying the galleries. The piece is an example of Rachel's art-making approach which selects the medium and material based on the message she wishes to convey. In this episode, Rachel explains her use of tech in Transubstantiation of Knowledge, the inspiration behind the work as well as another piece, This Much I'm Worth, her dedicated trajectory into the art world, and her thoughts on the accessibility of the arts and what it is to be an artist.

-About Rachel Ara-

​Conceptual and Data artist Rachel Ara graduated with a Fine Art BA from Goldsmiths College where she won the prestigious Burston award. In 2016 she won the International Aesthetica Art Prize for This Much I’m Worth [the self-evaluating artwork]. Pulling on her experiences as a computer system designer, the digital sculpture draws on data and complex algorithms to calculate its own value in real time.

Her work is nonconformist with a socio-political edge that often incorporates humour and irony with feminist & queer concerns. 

Rachel is a Near Now Fellow, awarded to pioneering artists working in technology. She is also artist in residence at the V&A in London.

Learn more here

Tweet her @rachelara

Follow her @rachelara

-About Transubstantiation of Knowledge-

Informed by her research into the museum’s systems and data, Ara is creating a site specific mixed reality work investigating systems of knowledge and power by interweaving stories from Franciscan nuns, computer code and contemporary technologies. ​

Within the chapel the installation takes the form of an audio guide with a hololens. Using the Hololens the viewer will be able to see and interact with holographic nuns in the chapel. Behind the church are cases with "false" objects mixed into the real V&A collections that substantiate the story and add more intrigue. In the whispering galleries is a soundscape formed out of the voices of the women at the V&A which interact with a giant chestnut and fibre optic loom behind the Eucharist.

-About This Much I'm Worth-

This much I’m worth [The self-evaluating Artwork] is a digital art piece that continually displays its sale value through a series of complex algorithms called "the endorsers". It is constructed with materials that have a history loaded with association. Implicated in the history of neon is its use in the sex trade, its cultural significance today is more commonly a trope of contemporary art. It is both a functional object and spectacle seeking to question values, worth and algorithmic bias.​

Recommended to us by former SOTA guest, Carla Gannis, SOTA is very excited to speak with conceptual artist, Rachel Ara, about her immersive installation, Transubstantiation of Knowledge. The holographic, mixed-reality journey, Transubstantiation of Knowledge, opened at the Victoria & Albert Museum in September 2018 installed in the V&A’s Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. The piece takes the form of an audio guide and uses a Hololens allowing visitors to interact with and hear the stories of Franciscan nuns occupying the galleries. The piece is an example of Rachel's art-making approach which selects the medium and material based on the message she wishes to convey. In this episode, Rachel explains her use of tech in Transubstantiation of Knowledge, the inspiration behind the work as well as another piece, This Much I'm Worth, her dedicated trajectory into the art world, and her thoughts on the accessibility of the arts and what it is to be an artist.

-About Rachel Ara-

​Conceptual and Data artist Rachel Ara graduated with a Fine Art BA from Goldsmiths College where she won the prestigious Burston award. In 2016 she won the International Aesthetica Art Prize for This Much I’m Worth [the self-evaluating artwork]. Pulling on her experiences as a computer system designer, the digital sculpture draws on data and complex algorithms to calculate its own value in real time.

Her work is nonconformist with a socio-political edge that often incorporates humour and irony with feminist & queer concerns. 

Rachel is a Near Now Fellow, awarded to pioneering artists working in technology. She is also artist in residence at the V&A in London.

Learn more here

Tweet her @rachelara

Follow her @rachelara

-About Transubstantiation of Knowledge-

Informed by her research into the museum’s systems and data, Ara is creating a site specific mixed reality work investigating systems of knowledge and power by interweaving stories from Franciscan nuns, computer code and contemporary technologies. ​

Within the chapel the installation takes the form of an audio guide with a hololens. Using the Hololens the viewer will be able to see and interact with holographic nuns in the chapel. Behind the church are cases with "false" objects mixed into the real V&A collections that substantiate the story and add more intrigue. In the whispering galleries is a soundscape formed out of the voices of the women at the V&A which interact with a giant chestnut and fibre optic loom behind the Eucharist.

-About This Much I'm Worth-

This much I’m worth [The self-evaluating Artwork] is a digital art piece that continually displays its sale value through a series of complex algorithms called "the endorsers". It is constructed with materials that have a history loaded with association. Implicated in the history of neon is its use in the sex trade, its cultural significance today is more commonly a trope of contemporary art. It is both a functional object and spectacle seeking to question values, worth and algorithmic bias.​

Paul Golding's extensive technical expertise coupled with his philosophical, problem-solving approach has enabled him to work on a variety of projects, with companies like Motorola, O2 UK, Acision, McLaren Applied Technologies, Navteq, Telefonica, Art.com Inc and Prosper Inc. A visionary with the know-how, skills, and respect to pickup any project, we ask Paul how he became interested in the arts. In this episode, Paul discusses his work in understanding and deconstructing people's aesthetic tastes, the challenges of selling art using e-commerce, and his take on the " “I’ll know it when I see it” approach many buyers take when selecting art for their space.

-About Paul Golding-

As a silicon-chip designer for Motorola, Paul invented (and patented) an AI computing technique that has been used in trillions of cellular calls. He was also a mobile software pioneer, building the world’s first wireless email system and writing several books about apps. His pioneering contribution to mobile led to the rare award of an unsponsored "genius" visa to work in Silicon Valley.

Paul’s recent work involves leading the AI and blockchain R&D efforts for a leading fintech company in San Francisco and previously the design of AI techniques to model human perception of art (to boost art sales). He also built an AI platform for visual collaboration. He has created numerous innovation labs in Europe and Silicon Valley. He is also an IEE prize winner.

Learn more about Paul here

Tweet him @pgolding

As 2018 draws to a close, the team at State of the Art is experimenting with broadening the scope of the podcast to include all aspects of the ever-evolving “art state.” Although our primary interest remains technologically inclined, we are dabbling in opening up our discussions to include elements and viewpoints on the art world beyond the niche of tech to address current events and trends. This new approach is something we plan to seriously pursue and develop in 2019.

To kick us off, we speak with Jon Burgerman, UK artist widely recognized as a professional “doodler” and considered the leading figure in the now popular Doodle art style. In this episode, Jon discusses how doodling became his signature style, what doodling is, why it seems to have resonated with so many, his use of social media as a creative tool to expand his practice, and his thoughts on the commercial versus the fine art world.

-About Jon Burgerman-

Jon Burgerman is a UK born, NYC based artist instigating improvisation and play through drawing and spectacle. He is a purveyor of doodles and is often credited and referenced as the leading figure in the popular 'Doodle' art style.

His work is placed between fine art, urban art and pop-culture, using humor to reference and question his contemporary milieu. His is a pervasive and instantly recognizable aesthetic that exists across a multitude of forms including canvases, large scale murals (indoor and outside), sculpture, toys, apparel, design, print and people (as tattoos and temporary drawings).

Burgerman studied Fine Art at The Nottingham Trent University, graduating in 2001 with First Class Honours.

Read more about Jon here

Follow him @JonBurgerman

Tweet him @JonBurgerman

This episode is near and dear to our hearts at State of the Art as we speak with Dorka Keehn, San Francisco Arts Commissioner who chairs the city's Visual Arts Committee in charge of the city's public art scene. An artist in her own right, and a serious mover and shaker in the community, Dorka explains how the arts is an economic driver in SF, what the city is doing to help artists stay in the city, and how the committee makes decisions about the projects they commission to elevate San Francisco's streets and neighborhoods.

-About Dorka Keehn-

Dorka Keehn is a major force for art in the public realm in the Bay Area. She is the Principal of Keehn On Art, an art consulting firm that specializes in working with city planners, developers and architects on their public art requirements. Projects include Salesforce Tower and the Golden State Warriors Arena. As a San Francisco Arts Commissioner, Dorka chairs the Visual Arts Committee that commission’s all of the city’s public artwork. Additionally, she is the co-founder of Sites Unseen, a project that is bringing arts programming to neglected alleys in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena neighborhood. Dorka also led the fundraising effort for The Bay Lights, the $12M 25,000 LED light installation by artist Leo Villareal for the Bay Bridge.

In this throwback episode, former host, Ethan Appleby, speaks with Travis Uhrig about co-founding Curio Cards, a platform for purchasing, collecting and trading cryptoart. Travis explains the concept behind Curio Cards and the growing medium of cryptoart, how it's beneficial to artists, and why buyers are interested in collecting these digital art pieces.

-About Travis Uhrig-

Travis Uhrig is the lead organizer for the San Francisco Bitcoin Social meetup group, the second largest bitcoin meetup group in the world and the longest-running one to date. He is the co-founder of Curio Cards, a platform for digital trading cards on the Ethereum blockchain.

Follow Travis @travisformayor

In our time exploring the intersection of art and tech on State of the Art podcast, we've spoken with a number of contemporary artists, curators, researchers and innovators incorporating new media in their practice. In this episode, we continue that exploration but take a step back with Joel Slayton, artist, curator, and educator, who has been in the scene since the 70s. Slayton's involvement in the world of art and tech for the past 40 years brings a unique point of view to SOTA, with insight into how tech as a creative medium has evolved over time and continues to do so. In this episode, we discuss what art and tech looked like in the 70s and its progression into the 21st century, Slayton's involvement in spearheading a variety of projects and programs, including Computers in Art, Design, Research, and Education at San Jose State University, and ZERO1, an art and tech network based out of Silicon Valley, and his thoughts on the art state today.

-About Joel Slayton-

Joel Slayton is a pioneering artist, researcher, and curator with over 35 years of experience involving art and technology. His work engages a wide range of practice including media, installation and performance and has been featured in over 100 exhibitions around the world. From 2008-2016 Joel was Executive Director of ZERO1, a Silicon Valley based arts organization where he was responsible for emerging the ZERO1 Biennial, an international exhibition program celebrating creativity and innovation in the arts. Joel is Professor Emeritus at San Jose State University where he was Founding Director of the CADRE Laboratory for New Media. He is currently is a collaborator at the Peace Innovation Lab at Stanford University where he is establishing a new artists fellowship program. Joel will be curating the 5th L.A.S.T, Exhibition (Life, Art, Science, and Technology) in 2018 hosted by SLAC National Accelerator at Stanford University. Joel Slayton serves on the Board of Directors of LEONARDO/ISAST (International Society for Arts, Science, and Technology) where he was Editor-In-Chief for the Leonardo-MIT Press Book Series from 1999-2005. He served as Academic Chair for the 2006 International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA) hosted by ZERO1. Joel Slayton is a Senior Fellow of the Silicon Valley American Leadership Forum.

Learn more about Joel here

In an age of rapidly evolving tech facilitating a number of things from daily tasks, to communication and research, some subjects trail behind, notably, art history. Replica aims to facilitate art historical research by using machine learning and modern image searching algorithms to help art historians navigate large iconographic collections. In short, Replica aims to go beyond the limitations of search terms and keywords and use images to enable researchers to identify visual information which may not been indexed--textual queries cannot, for example, show results for similar shapes, forms, or motifs. Replica could assist researchers in identifying visual links, pin-pointing when a specific type of iconography emerged and how it has evolved over time.

In this episode, we speak with Benoit Seguin, a computer scientist helping build the Replica search engine. Seguin explains how Replica works, what the mission is, who's involved, and how it can be immensely useful to those interested in art, art history, and visual culture.

-About Replica-

The Replica project led by the DHLAB aims to build the first search engine designed specifically for the search and exploration of artistic collections (including paintings, drawings, engravings, sculpture and photography). This employs the latest state-of-the art artificial intelligence techniques, such as Deep Learning and Convolutional Neural Networks, for the search and display of information.

 In partnership with the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice and Factum Arte in Madrid, the Replica project aims to digitize roughly one million artistic reproductions using these images to populate the new search engine and as the basis for new art historical inquiries. 

-About Benoit Seguin-

Benoit Seguin is a PhD student at the Digital Humanities Laboratory (DHLAB) at EPFL. His main interests lie in Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Image Processing. Benoit's thesis is based on the Replica Project where he implements machine learning and modern image searching algorithms to help art historians navigate large, iconographic collections. Benoit received a Master of Science from EPFL and a Diplôme d’Ingénieur from École Polytechnique.

Ashley Zelinskie uses mathematics as her primary medium, building sculptures and paintings out of numbers and code. Although visually striking to our human-eyes, these creations primarily serve to leave a record of humanity's creativity for a future where machines supplant humans. In this episode, we speak with Ashley about her mission to preserve our human heritage for an unknown future built on mathematics, why she believes math is the universal language, and what prompted her to take this mission upon herself.

-About Ashley Zelinskie-

Ashley Zelinskie is an artist based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her work blurs the lines between art and technology, and spans a variety of media from sculpture to computer programs. After receiving a degree in glass from the Rhode Island School of Design, Ashley began to experiment with the pairing of artistic media and technology. The work she creates now is designed to be appreciated by both human and computer.

This work is not for us. It is for the future. And robots. That is, each of these pieces takes for granted that computers will outlast their makers, that technology will supplant humanity, and that craft should follow suit. This is art for the Singularity. Today, rigorous science and pure math maintain unbridled influence over technology – as such, our digital heirs are slated to inherit nuanced programming and breathtaking technical specifications. Yet we would render a profound disservice by stopping at numeracy and wire: if the Earth need be handed over to machines, we must prepare them not only to be accurate and efficient, but also cultured. Robots need magic. With regard to information density, the mosaic of human social interaction and artistic endeavor is unrivaled in diversity, ambition and depth. We are bound by duty to pass culture forward yet remain constrained by limitations: how can we sufficiently communicate this history and dialog to unknown, unimaginable and unspecified replacements? This work is an attempt to answer that question and, in fact, to begin that process – the process of translating our vast artistic and social history, in familiar language and appropriate media, to machines. Using simple code, recursive structures, redundant patterns, and emergent media in novel combinations, this work transcribes humanity – for a future without it.

Learn more at http://www.ashleyzelinskie.com/

Tweet her @azelinskie

Follow her @azelinskie

Cover art by Graydon Speace

Transmedia artist, Carla Gannis, is perhaps best known for her reinterpretation of art historical masterpieces in contemporary lens, replacing elements with popular iconography--aka, emojis. These tableaus include her piece, Garden of Emoji Delights (2014), a contemporary take on Hieronymus Bosch's famous masterpiece, The Garden of Earthly Delights, and, more recently, Portraits in Landscape (2018), which premiered in Times Square and is inspired by the sixteenth-century mannerist painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

In this episode, Carla tells us about her childhood growing up in the Appalachian mountains within a family that encouraged creative expression, her shift from traditional oil painting to digital media, her journey as an artist whose medium was initially received with bias and skepticism, and why innovations like the internet excite her.

-About Carla Gannis-

Carla Gannis, originally from Oxford, North Carolina, today lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received a BFA in painting from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an MFA in painting from Boston University. In the late 1990s she began to incorporate digital technologies into her work, and in 2005 she was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Grant in Computer Arts. Currently she is a professor and assistant chairperson of The Department of Digital Arts at Pratt Institute.

Gannis identifies as a visual storyteller. With the use of 21st Century representational technologies she narrates through a “digital looking glass” where reflections on power, sexuality, marginalization, and agency emerge. She is fascinated by digital semiotics and the situation of identity in the blurring contexts of real and virtual.

Since 2003 Gannis’s work has appeared in over 20 solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Her most recent solo exhibitions include “A Subject Self-Defined” at Transfer Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; “The Garden of Earthly Delights” at The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY and at Kasia Kay Art Projects in Chicago, IL, 2014. In 2013 she collaborated with poet Justin Petropoulos on a transmedia book, installation and net art project entitled   published byJaded Ibis Press, Seattle, WA and exhibited at Transfer Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Recent group exhibitions include “Porn to Pizza – Domestic Clichés” at DAM Gallery, in Berlin Germany and “Beautiful Interfaces” at Reverse Gallery, New York, NY.

Features on her work have appeared in ARTnews, The Creators Project, The Huffington Post, Wired, Buzzfeed, FastCo, Hyperallergic, Art F City, Art Critical, Art Report, The Wallstreet Journal, The New York Timesand The LA Times, among others. Recently her speculative fiction was included in DEVOURING THE GREEN:: fear of a human planet: a cyborg / eco poetry anthology, published by Jaded Ibis Press. Her recent speaking engagements include “Let’s Get Digital” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and “Cogency in the Imaginarium” at Cooper Union and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has participated in numerous panels on the intersections between art, technology, education and networked culture.

Follow her @carlagannis

Tweet her @carlagannis

Learn more at http://carlagannis.com/

Cover art by Graydon Speace