State Of The Art

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

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

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

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

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

State of the Art Podcast was invited to attend and speak with participants in CODAME's Art + Tech Festival, ARTOBOTS at The Midway earlier this month. Part 1 features one-on-one on-site conversations with artists Alexander Reben and Meredith Tromble on art and AI. We conclude the episode with a fascinating conversation with UC Berkeley artist and professor, Ken Goldberg, on the "uncanny valley." 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 Alexander Reben- Alexander Reben is an artist and roboticist who explores humanity through the lens of art and technology. His work probes the inherently human nature of the artificial. Using tools such as artificial philosophy, synthetic psychology, perceptual manipulation and technological magic, he brings to light our inseparable evolutionary entanglement to invention which has unarguably shaped our way of being. This is done to not only help understand who we are, but to consider who we will become in our continued codevelopment with our artificial creations. Projects referred to in this episode: Boxie, Headgasmatron, and Pulse Machine Learn more at http://areben.com/ -About Meredith Tromble- Meredith Tromble is a multimedia artist, writer, performer, and teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute. Learn more about Meredith at http://meredithtromble.net/ -About Ken Goldberg- Ken Goldberg is an artist, inventor, and UC Berkeley Professor focusing on robotics. He was appointed the William S. Floyd Jr Distinguished Chair in Engineering and serves as Chair of the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department. He has secondary appointments in EECS, Art Practice, the School of Information, and Radiation Oncology at the UCSF Medical School. Ken is Director of the CITRIS "People and Robots" Initiative and the UC Berkeley AUTOLAB where he and his students pursue research in machine learning for robotics and automation in warehouses, homes, and operating rooms. Ken developed the first provably complete algorithms for part feeding and part fixturing and the first robot on the Internet. Despite agonizingly slow progress, he persists in trying to make robots less clumsy. He has over 250 peer-reviewed publications and 8 U.S. Patents. He co-founded and served as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. Ken's artwork has appeared in 70 exhibits including the Whitney Biennial and films he has co-written have been selected for Sundance and nominated for an Emmy Award. Ken was awarded the NSF PECASE (Presidential Faculty Fellowship) from President Bill Clinton in 1995, elected IEEE Fellow in 2005 and selected by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society for the George Saridis Leadership Award in 2016. He lives in the Bay Area and is madly in love with his wife, filmmaker and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain, and their two daughters. Tweet him @Ken_Goldberg -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 -About ARTOBOTS- June 4-7, 2018 @ The Midway, San Francisco The annual CODAME ART+TECH Festival is a four-day conference with workshops, talks and nightlife events with immersive, engaging, out of the ordinary experiences. The festival features gallery installations, screenings, and performances. This year’s ART+TECH Festival, codenamed #ARTOBOTS, examines the sphere of robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence. Through art, discussion, play and performance, CODAME probes these potentials.

Vince Kadlubek pioneered the creative force that is Meow Wolf, a Santa Fe artist collective dedicated to building interactive and immersive experiences to transport visitors of all ages into fantastic realms ripe for exploration. In this episode we speak with Vince about how Meow Wolf achieve its impressive level of success, what Meow Wolf's ethos is, and where/how he sees tech is enabling the arts. -About Vince Kadlubek- Vince Kadlubek is the Co-founder and CEO of Meow Wolf, an arts collective that has transformed into a remarkable, award winning arts production company. After leading Meow Wolf to win the inaugural startup competition from Creative Startups Vince created the business plan for Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return. In the last year he has started 3 new thriving businesses. He is the chair of the Santa Fe, New Mexico planning commission. Vince is a native of Santa Fe and is deeply committed to supporting local growth as well as bringing unique, indescribable, immersive art experiences to the world. His unorthodox approach to business has helped pave the way to Meow Wolf’s unprecedented success. Follow Vince @VinceKadlubek Tweet him @VinceKadlubek -About Meow Wolf- Meow Wolf creates immersive, interactive experiences to transport audiences of all ages into fantastic realms of story and exploration. The group’s first permanent installation, launched in March 2016 with support from Game Of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin, showcases the THEA Award-winning House of Eternal Return, where guests discover a multidimensional mystery house with secret passages, portals to magical worlds, climbing apparatus, and surreal, maximalist & mesmerizing art exhibits along with a children’s learning center, top ten in the U.S. music venue and cafe area. The company is composed of nearly 200 artists across all disciplines including architecture, sculpture, painting, photography and video production, virtual and augmented reality, music and audio engineering, narrative writing, costuming and performance, and more. Basically everything. Follow Meow Wolf @meow_wolf Tweet them @MeowWolf

Everyone is familiar with MIT and the university's reputation as a serious force in the world of science, tech, and research, but how many are aware of MIT's legacy in the arts? Did you know that MIT's founder had envisioned incorporating the arts from the very beginning? In this episode we speak with Leila Kinney and Evan Ziporyn of MIT's Center for Art, Science, and Technology (CAST) about MIT's culture of creativity and exploration, the institution's mission to humanize science and tech, and the exciting projects that have emerged from CAST, like Tomás Saraceno's Arachnid Orchestra. -About Leila Kinney- Leila W. Kinney is the Executive Director of Arts Initiatives and of the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST), working with Associate Provost Philip S. Khoury, the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P), the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS), the Creative Arts Council, the Council for the Arts at MIT, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, and the MIT Museum, to advance the arts at MIT in the areas of strategic planning, cross-school collaborations, communications and resource development. Kinney is an art historian with experience in both SA+P, where she was on the faculty in the History, Theory and Criticism section of the Department of Architecture (HTC) and SHASS, where she taught in the Program in Women’s Studies and in Comparative Media Studies. She specializes in modern art, with an emphasis on media in transition, arts institutions and artists’ engagement with mass culture. She is a member of the Executive Committee of a2ru (Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities) and of the Advisory Committees of the Catalyst Collaborative at MIT, the MIT List Visual Arts Center and the MIT Museum. -About Evan Ziporyn- Evan Ziporyn makes music at the crossroads between genres and cultures, and between East and West. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, Yale University, and UC Berkeley with Joseph Schwantner, Martin Bresnick, and Gerard Grisey. He first traveled to Bali in 1981, studying with Madé Lebah, Colin McPhee’s 1930s musical informant. He returned on a Fulbright in 1987. Earlier that year, he performed a clarinet solo at the First Bang on a Can Marathon in New York. His involvement with Bang on a Can continued for twenty five years. In 1992, he co-founded the Bang on a Can All-stars (Musical America’s 2005 Ensemble of the Year), with whom he toured the globe and premiered over one hundred commissioned works, collaborating with Nik Bartsch, Iva Bittova, Don Byron, Ornette Coleman, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Thurston Moore, Terry Riley, and Tan Dun. He co-produced their seminal 1996 recording of Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports,” as well as their most recent CD, “Big Beautiful Dark & Scary” (2012). Ziporyn joined the MIT faculty in 1990, founding Gamelan Galak Tika in 1993, and beginning a series of groundbreaking compositions for gamelan & Western instruments. These include three evening-length works, 2001’s “ShadowBang,” 2004’s “Oedipus Rex” (Robert Woodruff, director), and 2009’s “A House in Bali,” an opera which joins Western singers with Balinese traditional performers, and the Bang on a Can All-stars with a full gamelan. It received its world premiere in Bali that summer and its New York premiere at BAM Next Wave in October 2010. As a clarinetist, Ziporyn recorded the definitive version of Steve Reich’s multi-clarinet “New York Counterpoint” in 1996, sharing in that ensemble’s Grammy in 1998. In 2001, his solo clarinet CD, “This is Not A Clarinet,” made Top Ten lists across the country. His compositions have been commissioned by Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road, Kronos Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, Maya Beiser, So Percussion, Wu Man, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, with whom he recorded his most recent CD, “Big Grenadilla/Mumbai” (2012). His honors include awards from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (2011); The Herb Alpert Foundation (2011); USA Artists Walker Fellowship (2007); MIT’s Gyorgy Kepes Prize (2006); the American Academy of Arts and Letters Goddard Lieberson Fellowship (2004); as well as commissions from Meet the Composer/Commissioning Music USA and the Rockefeller MAP Fund. Recordings of his works have been been released on Cantaloupe, Sony Classical, New Albion, New World, Koch, Naxos, Innova, and CRI. He is Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music at MIT. He also serves as Head of Music and Theater Arts, and in 2012 was appointed inaugural Director of MIT’s Center for Art Science & Technology. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with Christine Southworth, and has two children, Leonardo (19) and Ava (12). -About MIT CAST- The MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) creates new opportunities for art, science and technology to thrive as interrelated, mutually informing modes of exploration, knowledge and discovery. CAST’s multidisciplinary platform presents performing and visual arts programs, supports research projects for artists working with science and engineering labs, and sponsors symposia, classes, workshops, design studios, lectures and publications. The Center is funded in part by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Museu do Amanhã, or The Museum of Tomorrow, looks like something that emerged from the unexplored depths of the ocean to grace the sunny shores of Brazil's Rio de Janeiro. Housed inside is an extraordinary overview of our history, from the cosmos and emergence of Earth to our present day and a variety of "tomorrows" as influenced by humans impact on the planet. The Museum uses digital media, art, tech, and data to create narratives that guide visitors on a powerful and informative journey though the ages and into the future, all the while addressing the need for change if humankind is to avoid extinction. In this episode we speak with the Museum's Exhibitions Manager, Leonardo Menezes about how and why The Museum of Tomorrow "combines the accuracy of science with the expressiveness of art" in its presentation, what their mission is, and where they see the future is headed. -About The Museu do Amanhã (The Museum of Tomorrow)- A new icon of the modernization of Rio de Janeiro’s harbor, the Museum of Tomorrow was born in the Praça Mauá as a science museum meant to explore, imagine, and conceive all the possibilities for constructing the future.  An experimental museum, where the content is presented through a narrative that combines the accuracy of science with the expressiveness of art, using technology as a support in interactive environments and audiovisual and gaming facilities created from scientific studies conducted by experts and data released all over the world. Designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the building - whose organic shapes were inspired by the bromeliads of the Botanic Garden of the city - occupies an area of 15 thousand square meters, surrounded by reflecting pools, gardens, a bike lane, and a leisure area, all adding up to 34.6 thousand square meters of the Píer Mauá. The Museum of Tomorrow is an initiative of the administration of the city of Rio de Janeiro, conceived and carried out along the Roberto Marinho Foundation, an institution associated with the Grupo Globo, and has the Santander bank as its main sponsor. It also has the support of Shell, the administration of the state of Rio de Janeiro (through the Environment Office), and the Federal Government (through FINEP, the Projects and Studies Financing). The institution is part of a museum network supported by the Local Cultural Office. The IDG (Institute of Development and Management), a cultural non-profit, is responsible for the administration of the museum. Like them on Facebook Tweet them @museudoamanha Follow them @museudoamanha

In addition to being a curator at CODAME, a community of innovators shaping the future through playful launches of art and tech projects, Vanessa Chang lectures at California College of the Arts and holds a PhD in “Modern Thought and Literature” from Stanford University. In this episode, Vanessa shares her background and interest in art and tech, insights into the projects CODAME is involved in, addresses the importance of play in art, and questions the general perception of what "tech" is. She also shares some sneakpeaks into CODAME's upcoming art and tech festival ARTOBOTS, opening June 4, 2018 at The Midway, 900 Marin St, San Francisco. Follow Vanessa @allsfairinvanessy -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 CODAME ART + TECH FESTIVAL: ARTOBOTS | June 4-7, 2018 @ The Midway, San Francisco The annual CODAME ART+TECH Festival is a four-day conference with workshops, talks and nightlife events with immersive, engaging, out of the ordinary experiences. The festival features gallery installations, screenings, and performances. This year’s ART+TECH Festival, codenamed #ARTOBOTS, examines the sphere of robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence. Through art, discussion, play and performance, CODAME probes these potentials. Cover Art by Graydon Speace

In a city where the tension between artists and techies is palpable, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has pushed exhibitions, programs and projects that bridge the two spheres, like their inventive video series ARTIST CRIBS, their seamless museum app, and their experimental PlaySFMOMA initiative. Erica Gangsei, head of Interpretive Media at SFMOMA and a working artist in her own right, shares her thoughts on tech's place in the museum and the "art world" at large. -About Erica Gangsei- As Head of Interpretive Media at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Erica Gangsei leads a team of multimedia storytellers to create award winning digital resources such as audio tours, video interviews with artists, in-museum interpretive gallery spaces, games, and the podcast Raw Material. As a multidisciplinary artist, she is heavily involved in the Bay Area arts community, and has volunteered her time for organizations such as the Lab, Root Division, Headlands Center for the Arts and Adobe Books. Erica also has a passionate interest in games, and is the founder of the museum's PlaySFMOMA initiative, which presents pop-up arcades, game jams, lectures, workshops, and a game designer-in-residence series. She studied Philosophy and Fine Arts and Amherst College and Sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute. Follow Erica @ericagangsei Tweet her @ericagangsei Cover Art by Graydon Speace

Nancy Cahill creates intensely fragmented forms pulsing with momentum that threaten to explode of their paper confines. Well, her creations did just that earlier this year when she partnered with a developer to create her augmented reality app, 4th Wall, which allows users to place her VR drawings within their own environment, anytime, anywhere. The app also allows users to virtually visit her LA studio, and to experience an AR hologram of her discussing the conceptual underpinnings of her work. In this episode, we talk with Nancy about her journey from "traditional" art mediums to VR and AR projects, the disconnect between the art and tech worlds, and where she sees virtual reality is headed. -About Nancy Baker Cahill- Nancy Baker Cahill is a multi-disciplinary artist and founder of 4th Wall, a free Augmented Reality (AR) app which allows users to place art in 360 degrees anywhere in the world. She received her B.A. from Williams College. From 2010-2012 she initiated and led a collaborative art project at Homeboy Industries called “Exit Wounds.” Works from this project were exhibited throughout Los Angeles as part of the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM)’s “Folk Art Everywhere” program. In 2015 she designed and led a collage workshop with homeless individuals under the aegis of a CAFAM grant. She is also the recipient of an ARC Grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation and will be a featured TEDx speaker in September 2018 in Pasadena. Solo exhibition highlights include the Pasadena Museum of California Art, Ochi Projects, her Virtual Reality (VR) public art project on the IF (Innovation Foundation) sponsored Sunset Digital Billboards, and a VR/AR event at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) in April 2018. She has been profiled by Forbes Magazine, Fast Company, The Smithsonian Magazine, The Art Newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, KCET’s award-winning “Artbound” series, Aesthetica, Good Magazine, LA Magazine, LA Weekly, Peripheral Vision Arts and on several podcasts, including Feminist Crush and State of the Art. She served for years as a member of the Hollywood Public Art Advisory Board, is a member of the Pasadena Art Alliance, an Advisory Board member of Fulcrum Arts and Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at LACE. Follow Nancy @nancybakercahill or @4thwallapp Learn more about Nancy here

What happens when you quantify art? Can breaking down art into data and stats help create a better collection and smarter collectors? Jason Bailey, self-identified artist turned analytics nerd, is the founder of the Artnome blog and creator of a massive online database of the world's best known artists which he says is “moneyball for art”, which he believes will revolutionize the way we engage with, understand, and purchase art. -About Jason Bailey- Jason is mission driven to use technology and data to improve the world's art historical record and to improve opportunities for artists from historically underserved or marginalized groups. He has an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. You can read more about Artnome here and catch Jason's podcast on blockchain art and cryptocurrency at Dank Rares. For our international and globetrotting listeners, be sure to checkout Jason's panel discussion, "Blockchain in the Art World – Digital Art", at Christie's Art + Tech Summit, July 17, 2018. -About Artnome- Artnome explores art through data. Artnome is the blog of Jason Bailey, an art nerd building the world's largest analytical database of known works across our most important artists. Think Zillow / Moneyball for art and artists.   Follow @artnome on Instagram or Twitter

Earlier this year, Google's Art & Culture app went viral for their selfie-matching tool which allowed users to discover their likeness in paintings across art institutions from around the world. In this episode, we chat with Suhair Kahn, project manager at Google Arts & Culture, where a team of creative engineers and cultural enthusiasts are making it their mission to connect everyone, everywhere with cultural content. Suhair shares why Google is invested in arts and culture, what the thinking was behind their selfie-project, how the Arts & Culture team uses tech to create engaging content, and gives insight into future projects they're currently working on and excited about. -About Suhair Khan- Suhair Khan is a culturally diverse globetrotter having grown up between Milan, London and South Asia. She is the lead on Google Arts & Culture projects and collaborations in multiple countries, including the UK, Australia, Indonesia, and Korea. Suhair works primarily out of Google's London Office. Tweet her @SuhairK Follow her @SuhairK -About Google Arts & Culture- Google Arts & Culture is a sector of Google's Cultural Institute, initiatives that emerged from Google's 20% project in which Googlers dedicate 20% of their time to programs that aren’t core to their role. The key goal of the Cultural Institute is to make the world's important art and cultural materials accessible to everyone, everywhere by preserving it for the future, online. Twitter @googlearts Insta @googleartsculture Facebook

We sat down with Hadi Eldebek, founder and CEO of Grantpa, a website that connects artists, dancers, musicians, and other creatives with grant money worldwide. A musician himself, Hadi wondered how many people apply for grants versus how many receive them, and, after canvasing among his friends and relatives, he learned that the majority did not even bother to apply because of the time investment and intimidation factor of submitting an application. In this episode, Hadi discusses how Grantpa works for grant-seekers to make the application process as simple and time-saving as possible, what it’s like being a TED resident, and why the idea that “artists must be poor” is an expectation he is working towards breaking. - About GrantPA - GrantPA is a discoverability platform that matches individuals and organizations with grants they are eligible for. GrantPA saves you time by matching you with the grants relevant to you. Learn more about Grantpa here.