A Conversation About the Intersection of Art & Technology in Public Places
Ron Mallis, George Fifield, Primavera De Filippi, Matthew Blumberg, Dan Sternhof Beyer, Camilø Alvårez, and Pedro Alonzo
June 6th, 2014
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
In this program Catalyst wanted to illuminate the ways in which technological innovations can — and should — not only enhance the art in question, but also provide the means by which the public and the place play a role in shaping that art. We are eager to hear your perspective on how these interrelationships currently play out and what a vision for an even more robust future might look like. As we begin to shape that vision, there will be opportunity to identify best practices from other cities, both nationally and internationally.
Ron Mallis, Director BostonAPP/LAB, Facilitator
George Fifield is an independent curator of new media, with numerous projects here and abroad. He is the founding director of Boston Cyberarts Inc., a nonprofit arts organization programming numerous art and technology projects, including curating two large public LED screens in downtown Boston and running the Boston Cyberarts Gallery in Jamaica Plain. He was executive co-producer for The Electronic Canvas, an hour-long documentary on the history of the media arts (PBS, 2000). The Boston Cyberarts Festival (1999-2011), an international biennial of artists working in new technologies, featured exhibitions of visual arts; music, dance, and theatrical performances; film and video presentations; and symposia throughout Greater Boston. In 2007 the Festival was the recipient of the Commonwealth Award in the category of Creative Economy. George writes on a variety of media, technology, and art topics for numerous publications and is adjunct faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design in the graduate Digital + Media department. In 2006, the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) Boston Chapter honored Fifield with the First Annual Special Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Arts Community.
Primavera De Fillipi researcher, CERSA / CNRS / Université Paris II and research fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, where she is investigating the concept of “governance by design” as it relates to cloud computing and peer-to-peer technologies. Primavera holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence, where she explored the legal challenges of copyright law in the digital environment. Primavera is an administrator of the Communia association for the public domain, a coordinator at the Open Knowldege Foundation and legal expert for Creative Commons in France. She is also the co-founder of an artistic collective called Okhaos that produces interactive (digital and mechanical) works released under open licenses.
Matthew Blumberg likes to make stuff up. He is founder and executive director of GridRepublic, a nonprofit organization that uses “volunteer computing” to provide supercomputing resources to scientific and medical research (recently in partnership with Intel as “Progress Thru Processors”). Other recent projects include “Charity Engine” (commercial volunteer computing, with proceeds to charity), and consulting with DARPA’s “Social Computing Seedling.” Previously, he produced the feature film “Amongst Friends” (a Sundance Film Festival Selection, distributed theatrically worldwide), and was partner in TGT Energy Ltd., a company commercializing
Dan Sternof Beyer, co-founder, New American Public Art. A sociologist and arts advocate. Raised in Nevada by a screenplay writer and a hovercraft innovator. Left promising career in advertising to follow passion as a designer of public space and social interaction. Believes that public expression of curiosity drives community formation and cultural identity.
Camilø Alvårez was born in 1976 in New York to Dominican parents and lived in Santo Domingo for seven years. He received a B.A. from Skidmore College and is currently studying to receive a Masters of Liberal Arts in Museum Studies from Harvard University. He has worked, among other places, at Exit Art, Socrates Sculpture Park, MIT’s List Visual Art Center, and the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. He is currently the Owner, Director, and Preparator at Samsøñ, formerly Samson Projects, founded in 2004. Samsøn’s programs and exhibitions have been reviewed by ArtForum, the Boston Globe and Flash Art. In 2010, Camilo initiated sübsamsøn, a form of artist’s residency within the gallery.
Pedro Alonzo, is a Boston based independent curator. He is currently an Adjunct Curator at Dallas Contemporary. Alonzo was formerly an adjunct curator at the ICA Boston (2011-2013) and at the Institute of Visual Arts (inova), University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (1996-2002). Since 2006 Pedro has specialized in producing exhibitions that transcend the boundaries of the museum walls and spill out onto the urban landscape. In doing so, his exhibitions intentionally address audiences beyond the traditional museum public. At the ICA Boston he curated Shepard Fairey’s 20-year survey titled, Supply and Demand, a solo exhibition with Dr. Lakra, a site specific installation by SWOON and Os Gemeos. For the MCA San Diego he organized the group exhibition Viva la Revolucion: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape. In 2013 he organized the first solo museum exhibition for the French artist JR, winner of the 2011 Ted Prize, at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati and the Dallas Contemporary. Alonzo is currently developing a citywide exhibition for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.