Rhizome Presents 2014 Edition of the SEVEN ON SEVEN CONFERENCE Today

Rhizome is pleased to present the 2014 edition of the Seven on Seven Conference, an annual event that brings figures at the forefront of art and technology together to create innovative ideas in collaboration. Over the course of a single day, seven teams, each comprised of a foremost artist and a leading technologist, are challenged to develop a new idea, concept, or prototype to premiere at the conference. Now in its fifth year, the conference will take place at the New Museum in New York today, May 3, 2014, from 12 p.m.-6 p.m.

The seven teams will work independently at spaces around New York City on Friday May 2 to develop their new idea-be it an application, concept, artwork, product, or whatever they imagine. A keynote presentation by Kate Crawford (Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research) will kick off the conference on Saturday May 3, followed by twenty-minute presentations by each of the seven teams, and then a Q&A conversation with the audience. The conference will conclude with a cocktail reception for attendees and participants in the Sky Room at the New Museum. Rhizome is a longtime affiliate organization in residence at the New Museum, located in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

The conference has sold out in New York City for the past four years, and held its first international edition in London in the fall of 2013. The Fifth Anniversary allows us to look back at the themes and products that were created over its history, and the changing nature of interdisciplinary practice.

"This event underlines how much potential there is in developing new technologies in cultural cities like New York, where entrepreneurs and developers necessarily rub up against culture and the arts. From companies like Kickstarter, Foursquare, Vine, and MakerBot-tech companies are looking for new inspiration from diverse places like the arts. Similarly, artists are fascinated by the cultural influence of these new tools and media. It's a great pairing," said Heather Corcoran, Executive Director of Rhizome.

Rhizome is pleased to announce the following participants:

Technologists: Nick Bilton (journalist), Anil Dash (ThinkUp), Jen Fong (Mozilla / Meatspace Chat), David
Kravitz (Snapchat), Kate Ray (Scrollkit), Aza Raskin (Jawbone), Rus Yusupov (Vine)

Artists: Kari Altmann, Ian Cheng, Simon Denny, Holly Herndon, Kevin McCoy, Frances Stark, Hannah
Sawtell (whose first solo museum show in the US opens at the New Museum, April 23)

The Seven on Seven Conference first took place in April 2010, and featured teams including video artist Ryan Trecartin and Tumblr founder David Karp, who created Riverofthe.net together, a dynamic video-sharing application that was later on view as part of the New Museum's exhibition "Free." The 2013 conference generated Harper Reed (CTO, Obama for America) and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Friend Fracker, a tool to randomly delete Facebook friends in the face of digital overload. Seven on Seven was founded in 2010 by Fred Benenson, John Borthwick, Lauren Cornell, and Peter Rojas. The first three events were organized by Cornell, Curator, 2015, Triennial, Digital Projects, and Museum as Hub at the New Museum.

To learn more about past Seven on Seven conferences, please visit rhizome.org/sevenonseven/past.

To purchase tickets to attend this year's conference visit newmuseum.org/calendar.

The event will be live streamed on rhizome.org.

Rhizome is an arts organization based on the internet, and is an affiliate organization in residence at the New Museum in New York. It is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology and advocates for internet art and contemporary art that creates richer and more critical digital cultures. Working online and off, in events, exhibitions, and commissions, Rhizome rethinks art in relation to changing conditions associated with network technologies: shifting attentions, uncertain objects, multiple authors, casual labors. It is a leading international organization to support artists working at the intersection of technology, art, and culture, online since 1996. To learn more about Rhizome, visit rhizome.org.