(3/4) New Museum

I have selected the New Museum, established in 1977 and located in LES, as it is one of New York City’s newest museums and alternative space, and entirely dedicated to contemporary art. The very definition of ‘contemporary art’ means that incorporates the present, the art of today by living artists of the 21st century. Naturally, such an institution will seek to represent new media and technologies, and aims to present such art in a way that will do the work justice. In 2003, they moved into a few building with facilities to adequately showcase and document art mediums beyond traditional painting and sculpture to highlight film, video, photography, performance. Just from browsing their website, they have a tab dedicated to online art, called ‘First Look: New Art Online’ that exhibits numerous Internet Art projects. 

Under the New Museum umbrella, in 2014, the museum launched an initiative called NEW INC. NEW INC is a cultural incubator, especially a giant “maker space”, similar to our classroom! It is eight thousand square feet large, and their fabrication equipment includes: basic prototyping labs, HP Z830 machines for high processing and graphics, MakerBot and Ultimaker 3D printers, laser cutters, physical computing tools, and a Canon equipment suite with cameras, projectors, and large format printers. NEW INC runs a 12-month program for artists to have access to this creative ecosystem while receiving business and entrepreneurial advice, pushing them to invent new forms and practices. One example is how a recent fellow, Sougwen Chung, created drawing robot D.O.U.G, as shown below:

Another relevant initiative under the New Museum is Rhizome. Founded in 1996 by artist Mark Tribe, it is the leading international born-digital art organization. It serves not only as a listserv, but also facilities, commissions, and exhibits digital art. Yearly, they have a conference called ‘Seven on Seven’ that pairs seven artists with seven technologists, challenging them to make a collaborate and create something new and revolutionary. For instance, last year, artist Ai Wei Wei who was strangled advised against entering the United States at the time, collaborated with Jacob Appelbaum to create a piece called Panda-to-Panda. This work featured twenty stuffed animal pandas that had the stuffing removed and replaced with shredded Snowden documents and an SD card with unknown contents. A documentary on this project can be viewed here: (https://vimeo.com/130467553)