We don’t really know where inspiration comes from. The idea that hits you like a brick thrown out a speeding car, smashing into your head behind your left ear, and leaving you dazed at the side of 7th avenue. Or late at night, when you are looking at some screen mock ups for the 7 zillionth time, and all of a sudden you know exactly how wrong this approach, but you also know a better way to model it.
This sartori, this epiphany, is something we generally associate with artists: the painter daubing a canvas madly in her garret, or the pianist scribbling eighth notes. But the selfsame creative spark occurs time and time again in technology, and so the artist and the software designer are close cousins, not living in worlds apart.
That understanding is, I guess, what has motivated the upcoming Seven On Seven project, organized by Rhizome, paring seven technologists with seven artists:
These cross connections between the NYC art world and the burgeoning tech scene are a fascinating aspect of what makes NYC a unique place for tech to evolve, and art, too, for that matter.
I hope to be in attendance when the results are unveiled on 17 April, at the New Museum.
