Technology + Art: How Data and Algorithms Enable New Artistic Creativity
Event Information
Description
The Austin Forum on Technology & Society presents
Technology + Art: How Data and Algorithms Enable New Artistic Creativity
with
Julia Morton
and special guest
5:15pm – Check-in and refreshments
6:00 pm – Doors open for seating
6:15 pm – Presentation
7:30 pm – Networking
Technology has always enabled art by providing new tools, materials, and expertise that artist then used to advance their visual innovations. The Renaissance is a good example of what can happen when technologists and creatives collaborate. Today a new 21st Renaissance is underway with tech and art uniting to form a new movement dubbed generative art, with Austin as one of its creative hubs.
Generative art uses code, data, AI, AR, VR, music, math, algorithms, hardware, and software to create novel digital media and daring aesthetics that would not otherwise be possible! What’s more - these artists are coders, many with backgrounds in technology. Like good design and beautiful code, their evocative images and ideas are judged by their clarity and simplicity, and for their elegant, original solutions to complex concerns. Their relevant visions allow all of us to appreciate our unique place in history and to imagine the future of technology, art, and humanity through fresh eyes.
Come experience these mesmerizing tech-driven creations as Julia Morton and her guest artists reveal their code, process, and inspiration in this special Austin Forum event that will also feature a pop-up generative art gallery.
About the Speakers:
Julia Morton is a graduate of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY where she studied design. In 1981, she opened her own fashion boutique, Einstein’s, in New York’s East Village. Throughout the 1990s she turned her attention to the mass market designing for retailers, brands, and catalogs. With a career change in 1999, she began writing art columns and book essays. She also produced video reviews and curating exhibitions. Moving to Austin in 2011, she took up gardening and chickens, and completed a memoir. In 2018 she opened Generative Art Project.
Shirley Steele's artwork explores new ways to think about human language, the language of
machines, and our dialogue with them. "My artistic practice is informed by a career as a research scientist in speech and linguistics," she shares.. After earning a Ph.D. in Brain and Language (University of Texas, Dallas), Steele worked as a research scientist in speech acoustics at Texas Instruments, AT&T, Bell Laboratories, and Unisys Corporation.
James Pricier's academic background is in clinical psychology, philosophy, mergers and
acquisitions, and international business. "I have worked as a Data Architect, Data Miner, Data Scientist, and Data Artist. Although steeped in data architectures and algorithms, Data Science requires as much art as science. As a Data Artist, I use data architectures and algorithms to create abstractions of data that bring them to life."
Tyler Hobbs' work focuses on the creation of generative processes. "For each new work, I design a custom algorithm capable of generating a sequence of unique, but aesthetically related images. The algorithms I craft borrow patterns observed from the natural world, repurposing and remixing them to explore the sensations they evoke. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, B.S. Computer Science – 2010, I am a native of Austin."
*Admission to the Austin Forum is always free. Free street parking is available on Tuesdays!*
The Austin Forum accepts donations of used smartphones, computer and tablets at all our events to be repurposed for those in need. All devices will have a factory reset and be set up as new by the team at Austin Pathways’ nationally-recognized “Unlocking the Connection” initiative, which will connect every public housing resident with a digital device, digital literacy training, and a free or very low-cost internet connection. Your donated phone can change lives and help close Austin's digital divide, thanks to Austin Pathways.
Want to learn more about the pervasive and emerging technologies that are impacting how you work and live? Check out the Austin Forum blogs and podcasts on our website, featuring experts and leaders in technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Click here to learn more.
Thank you to our Annual Partners:
