Text by CLOT Magazine
Serpentine Arts Technologies will present Future Art Ecosystems 2 and discuss the metaverse and the opportunities and challenges facing artists, producers and cultural institutions within an increasingly virtual landscape on September 13 2021.
What can antecedent technologies teach us about approaching software and virtual development? If we consider alternate histories towards metaverse building blocks like coding, video games, and the internet, can we reclaim them for our creative futures? Our fluency with metanarratives around corporate tech and Silicon Valley have become homogenous and commonplace. However, challenging them is necessary to speculate potential infrastructural shifts that can better support artists and institutions alike.
The discussion will include technologist and producer Amelia Winger-Bearskin, along with Serpentine Galleries Arts Technologies Commission Producer Tamar Clarke-Brown, as they discuss Amelia’s research into antecedent technologies, virtual collaboration models between public and private, and recount early origin stories around hacking the metaverse.
The Serpentine R&D Platform produces the second Future Art Ecosystems (FAE2) issue in collaboration with Rival Strategy and Guest Producer Luke Caspar Pearson. It aims to provide analytical and conceptual tools and strategic guidance for constructing 21st-century cultural infrastructure: systems that would support art and advanced technologies and be responsive to a broader social shift towards virtual experiences.
The Live Session conversations aim to draw attention and provide greater transparency to infrastructures and systems behind the work of artists and producers. They are also an opportunity to hear directly from FAE2’s contributors as their perspectives form the basis for FAE’s primary research.
The discussion happens on 13 September from 18:00-19:00 BST on the Serpentine Twitch: RSVP
