#7on7nyc

[dattasaurabh82]

Seven on Seven 2016: Claire L. Evans & Tracy Chou

[i-x-d-x]

RECAP: Seven on Seven, #7on7NYC

Seven on Seven was this weekend, and holy shit. This was my first time attending, and it was absolutely amazing to see such passion and ingenuity in one room and given only one day to develop. 

The concept of the conference, held by Rhizome at The New Museum, is to pair up seven influential technologists with seven influential artists, and they are given a day to make something new. 

Firstly, the keynote was given by the amazing, and powerfully composed, Kate Crawford, (who I later learned is also an accomplished electronic musician). Most of her research is on Big Data. While I am an utter novice to this subject, she was able to provide some concrete relations such as her claim that trend, Normcore is the representation of the population's shift in perception of coolness from thinking of different = cool, to sameness = cool. This, she stated, is in response to the influx of governmental surveillance and easily accessible personal information. She also related this to Occupy. I never thought of fashion trends coming out of public anxiety about information, or government oppression for that matter, but it a very interesting comment to say the least. **I also learned that the term Normcore came out of a document, "Youth Mode," released by K-Hole, a trend forecasting firm, and was not originally intended for fashion, but was picked up by the industry within a few days.** 

After this eye opening keynote, the artist/technologist parings presented their work. Here's a quick wrap up of the various ideas they came up with: 

Kate Ray (Scrollkit), and Holly Herndon created Spyke (Skype and spy) which fosters online digital intimacy by giving permission to the other person you are chatting with the ability to take a picture of you whenever they want without your knowledge. I thought this was a strange representation of intimacy considering it's not necessarily a supportive exchange, and it would probably be used more in hopes of catching a person doing something wrong, than catching them sweetly candid, however, the agreement the two people enter before chatting is a definite exchange of intimacy. I wonder how this would have done in AIM era. 

Aza Raskin (Jawbone) and Kari Altmann created a google image conglomerator putting images together to create an attempt at more universally ‘cultural’ images (blurred together). This was the most obscure idea for me to comprehend, ironic that the images were running through a program that was obscuring them also. However, it seemed to be blurred lines between team members that inhibited the outcome. Raskin mentioned his perception of conceptual art as "candy," which probablyyy prevented trusting communication with Altmann, conceptual artist. 

Nick Bilton (NYT Bits Blog) and Simon Denny created Drawthenewsfor.me asked strangers to reinterpret the news and payed them a small amount for their drawings. This was easily the funniest communication of idea, considering their presentation was based around jokes about the culture of start-up land. There was a slight ethical question raised suggesting that all the drawings people submitted were being openly mocked in a very high art society. I thought was a very valid critique, however in my opinion, inadequately examined because it didn't seem as though they represented themselves as serious in their request for drawings, suggesting the work did not have to take itself seriously either.

Avi Flobaum (Flatiron School) and Hannah Sawtell created Sawbaum.com, a space to appropriate vine videos and make a collages where you can change size, opacity, layer videos, and have it exist as its own url. This project, in my opinion was by the easiest to digest. By appropriating a pre-existing format, users have the ability to make another, slightly exaggerated version of the same format. It's also open to anyone else making things, and does not subscribe itself to a particular format or participant but has the learning curve of a toddler, which are usually things that foster digital success. I would love to see this project catch on. 

David Kravitz (Snapchat) and Frances Stark did a performance piece where they live chatted for 20 minutes, emulating her work of anonymous sex chats. This was a perfect counterpart to the very marketable idea prior. There was no finished product, and no idea to sell. It was an ephemeral, in the moment experience, which is un-ironically congruent to Snapchat as a medium. This, however, brought up very real feelings of angst, anxiety, and anticipation from my days of chatting with boys online in high school.  

Jen Fong-Adwent (Meatspac.es chat) and Ian Cheng created a location based ice breaking game where you are paired with a person, then you must find him or her. One is given the title of maser, and the other slave, then you have to agree on a safe word. After this, your connection has officially been made. This would be a very fun game to play at a party, but it would have to a party where everyone was suggested to play, otherwise I would find this creepy. The sexually suggestive nature of the words master/slave also bring up interesting contexts. It prescribes the titles at random, so even if you prefer being a master (you do you, snowflake), you might have to be a slave upon meeting. Because this feature is randomized, I'm not sure if making this so blatantly explicit is the best practice for two strangers to meet, especially given that s&m is a subcategory of sexual interest. Given that, I would probably try this game out at least once at a party. Seems like it would provide for a lot of laughs. 

Anil Dash (blogger) and Kevin McCoy created Monegraph, using Namecoin ownership of digital art, which generates and transfers the title of a digital work to someone else via cryptocoin, or public Namecoin blockchain. To be honest, this is all very confusing to me, but it seems really really cool.

Also, the word "user" was brought up multiple times throughout the day. Raskin made an interesting point when he stated that the only other community to actively use the word user is in context with drugs. Many stated that the word is very distant from its actual meaning, and too third party to represent an actual human. He also stated that he was open to suggestions for new words to represent a more human user. Should I suggest "huser"?? No. 

Overall, the event could be summed by appreciation for the ideas. Some were obscure (the cultural image), and some were super concrete like Sawbaum.com (which is really cool, and you all should go make one, like, right now).  And, while I'm sure the project is going to make waves, unfortunately, ownership over digital space on a server is something a little over my head, however, everyone I talked to at the end said it was their favorite, and it was amazing, etc.

After the day of amazing ideas, I got to drink a bunch of Heineken Darks (is that a thing??) at the SkyRoom, where a bunch of other really influential people also showed up. Prettttty fucking cool day, all around. 

Also, if you want to make your own conclusions or debunk any of mine, you can watch the whole thing here: http://new.livestream.com/newmuseum/7on7