Lincoln Center’s Collider Fellows explore how tech could transform the performing arts | TechCrunch

When technology has a high degree of anxiety about the impact of technology on art and culture, Lincoln Collider Scholarship Center is a program that welcomes multidisciplinary artists to explore new technologies that offer opportunities for live performance and performing arts.

Today, the prestigious New York Performing Arts Center announced its second-class collision researcher – a group of six artists from virtual reality to artificial intelligence to immersive 4DSOUND systems.

“I love them all are really thoughtful people, they are not only thinking about it [the work] “But how it fits into a larger conversation in art and technology,” said Jordana Leigh, vice president of the Lincoln Center.

Leigh added that she is a “timeless optimist” in how technology benefits art. Asked about the wider concerns around AI, she countered that she was excited about the artist who could use AI as “another tool in the toolkit, such as the sound of a blender or paint brushes.” She also suggests that for some artists, “technology is catching up with their vision, not their vision to catch up with the technology.”

To illustrate some of these potentials, Leigh points out Dream Machinethe device of Nona Hendryx, one of the first collider researchers.

By combining AI, VR and augmented reality to immersive visitors, especially Bipoc visitors, in an African and unmarried teacher environment, Dream Machine shows how art can help “people who don’t see themselves in technology, especially black and brown, especially black and brown women.”

“I think the more part of the conversation, the more chance we have to be a good conversation,” she added.

New collider researchers selected through a nomination-based process will continue to explore potential. Over the next six months, they will be offering studio space at Lincoln Center Onassis ONXand financial allowances and support from Lincoln Center staff.

Leigh added that the Collider Scholarship is part of a broader program, and the Performing Arts Center attempts to support artists in a “non-trade” manner.

It is worth noting that scholarships do not require participating artists to complete the final project or commission. Leigh said the first-class collider researchers included an artist who completed “five to six prototypes” during the program, while another wanted to “use this time to rejuvenate, read a lot of books, do a lot of research, slow down” – both methods, she said, “a perfectly acceptable way to use this scholarship.”

Leigh said many of the projects that emerged from many of the best-in-class projects are “still sprouting” and some may be shown at the Lincoln Center itself. Although Leigh describes herself as “double-out-of-location-based experiences,” especially those involving VR, AR and extended reality, she also suggests Collider researchers can help the Lincoln Center rethink its way of attracting audiences around the world.

“I don’t think we’re closing anything right now,” she said.

Here are six new collider researchers and briefly describe their work:

• Cinthia Chena multidisciplinary artist and technician whose work (pictured above) combines performance, installation and projection designs to explore memory, a mix of identity and spiritual futurism
• Sam Rolfesa virtual performer, artist and co-director of the virtual performance studio team Rolfes, whose works include motion capture performance, fashion and print design and musical visuals for Lady Gaga, Arca, Metallica and Netflix
• James Allister wandersthe first American artist to work with 4D sound systems, creates an immersive, sensory-based experience that explores diaspora time schedules and black interiors
• Stephanie DinkinsAn interdisciplinary artist and educator focused on emerging technologies, race and future history, was recently named one of the 100 most influential people in AI in Time Magazine
• Kevin PeterWho works in movies, performances and game engines to explore how structure and technology shape narratives and embodies
• Dr. Rashaad Newsomewhose works combine collage, performance, artificial intelligence and robotics to explore cultural expressions of black and queer