Rhizome | About

MISSION

Rhizome is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology. Through open platforms for exchange and collaboration, our website serves to encourage and expand the communities around these practices. Our programs, many of which happen online, include commissions, exhibitions, events, discussion, archives and portfolios. We support artists working at the furthest reaches of technological experimentation as well as those responding to the broader aesthetic and political implications of new tools and media. Our organizational voice draws attention to artists, their work, their perspectives and the complex interrelationships between technology, art and culture.

HISTORY

Founded in 1996 as an intimate email list subscribed to by some of the first artists to work online and, twelve years later, a thriving nonprofit, Rhizome has played an integral role in the history, definition and growth of art engaged with the Internet and networked technologies. Our website is a dynamic, interactive platform, rich in historical resources and updated continually with new art and commentary by a vast community. Our programs, realized both on and offline, support art creation, presentation, preservation and interpretation; they include exhibitions & events, commissioning, daily art news and in-depth criticism, and the maintenance of a singularly comprehensive digital art archive.

ACCESS & MEMBERSHIP

Non-paying users of the Rhizome website can view all of the work in Rhizome’s ArtBase collection for free. They can also sign up to receive our weekly newsletter, Rhizome News; create a portfolio page or profile, and submit work to the ArtBase.
Rhizome Members have advanced access to the website and the ability to use a variety of tools. They can view the full record of individual artworks; annotate and comment on works; curate online exhibitions, and vote in our commissions program.
Organizational subscriptions are available to institutions, such as universities, art schools, art centers, libraries, clubs, through our Organizational Subscriptions program. These Subscriptions allow staff, faculty, students to gain access to all of Rhizome.org's features and services for free. Contact nick.hasty{at}rhizome.org for more information. For schools and organizations in poor or excluded areas, Rhizome has different organizational access program: contact info{at}rhizome.org for details.

WEBSITE

The current Rhizome site launched on January 17th, 2011.

Project Director Nick Hasty, Rhizome's Director of Technology

Lead Developer David Nolen

Design Shual / Mushon Zer-Aviv

Design Assistant Ed Nacional

Additional Design John Michael Boling

DB/Archiving Consultant Ward Smith

Read more about the site development process on our site launch post.

The site runs on a number of open-source platforms, such as Django, MySQL, CouchDB, Mootools, and Blueprint.

CONTACT

Rhizome is located within the New Museum at:
235 Bowery
New York, NY
10002

Phone: 1 (212) 219-1288
Email: Questions about the site and membership can be sent to nick.hasty@rhizome.org

PROGRAMS & RESOURCES

All our programs and resources strive to encourage and expand the community around new media art.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Peter Rojas, Chairman
Fred Benenson
John Borthwick
Saul Dennison
Sima Familant
Lisa Phillips
Ron Rosenzweig
David A. Ross
Lisa Roumell
Lisa Schiff
Randy Slifka
Mark Tribe
John Scott Wotowicz
Bob Wyman

Rhizome Staff

Lauren Cornell

Executive Director, Rhizome, and Adjunct Curator, the New Museum of Contemporary Art

Cornell oversees and develops Rhizome's programs, all of which serve to promote and contextualize art engaged with technology. Previously, Cornell worked as a curator and writer in London and New York. She worked in the Andy Warhol Film Project at the Whitney Museum and, from 2002-2004, she served as Executive Director of Ocularis, an organization dedicated to avant-garde cinema, video and new media. Cornell is also Adjunct Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, where she collaborates to produce exhibitions and the monthly New Silent Series.

Ben Fino-Radin

Digital Conservator

In this position, Ben oversees the development of Rhizome's online archive of digital art. He actively monitors and creates new records on art works, and drafts policies and procedure for the ingest of digital work, keeping Rhizome on the cutting edge of research and development on the preservation of digital materials. He also collaborates with a team on the repair of artworks that fall victim to obsolescence, as well as supporting the ingest of digital archival materials. Fino-Radin is an artist and researcher specializing in information science, and the preservation of digital culture & ephemera. An artist by training, he received his B.F.A from Alfred University, and is currently pursuing Masters degrees in Library & Information Science and Digital Art at Pratt Institute.

Nick Hasty

Director of Technology

Nick Hasty is an artist, programmer, fabricator, writer & musician. He received a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Georgia, and holds a Master's degree from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program in the Tisch School of the Arts. At ITP, Nick designed performance devices and built PHP/MySQL architectures for text manipulation and generation. From November 2007 to May 2008, Nick served as Technology Assistant for Rhizome and worked on projects, such as the development of widgets, using PHP, MySQL and AJAX. Nick is actively involved in NYC's DIY electronics and experimental music community, and has written for various online music publications.

Joanne McNeil

Senior Editor

As Senior Editor, Joanne McNeil oversees all content published on Rhizome News and the Rhizome blog. She commissions and edits features on art, digital culture, new media, and gaming. She writes about a range of subjects including augmented reality, copyright policy, the future of publishing, and robotics. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, n+1, and other web and print publications. Previously, she founded and edited the blog The Tomorrow Museum. Her personal site is joannemcneil.com

Zoe Salditch

Program Director

As Program Director, Zoë Salditch oversees and produces key Rhizome programs. She manages the Commissions Program, and The Download, a digital art collecting program she conceived and initiated in 2011. She also coordinates major organization initiatives like Rhizome's Seven on Seven Conference, manages all community aspects of Rhizome's site, and is the liaison for all member affairs, individual and organizational. Previously, Zoë was a volunteer with the organization, and came to the organization via the Museum Studies program at Tufts University.

Rhizome Timeline

Everything Rhizome has done.