Rhizome and the New Museum today announce the relaunch of Seven on Seven (7x7), the iconic art and technology program, to take place at the New Museum on January 27, 2024. Founded in 2010, 7x7 pairs leading artists with visionary technologists and tasks them with a simple challenge: make something new. The results are presented at a public, experiential conference.
Presented by Hyundai Motor through an ongoing partnership with Rhizome of the New Museum, the 2024 edition will focus on AI and is co-organized by Michael Connor, Co-Executive Director of Rhizome, and Xinran Yuan, independent curator and producer. The first in-person edition to be held since 2019, 7x7 2024 draws together creative pairings from across disciplines. The collaborators will consider how AI may alter our understanding of love, humor, and improvisation; biology, politics, and histories.
Tickets for 7x7 2024 are on sale now. The event will take place in an intimate setting at the New Museum's theater 1:30pm-6pm on Saturday, January 27, followed by a reception in the Sky Room. It will also be live streamed on the New Museum’s YouTube channel for a global audience.
The 7x7 2024 participants are:
- Quantum physicist Dr. Stephon Alexander with comedian, artist, and musician Reggie Watts
- Replika AI CEO and Founder Eugenia Kuyda with artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson
- Boston Dynamics Director of Human-Robot Interaction David Robert, with artist Miriam Simun
- Nym Technologies CEO and Co-Founder Harry Halpin with artist Tomás Saraceno
- Ginkgo Bioworks Head of Creative Christina Agapakis with artist Xin Liu
- Runway CEO and Co-Founder Cristóbal Valenzuela with comedian, writer, and actor Ana Fabrega
- Engineer and entrepreneur Alan Steremberg with artist Rindon Johnson
“Neural networks and other AI systems have long been topics of note at 7x7. With these technologies now widely available, 7x7 2024 takes an expansive but critical view of their role in society. The participants look beyond the dreams of apocalypse and the endless drive to extract, and ask, what new kinds of collaborations and entanglements will AI enable?” —Michael Connor, Co-Executive Director of Rhizome
Since its inception in 2010, 7x7 has been a catalyst in the evolution of art and technology collaboration, often acting as a mirror of significant cultural contexts and an indicator of emerging trends in our increasingly technological society. The site of the creation of the first NFT by artist Kevin McCoy and technologist Anil Dash in 2014, 7x7 has catalyzed some of the earliest creative experimentations and critical engagements with machine learning, blockchain, and social media technologies. Past participants include Ai Weiwei, American Artist, Alex Chung, Miranda July, David Karp, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Trevor McFedries, Jonah Peretti, Aza Raskin, Tabita Rezaire, Hito Steyerl, Martine Syms, and Meredith Whittaker, to name a few.
“In recent years, the art and tech ecosystem has expanded to encompass a wider range of institutions, companies, and stakeholders. The relationship between artists and technologies, platforms, and collaborations has grown increasingly complex," states Xinran Yuan, Producer and Co-Curator of 7x7 2024. "To plan the 2024 edition in this evolving context, we spent time refocusing on what makes 7x7 unique: it is a risk-tolerant, experimental, and most importantly, public forum. Here, what is foregrounded is not only the intriguing outcomes of such collaborations, but also the negotiations, uncertainties, even failures that are integral to the shaping of these collaborative ideas, knowledge, and creations.”
“As part of our twenty-year affiliation with Rhizome, the New Museum is gratified to convene this critical gathering on a topic of such importance to contemporary culture,” said Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director of the New Museum. “7x7 has long been a key part of our vision to make the New Museum a campus for new art and new ideas, supporting not only the display of art but knowledge creation in many forms.”
Learn more about 7x7's history and past participants.
7x7, presented by Rhizome and Hyundai Motor is made possible through an ongoing partnership between Rhizome, the New Museum, and Hyundai to showcase leading digital art globally. This partnership, which began in 2020, has included exhibitions in three countries as well as on the web and several artist commissions.
Visionary partners for 7x7 are project partner SMK-National Gallery of Denmark, supporting the pairing of Eugenia Kuyda and Lynn Hershman Leeson, and research partner APOSSIBLE.
Additional support for 7x7 is provided by Refik Anadol, Rudy Austin, and Fred Benenson.
ABOUT RHIZOME
Rhizome champions born-digital art and culture through commissions, exhibitions, scholarship, and digital preservation. Founded in 1996 by artist Mark Tribe as an email discussion list including some of the first artists to work online, Rhizome has played an integral role in the history of contemporary art engaged with digital technologies and the internet. Since 2003, Rhizome has been an affiliate in residence at the New Museum in New York City.
ABOUT NEW MUSEUM
The New Museum is the only museum in New York City exclusively devoted to contemporary art. Founded in 1977, the New Museum is a center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists from around the world. From its beginnings as a one-room office on Hudson Street to the inauguration of its first freestanding building on the Bowery designed by SANAA in 2007, the New Museum continues to be a place of experimentation and a hub of new art and new ideas.
ABOUT HYUNDAI MOTOR’S ART PROJECTS
For over a decade, Hyundai Motor Company has deepened its partnerships with global museums and cultural organizations, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), Tate, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Hyundai Motor’s own art-initiatives include open call programs such as the VH AWARD, the Hyundai Blue Prize, and Artlab Editorial, a digital platform dedicated to art writing by transnational voices. Our ongoing collaborations embrace the complexities of the cultural landscape by exploring new ideas and perspectives within and beyond the art ecosystem.
Visit artlab.hyundai.com or follow @hyundai.artlab #HyundaiArtlab to learn more about our partnerships and programs.