Our esteemed creators Mira Calix, Ash Nehru of UVA, Michael Meredith of MOS Architects, and Nick Zinner collaborator Martyn Ware of Ilustrious Company Ltd. got together to discuss art and technology, how they compliment each other, situations in which they might collide, the possibility of multi-sensory architecture, giant interactive video games, and much, much more. Since getting this many brain cells in the same room again seems like a tall order, we suggest you watch the full video above. However, if you don’t have the bandwith, or your internet connection is being slow, we’re including some highlights below to get your synapses firing:Maryn Ware: I believe the future is going to be all about immersive technologies coming together, and people contributing on the fly to create a virtual flashmob of creativity. I think this is a really exciting world; we can incorporate sound, and smell (yes smell) and obviously vision…and of course architecture is a very big part of it all. My opening argument would be that architecture should take all of these things into account. That we should actually build buildings that are really exciting to live in.Michael Meredith: The thing that's interesting about this event is…it's not a museum, it's not an art exhibition, it's not a conference, it somehow doesn't really fit into any category quite easily. I think it's sort of a challenge to all of us to think about what it is that we do.Mira Calix: Often as an artist you can feel like what you're doing doesn't save lives; it's not an essential part of society, and working with [the homeless through Streetwise Opera] I realized that human beings do need to express themselves and be creative. They want to and they need more than just food and water and a roof over their head, which this project really brought home to me.Martyn Ware: As we all become more and more of an atomized society in front of our computer screens, people in our secular society are craving more and more group activities that give significance to their lives. I think technology is an important part of all that.Ash Nehru: We're really interested in this idea that art is made by artists and consumed by audiences who are really passive and just sit there and look at things, that artists are the only ones who get to do anything. We’re really interested in creating work where people get to come up on stage and be part of it.Martyn Ware: It just shows that if you put different interesting things in front of people you come up with unexpected results. That's where the good stuff happens as far as I'm concerned. Also, getting back to the emancipation of participation and technology, you know, it enables everyone to take part, not just famous people, not just people who've got a reputation, or have spent 10 to 20 years developing their oeuvre — it's that everybody in this room could potentially create a work of art together today. That’s incredibly inspiring to me.
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