Here is our selection of what happens at the intersection of Tech&Art. We are selecting, reviewing and /or commenting the most important news, events, and we are constantly updating. So, check it daily!📚🤓
Week 26-30.04.2021
Art: Because 1st of May is coming: Cultural workers not paid since 2018. It is about staff and freelancers that worked for Documenta 12 – the contemporary art biennale which took place in Palermo. The exhibition’s organizers are sitting on debts of more than €650,000. (The Art Newspaper)
Tech/AR: AR contact lensens? 👓👀Mojo Vision is a California-based cutting-edge startup that leverages augmented reality to put information directly into your eyes, meaning inside contact lenses. It has placed 14K pixels-per-inch microdisplays, image sensors, motion sensors, and wireless radios into contact lenses that properly fit into your eyes. InWith Corp. is also powering smart lenses, by integrating AR vision display chips into contact lenses. (Analytics Inside)
Tech/AR: The Hardest Technical challenge of the Decade? AR glasses. This is what Mark Zuckerberg says. But, once you can fit a super-computer into a pair of glasses, the AR market will open up. (ZDNet)
Music: How to recognize a classy- musician? ClassicFM shows 13 habits that only classical musicians do. Between them: constantly saying singers on TV are flat, reading along with the score at concerts, Excessively emotional facial expressions, or tapping cross-rhythms at random
Film: How Pixar Uses Hyper-Colors to Hack Your Brain. The animation studio’s artists are masters at tweaking light and color to trigger deep emotional responses. (Wired)
Tech/VR: If you are a VR experience fan, this is great news! SideQuest’s new Android app can sideload VR games to your Oculus Quest. You no longer have to use a PC. (The Verge)
Art/NFTS: NFTs in IRL. Brick-and-mortar galleries embrace the new trends, “providing an experience beyond the artwork living on a cell phone” (The Art Newspaper)
Music: Music Credit Fund (MCF), a new London-based music finance company has launched with the mission to offer artists, songwriters and other music rightsholders an alternative to selling off (or giving away) their copyrights. MCF says that it will offer long-term and “competitively priced” loans (Music Business)
NFTs: NFTs are bigger than an art fad, and can completely change the rules of ownership. Transactions in which ownership is involved depended on layers of middlemen to establish trust in the transaction, exchange contracts and ensure that money changes hands. None of this will be necessary in future. (The Conversation)
Week 19-25.04.2021
NFTs: Quartz joins the list of papers writing “all about NFTs”. Chapters covered: What is an NFT?; A short history of NFTs; How to make an NFT (we tried it); Where to buy and sell NFTs; 30-second case study: NFT art; 30-second case study: NFTs in fashion; The carbon footprint of NFTs; NFT reading list. (Quartz) 📍 ❗️❗️But, if you really-really want to read ALL ❗️❗️, you can also review our all NFTs-craze article and the former rolling updates 😃 ✅
Film: Tribeca Film Festival Unveils 2021 Lineup. This year’s festival (that will run between 9-20 June) includes 64 films from 81 filmmakers from more than 23 different countries. The lineup will host 54 world premieres. The selection was made out of nearly 3,000 submissions. More than 60% of this year’s films are directed by women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ filmmakers. (Tribecca)
Tech/VR: Vive Air new headset revealed, by mistake. HTC’s next major product-reveal event is looming in May, but for at least one of its upcoming VR products, the surprise has been spoiled—by an award. (Ars Technica)
Gaming: Roblox will introduce content ratings for games to better restrict age-inappropriate content. Half of the platform’s users are kids under 13 (The Verge)
WEEK 12-18.04.2021
Creative Economy: Epic Games raises $1B for metaverse plans and places its equity valuation at $28.7 billion. $200 million strategic investment comes from Sony, reinforcing the companies goal to advance the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially- connected online services. (Venture Beat)
Digital Art: AI-generated portraits (Obvious) + NFTs + blue-chip gallery Kamel Mennour = ?💵 🤑💰? We could not even guess that price, but really curious about how it will go😃 Because the French art collective Obvious are the ones that sold the first AI-generated artwork – Portrait of Edmond de Belamy (2018) – at auction with $432,500. (Artnet)
Gaming: Core, the platform that hopes to help creators build games and players experience them, is launching for free🆓on the Epic Games Store. 🎮 Core aims to become the youtube for gamers and already includes over 20,000 free playable games (The Verge)
Digital Arts: Los Angeles Country Museum of Art first AR monuments! An enormous piece of Mexican street corn, slathered in chile powder and Cotija cheese; runaway orange bounces in the foreground; fruit carts with rainbow-colored sunshades float in the sky. “LACMA × Snapchat: Monumental Perspectives” aims to illuminate untold stories and little-known histories from around Los Angeles (LA Times)
Tech: A student YouTuber by the name of Lucas VRTech has designed and 3D printed a pair of low-cost finger tracking gloves for VR for just $22 (3DPrinting Industry)
NFTs: NFTs as Art Loan Collateral? Regardless of the varied reactions to NFTs, it seems inevitable that financial institution lenders will be approached by customers seeking to put up newly minted NFT-linked art collections as collateral. (Business Law Today)
Tech: New VR Headset on the market, soon! Pico Neo 3 is going to be launched on the Chinese market as a consumer device on May, 10th. The Enterprise version, intended for the Western market, is expected for “Late Summer 2021” (SkarredGhost)
NFTs: NFT Investments, an investment company, has raised £35 million ($48 million), three times more than planned (CoinDesk). Keep looking 👀 to see their portfolios…
Film: BAFTA 2021: NOMADLAND took prizes for best film and best director, Chloé Zhao. See the Full list of Winners (BAFTA)
Creative Economy: Wonder Dynamics aims to use AI to make some of the visual effect processes more accessible for filmmakers. And they raised $2.5 million (TechCrunch)
WEEK 05-11.04.2021
Creative Economy: Avatars are not only the new hype, but they can help you in your struggles. At least this is what the CEO of Genies says, admitting that he has struggled with anxiety and depression, but his avatar is helping him (Forbes)
Architecture: So, 🪐 Space is explored, we want to go to Mars🪐, but how the cities will look like? Architecture studio Abiboo has designed the concept for the city Nüwa that would house 250.00 people and can be built in 2054. (Dezeen). And if you’re curious about other jobs for artists and creatives in Space👽, have a look at our article Here.
Art: “What is art?” This is the question asked publicly but an artist that has claimed he created the Banksy-style graffiti of a rat underneath Reading Bridge. The image shows a 🐁 RAT 🐀 with a red rope around its neck and above it the word ‘art?’ is written in red. (Reading Chronicle)
Creative economy: “Second Renaissance is Here”, announces also Patreon, which is now valued at $4B, with more than 200k creators earning a combined $100m+ monthly from 7m+ patrons. (Patreon)
Fine Art: A couple accidentally defaced a $500,000 Painting , thinking that he pair thought the array of paint cans and brushes beneath the painting was a sign for participatory art. (ArtNet)
NFTs: The “world’s first digital fragrance” was made and sold… as an NFT. Berlin-based Look Labs created the fragrance using near-infrared spectroscopy to create a digital reflection of the scent, which has been encoded as an NFT. (Dezeen)
NFTs: Nice CryptoPunks will be auctioned by Christie’s in May (The Block Crypto)
🕶🕶AR: Apple Glass has been a source of speculation, but they could be announced this year (Tech Radar)
Film: Netflix’s big bet on global content could change how we see the world (Fast Company)
Fashion: The material innovation companies that are racing to scale as leather alternatives take off. Ecovative which creates mushroom leather has a new round of funding and large-scale production plans (Vogue Business)
Creative Economy: Clubhouse users can now pay money to creator and the app gets 0% of it (Music Business Worldwide)