Strange Alchemy

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Strange Alchemy

• mixing art, technology research and venture
  capital

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Arts Alliance...Laboratory?

• Arts Alliance is a venture capital fund based in
  London, New York and San Francisco
• Arts Alliance Laboratory is the research arm of
  Arts Alliance

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Arts Alliance Laboratory!

• art practice as research practice
• experiment with new media, on- and off-line
• catalyze creativity in the portfolio companies
• contribute to international discussion about
  developing new media
• attract and develop talent close to the machine

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Art Research Venture Capital ?

• why would a vc support a research lab?
• why would an artist want to work with a vc?

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Art Research Venture Capital ?

• why would a vc support a research lab?
• act ahead of the market instead of behind
• sources of innovation are many and varied
• art-lead research has even greater freedom to
  explore
• expectation is simple disseminate the learning

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Art Research Venture Capital ?

• why would an artist want to work with a vc?
• financing
• connection to start-ups and their audiences
• rich pool of ideas, talent and motivation
• opportunity to support the work of other artists

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Current Projects I ActiveText

• real-time interactive and dynamic text
• Its Alive!
• TextOrgan
• Tu Uyen Triptych

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Current Projects II Machines Like Sharks

• data never sleeps
• I Know What Youre Thinking
• Emergent
• Everything You Thought Wed Forgotten

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Current Projects III The Map is the Territory

• visualizing on-line communities
• bring lab work into real world
• develop our own

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CRiT Nights

• Creative Reviews in Technology
• Forum for artists, technologists, theorists
• 2 4 artists / 20 25 guests
• Work-in-progress

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Residencies

• two-week to one month stays at the stuido
• Hubbub Sha Xin Wei Fabienne Regnaut
• Archer Pechawis
• Code Zebra

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Year One Lessons

• AA is not your typical VC firm
• collaborating with porfolio companies is
  challenging
• communicating the learning over two continents,
  three offices, nine timezones and thirty
  portfolio companies is also challenging
• provokes a useful discussion of alternate models
  for funding artists and researchers

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