Inside Rhizome World, a sprawling digital art show in Lower Manhattan.
Alexey Kim
New York’s financial district isn’t known for its cutting-edge cultural offerings, but the Water Street Asssociates building is changing that. They have created a hub for artists and creatives in unassuming 31-story, granite-clad office tower that noce housed the headquarters of insurance company A.I.G. On floors five and six, Water Street Projects is hosting some of the best art shows and events in New York.
The latest is Rhizome World, a sprawling exhibition that showcases some of the most cutting-edge software art from new, never-before-seen artworks, to new installations of classic networked projects from yesteryear. Rhizome is the leading internet arts organization, focusing on art that uses coding, the internet, and other networks as a space of experimentation.
Rhizome World is curated by Rhizome Executive Director Michael Connor. One of the main attractions is a large-scale installation of works created using the the programming language p5.js, which “has transformed access to code as a creative medium.” There is even a an immersive poem by musicians Bladee and James Ferraro, played like a video game.
Digital Art History
The exhibition is not short on humor. MSCHF’s Tax Heaven 3000, is an onlinen dating simulator where users can get federal income tax return guidance from a benevolent program based on tax software such as TurboTax, but reimagined as a romantic exchange. Artist Beatriz da Costa’s PigeonBlog is an ongoing project that started in 2006, and is presented at Rhizome World as a a multimedia installation. In the project, da Costa outfitted homing pigeons with sensors to collect data on air quality.
Mark Fingerhut’s halcyon.exe is a custom software program that doubles as a theme park ride. Visitors sit on benches and are guided through a narrative on screen. Fingerhut’s installation includes several immersive elements with an engineering aesthetic, a perfect complement to the DIY software.
On May 10th and 11th, programming hosted in the exhibition will “draw inspiration from the early bulletin board experiment in 1970s Berkeley that showed the potential for gathering knowledge on local community networks. The weekend will highlight the importance of digital histories and alternative models for arts organizations, anchored by the Rhizome World closing party.”
Rhizome will also host the 2025 7×7 conference, which pairs seven artists with seven technologists.
Founded in 2010, Seven on Seven (7×7) brings together leading artists and tech luminaries for deep conversations and creative collaborations under one simple assignment: Make Something New. The outcomes of these collaborations (a sketch, a demo, a prototype) are presented at a public conference.
After an AI-focused edition in 2024, Rhizome will shake up the format for 2025, inspired by a concept proposal from MSCHF and Karen Wong: this time, the key technology for this edition will be the law. Founded in 2010, Seven on Seven (7×7) is a unique program in which leading artists and technologists are paired up and given a simple assignment: Make Something New. The outcomes of these short-term collaborations are then presented at a public conference. This year, Rhizome is shaking up the format with a concept proposed by artist collective MSCHF: this time, the key technology isnt code – it’s the law. Artists will be paired with with lawyers, policy advocates, and legal scholars for short-term collaboratoins to address key issues in technology, culture, and democracy today.
Central to 7×7 is the idea that practice and not just discourse is one of the best ways to explore how A.I. and other emerging technologies are raising existential and ethical questions around human value, human agency, and creativity,” Xinran Yuan, the 2024 co-curator and producer, told Artnet.
“The seven pairs of collaborators featured in the upcoming 7×7 come from distinct fields and are going to address A.I. in targeted but ultimately nuanced and expansive ways,” Yuan said. “Topics range from the cosmos to the ocean, the body, biology, social organizations, love, and humor.”
Rhizome World is on view through May 11, 2025.
7×7 will take place at Cornell Tech on May 9th.