IoT Community of Artists

"Machines that fit in the human environment, instead of forcing humans to enter theirs, will make using a computer as refreshing as taking a walk in the woods" - Mark Weiser, "The Computer for the 21st Century" "During the last century, after the two world wars, some artists showed a special commitment to the humanization of technologies and the democratization of access to media. This would imply establishing new dialogues among disciplines, collaboration among artists, scientists and engineers, as well as fostering critical reflections in ethical and not only aesthetic terms." - Karin Ohlenschläger, foreword to Next Things_Next Starts exhibition catalogue

Building a Community

IoT is at an early stage in a new era of ICT. In the IoT, consumers are more than simply users: they are key active agents of innovation in the creation of new IoT specific processes, products and services. They can be assemblers and beta-testers of combinations of off-the-shelf solutions made available by the IoT LSPs. Potentially, they transform themselves from consumers into producers - prosumers. They may even become entrepreneurs and create their own businesses as providers of new services built upon the IoT platforms being implemented by the LSPs. The IoT ecology therefore presents a uniquely varied and wide opportunity for engagement.

As part of innovation processes, a well known objective is to think out-of-the-box. Artists, however, are more interested in getting rid of the box. It is this disruptive approach that is seen as fundamental to create a critical approach to technological developments. In this context, the integration of artists in technological research processes can be instrumental for the attribution of meaning to new technologies. It is expected that an IoT Community of Artists will develop as a result of activities implementing the methodology for integrating ICT and Art in the LSPs.

One purpose of this Artists Wiki is to highlight the development of this community of artists through showcasing key projects as Case Studies. Another purpose of the Artist Wiki is to highlight more generally the value of ICT and Art collaboration as a driver for innovation.

This community will coalesce around those already working in the field, those who have found commonalities with business innovators, and those who have come across collaborative opportunities through schemes such as Vertigo STARTS and FutureEverything's Fault Lines.

Artists exploring IoT

Many of the artists who have been active working within the IoT ecology are taking the opportunity to address conceptual and practical concerns around the Human Computer Interface, and how systems change the way we see the world.

The following is a short list of notable experiments in that arena.

Conceptual Experiments
Artist(s)	Project
James Bridle	Austeer
moovel lab	Who wants to be a self driving car

Artistic Interventions
Naho Matsuda	every thing, every time
Invisible Flock	I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Kasia Molga & Robin Rimbaud "Scanner"	Song of Soil
Yann Deval & Marie-Ghislaine Losseau	Atlas Project
So Kanno	Chatroom of Things

Next Things_Next STARTS

One of the first groups of artists that might be said to belong to this IoT Community are the ones exhibited at the exhibition Next Things_Next STARTS, in Gijon, Spain, between December 2017 and March 2018. Their wide experience in working in the context of IoT makes of them a privileged group to address relevant questions in the The IoT European Large-Scale Pilots Programme. The Next Things_Next STARTS exhibition showed for the first time the results of the research and production residency programme, Next Things, organised by LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in conjunction with Telefónica R+D over a five-year period with the mission to forge new connections and collaborations between art, science, technology and society. Following an open call issued to artists and other creatives, the most innovative ideas and projects related with the Internet of Things were chosen.

The award consisted in a six-month residency here (two at LABoral and four at Telefónica R+D) to materialise their ideas and projects, as well as substantial funding.

Next Thing_Next STARTS
Artist(s)	Project
Laura Malinverni & Lilia Villafuerte	Mapocci
Lot Amorós, Cristina Navarro & Alexandre Oliver	Flone, The Flying Phone
Sam Kronick	The Consortium for a Slower Internet
María Castellanos & Alberto Valverde	Environmental Dress 2.0
Román Torre & Ángeles Angulo	THERO