What Do You Want To Do With It?, a major festival exploring all aspects of digital technology featuring leading creative figure John Maeda (b. 1966 in Seattle, Washington), Vice President of Design and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft.
In his work, Maeda seeks to champion the necessary role that artists and designers play in the 21st-century creative economy. As an artist, Maeda’s early work redefined the use of electronic media as a tool for expression by combining computer programming with traditional artistic techniques, laying the groundwork for interactive motion graphics on the web.
In 2001, Maeda, then Professor at MIT and Ph.D students were invited to undertake a residency and exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), London, where the groundbreaking exhibition, Cybernetic Serendipity took place in 1968. Curated by Jasia Reichardt, Cybernetic Serendipity challenged the traditional role of the artist as they explored cybernetic devices, resulting in computer-generated music, graphics, texts or poems. The ICA was created as an institute (not a museum), for the contemporary (not just modern) and for all the arts (not just art) – which reflects perfectly well in the venue’s program and embrace of media arts, as well as its openness and curiosity for the new. The exhibition was the first of its kind in Britain, and the curator Jasia Reichardt wrote that it showed how “man can use the computer and new technology to extend his creativity and inventiveness.”
Watch: Talk
It was in this vein and to mark this groundbreaking exhibition that the New Media Dept, ICA staged What Do You Want To Do With It? a month-long festival in 2001 exploring all aspects of digital technology. First and foremost in exploring both the possibilities of new media, and being sponsored by Motorola, the cross-departmental exhibition ran for two months and featured exhibits from 325 participants from across the globe.
Digital technology has had a profound effect on how we experience the world around us since 2001. In addition to allowing us to break social barriers, it has seemingly brought us closer to notions of democratic curatorship by extending the art gallery, theatre and cinema to new spaces. However, the enthusiasm surrounding the role of emerging technologies is now somewhat more tempered. This was less apparent just after the turn of the new Millennium when its possibilities were being widely explored.
Sponsored by Motorola, and network systems company SUN Microsystems and then gaming industry newcomer Sony. What Do You Want To Do With It? brought together major international artists and digital media specialists John Meada, Tim Etchells, Mike Figgis, Digista NHK, Tsai Ming Ling, British Interactive Media Association and Digit. and Mark Amerika, several pioneers of digital and net art, all in residence for the duration of the festival. Across programmes of art commissions, installations, residencies, exhibitions, talks, moving image and supporting programme of interactive websites, games, kiosks, video and text messaging events, over 60,000 people visited the exhibition that explored new technologies and emerging internet culture.
Since 2001, Maeda’s works of contemporary art have been exhibited in one-man shows in London – including Maeda: MySpace at Riflemaker in 2007 and featured in Decode at the V&A. Named one of the ’21 Most Important People Of The 21st Century’ by Esquire; In 2006 he published Laws of Simplicity, his fourth and best-selling book, based on a research project to find ways for people to simplify their life in the face of growing complexity. Maeda’s voice-controlled computers are on permanent display at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.
What Do You Want To Do With It? was curated and realised by Andrew Chetty and Keith Whittle. Advisory members included Echo Eschen and media agency A Fish Can Sing. The festival was funded by Arts Council England and sponsored by Motorola, SUN Microsystems and Sony Playstation.
