Rhizome’s Seven on Seven is an annual conference that brings together leaders in art and technology and challenges them to make something new. Founded by Rhizome in 2010, Seven on Seven forefronts leading issues at the intersection of culture and technology, and animates them through its novel format. Seven leading artists are paired with seven visionary technologists and asked to “make something”: an artwork, a prototype, a provocation—whatever they imagine. What they create in their short time together premieres at the conference, yet its effects ripple beyond that day.
The 2017 edition featured artists and technologists asking timely questions about how new technologies organize publics and public space. The line-up included founders of international media organizations, corporate and civic leaders, artists blurring the lines between art and entrepreneurship, and creators pushing new technologies—from WeChat to artificial intelligence to the fabric of the web itself—to their furthest ends.