| Rhizome Announces Month-Long Celebration of Software Art Hosted by Water Street Projects at WSA in New York City Special programs include never-before-exhibited artworks, free workshops, family activities, and installations by MSCHF, Taryn Simon with Aaron Swartz, Tale of Tales (Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn), James Ferraro with Bladee, and more |
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| Rhizome, the leading digital arts organization and New Museum affiliate-in-residence since 2003, announces Rhizome World, a month-long exhibition and weekly events celebrating software art hosted by Water Street Projects and taking place across two floors of the WSA building in the Financial District of lower Manhattan (161 Water St.) from April 18 to May 11, 2025. In keeping with Rhizome’s networked approach, the exhibition will showcase past and present software-based artworks in conjunction with public activations throughout the show’s run. EXHIBITION DETAILS & PARTNERS The installations in this exhibition evoke the breadth and depth of artistic experimentation with software, providing a temporary home for an alternative art world, one marked by technological experimentation, promiscuous collaboration, and subversive creativity, long marginalized by mainstream institutions. With Rhizome Executive Director Michael Connor acting as lead curator, Rhizome World will present a number of archival projects and commissions, some organized with Rhizome’s friends and collaborators, including:Rhizome’s new restoration of Image Atlas, a landmark project developed by Taryn Simon with Aaron Swartz as part of the 7×7 conference in 2012, preserved in partnership with Université de Montréal Department of Computer Science and Operations Research; Casco Viejo, a 2021 generative artwork by artist Ix Shells (Itzel Yard) shown at large scale across the windows of WSA;A selection of artworks from the Rhizome Artbase; including Porpentine Charity Heartscape and Neotenomie, Rafaël Rozendaal and Cory Arcangel;Artworks created using the programming language p5.js, which over the past decade plus has transformed access to code as a creative medium, supported by Generative Art Fund and selected by Rhizome friends, a project that will continue with a new partnership between Rhizome and Processing Foundation to create more expansive archives of Processing and p5.js communities and histories;An installation of MSCHF’s Tax Heaven 3000, a visual dating simulator that actually prepared participants’ federal income tax return, curated by Thalia Stefaniuk;Artist Beatriz da Costa’s landmark work, Pigeonblog, an interspecies collaboration between homing pigeons, artists, engineers, and pigeon fanciers to collect and distribute air quality data to the public, an excerpt of the exhibition “Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics” presented by LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) and curated by Daniela Lieja Quintanar with Ana Briz;A restoration of the long-lost work Eden.Garden 1.1 by Entropy8Zuper!, now better known as Tale of Tales (Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn), newly restored and presented by ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, curated by Inge Hinterwaldner and Daniela Hönigsberg with Laura C. Schmidt and restored by Marc Schütze;A newly commissioned video work by Limbo Accra (Dominique Petit-Frère and Emil Grip), exploring 3D scans of half-finished modernist architecture in West Africa and the cultural narratives behind them;Sanctuary, an immersive poem by Bladee and James Ferraro, commissioned by Artifacts in partnership with Rhizome & powered by Microsoft; andA new staging of a ticketed immersive experience by Mark Fingerhut, curated by PWA (Alison Sirico & Sam Black).And more—a complete artist list will follow.Rhizome World will also feature ongoing events and workshops, such as a series of music and sound performances to activate a “spatial sound instrument” by artist Emmett James Palaima; and opportunities for members of the public to book time to try out the iconic early image editing tool Quantel Paintbox with artist Adrian Wilson, presented as part of the ongoing Paintboxed Tezos World tour organized by ArtMeta with support from the Tezos Foundation. FOUR WEEKENDS, FOUR THEMES |
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| Over the course of Rhizome World’s month long run, each of the four weekends will feature different themes: Weekend 1: Hello World (April 18–20) celebrates code as a creative medium. A p5.js arty on April 19, a part of a partnership between Rhizome and Processing Foundation, will feature workshops and live coding performances. Weekend 2: Another Internet is Possible (April 25-27) explores alternative networks. It opens April 25 with a talk by Mike Pepi about his book Against Platforms, and includes the April 26 launch of Lori Emerson’s new book Other Networks. Weekend 3: More than Human (May 2-4) explores relating to “more than human” entities in nature, AI, and gaming. Events will include a workshop with Solar Protocol and an event led by Daniela Lieja Quintanar about the work of Beatriz da Costa. Weekend 4: Community Memory (May 10-11) draws 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. Additional details forthcoming, including news around the 2025 edition of Rhizome’s 7×7. RHIZOME WORLD BENEFIT Just before the show’s close, Rhizome World will culminate on May 9 with the Rhizome World Benefit Dinner, an immersive gathering of art and tech luminaries celebrating the past and future of digital art. The evening will support Rhizome’s specialized commissioning program for artists and will honor Taryn Simon, Aaron Swartz (in memoriam), Auriea Harvey, and Michaël Samyn. Rhizome World is hosted by Water Street Projects. The exhibition is organized by Michael Connor and produced by Danica Newell with curators Bri Griffin, Thalia Stefaniuk, and Kayla Drzewicki. Digital art conservation is led by digital preservation director Dragan Espenschied with conservator Nicole Savoy. The exhibition is designed by Bench Architecture. Art direction and digital strategy for Rhizome World is developed by Digital Counsel, a full stack creative agency led by Marcella Zimmermann. Artworks commissioned for Rhizome World were made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and Rhizome Council. Printing and fabrication by Duggal Visual Solutions, and window installation is provided by YAWAL USA. Generous support for the P5.JS presentation was made possible by Generative Art Fund, with P5.JS programming made possible by Processing Foundation. Rhizome’s program is made possible by Teiger Foundation for the Arts, Mellon Foundation, NYSCA, Onassis ONX, and DCLA. |
