ZER01

ZERO1

ZERO1: The Art and Technology Network
Founded	2000
Founders	Andy Cunningham and Beau Takahara
Location	Silicon Valley
Website	zero1.org

ZERO1: The Art and Technology Network is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to connecting creative explorers from art, science, and technology to provoke new ideas that serve to shape a more resilient future.

In 1995 high tech marketing pioneer Andy Cunningham, who had been instrumental to the success of companies such as Apple, Cisco, and HP, was inspired to bring artists and technologists together to explore and incubate art and ideas that would change the world. Five years later, Andy Cunningham, launched ZERO1 to encourage creativity at the intersection of art and technology and to produce a major festival celebrating this creative intersection.

The organization convenes artists and technologists, presents their collaborative efforts, sponsors artistic initiatives and exhibits the resulting work to the public. ZERO1 is the producer of ZERO1 Biennial, a multi-disciplinary, multi-venue event of visual and performing arts, the moving image, public art and interactive digital media.

Established in 2006, the ZERO1 Biennial has presented the work of more than 650 artists from more than 60 countries; commissioned over 120 original works of art, attracted over 170,000 visitors from around the world, and contributed approximately $30 million in economic revenue to the region. The ZERO1 Biennial, distributed throughout Silicon Valley and the greater Bay Area, is North America’s most significant and comprehensive showcase of work at the nexus of art and technology. Through curated exhibitions, public art installations, performances, and speaker events, the ZERO1 Biennial presents work by a global community of innovative artists who are reshaping contemporary culture.

The 2012 Biennial invited more than 150 artists from over 13 countries to present works at the forefront of media art – collaborating with local, regional, national and international cultural institutions and iconic Silicon Valley companies to showcase three months of exhibitions, events, and performances. The core Biennial exhibition, also entitled Seeking Silicon Valley, was collectively curated by five international curators and included 24 international artists from 11 different countries, including 18 original commissions. 51 Biennial projects were installed in public space, 28 of those public art projects were for (e)MERGE, the ZERO1 Street festival, that engaged 86 collaborating artists.

In September 2010 over 47,000 visitors engaged with over 100 artists, designers, engineers, filmmakers, musicians, architects and avant-garde creators from 21 countries, as they proved that art can be more than merely aesthetically pleasing, but rather a tool with which to Build Your Own World. Led by ZERO1 Artistic Director, Steve Dietz, in his third and final year with the Biennial, Assistant Curator Jaime Austin, and ZERO1’s Executive Director Joel Slayton, the 2010 ZERO1 Biennial featured works by art and design luminaries David Rockwell and The Lab, Brody Condon, Natalie Jeremijenko, Rigo23, Todd Chandler, Blast Theory and many more. The 2010 Biennial also included a digital art collector’s panel, Still Life with Banquet, the city’s first zipline over a man-made marsh, a drive-in theater fashioned out of salvaged cars, and AbsoluteZERO an evening street fair of emerging artists.