Hush – Bringing inanimate objects to life
Can we use AI more playfully in the physical world? Hush is a toy box that brings inanimate objects to life by connecting physical play with generative AI.
Prometheus Bound – In the pursuit of perpetual energy
Prometheus Bound probes the gap between clean energy myths and the messy reality of algae cultivation, while also questioning the ethics of biocontrol and the labor of harvesting electricity from living species.
Dioptricon – Experiments with parallel light
Dioptricon is a series of experiments using light as a space-forming medium. Instead of spreading out in a radial manner from a source, in Dioptricon light rays are instead arranged in parallel to each other.
momentum.js: Integrating Generative Art and Timeline-Based Animation
momentum.js is a toolkit that brings generative art into the timeline of Adobe After Effects.
Data Critters – Tracing our digital actions through modern scribes
Data Critters are custom-built mechanical plotters connected to live data feeds from the platforms they map. They trace paths across paper as data is generated, producing an ever-growing, never-finished map of online human activity.
IED Master of Arts in Interaction Design: shaping emerging technologies for products and services
IED Master of Arts in Interaction Design focuses on training designers who can shape and manage interaction ecosystems where physical and digital dimensions converge.
In A Minute – The rhythm of our global impact
The keys in the front door, the scribbling of a pencil, the bubbling of the coffee pot. These elements of our everyday soundtrack hold meaning for all of us, so we programmed these familiar objects to move to the rhythm of our global impact.
Uncoded Gestures – Tracing the echos of the past
Uncoded Gestures is an installation that traces cultural memory through posture. By mapping live silhouettes to archival photos, it reveals how modern bodies echo the past, turning everyday gestures into a dialogue across time.
Partition – You look through a wall, the wall looks through you
Partition is a pen plotter that draws at the speed of your heartbeat, sensed through a gallery wall without your consent.
V6 Development Log (03/2026)
Activity gets a major update: LiveURLs let you embed p5.js, video, audio and more directly in posts. Custom Themes let you personalise CAN. API v2.3 and iOS v1.5.1 add Analytics and Channels.
Paramnésico by Desilence at Load Gallery
Load gallery celebrates its second birthday with a solo exhibition Paramnésico by Desilence, pioneers of visual scenography and real-time motion video.
Scruple – A Chrome extension that replaces moral hesitation with computation
Scruple reads your Gmail, runs four ethical frameworks in parallel, and writes the replies — simulating compassion, automating principle, outsourcing guilt.
V6 Development Log (02/2026)
February’s push debuts CAN API (v2.1) and our iOS App (v1.3.1). Members can now participate in Activity directly via mobile, or build their own micro-apps using the API.
Featured
Digital Delights & Disturbances
Digital Delights and Disturbances (DDD) is a lecture series hosted by the Communications and Media Studies Department at John Cabot University (Rome), curated by Valentina Tanni, and 'serves as an intersection where issues of technology, society, and culture meet.' The Spring 2026 series includes Hito Steyerl (05/02), Auriea Harvey (24/02),...
Paramnésico by Desilence
Load presents a solo exhibition Paramnésico by Desilence, pioneers of visual scenography and live visuals. Paramnésico takes its title from paramnesia, a condition in which memory loses its reliability, and the boundary between lived experience and imagination begins to blur. Memory is approached not as an archive of fixed images,...
European Media Art Festival 2026
Each year EMAF offers its visitors an overview of current artistic productions in film programmes, exhibitions, performances and hybrid formats. Guest-curated projects and retrospectives provide in-depth insights into historical positions and contexts.
FITC Toronto 2026
FITC celebrates their 25th anniversary with the theme REBIRTH, exploring the future of everything innovative, technical and creative. Includes hand-picked speakers from around the world and from a variety of backgrounds.
Beyond Tellerand – Düsseldorf
Established in 2014, Beyond Tellerand is where design and technology meet. 15 Years Celebration!
Topics
algorithmAlgorithm is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation – Wikipedia.
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artificial-intelligenceArtificial Intelligence describes a field that develops and studies methods and software which enable machines to perceive their environment and uses learning and intelligence to take actions that maximize their chances of achieving defined goals – Wikipedia.
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automationAutomation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines – Wikipedia.
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cameraA camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film – Wikipedia.
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data-visualisationData visualisation is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the graphic (or physical) representation of data.
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environmentEnvironment, or built world, refers to the human-made environment that provides the setting for activity, ranging in scale from installations to buildings.
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filmA film is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images.
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generativeThe term 'Generative' describes a process, in whole or in part, that is created using an autonomous system. An autonomous system in this context is generally non-human and can independently determine features that would otherwise require decisions made by the author/creator.
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installationInstallation describes large-scale, mixed-media constructions, often designed for a specific place or for a temporary period of time.
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interactiveThe term 'Interactive' describes a process/exchange between users and computers and other machines through an interface (physical or spatial).
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interfaceAn interface is a shared boundary across which two or more separate components of a system of exchange information. The exchange can be between software, computer hardware, peripheral devices, humans, animal-world, nature and combinations of these.
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kinectKinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of flight calculations, which can in turn be used to perform real-time gesture recognition and body skeletal detection, among other capabilities.
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machine-learningMachine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalize to unseen data, and thus perform tasks without explicit instructions.
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networkA network may describe any form of an interconnected group or system, whether in computation or nature.
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nftA non-fungible token (NFT) is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger, that can be sold and traded. Types of NFT data units may be associated with digital files such as photos, videos, and applications.
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objectAn object is a thing that has physical existence but is not alive.
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opencvOpenCV is a library of programming functions for real-time computer vision.
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particlesIn the physical sciences, a particle is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. In computation, it is mostly used as a point that may have a position and vector.
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patternA pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner.
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processA process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. On CAN we use it to describe workflows or how a project came to be.
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projectionA projection is a design technique used to display a three-dimensional object on a two-dimensional surface. Similarly it describes a way of displaying two-dimensional information in a physical space by using light.
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roboticsRobotics is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and science that includes mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering, computer science, and others.
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sculptureSculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth.
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simulationA simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real or speculative world.
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socialOn CAN we refer to things as "social" when they facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through different forms of communities and networks.
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theoryA theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking.
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typographyTypography is the technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed.
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Creative Researcher in XR 60% (Junior Researcher) at Zurich University of the Arts
Zurich University of the Arts are looking for a Creative Researcher to represent the field of Extended Reality (XR) within the Immersive Arts Space’s interdisciplinary core team.
Lecturer – Computing Applications at Texas Tech University
The School of Professional Studies at Texas Tech University Online invites applications for a full-time, 12-month Lecturer position in Computing Applications to begin Spring 2026.
Freelance Producer/Director – Museum Media at RLMG
RLMG is seeking a visionary Producer/Director to lead the creative development of cinematic, story-driven media experiences for museums and cultural institutions.
Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Artist/Designer (T/TE) at University of Arizona
The School of Art at the University of Arizona invites applications for an interdisciplinary artist or designer whose practice bridges material exploration, object-making, 3D fabrication, and sculp...
Kick Drum Circuit Design Guide
This illustrated guide walks you through designing an analog kick drum circuit from scratch – starting with a simple five-component bridged-t oscillator and building up to a fully featured percussion voice.
Designing Questions
Designing Questions introduces an alternative design pedagogy. At its core are speculative practices, world-building, material engagement, and storytelling, equipping students and practitioners to address urgent questions of our time.
Maintenance of Everything
Maintenance of Everything is an in-depth exploration of maintenance—and a powerful argument for its civilizational importance.
Incomputable Earth: Technology and the Anthropocene Hypothesis
This open access collection argues that climate breakdown represents an irreducibly incomputable problem that cannot be resolved through algorithmic optimization or cybernetic planetary management.
BiblioTech – ReReading the Post-digital Library
BiblioTech explores the changing role of the library, reading, writing, and publishing in a post-digital age.
When the Machine Made Art – Grant Taylor traces the origins of computational creativity
CAN interviews Grant D. Taylor, author of the 2014 book "When the Computer Made Art: The Troubled History of Computer Art," on the past, present and future of digital art.
Microbial Design Studio – Machine to design, culture, and test genetically modified organisms
Created by Mike Hogan, Karen Hogan and Orkan Telhan, 'Microbial Design Studio' is a countertop biofabrication machine that brings together the capabilities of a biology wetlab into a single inexpensive piece of hardware to design, culture, and tes...
mi/e-metic self – Building a slave to the digital media’s consumer culture
Created by Saurabh Datta, 'mi/e-metic self' is an installation that represents a sculptural being, a memetic representation of an evolved us.
HOLO 1 – “The magazine I always wanted to read!”
With HOLO 1 being in the world for a little more than two months, the conversations about the first issue of CAN’s 226-page magazine are beginning to shift. Instead of “Congratulations!” people now ask “How’s the magazine doing?”
Vectoglyph – Vector forms as a foreign language
Created by Nicolas Boillot, 'Vectoglyph' is a project exploring both the behaviour and implications of GPT-2 AI, a text generating model developed by OpenAI that is able to generate coherent texts in English on demand (including "fake news").
Semi-Realistic Rotary Experiences – Reverse engineering physical interaction
Created by Lingdong Huang at the Future Sketches Group (MIT Media Lab), “Semi-Realistic Rotary Experiences” is a set of experiments exploring augmentation of real life physical gestures of rotating things.
microscale – Hackable music album generated from random Wikipedia articles
Created by Belarusian composer Ales Tsurko, 'microscale' is a music album generated from random Wikipedia articles where letters are the sequencer steps and the track titles are regular expressions that switch the steps on and off.
Smart Atoms (Spaxels) – Flying building blocks
Developed at the Ars Electronica Futurelab, Spaxels (a portmanteau word from space pixels) are LED-equipped quadcopters. They make up a drone swarm that can “draw” three-dimensional figures in midair.
Corporate Malfeasance as Service – The Enron Email Simulator
The Good Life is an ‘Enron Email Simulator’ that allows a reader to subscribe to the 500,000 emails that were released in the aftermath of the American Energy company’s 2001 scandal and downfall.
NORAA (Machinic Doodles) – A human/machine collaborative drawing
Created by Jessica In, Machinic Doodles is a live, interactive drawing installation that facilitates collaboration between a human and a robot named NORAA - a machine that is learning how to draw. The work explores how we communicate ideas through...