Dorothy R. Santos

With the Bay Area as home to Apple, Google, Adobe, Oracle, and other notable media and technology companies, new media artists Scott Kildall, Victoria Scott, and Tim Roseborough co-found the San Francisco node of Upgrade! International to offer individuals the opportunity to discuss new media arts within a community space. As a west coast addition to global network Upgrade! International, UpgradeSF! serves as an environment rife with discussion about new media and critical theory at the intersection of art and technology in a convivial environment. Topics include how new media arts fit into the canon of art history to the documentation and preservation of interactive works. Past guest speakers include curatorial collective, OFFSpace; SOMArts Curator and Gallery Director,Justin Hoover; gallerist, Micaela van Zwoll, and Scott Snibbe, New Media Artist.

New Media Artists, Kildall, Scott, and Roseborough, needed a way to form a community around their artistic endeavors. According to Roseborough, “having a place to communicate and form alliances within an infrastructure we could plug into” led to the triad forming a San Francisco node in the larger network. Naturally, this addition allows the group within the Bay Area to re-define and create a regional movement with access to the rest of the world. For any movement to progress, it requires a group of individuals from a diverse set of backgrounds to come together to push and increase visibility of the movement. With the UpgradeSF! node closely reaching its one year anniversary, the group continues to grow steadily and adds to the conversation pertinent to the overall discussion and dissemination with the hopes of reaching a mainstream audience.

As a member, I joined the group because it was a way for me to connect with artists and writers examining similar issues around arts and technology. Having no expectations from the first meeting, it was both encouraging and inspiring to learn artists and technologists paving the way for this specific discourse and, possibly contributing and, perhaps, restructuring the conventional art vernacular and taxonomy. Often times, revolutionary ideas and the progression of a movement take place in the most inconspicuous places over pita chips and homemade cookies. If you’re interested in learning more, please contactupgradesf@upgradesf.org with questions!

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Upgrade! is an international network of autonomous nodes located throughout the world that are united by art, technology, and a commitment to bridging cultural divides.

Originally published to zero1 blog. Please view post here