Leonardo

Creative Impact LabsCreative Impact Labs are international exchanges that utilize innovative, community-driven, technology-powered art projects to address social and environmental challenges. The Leonardo Creative Impact Labs are a continuation and evolution of our strategic partner ZERO1s International Exchange program, an innovative model for cultural exchange at the intersection of art, science, and technology. In FY23, Leonardo implemented its very first Creative Impact Lab in Amman, Jordan with host partner IDare for Sustainable Development and began a second Lab in Otepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand with host partner Tuhura Otago Museum, which continued into FY24. Each of the two exchanges was led by a U.S. lead artist and a group of 12-20 local participants. The lead artist facilitates 5-6 days of workshop activity followed by 3-5 weeks of project development towards a culminating exhibition of collaborative project prototypes.Other ProgramsLeonardo participated in several arts-science-tech festivals, exhibits and symposia, including: the Emerge Festival of Ideas (The ASU MIX Center, Mesa, AZ), CyFest satellite exhibitions (National Arts Club, NYC, NY; The ASU MIX Center, Mesa, AZ), Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria), ISEA and Espronceda (Barcelona, Spain), JRC Summer School (Summer School, Ispra, Italy). Collaborative research projects with the ASU Interplanetary Initiative looked at: (1) Space Exploration and Earth Sustainability, and (2) J.E.D.I. in Space travel.

PublicationsLeonardo/ISAST serves as a critical content provider through our Publications Program scholarly journals published by MIT Press (Leonardo), the Leonardo Book Series (MIT Press), Leonardo Electronic Almanac (MIT Press), and the Leonardo family of websites and experimental projects on evolving digital platforms. Leonardo is published six times per year. In 2023 the Book Series published Kat Mustateas VOIDOPOLIS, an augmented reality work informed by the COVID-19 pandemic, experimental literature, and a modified text generator, resulting in a work programmed to disappear and regenerate at yearly intervals.

CripTech IncubatorLaunched in 2021, Leonardo CripTech Incubator is an art-and-technology fellowship centered on disability innovation. Encompassing residencies, workshops, presentations, publication and education, this innovation incubator creates a platform for disabled artists to engage and remake creative technologies through the lens of accessibility. In 2023, we showcased several outcomes from 2022s incubation efforts: E.A.A.T. or Experiments in Art, Access and Technology, the culminating exhibition for the fellowship, took place from September 2023 through January 2024 at UC Irvines Beall Center for Art and Technology, with a corresponding ongoing virtual exhibition developed as a web prototype centering accessibility that we are deploying for other projects. In collaboration with Gray Area, we also ran the CripTech Metaverse Lab, an experiential research lab dedicated to creative access in immersive media; this lab resulted in a research paper, an online archive, and 3 VR commissions, all of which were showcased at the 2023 Gray Area Festival. We also worked closely with associated artists for a themed issue of Leonardo journal, Criptech and the Art of Access, which was published the following year.