In Detroit, Knight New Work allocated a total of $250,000 for six locally based arts practitioners who utilize technology in their practices to enhance the way art is created, disseminated and experienced.
Amid rapid digital transformation, artists and arts organizations are harnessing technology to expand horizons, foster connections and redefine boundaries. In support of this novel approach, Knight Foundation launched Knight New Work — first in Miami, then moving to Knight cities across the country.
“Knight New Work is designed to support artistic innovation and further the creation of works that foster meaningful connections between people and place,” said Victoria Rogers, vice president for Arts at Knight Foundation. “This year’s Knight New Work recipients exemplify that mission by pioneering new techniques at the intersection of art and technology, resulting in work that furthers digital transformation in the arts.”
The 2023 Knight New Work recipients in Detroit will use new technologies to explore a wide range of cultural and societal themes in their selected projects, from consumerism to climate change, urban mobility, personal and shared history, and grief.
Simon Anton
Plastic Past, Plastic Future
Simon Anton will explore Detroit’s architectural history through an experimental technique of grafting waste plastics into sculpture. Working with Detroit historians and community members, he will catalog individual and collective histories of Detroit through a series of interviews and workshops, resulting in a living multimedia archive expressed in text, video, 3D scan and physical artifact. New works will be exhibited with support of M Contemporary Art in Ferndale, Michigan.
Carla Diana
MOBILITY TOWN – Out of Our Cars and Into the World
Robot designer Carla Diana feels the pain of living in a car-dependent city and knows that there can be a better way. She will collaborate with projection mapping artist and animator Motomichi Nakamura to create a whimsical, interactive playground populated by animated characters that illustrate what a future of publicly accessible mobility in Detroit might feel like. The work will be workshopped and prototyped with Cranbrook Academy of Art’s 4D Design department.
The Hinterlands
Sunset: A Cyber-Lament
The Hinterlands will collaborate with Renee Willoughby to create an original theater work that explores grief in the digital age through video performance, physical theater and electronic music, presented as both a live performance and as an interactive, web-based experience. Premiering at Play House, Detroit, in spring 2025, presented by Play House Laboratories.
Jessica Rajko
Politics of the Grid
Jessica Rajko will create an immersive long-form dance-theater work that explores our relationships with consumer technology—long-distance relationships where people are not only separated by space, but also by code, black-boxed systems and user agreements. The final production will be performed at the Hilberry Gateway in Midtown Detroit.
Linh My Truong
Threads of Passage: From Vietnam to America
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, Linh My Truong will explore the untold stories of her family and other Vietnamese boat refugees after the end of the war through a series of immersive interactive textile and video installations. Premiering at the Annex Gallery at 333 Midland in Detroit.
Wasserman Projects
The Earth Eaters
Wasserman Projects will bring artists Marina Zurkow and James Schmitz to Detroit for a multimedia exhibition that will invite new forms of discourse about the climate crisis. Their work is supported by near real-time data sourced from global meteorological and pollution monitoring systems. This project will be presented in partnership with bitforms gallery, New York, and The Wolfsonian-FIU, Miami Beach.
