Exhibition Extends with Physical Installation Åzone Terminal at Seaport Cultural District in Collaboration with Center for Architecture, Now Through December 31, 2015
Online Exhibition: azone.guggenheim.org
Installation: Åzone Terminal
Venue: 181 Front Street, between Fulton and John Streets
Dates: October 23-December 31, 2015
Hours: 11 am-8 pm, Tuesday-Sunday; 12-4 pm, Monday
Admission: Free
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has launched its first online exhibition, Åzone Futures Market, a web-based simulated stock market that explores the potential effects of a world increasingly shaped by emerging technologies. Audiences can access Åzone Futures Market online and can visit and engage with Åzone Terminal, a physical installation featuring interactive visualizations of the marketplace in the Seaport Culture District, a vibrant new cultural hub in Lower Manhattan.
Åzone Futures Market. Screenshot of Basic Index
Design: Studio Folder, © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
Åzone Terminal opened to the public at 6 pm on Friday, October 23, at 181 Front Street in the Seaport Culture District and is presented in collaboration with the Center for Architecture.
The exhibition concept grew out of a retreat on the Åland Islands off the coast of Finland organized as part of the Guggenheim Helsinki Now: Six Finalist Designs Unveiled exhibition last spring. It is the first program in what will be a sustained investigation by the museum into the intersection of architecture and new technologies.
Experimental in spirit and design, Åzone Futures Market invites audiences to learn about and take a position on technology-enabled futures that until recently were confined to prototypes or science fiction. Market participants receive 10,000 cåin (Å), the Åzone currency, to invest in futures on the simulated market conditioned by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, commercialized space travel, and genetic manipulation. Dynamic pricing based on supply and demand, crowd-sourced news feeds, and visual trend analyses provides users with the real-time information needed to make investment decisions.
Åzone Terminal
Installation View: Åzone Terminal, October 23-December 31, 2015
Mechanical Terminal: Pietro Leoni
Photo: Kris McKay © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
“We need new cultural forms to make sense of the radical effects of technological change on our lives today. Åzone Futures Market experiments with the architecture of exhibitions, replacing a physical building with a digital platform, allowing visitors to become users, and enabling contributors to respond to an environment that will emerge over time,” said Troy Conrad Therrien, Curator, Architecture and Digital Initiatives.
Guggenheim curatorial staff are analyzing and interpreting market activity and will profile investors who make the greatest impact on the market in posts on the Åzone Futures Market blog. Artists, architects, and theorists will intervene in the market periodically after it has stabilized.
Åzone Futures Market is designed by Studio Folder (Marco Ferrari and Elisa Pasqual; Aaron Gillett; and Alice Longo); developed by Charles Broskoski, Hugo Liu, Dan Brewster, and Damon Zucconi; and built with Are.na. Sound design is by Daniel Perlin, and Åzone Terminal’s mechanical terminal is by Pietro Leoni. Additional contributors are listed on the website.
Åzone Futures Market and Åzone Terminal are organized by Troy Conrad Therrien, Curator, Architecture and Digital Initiatives, with Ashley Mendelsohn, Curatorial Assistant, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and is supported by the Howard Hughes Corporation and the Center of Architecture.
Filed under: Arts & Culture, Museums & Exhibitions Tagged: Åzone Futures Market, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
