The Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA) unveiled its new Art + Technology Lab in December to provide grants, in-kind support, and facilities at the museum to develop prototype projects that put together artists with current technology.
The program will fund grants of up to $50,000 to proposals that combine artistic merit with technological components, such as digital graphics, robotics or mobile devices. Participants will be able to partner with scientists and technology experts from Space X, Google,  Accenture; DAQRI and other software developers and chip companies. According to the release from LACMA, the program is most interested in creators exploring:
- the Internet of Things
- biological data
- issues of perception and alternate or augmented reality
- environments
- the interplay between technology and the human
LACMA’s Request for Proposals was released in December, and proposals must be submitted electronically by Feb 16, 2015. Projects will eventually be presented to the public in museum showings.
Back in 1967, LACMA initiated its original Art + Technology program, far ahead of its time, that ran for four years. It was an innovative move with grand foresight, but in an earlier era, pre-computer, pre-3D printers and pre-computer-aided design. Â Technological advances in the 45 years since then are truly staggering and the timing for opening this new working lab couldn’t be better.
