NYU’s Spring ITP/IMA Show Offers A Glimpse into the Future

Among this year's projects is an installation about data privacy that uses the NYC subway swipe system to show what data is collected when you tap your phone for entry. There's also a tool that generates AI comic books and interactive art that changes to the movements of viewers. The projects are created by individual students and groups, and range from graduate theses that have been in development for a year to creations that came out of courses on gaming, interactive museum exhibit design, and communications.

"It's not just about technology, but responding to the moment," Rothberg explains.

Sometimes, a project or display becomes a successful company. For example, Runway, a tech company founded by 2018 ITP graduates Cristóbal Valenzuela, Alejandro Matamala Ortiz, and Anastasis Germanidis, emerged from the trio's final show. In 2014, Allie Diracles displayed a prototype of what would become Vidcode, now a leading education platform that teaches computer programming through video art.

The festival has evolved into a networking event, too, because it attracts hundreds of alumni who want to catch up with each other while also sniffing out what's on the horizon.

"The vibe is science fair crossed with weird art projects," says Dan O'Sullivan, Associate Dean of Emerging Media at the Tisch School of the Arts, who produced the first show 32 years ago. "It's unpretentious, unexpected, and fun."

About the NYU Tisch School of the Arts
For over 50 years, the NYU Tisch School of the Arts has drawn on the vast artistic and cultural resources of New York City and New York University to create an extraordinary training ground for the individual artist and scholar of the arts. Today, students learn their craft in a spirited, risk-taking environment that combines the professional training of a conservatory with the liberal arts education of a premier global university with campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai and 11 academic centers around the world. Learn more at www.tisch.nyu.edu.