Gadgetory

100 years ago the Bowery was one of the roughest places in New York he was the eastern border of five points and home to the Bowery Boys one of America's first street gangs a lots changed now it's an Arts Center home to a bunch of restaurants a handful of artists studios and importantly for us the new museum inside the museum things appear right now the second and third floor devoted to the polish sculptor Pavel altmer and Pavel himself is wandering through the building stripped naked to the waist and covered in yellow body paint the fourth floor is open to the public anyone can paint whatever they want on the walls and the fifth floor is decked out to look like a Soviet spaceship they pride themselves on showing off the newest most innovative art in the city but this month they're launching a project that's really unlike anything in museums ever done it's called new ink a kind of half workspace half incubator that's being set up in a building next door to the museum they've already signed up the experimental architecture program studio-x from Columbia and rhizome an arts and tech organization that's affiliated with the museum starting today they're looking for designers creative coding projects basically anyone doing cool things with a computer all of these people they're common thread is that they're kind of working with technology in an experimental way by placing all of these different disciplines in small space together new ideas might emerge through the sort of creative collision of all of their different practices there's a really rich tradition of art on the Bowery artists like myelin and bela bartok have had studios just across the street startups have also launched here Kickstarter's first offices were just a couple blocks away part of the point of the incubator is to bring those two traditions together if all you need is a work space it's easy to find a cheaper one new ink is going for something more cross-pollination between art tech and design the kind of magic you get when a lot of smart people are all doing exciting things in the same place the interesting thing is that's happened on the Bowery before whether it's 70s punk or 60s pop art this one Street has seen this kind of neighborhood renaissance over and over again in the end new ink is betting on one more Renaissance the designers and coders can piece together another golden you