Last week, we had the pleasure of being one of ten speakers at Technarte 2024, a conference on the intersection of art and technology in Bilbao, Spain. It was our first visit to Bilbao, and despite the usual whirlwind of pre-conference preparations and rehearsals, we found ourselves captivated by the city—wandering through Richard Serra’s reality-bending spiral steel sculptures at the Guggenheim, exploring the streets along the Nervión River, and eating pintxos for nearly every meal.

On May 17, we presented our talk, ‘Living Screen - Digital Surfaces for Visceral Experiences,’ at Palacio Euskalduna. We shared our journey into the art world coming from backgrounds in design and engineering. We discussed our project Box Body and reflected on the importance of using emerging technologies not just as tools, but as lenses to question and understand the relentless modern progress that humanity is struggling to catch up with. Edward O. Wilson captures this tension perfectly: “The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.” As artists, we feel a responsibility to use this ‘godlike technology’ to highlight individual bodies, those Paleolithic emotions, and narratives that are often pushed to the periphery.

The conference itself was a day-long immersion among like-minded creatives pushing the boundaries of art, technology, and beyond. From nanoscale science to projections on sandblasted glass to soundscapes that choreograph to your movement, each presentation reminded us of why we love working in this space. We were honored to receive special recognition among such inspiring projects. Check out the highlights from the conference here—impressively filmed and edited by the talented team on the same day.

Finally, a huge thank you to Nacho Martínez for bringing this incredible community together, and to everyone who made Technarte possible.