How can we become more creative, expand our thinking and come up with more innovative, original ideas? One approach that seems to be growing in popularity is artist residency programs, which embed artists into technology and research enterprises and foster collaborations between the artists and engineers. Bringing together divergent (creative) and convergent (practical) thinkers, these types of collaborations can expand the scope of possibility and produce surprising results. How do these programs work and what is the tangible benefit for both the companies and artists involved? We’ll look at historical examples like Experiments in Art & Technology and Xerox Parc and hear from top companies running artist residencies today about the challenges, benefits and opportunities of this interdisciplinary approach.

Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.