Introduction

Welcome to the inaugural issue of ADJACENT, ITP’s online journal of emerging media.

Our mission is to share research, reflection, observations, and opinions from and for the diverse creators who are exploring the possibilities and directions at the frontiers of media, technology and art.

Rapid change —  incremental, sudden, or meteoric — is the air we breathe. Think of all that is taken for granted today that hardly existed a decade ago. Imagine what the next decade will bring. ADJACENT is a forum to pause and consider this rapid change. Rather than show off the latest app/widget/game/device/buzzword/tech, ADJACENT explores what these new advances reveal about ourselves and society, and what they might mean.

Emerging media includes expressive technology in programming, video, physical space, music, visual arts, products, entertainment, education, CR, AR, AI…you name or acronym it. ADJACENT is meant to be a place of discourse,  criticism and research into its effects.

We believe our adjacencies to diverse media, people and disciplines spark creativity. We’re influenced by the term ‘adjacent possible,’ coined by the biologist Stuart Kaufman to describe how organisms change, grow and flourish just by existing near entities different from themselves.

ITP has always been hard to describe, and that’s partly because of our devotion to adjacencies. You never know who you will be sitting next to, who might offer a fresh perspective or see something you never could have seen on your own. Our curriculum changes as technology changes, as seeds of new ideas come into view, when a faculty member or student gets curious about something they know nothing about. We hope to translate that spirit into this journal.

Last spring, we sent out an open call to the broad ITP community and received submissions from alums, students, and faculty. The articles have been selected for their potential adjacencies, the hope for sparks and connections, but at a slant.

This is a double issue because we wanted to show the scope of the kinds and topics of articles we plan to publish: interviews, interactive illustrations, hidden text, a visual essay, text analysis, second looks at seminal works in new media and more. You’ll find here a broad range of topics — from politics, art, baby instincts and algorithmic bias to virtual reality, coding as a literary form, and Danny Rozin’s deep interest in mirrors. We hope this variety will inspire you to contribute to future issues.

We plan to publish two issues a year and invite you to submit your idea for an article on our submission page. You don’t have to be a student or an alum — just a kindred spirit with something to say.

ADJACENT was made possible by a Tisch Faculty Grant. Special thanks to Tisch School of the Arts Dean, Allyson Green, and ITP’s Chair and the Associate Dean for Emerging Media, Dan O’Sullivan, for their support.

Gratitude beyond measure to the team – Davíd, Laura, Lindsey, Stephanie, Justin, Sejo and Ziyu — who’ve worked long hours on ADJACENT, not only in addition to all their course work and projects  during the school year, but also after work throughout the summer.

And ADJACENT is indebted and dedicated to the spirit of Red Burns. She haunts us in the most wonderful way in all that we do at ITP.