GOOD 100: Meet Julia Kaganskiy, Who Marries Art to Technology

Julia Kaganskiy is the global editor of The Creators Project, an initiative spawned by the unlikely duo of Intel and VICE. This collaborative web-based effort aims to push the boundaries of how art and technology work together by bringing artists and tech experts together to showcase their work. With Kaganskiy at the helm, the Creators Project is also developing digital art commissions that marry art with technology in new and interesting ways.

Kaganskiy is also the founder and organizer of the Arts, Culture and Technology meet-up in New York City, and co-founder of Blue Box Gallery, a mobile hub for New Media that aims to start relevant conversation around unconventional artistic practices. She was selected by Fast Company as one of the “Most Influential Women in Technology,” an experience she describes as “both exciting and a little bit weird.”

“Right now, The Creators Project is my main squeeze, so I'm mostly focused on continuing to grow the site and platform,” Kaganskiy says. “Every year we get bigger, but it still never feels like enough when you consider the vast audience we have online today.

Her primary focus at the moment is growing The Creators Project’s recently-launched YouTube channel and developing a couple of digital art commissions, some of which were rolled out early this year.

“A lot of this stuff is typically relegated to niche websites or academic journals and doesn't really get the exposure it deserves,” Kaganskiy says. “And yet, it seems to me to be the most intelligent response to the shifts we're seeing happen in popular culture today, so it really deserves to be seen and heard.”

Kaganskiy has also been working on growing her meet-up group, ArtsTech, which just celebrated its four-year anniversary. Last year, the meet-up launched chapters in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, and there's a Los Angeles chapter in the works for 2013. ArtsTech is also working on putting together an “unconference” for this spring, and are planning on participating in the New Museum's Ideas City biennial.

“I'm also really keen to take on more independent curatorial projects in 2013,” Kaganskiy says. “My pop-up gallery, Blue Box, has been quiet for a while now as The Creators Project has taken over, but I'm really interested in doing something on a smaller scale again.”