BIO
Simon is an artist and curator who has had major exhibitions at MoMA PS1 in New York, the Hammer Museum, affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, Serpentine Galleries in London, and the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (K21) in Düsseldorf, among others. He represented New Zealand at the 56th Venice Biennale, he is a professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK), and he co-founded the artist mentoring program BPA / Berlin Program for Artists. His research driven work focuses on the politics and aesthetics of technology and technologists with a special focus on web-based paradigm changes. Blockchain, web3, and cryptocurrencies are currently a major focus of his work.
At THE NEW INSTITUTE Simon was involved in the program Socio-Economic Transformation.
PUBLICATIONS
INTERVIEW
Simon Denny on Art in the Digital Age
Our art fellow Simon Denny tells about how and why he engages as an artist with upcoming digital technologies like cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
“Post Society / After language – Special Project”, in: Cura 37, 2021
Media Organize: A Companion to Technological Objects, Kunstverein in Hamburg, 2021
"Positioning in Research as Practice” (with Karamia Müller) in: Nicolaus Schafhausen and Mirjam Zadoff (eds.), Tell me about (yesterday) tomorrow, 2021
Simon Denny: The Innovator’s Dilemma, exh. cat. MoMA PS1, New York, 2015
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podcast
02 Lee Tzu-Tung on Post-Colonial Blockchain FuturesLee Tzu-Tung’s “prolonged undercover performance art” and “bionic cryptocurrency” strive towards open-source futures on the blockchain and beyond.
Simon Denny | Podcast |
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podcast
03 Mitchell F. Chan on Building BeliefIn a fluctuating market, what has staying power? Mitchell F. Chan reflects on the construction of value and art and crypto’s shared status as “receptacles of faith.”
Simon Denny | Podcast |
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podcast
04 Penny Rafferty on Playing the Game of GovernancePenny Rafferty is LARPing new forms of organizing into existence. Taking up tools and processes used in the blockchain world, she aims to open wider portals of possibility.
Simon Denny | Podcast |
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podcast
01 Terra0 on Economies Beyond the HumanTerra0 uses artistic narratives to propose post-human economies. As they put it: "On the blockchain, no one knows you’re a tree."
Simon Denny | Podcast |
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interview
New Forms of CoexistenceBettina Steinbrügge has a real passion for the arts: “With every project I learn something new and am confronted with questions that I had not thought about before.”
Simon Denny | Art |
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interview
Art in the Digital AgeIn his works, encompassing installations, sculpture, print and video, Simon Denny deals with the social and political implications of the technology industry.
Simon Denny | Art |
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essay
Unpacking the Stories Tech Tells About the WorldOn art, technology, and the Seed Phrase podcast.