Transvergence goes beyond the disciplinary. And while not unique, artists, academics, advocates, and entrepreneurs of Northern California have been exemplary instigators of a remarkable twinning of parallel and divergent histories, from the steps of the Free Speech Movement to the garage doors of Silicon Valley; from open source inspired systems such as the Internet and Unix to the home of non-disclosure agreements and “vulture capitalism”; from one of the most globally diverse populations in the United States to one of the most economically stratified; from the apotheosis of lifestyle to the netherworld of the edge city; from communitarian to libertarian politics; from hacker to entrepreneur. Yet even if it is binary-encoded programming that has fueled much of this explosion, there is a growing realization that the binaries of culture—us / them, good / bad, free / market—are not solutions. At least not sustainable ones. To what extent can we think of transvergence as a vector away from these divides, modeling practices across the domains of culture, creativity, academia, and entrepreneurship to dream up a responsible future?

“. . . we are presented with a unique opportunity: the bringing together of several once distinct disciplines into previously unattainable formations. Art, architecture, electronic music, computer science, engineering, nanotechnology, each with frontiers of its own, face the challenge of their encounter. What new forms of practice and theory might be spawned? How can we set aside disciplinary boundaries and explore the edges of what is conceivable, now that new floodgates of possibility have opened? What are the futures we imagine, and how do we begin constructing them?”
Marcos Novak

"At the beginning of the 21st Century, a robust alliance between arts and design has formed a new domain of information technology and creative practices (ITCP). Encouraging, supporting, and investing in ITCP will provide major benefits."
Beyond Productivity, National Research Council

Transvergence goes beyond the disciplinary. And while not unique, artists, academics, advocates, and entrepreneurs of Northern California have been exemplary instigators of a remarkable twinning of parallel and divergent histories, from the steps of the Free Speech Movement to the garage doors of Silicon Valley; from open source inspired systems such as the Internet and Unix to the home of non-disclosure agreements and “vulture capitalism”; from one of the most globally diverse populations in the United States to one of the most economically stratified; from the apotheosis of lifestyle to the netherworld of the edge city; from communitarian to libertarian politics; from hacker to entrepreneur. Yet even if it is binary-encoded programming that has fueled much of this explosion, there is a growing realization that the binaries of culture—us / them, good / bad, free / market—are not solutions. At least not sustainable ones. To what extent can we think of transvergence as a vector away from these divides, modeling practices across the domains of culture, creativity, academia, and entrepreneurship to dream up a responsible future?

More specifically, ISEA2006 and ZeroOne San Jose seek to identify projects that are transdisciplinary in nature and not only produce new projects and experiences but also inflect how a discipline comes to newly understand itself and modify its practices while retaining its core competencies.