NEW YORK, NY.- Rhizome, today announces the line-up for the 2026 iteration of Seven on Seven (7x7), annual landmark art and technology program returning to the New Museum on May 16. Each year since 2010, 7x7 pairs seven artists with seven technologists for a day-long collaboration and gives them a simple challenge: make something new and present the results at a public conference. This year’s theme is “Containment” and will include seven joint presentations.


Mercy Mutemi. Image Courtesy of Mercy Mutemi


Against the backdrop of the New Museum’s widely acclaimed reopening exhibition New Humans: Memories of the Future, 7x7 continues the inquiry into evolving definitions of the human. The term “Containment” is often used to refer to controls imposed on AI systems to ensure their actions are predictable and aligned with human interests, but its use here is inspired by the 2000 essay “Container Technologies” by Zoe Sofia. Taking a cue from Sofia, 7x7 2026 explores emergent dynamics in complex systems—biological, financial, computational, and relational—emphasizing interdependence, care, study, and contingency.

Curated by Rhizome with collaborators Neema Githere and 邊界 BiānJiè (Elena Carbajal, Ian Margo, and Alexandre Montserrat | 世然), who will also participate in the event as artists, 7x7 2026 brings together established and emerging figures working across art, science, and technology.


Lucas Gelfond. Image Courtesy of Lucas Gelfond

Seven artists and technologists will take the stage across the day. Lucas Gelfond, a software engineer and writer working on storytelling technologies at A24 Labs, is paired with Karyn Nakamura, an artist and engineer whose work explores the technical infrastructures underlying systems of perception and communication. Research collective Disintegrator, here comprising theorist and sound artist Roberto Alonso Trillo, AI researcher Marek Poliks, and artist Hugh Scott-Douglas, is paired with 邊界 BiānJiè, the software art and research group led by curator Elena Carbajal, digital artist Ian Margo, and artist and composer Alexandre Montserrat (世然). Biologist and cognitive scientist Dr. Michael Levin, researcher Emily Ertle, and creative technologist Jenn Leung are paired with conceptual artist Agnieszka Kurant, whose practice investigates collective and nonhuman intelligences. Creative technologist and ITM co-founder Saarim Zaman is paired with Debit, the composer and producer whose research-driven electronic practice draws on Latin American club music, pre-Hispanic instrumentation, and archival sound. Artist and scientist Stephanie Zhang, who works with living matter as a sculptural medium, is paired with Grammy-nominated filmmaker and artist Andrew Thomas Huang, whose work spans queer futurism, Asian mythology, and immersive technology. Kenyan litigator and human rights-in-tech architect Mercy Mutemi, Executive Director of The Oversight Lab, is paired with writer, artist, and guerrilla theorist Neema Githere, who also co-curates this edition alongside 邊界 BiānJiè. Finally, Josiah Hester, Director of the Center for Advancing Responsible Computing at Georgia Tech, is paired with Caleb Rimtobaye, the Chad-born, Montreal-based musician and artist behind AfrotroniX.

Initiated in 2010, 7x7 has traditionally been held at the New Museum, where Rhizome has been an affiliate-in-residence since 2003. This year’s edition is the first to take place at the Museum following the opening of its OMA / Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas designed expansion.


Karyn Nakamura. Image Courtesy of Ryan Scullin

7x7 will also feature highlights from projects completed during Rhizome’s ten-week Counterstructural Commons Residency, organized in partnership with Mozilla Foundation. The Residency brought together eight artists and creative technologists to prototype alternative technological futures.

7x7 2026 is hosted at the New Museum and made possible by Fuser, Onassis ONX, Jehan Chu & Jeannie Vu, Artwrld, and Gray Area. The Counterstructural Commons residency is made possible by Mozilla Foundation. 7x7 education programs are made possible by Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation. Rhizome’s program is made possible by Teiger Foundation and New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Gov. Kathy Hochul.

tickets are available now at rhizome.org.