
Research shows extended time spent “attached” to screens is detrimental. Can we actually decrease screen-time or, can we change the screen? Looking to the history of visualizations from Lascaux cave paintings to the OLED flexible screens of now, “Soft Monitor” imagines a display for the future. Technologist Julian Goldman and weaver Victoria Manganiello collaborate to invent a screen made entirely from soft, natural, ancient materials such as flax, water, and air to replace the blue light. Prototypes will be accompanied by material and process documentation and interactive educational experiences to test practical feasibility and potential societal impact.

Selected works
“C O M P U T E R 1.0” - 2018 (AFA Gallery) (Photo by Kelly Vigil) “C O M P U T E R 1.0” also functions as a historical lens that shows how our relationship to computing technology has always been fraught with juxtaposed promises of utopian and dystopian futures. This installation reminds us that our current digital existentialism and the question of “are we better off?” is a conversation two centuries in the making.
“C O M P U T E R 1.0” - 2018 (Governors Island Art Fair) (Photo by Soft Monitor) “C O M P U T E R 1.0” is a textile functioning as a lo-fi computer display, with air and liquid as the pixels — full or empty; zero or one; under or over — utilizing both analog and contemporary technologies.
Julian Goldman portrat
Victoria Manganiello portrait