For companies like Apple, with products teenagers can touch and see, rebranding yourself as chic can be a relative cakewalk.
For, Intel, the tech giant that manufactures semiconductor and microchips, it's a bit harder. There's nothing to grasp, no Macbook to carry around or iPod earbuds to jam into your cochleas.
That's why the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has teamed up with VICE in backing and developing The Creators Project, a global initiative that encourages the integration of art and technology. The result? Massive free events--like the one this past weekend at San Francisco's Fort Mason--held from Beijing to New York that display intensely innovative projects in music, art and film.
"Art comes into play as the expression way of how technology is used," said Johan Jervoe, vice president of sales and marketing at Intel. He called the collaboration with VICE "a logical step" in the tech firm's search for a cutting edge and appeal to consumers.
It's been a project two years in the making for Intel, which hasn't been exactly been at the forefront of cool. Geekdom, more like it.
In 2010, they launched the Creators Project with VICE, seen by some as the next MTV (see my colleague Jeff Bercovici's magazine story on former Viacom CEO Tom Freston and VICE here), beginning the transformation. In June, Intel introduced the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am as the company's new "director of creative innovation." This past weekend they brought the fruits of their rebranding to a few warehouses in San Francisco, an hour north of company headquarters, to taste the results.
With 25,000 attendees--mainly young people-- crammed into Fort Mason's docks, according to event organizers, the Creators Project hit Intel's desired demographic on the head. The usually empty locale swarmed with young adults and teenagers, clearly demarcated by yellow bands for those under 21, eager to catch a performance from bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or play with interactive art projects that depended as much on audience participation as mind-bending technology.
Art on display included "The Treachery of Sanctuary," a three-story high projection screen in which viewers controlled the installation with their appendages aided by motion-sensing technology. Raise one arm and a wing sprouted from it on screen. Or jump around and your projected silhouette was eaten away by birds. Also impressive was "Strata #4," an ever-changing projection that altered the Baroque art of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck with tesselated, 3-D projections.
On a weekend that celebrated the intersection of creation and technology, hardly any performance or installment went without some electronic effect. English DJ, Squarepusher, encapsulated the mood, performing behind a fortress of LED lights that coordinated with earth-shaking bass and beats. Beijing indie rockers New Pants took Intel's goal of becoming more visible literally, as keyboardist Pang Kuan smashed an iMac into pieces to show its microchip innards for everyone to see.
Among the most excited about the weekend's event in the city was none other than San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, whose payroll tax breaks have made him a favorite with Silicon Valley technology companies.
"We have Twitter, Zynga and Salesforce here!" he bellowed to the crowd at a surprise appearance on stage before championing the art and technology initiative of Intel and VICE. Lee said he hoped that the event would show the city's desire to attract more tech firms and jobs to the area.
Intel and VICE did not disclose how much they spent producing and putting on the event at Fort Mason. Jervoe said it was never about the money.
"This has nothing to do with revenue," he said. "It is really meant to be a really long-term, strategic relationship between Intel and VICE bringing the best of the art scene--regardless of what that art is--together with technology and engineers."
From San Francisco, the Creators Project will return to Paris, Sao Paulo and other cities worldwide that have already held the event before.
"We are currently planning to come back [to San Francisco]," said Hosi Simon, general manager of VICE.
