New media artist Ken Goldberg collaborated with the Contemporary Jewish Museum and Gil Gershoni to create Are We There Yet?: 5000 Years of Answering Questions with Questions, an interactive and site-specific work that incorporated new technology to provoke timeless and critical questions about cultural and individual identity, community, and contemporary experience. The finished work was an interactive Website and site-specific, sound installation in the Yud Gallery at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, where robotic cameras observed the motion of visitors, triggering voices and creating an immersive auditory experience.
Ken Goldberg is founding director of the University of California, Berkeley’s Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium. He is a professor of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he directs a lab that explores new media and robotics technology. He is also Director of the Berkeley Center for New Media. Gil Gershoni is a graphic designer and founder of the San Francisco creative agency Gershoni.
Founded in 1984, the Contemporary Jewish Museum has developed a reputation for exhibitions and educational programs that offer distinctive and multi-layered interpretations of Jewish culture, art, history, and ideas. In June 2008, the museum opened a new 63,000 square-foot facility in downtown San Francisco, featuring architectural design by Daniel Libeskind: The Yud Gallery is one of the new building’s most distinctive features.