We bring thinkers, artists, and builders to the same table.

Each year we pursue one question about how technology is reshaping what it means to be human.

Convene · Inquiry
Bring disciplines into conversation
Publish · Journal
Turn inquiry into knowledge
Support · Builders
Help human-centered technology take shape

A letter from the founder

رسالة من المؤسسRead the founder’s letter

The Raised Hand

I was eight or nine when my mother and I happened upon an auction. It was the first time I had seen so many grown-ups sitting quietly together, waiting only for someone to raise a hand. So I raised mine.

Origins

البدايات

Two visitors in conversation in front of a painting at West Bund Art & Design, Shanghai — West Bund Art & Design · Shanghai, 2025

Where we come from

ARTIFACT began as an archive within VAC, a non-profit art foundation and collection established in New York by Chinese American collector Muchun Niu to support artistic practice, scholarship, and the making of knowledge.

The work gradually moved beyond the archive. It became a Journal for bringing together voices and ideas across disciplines, and eventually grew into ARTIFACT Futures: a platform where inquiry, publishing, convening, and support for emerging technologies come together around questions about our relationship with technology.

vac.art

Timeline

التسلسل الزمنيSee how we’ve grown

2023
From New York to Hanoi
- VAC begins in New York and opens in Hanoi
- Our first public programme, with the architect Trung Mai, in the Gia Lâm train factory
- ARTIFACT begins inside VAC, to record and publish the ideas around it
2024
A residency and a second city
- Our first resident’s open studio is featured on VOV national television
- VAC Shanghai opens with A Beginning
2025
The Journal launches
- Issue No. 1 at the Venice Architecture Biennale
- Issue No. 2 at West Bund Art & Design, Shanghai
- A curatorial research group from MoMA visits
2026
ARTIFACT Futures
- The Future Is Behind Us, our first annual Inquiry
- The London Forum at the British Library, during London Tech Week
- Then San Francisco, Shanghai and Abu Dhabi
2027
A house for builders
- We are looking for a city where founders, artists and scholars can live and work together for a season
- Our next annual Inquiry

Leadership Profiles

الفريق القيادي

Muchun Niu
Founder
Sophie Huang
COO & Editor-in-Chief
Henry Yuan
Venture Partner

Team

الفريق

The people who make our programmes, publishing and production happen, every day.

Vi
Emma
Linh
Sam
Hong
Trang

Cities & institutions

المدن والمؤسسات

We work with cities and institutions to turn ambitions for the age of AI into programmes, partnerships, and projects. Each ambition a city brings is met by something we already do.

What a city brings

What we bring

01
A question worth putting to the world
A theme the city wants to be known for thinking about, not only for hosting.
Programme design
Public forums, private conversations and longer initiatives built around that question, with the Inquiry as a frame.
02
People who can carry it
Founders, researchers and artists who turn the question into practice in the city.
People & projects
We find them early, bring them to the city, and back the ones with a strong point of view.
03
A seat among international peers
The city’s own voices heard alongside the institutions and networks of Asia and the West.
Global network
Fellows, Builders, institutions and collaborators across technology, science, culture and scholarship, in three languages.
04
A record that outlasts the event
Something that is still read when the week is over.
Stories & knowledge
The Journal, editorial storytelling and documentation that give ideas a life beyond the programme.