The Department of Art and Art History at San José State University will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the CADRE (Computers in Art, Design, Research, and Education) program with a public symposium at the San José Museum of Art on April 11, 2026. Held in conjunction with the opening weekend of Motherboards, the event brings together artists, designers, scholars, alumni, and students to reflect on four decades of digital media art and its evolving cultural impact.

Founded in 1985, the CADRE program has been a force in shaping media art education, bridging experimental practice, emerging technologies, and critical inquiry. The anniversary symposium traces a lineage from early digital experimentation to today’s conditions of platformization, automation, and networked labor. Through panel discussions, keynote conversations, performance, and the CADRE Open house, participants will explore themes of community, authorship, care, infrastructure, and preservation while working to build a future we all want to be a part of. Open to the public, CADRE 40 positions the museum as a space for critical dialogue, connecting past, present, and future practices of digital art.