Tisch school: Creative brains map a smarter future

The graduate students at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program - also known as the "centre for the recently possible" - barely think about the present.

They are on a mission to explore the use of today's communications technologies - and how they might augment, improve and bring art into people's lives tomorrow.

Often defined as "an art school for engineers or a tech school for artists", ITP is a two-year graduate programme at the Tisch School of the Arts, and is the birthplace of successful applications like FourSquare.

It is a place where almost a decade ago, students were already working on how to connect social media and mobile devices.

Among the projects this year: how to turn a dumb phone smart, how to synchronise heart beats, and a lot of applications focused on our location as users, bringing a geographical dimension to the "placelessness" of the internet.

The BBC went to see what the future may look like.

Produced by for the BBC by Anna Bressanin; camera by Ilya Shnitser