Eyebeam and the UK’s MediaShed a free-media community center in
Southend by the Sea, have been working closely on the development of
Gearbox, an open-source, online media-making toolkit. On February 2,
Eyebeam's Student Residents, Senior Fellows and staff will travel to
Southend by the Sea for six days o meet, share practices, and develop
collaborative projects using Gearbox. MediaShed youth will travel to
NYC on February 12 complete the projects and install them in Eyebeam’s
galleries.

This exchange will culminate in an all-day Free Media Workshop on
February 16, which will focus on the use of “free-cycled” materials to
create new and innovative forms of public infrastructure. Eyebeam and
MediaShed participants, together with workshop participants, will
present their projects and discuss the idea and application of “free
media”. The event will close with public reception celebrating the
exchange.

Gearbox was developed by Jeff Crouse, Chris Sugrue, Evan Harper and Geraldine Juárez in the Production Lab for Mediashed.

We aim to develop an open model for self-organised “Clip Kino”: micro-cinema, which consists of content downloaded from P2P file-sharing online networks, and popular media sharing platforms.

The
ambition is to organise events which drag aspects of the normalised
‘private’ activity of viewing downloaded content into public space for
screening, appreciation and debate. The term ‘environmental awareness’
aims to include the social ecology of one’s interests, desires, and
attentions in one’s peer-group and community.

Workshop
sessions will explore creative file-sharing together in
physical-material space, and extrapolate copyright/left issues in
youth/subcultural terms. Face-to-face facilitation is crucial here,
while critical education of IP and public-private space issues is
important. ‘Seeder’s N Leecher’s R US’ is intended as a statement of pride and empowerment.

What is the Eco-Vis Challenge?

Not only is there an environmental crisis, but an environmental data crisis.
Viewing statistics on environmental change is usually overwhelming,
unintelligible, hidden and dense. Eyebeam invites artists to
collaborate with technologists to redefine what the future of tracking
and visualizing the environment could be.

The Eco-challenge is composed of two parts:
Challenge 1: Eco Icons
invites participants to create one or many information graphics that
could be used to make visible environmental/ecological concerns.
Challenge 2: Eco Vis focuses on the creations of an eco-visualization based on at least one set of ecological impact data.

Winning designs will be awarded cash prizes totaling $5000 and, along with
finalists, be included in the upcoming Eyebeam exhibition, Feedback. Detailed guidelines were released on September 15, in conjunction with the Conflux Festival.

This challenge is an initiative of Eyebeam's Sustainability Research Group
and has been crafted by Research Group members and Eyebeam Alumni,
Michael Mandiberg and Brooke Singer. The prizes are generously
underwritten by Deep Green Living.