Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism
The Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism (ECFJ) is an experimental grant-making program that supports artists and artist-journalist teams producing innovative and revelatory journalistic work for major media outlets.
Underwritten by Craig Newmark Philanthropies, ECFJ is the first initiative of its kind to directly facilitate artists’ major media commissions in the realm of journalism. With the belief that artists are central in the invention and design of our shared future, and also critical in shifting public debate, ECFJ supports the execution of pieces that focus on reimagining the way stories are told, particularly around technology and society.
The funds distributed to grantees assist with research, travel, and other expenses many media outlets struggle to cover, allowing stories that are often out of reach in today’s climate to be produced.
ECFJ Stories
A collection of articles supported by Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism as seen in The Atlantic, Gizmodo, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, and Wired.
China Can Lock Up A Million Muslims in Xinjiang At Once →
Read the last in the Pulitzer Prize-winning series by Alison Killing & Megha Rajagopalan, supported in part by Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism and published in BuzzFeed News. This reporting revealed that there is enough room to detain over 1 million Muslims in the Xinjiang detention camps in China.
Tulsa race massacre at 100: an act of terrorism America tried to forget →
Bayeté Ross Smith, Jimmie Briggs for The Guardian. In the latest for ECFJ, Bayeté Ross Smith has revisited the sites of Red Summer, a period of time in the early 20th century marked by white supremacist terrorism and race, to create a five-part 360 video series for The Guardian.
‘God, Guns, & Trump’: Anatomy of the Crowd →
Radcliffe Roye, Rebecca Lee Sanchez for The New York Review of Books. Radcliffe Roye photographed years of Trump rallies and published the unsettling history in an article written by Rebecca Lee Sanchez, “‘God, Guns, & Trump’: Anatomy of the Crowd.”
Here’s the Arctic Station That Keeps Satellites Connected →
Eyebeam supported Anna Filipova on her journey to the Norwegian Arctic to document a crucial satellite station providing essential data on the effects of climate change. With Henry Fountain for The New York Times.
Inside Xinjiang’s Prison State →
Ben Mauk, Matt Huynh for The New Yorker. Currently, there is likely the largest internment of ethnic and religious minorities since WW11. Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism and the Pulitzer Center supported reporting in Xinjiang, China. The project employs immersive 360/VR film and browser-based interactive technology for the New Yorker to uncover an increasing surveillance state being used for cultural assimilation.
US Solar Companies Rely On Materials From Xinjiang, Where Forced Labor Is Rampant →
Alison Killing, Megha Rajagopalan for Buzzfeed News. Alison Killing and Megha Rajagopalan expose the “virtuous” solar power industry in the US for using forced labor of #Uyghur Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
Inside the Suspicion Machine →
Sam Lavigne for Wired.
Mark Duggan police shooting: can forensic tech cast doubt on official report? →
Haroon Siddique with investigation and spacial reconstruction by Forensic Architecture for The Guardian. The police shooting of Mark Duggan led to the largest riots in modern English history, and was widely cited by #BLMUK. Forensic Architecture uses VR and 3D mapping to cast doubt on a key finding from the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission).
Michael Mandiberg for The Atlantic. In Mapping Wikipedia, Michael discovered a data set that offered an entry point into the geography of Wikipedia’s contributors. By parsing 884 million edits to English Wikipedia, they were able to collect and geolocate 43 million IP addresses, determining some troubling patterns: high edits in swing states; low edits in religious counties in the Plains; low edits in Black rural South and Native American reservations.
What Atlanta Can Teach Tech About Cultivating Black Talent →
Latoya Peterson, Stephanie Dinkins for Wired. The city is rich in opportunity for African Americans, who are largely underrepresented in the industry. It’s also poised to become a hotbed for AI innovation. Our latest ECFJ piece by Latoya Peterson and Stephanie Dinkins. How can technology become more diverse and welcoming to underrepresented groups? The answer may be where few are looking: the city of Atlanta.
‘They Will Remember Us’: The Miners of Black Harlan →
Radcliffe Roye for The New York Review of Books. In April 2019, Radcliffe (Ruddy) Roye traveled to Lynch, Kentucky, to photograph black miners in a town that once boasted the largest coal camp in the world. He found a community of fewer than 700 people, without industry, left behind and largely forgotten in national conversations about coal country that presume a white face.
Kashmir Hill for Gizmodo. Our very first ECFJ supported piece was a five-part series from artist-technologist Dhruv Mehrotra. Together with Kashmir Hill, Gizmodo’s deputy editor for the Special Projects Desk, he created a VPN that blocked tech giants, including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple.
ECFJ Contributors
Support
The inaugural year of this program has been supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies .
Subsequently, transformative support from Omidyar Network has allowed new expansion and growth together with ongoing and anchoring support from CN Philanthropies.
“Sometimes artists can express truths much more effectively than anyone can with straight explanation. We’re hoping that can be a means to counter disinformation used against us all.”
Craig Newmark
In the Press
An Investigation Into Uighur Detention Camps Funded by Eyebeam Art and Technology Center Has Won a Pulitzer Prize
via Art Net News
How to block Big Tech with Kashmir Hill
via NBC News
Trying to cut tech giants out of your life is even harder than you think
via Marketplace
Why We Can’t Break Up With Big Tech
via NPR
Eyebeam Center Invites Artists to Delve Into Journalism
via The New York Times
Eyebeam Launches Arts Grant Program for Journalistic Projects
via Artforum
The Founder of Craigslist Is Funding a Program That Pays Artists to Pursue Journalism
via artnet
NY nonprofit offers grants to artists producing journalism
via AP News