What Is Important Now
Zach Blas, ‘Facial Weaponization Communiqué: Fag Face,’ 2012. HD video
Eyebeam Residency Fall/Winter 2013: What Is Important Now
Residents
Chris Woebken and Sascha Pohflepp: This project is interested in the question of whether we are living in the only universe possible or whether our experience of causality, time and agency in our world is just a fluke among all the possible universes. Woebken and Pohflepp will work with physicist Janna Levin to introduce another world into ours by creating and materializing other universes.
Ebru Kurbak and Irene Posch: Knitted Radio is an imaginative experimentation using textile technology and conductive fibers to craft a sweater that is also an FM transmitter with the intention to create debate about marginalized producer and user groups as well as alternative manufacture economies.
Wyatt Niehaus: A documentary film short concerned with the broader implications of industrial automation and how it is already coming to shape our culture in very immediate ways. The film will use as its core anecdote a factory in Japan operating under a "lights out" framework. Creating a documentary piece that takes into account the lineage of post-Ford assembly line models of production, the work will examine a specific method of production that has its roots in science fiction and is now seeing real world implementation.
Zach Blas: Informatic Opacities is a queer/feminist research project that explores themes of control and resistance around rapidly developing forms of surveillance and policing, such as biometrics and data-mining, through a mask-making workshop, a critical dystopia installation, and a surveillance teach-in.
Review Team
The review team was comprised of Patricia Jones, Eyebeam Executive Director; Marko Tandefelt, Eyebeam Director of Research and Technology; Roddy Schrock, Eyebeam Director of Programs and Residencies; Ben Fino-Radin, Manager of the Digital Repositories, MoMA; Hrag Vartanian, Hyperallergic Editor; Laurel Ptak, Eyebeam Fellow; Stefani Bardin, Artist and former Eyebeam Resident; Brad Troemel, Eyebeam Fellow; and Jonathan Minard, Eyebeam Fellow. The team reviewed a total of 189 applications for these four positions.
Open Call
Open Call: Eyebeam Residency Fall/Winter 2013 - What Is Important Now?
Context
In light of tectonic shifts in the overlap between art, culture and technology in recent years, Eyebeam is throwing open its Residency program to a single line of inquiry: what is most important now ? We are asking you -- the digital creators, hacker artists, creative technologists, instigating curators, researchers and cultural producers -- what are the developments that are most in need of support? What are the ground-breaking works that will positively change cultural relationships to new creative technologies? What does technology even mean in 2013 and how can it be creatively used and misused in a way that pushes boundaries and explodes notions of what is possible? What art challenges dominant media narratives and empowers the public? What projects will blow up stale conversations and scale out in gigantic ways? What is the role of beauty within current technological aesthetics? If you are actively solving questions like these and could use Eyebeam’s help, let us know by applying online now!
Groundbreaking initiatives that have grown and benefited from past Eyebeam support include Graffiti Research Lab , F.A.T. Lab, open hardware (first meetings towards definition were held at Eyebeam as was last year’s Summit), the very first ReBlog system, RGBD Toolkit, littleBits , Windowfarms , Flock House and much more.
Eyebeam Values
Critical questioning of the status quo and a belief in progress and risk-taking are core values of Eyebeam. This has been demonstrated through over 15 years of experimentation via creative use and misuse of technology. This approach has resulted in the development of creative platforms, tools and exciting works of art.
Eyebeam believes that all creative work begins with a commitment to sustainability, equality, diversity, and concern for a better future. Across all areas of inquiry and research, Eyebeam primarily supports projects that have real-world impact -- we maintain that cultural progress is possible, and we encourage work that is paradigm shifting within a large spectrum of genres. Eyebeam will continue to support work that involves community-interdependence and resourcefulness, learning, curiosity, and creative exploration.
Participation
Residents are expected to fully document their progress and their projects and to participate in public events including workshops, weekly residents/fellows meetings, monthly “Stop Work” feedback sessions, demonstrations of work in progress, panel discussions, and online releases, in addition to the Eyebeam Annual Showcase (an annual ten-day event presenting the previous years’ work to the public). The ideal resident will both contribute to and benefit from the shared environment at Eyebeam, and will thrive in the dedication to openness and collaborative process across the organization, including staff, residents and fellows.
Core to Eyebeam’s methodology is the brokering of relationships between artists, hackers, coders, designers, engineers and other creative technologists in the context of an open and shared culture of investigation and critique. Eyebeam fosters and facilitates relationships whereby technologists and artists come together to germinate and incubate their ideas, develop new processes, and create new works through a period of immersion in a social and professional context that is rich in technology, expertise and ideas.