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Edited: June 3, 2024
Stephanie Dinkins
a photo portrait of a Black woman with shoulder-length locs smiling at the camera

Portrait of Eyebeam Artist 2017/2018 Stephanie Dinkins

Pronouns
She/her
Date and place of birth
b. 1964, Perth Amboy, NJ
Current location
Brooklyn, NY
Year(s) of residency and/or fellowship
2017–18, Trust Resident; 2020, ECFJ Fellow

Stephanie Dinkins is a transdisciplinary artist who creates experiences that spark dialog about race, gender, aging, and our future histories.  Her work in AI and other mediums uses emerging technologies and social collaboration to work toward technological ecosystems based on care and social equity. Dinkins’ experiences with and explorations of artificial intelligence have led to a deep interest in how algorithmic systems impact communities of color in particular and all of our futures more generally.

Dinkins’ experiments with AI have led full circle to recognize the stories, myths, and cultural perspectives, aka data, that we hold and share form and inform society and have done so for millennia. She has concluded that our stories are our algorithms. We must value, grow, respect, and collaborate with each other’s stories (data) to build care and broadly compassionate values into the technological ecosystems that increasingly support our future.

Dinkins teaches at Stony Brook University where she holds the Kusama Endowed Chair in Art. Dinkins earned an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is an alumna of the Whitney Independent Studies Program. She exhibits and publicly advocates for inclusive AI internationally at a broad spectrum of community, private, and institutional venues. Dinkins is a 2021 United States Artist Fellow and Knight Arts & Tech Fellow. Previous fellowships, residencies and support include the Artist Fellow of the Berggruen Institute and Lucas Artists Fellow in Visual Arts at Montalvo Art Center, CA, Onassis Foundation, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Creative Capital, Soros Equality Fellowship, Data and Society Research Institute Fellowship,  Sundance New Frontiers Story Lab, Eyebeam, Pioneer Works Tech Lab, NEW INC, Blue Mountain Center; The Laundromat Project; Santa Fe Art Institute and Art/Omi.

The New York Times featured Dinkins in its pages as an AI influencer.  Wired, Art In America, Artsy,  Art21, Hyperallergic, the BBC, Wilson Quarterly, and a host of popular podcasts have recently highlighted Dinkins’ art and ideas.

Interview: Meet Stephanie Dinkins

Stephanie Dinkins
2017 – 2018
Trust Resident

Who are you?

I am an artist who is interested in creating platforms for ongoing dialog about artificial intelligence as it intersects race, gender, aging, the proliferation of knowledge(s) and our future histories. My work is exhibited internationally at a broad spectrum of community, private and institutional venues, including Herning Kunstmuseum; Spellman College; Wave Hill; Studio Museum; Spedition Bremen; and the corner of Putnam and Malcolm X Blvd, Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn; – by design. I am also a 2017 A Blade of Grass Fellow 2016 Artist-in-Residence at NEW INC., as well as a Professor at Stony Brook University where I teach interactive media.

What are you working on?

My aim is to create a unique culturally attuned AI entity in collaboration with coders, engineers and in close consultation with local communities of color that reflects and is empowered to work toward the goals of its community. Ideally, this could look at combining three generations of a family into one AI entity.

What are you most excited about?

This is an amazing cohort, I am excited to develop my project and work on interesting public programming the other residents.

 

Stephanie is an artist who is interested in creating platforms for ongoing dialog about artificial intelligence as it intersects race, gender, aging, the proliferation of knowledge(s) and our future histories.

Eyebeam models a new approach to artist-led creation for the public good; we are a non-profit that provides significant professional support and money to exceptional artists for the realization of important ideas that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Nobody else is doing this.

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