I’m truly honored and excited to be stepping into the role of Executive Director at Eyebeam. It is a privilege to be able to lead an organization that has been so transformative in the field of art and technology, and so influential to me personally. By way of introduction, I want to start by telling you what Eyebeam has meant to me over the years.

When I first started working in this field in 2009, Eyebeam quickly became the epicenter of my social and professional worlds. Back then, it was one of the only places in New York where you might encounter artists thinking about digital surveillance, the poetics of code, or the cultural power of memes. It was wildly ahead of its time. Long before the “intersection of art and technology” became a cliché, Eyebeam was its beating heart.

I was never a resident or fellow, but I was a devoted collaborator. In the early 2010s, I co-organized Art Hackathons with Eyebeam staff through my work at The Creators Project. Eyebeam hosted my #ArtsTech meetups and one of the first exhibitions I ever co-curated, the Emoji Art & Design show, in 2013. When Hurricane Sandy flooded the basement in 2012, I was part of the volunteer crew that showed up to help save the archives. And when I later developed the incubator program that became NEW INC, it was my friendships with Eyebeam alums that most shaped my vision for how to build something that genuinely serves a creative community. In many ways, joining Eyebeam feels like a homecoming.

I step into this role with enormous respect for Eyebeam’s 25-year legacy and the tremendous work done by the Directors and staff who preceded me. I also feel a sense of urgency about what comes next. Our relationship to technology is remarkably different from what it was when Eyebeam was founded, and the need for a space that helps us to orient and make sense of technology’s impact on society, and imagine how things might be otherwise, has never been greater. The kind of artists and work that Eyebeam has helped champion — radical, experimental, inquiry-based and critical — feel more essential, and more precarious, than ever. I want to protect that legacy, but also take stock of how Eyebeam needs to evolve to respond to the present moment and all that it demands of us. 

Eyebeam has always been a place where artists can find the space, resources, and community to ask hard questions and the freedom to envision a more just and joyful relationship to technology and to one another. I hope to build on that foundation and to expand the visibility and impact of the artists and ideas we support. Eyebeam already has an incredible community of more than 550 alums and thousands more friends and collaborators. At a time when we feel increasingly uncertain about what the future holds, I want to create more opportunities for us to gather — to process, discuss, scheme, and dream together. 

As I get situated in my new role and start thinking about Eyebeam’s future, I’d love to hear from you, Eyebeam’s community. I want to know what Eyebeam has meant to you and what you think it can become. Shaping what comes next is something I want to do together, so I very much hope you’ll join me in imagining and building Eyebeam’s next chapter.

Julia Kaganskiy
Executive Director