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Roddy Schrock, the executive director of Eyebeam, white man in his 40's with is light brown and grey hair, cut short but floppy on top of his head, as well as brown and grey stubble on his cheeks and around my lips. He has freckles on his face and light skin. He is pictured holding a microphone and cue cards, in front of a large-wall-sized projector screen at a private event space in the Ace Hotel Brooklyn. He is seen speaking in front of an audience.Roddy Schrock, the executive director of Eyebeam, white man in his 40's with is light brown and grey hair, cut short but floppy on top of his head, as well as brown and grey stubble on his cheeks and around my lips. He has freckles on his face and light skin. He is pictured holding a microphone and cue cards, in front of a large-wall-sized projector screen at a private event space in the Ace Hotel Brooklyn. He is seen speaking in front of an audience.

Portrait of Roddy Schrock, the Executive Director of Eyebeam. Photograph by Whitney Legge.

Roddy Schrock
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Edited: February 22, 2024

It’s a brilliant afternoon with sun and snow outside my window and I am at my desk during the break of Eyebeam’s first meeting of the new group of 2024 fellows. Already, I can clearly see the strength with which this stunning group of artists is facing down the horrific techno-political moment we find ourselves in. They are doing so with optimism, imagination, and talent. They are innovating new ways of being, built from the bottom up. And as I write this, my mind is swirling from the energy and excitement of hearing them share their visions and learning how they plan to realize their work. 

Incredibly, it has been nearly four years since Eyebeam launched Rapid Response for a Better Digital Future, our digital first (but not digital only) fellowship. Right as the pandemic entered global consciousness, we introduced the initiative to support a broad and diverse community of artists, technologists, engineers, and activists. It was designed to spark artists’ imaginations during a time of crisis. This is important when times are challenging and it is also what artists do best – demand that we all dream bigger. 

Eyebeam prides itself on responsively providing support, professional development, and resources to cutting-edge artists tackling the issues of our time. We have been doing this for nearly 25 years and this year is no different, as we build on our digital first strategy begun in 2020. The new artists are focusing on issues spanning digital “counter-mapping” as activism to building local internet “mesh networks” for resiliency and in order to exit surveillance capitalism. At a time when there is even more of a need for powerful ideas and deep imagination into how we can most equitably move forward into an uncertain future, this group comprises an extraordinary, global braintrust of thinkers and makers who embrace creativity for community, hacking as healing, and guerrilla theory as a means of empowerment. The goal here is to shift the center of gravity, away from reactionary tendencies and towards expansive and thoughtful strategies for building abundance in a shifting world. The type of abundance these artists are building is based in a commitment to progress, equity, and generosity. It is self-evident that this type of approach is needed more in the techno-sphere than probably any other arena of life in the present moment.

Fast forward back to the present: the break is over and now the team is talking the group through the logistics of kicking off the fellowships. I am reminded that at the end of the day the most valuable component of our organization is simply, powerfully, people: the human networks that are built. I remain as energized as ever about the value of bringing optimistic, caring, and talented people together in the goal of centering artists’ thinking as the key to unlocking what we want from our world. That is the new center of gravity we are pulling towards as we enter the middle of the third decade of this still young millennium.

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Valencia, a black woman with long black hair in a gray outfit, strikes a dance pose, facing a small, black camera on a short tripod with a gray dead cat.Valencia, a black woman with long black hair in a gray outfit, strikes a dance pose, facing a small, black camera on a short tripod with a gray dead cat.
What is human about technology?
ChangelogEdited: February 22, 2024Published: February 21, 2024

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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