And, what is required to move us towards a pluralistic commons—a space that might hold our multitudes and their potentials towards shared futures
We are very excited to announce our new 2025/2026 season. A warm, open invitation, Speculating on Plurality is a prompt to artists, technologists and writers playfully or critically take up these questions and imagine or instigate new frameworks, interventions, or inventions to address what concerns us the most: from state surveillance, the climate, digital fugitivity, to interventions in the face of techno feudalism/fascism. The new season of gatherings, making, and togetherness features two artist conversations with our community at Secret Riso Club, experimental writing and storytelling, and a return, for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, to Eyebeam’s nourishing and supportive physical residency in New York City.
In the fall, Eyebeam opens this series with Urgent Inquiries, two evenings of Eyebeam alum artist conversations inviting practitioners whose works incites us to imagine or instigate new frameworks, interventions, or inventions to address questions that concern us the most bringing us to present Speculating on Plurality to our community. Urgent Inquiries brings our alumni community together to think and act through hyper-contemporary issues together. In a time of intersecting crises where we attest to ongoing genocides, the rapid rise of techno-fascism, and climate disaster, what are the frameworks, interventions and inventions through which we can better understand our world?
To coincide with the launch of the events at Secret Riso Club, we invite all practitioners and supporters in the Eyebeam community, to join our discord server. For folks across the globe and unable to join the in-person conversations, we hope you all can share your own critical thoughts and responses on our Discord community. We open our server to keep us all engaging (asynchronously) in conversations about frameworks, interventions, or inventions that move us to challenge the existing system of state surveillance, techno feudalism/fascism, and censorial repression that is prevalent in and out of our digital spaces.
Timeline
The speculating on plurality 12-week project-based residency invites artists and creatives who are interested in further developing or expanding current or ongoing work or projects that offer new frameworks, platforms, interventions, or inventions to address the issues and ideas most critical to building the futures we seek.
This 2026 residency invites 6 emerging artists to apply whose work and thinking act as catalysts in defining our paths ahead. This residency supports works in progress, and residents will not be required to complete their proposed work during the residency, but rather share in the process with each other and Eyebeam’s communities through discussion and open studio events.
Number of Residents: 6
Residency Support:
The season will culminate in a juried fiction writing contest, inviting writers and creatives to submit short stories around the theme of “Speculating on Plurality.” With the breakneck pace of new technologies developing and their near compulsory integration into our lives, these new modalities are mediating our relationships with ourselves, with each other, and the world around us. Algorithms and their data feel as influential as geography in determining what and how we experience the world. We invite writers to explore the potentialities of the human/tech relationship in the near and far futures. Submissions will be read and reviewed by an alumni committee and the Eyebeam staff. Winners will be invited to read their submissions in an evening program in June 2026. A selection of submissions will be published in Feed, our content channel featuring a continuous selection of artist interviews, essays, and criticism, and designed, printed, and distributed as a zine.
The new season is a return for Eyebeam and offers artists and our communities platforms to think critically and share ideas, focused time and resources for creation, and a dynamic, evolving space for play, risk taking, and connection. The series will also give a special focus to bringing voices across generations, media, mediums, and experiences together.
Timeline