Page contents

Eyebeam supports artists who make radical, independent work about the way we live.

We were one of the first organizations dedicated to supporting artists who create with technology. Since our founding more than 20 years ago, over 500 artists have received support through our flagship fellowship, with hundreds more having participated in our exhibitions and gatherings. We are building from an adventurous legacy and breaking new ground in the role technology can play in our lives by empowering artists concerned about injustice and inequity. Eyebeam.org is our new home, and we are establishing deep relationships with brick-and-mortar friends to powerfully present and amplify the work of our artists.

Join us.

A new film featuring alumni Torkwase Dyson, Zach Lieberman, Marina Zurkow, Rashaad Newsome, and Volumetric Performance Toolbox. Film: Whitney Legge and Brent Foster Jones

Video transcript
0:04

what i remember is being able to wildly

0:07

experiment

0:09

it was a real um

0:11

sort of moment of being able to

0:14

invent

0:15

make and be cared for

0:18

[Music]

0:27

the way that artists think about the

0:29

world is the kind of thinking that we

0:31

need as a culture

0:33

if we are to create a different and more

0:36

humane relationship to these tools the

0:38

organization in many ways is

0:42

both a direct support mechanism for

0:44

artists as well as being a platform and

0:48

a resource i’ve had access to

0:52

people to run ideas through

0:54

i really needed

0:56

to problem solve

1:01

this idea of what does it mean to undo

1:04

these sort of architectures of

1:06

inhumanity

1:08

so when i landed into architecture

1:11

elmina

1:12

and extraction

1:15

within

1:16

um and on

1:18

you know oceans as a superhighway

1:21

in ships

1:23

in halls of ships as a different kind of

1:25

architecture

1:26

than the trade

1:28

you know then the harvesting and

1:31

uh

1:32

exploitation and dispossession of people

1:33

of color

1:35

and then i

1:36

worked my way to liberation

1:39

it was this totally raw just this crazy

1:42

laboratory the amount of information and

1:46

resources that people were sharing the

1:48

way people were making things and you

1:50

saw the

1:51

the seeds of projects

1:53

i think my challenge as an artist has

1:55

been to try to take this thing which i

1:57

you know i also love coding and i love

1:59

just generative form but i want it to

2:01

feel like painting

2:08

alumni like taeyun choi

2:10

um you know who

2:11

came out of ibm at the same time as me

2:14

we had that connection and we wanted to

2:15

create a space like that

2:17

a place where people could come and have

2:20

experience the sort of magic that we

2:22

were feeling at i-beam but in uh

2:24

educational context

2:28

i’ve been focused on finding as many

2:30

ways as possible

2:31

to connect people to climate change and

2:34

issues that i would call multi-species

2:36

ethics

2:37

and what it means to live on this planet

2:40

i’ve been driven by

2:42

a pretty ridiculous quest to nudge the

2:44

needle a tiny bit to the side to open up

2:47

some kind of space where humans are not

2:48

the absolute center of everything

2:51

both of my residencies at ibm were

2:52

opportunities to

2:55

try out

2:56

a bunch of different things the projects

2:59

that were incubated ibm in 2009 was the

3:02

first of what became a long series of

3:04

projects that i would describe as these

3:07

landscape pageants

3:09

everything is coexisting and it’s

3:12

software driven animation

3:14

our response to the major up evil in the

3:17

world was to essentially just rethink

3:20

what our role could be in a moment of

3:23

chaos and transition we saw an

3:25

opportunity to

3:27

bring in

3:29

a highly

3:31

engaged group of artists and to bring

3:33

them together to think about a

3:35

relationship to a digitally mediated

3:37

world

3:39

i am deliberate and afraid of nothing

3:41

serious i was thinking a lot about that

3:44

kind of um eerie connection between

3:47

black americans and robots because when

3:50

black americans came to this country

3:51

were completely

3:53

disembodied

3:54

we were seen as objects

3:56

and we didn’t have any kind of humanity

4:02

i made a performance with a virtual

4:04

environment of a sugar mill to tell the

4:06

story of of my family and also to show

4:10

how us as african descendants we have

4:13

transcended even the hardest injustices

4:16

[Music]

4:22

the ways in which artists enable the

4:24

rest of us to imagine a different future

4:28

if we look back and say

4:31

the way that we used to organize

4:33

condition craft direct ourselves

4:36

has led us to this point of loss

4:39

how must we rearrange

4:41

[Music]

4:44

but the way to come through loss is

4:46

invention

4:49

[Music]

4:50

one of the most exciting initiatives

4:51

that we’ve had the opportunity to launch

4:53

at ibeam is the ibm center for the

4:55

future of journalism

4:58

one of our artists that we worked with

5:00

last year on a project in collaboration

5:02

with buzzfeed news

5:04

actually won a pulitzer prize

5:06

for the creative approach that they took

5:08

to telling a very complex story

5:12

[Music]

5:14

we’re building on a young adventurous

5:16

legacy as we’ve transformed into a

5:19

digital first distributed catalyst and

5:22

incubator

5:24

[Music]

5:26

there’s a window of opportunity for

5:27

artists to actually help us think

5:30

through our relationship with this world

5:32

that we’re entering

5:34

and it’s important that we do that now

5:38

[Music]

5:47

you

Values

Eyebeam believes that the open distribution of inventive work by a broad and diverse group of artists provides an antidote to toxic forms of supremacy in its many forms.

Read our statement of values

People

Eyebeam is made up of people who share common beliefs in openness, invention, and justice. Meet our staff, board, and advisors.

Meet our people

History

Eyebeam was established in 1998 by John S. Johnson as a resource for artists to engage creatively with technology in an experimental setting. Originally located in a warehouse in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, Eyebeam supported makers and thinkers who spearheaded game-changing projects like reBlog, the first-ever online “sharing” protocol, and Fundrace, the first geocoding of public campaign finance data.

Many more “firsts” were had at our studios over the years, including the C-based creative coding platform, OpenFrameworks, and the first comprehensive rap lyrics database, the Rap Research Lab by Tahir Hemphill. Eyebeam has committed to amplifying the voices of artists, inventors, designers, and engineers who show us the horizon of what is possible, creating space for them to imagine the future. Society’s ever-shifting relationship to technology can be charted through the work of those that have come through our doors over the past two decades.

Eyebeam continues to be a power station for invention, providing a space for experimentation that propels and uplifts the cultural conversation. Eyebeam has opened its breadth of support to equitably compensate over 125 artists each year through its diverse programming. Now more than ever, Eyebeam radically centers artists in the cultural conversation, giving them the support to both interrogate and re-imagine what technology can be and who it is for.



Eyebeam has been W.A.G.E. certified since 2015.

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.

Support Our Work