Beatriz da Costa’s multidisciplinary projects are bioart with a heart, installations, videos, and performances that artfully merge biotechnology and social issues. Many of her projects entail the idea and practice of “public amateurism,” in which artists conduct science research based on hobbyism and DIY interest as a form of active social participation. Over many years Beatriz has produced cross-species projects in which microbes, pigeons, and genetically modified crops have played a key role. In the Life Garden, an installation from her latest series The Costs of Life, she blends medical research related to cancer with her personal experiences to create a greenhouse filled with plants that are medicinal for treating cancer. Beatriz generously answered a few questions proposed by intern Katherine DiPierro about her engaging interdisciplinary work.

Security cameras, RFID scanners, and GPS tracking have become ubiquitous to the point that privacy can be an imagined concept. According to one popular statistic, the average New York City resident is caught on surveillance camera 75 times a day. Eyebeam Fellow Mark Shepard has created the Sentient City Survival Kit, a toolkit of apps, gadgets, and tactics that anticipate and creatively counter-act urban environments that will soon be capable of predicting not only one’s location, but possibly actions or even thoughts. The smartphone application Serendipitor, playfully challenges the efficiency of GPS directions by deliberately guiding the user in a circuitous path. As a member of Eyebeam’s Urban Research group, Mark aims to explore the use of control technologies - not only security cameras and RFID scanners, but also concrete architecture - as an influence on the psyche of city and civilian.

Trained as a string musician, Alexander Chen uses HTML5 and Flash to build interactive virtual string instruments from source material as diverse as a Gibson Les Paul, the New York subway system and, most recently, a classical cello. Baroque.me visualizes the notes of the first Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suites as continuously shifting strings, and is the first part in a planned series of graphical representations of baroque music. By utilizing the mathematics behind string length and pitch, Alexander spotlights the underlying structure and subtle shifts in the musical piece. While at Eyebeam, he's part of a collaboration with New Visions to develop strategies for maximizing digital learning as a member of Digital Teacher Corps.

The winter holiday season has just begun, and with it come dinner parties with treats and delicacies seen only once a year. And while many look forward to the season's sweet and savory foods, few consider where they comes from. Stefani Bardin, currently an Honorary Eyebeam Resident, is not one of those people: she's consumed with the study of industrialized agriculture. The Counter Kitchen, a series of workshops she co-hosted with former Eyebeam Fellow Brooke Singer, showed participants how to emulate commercial food and sundries, minus potentially-harmful ingredients.

Eye to Eyebeam is a series on Eyebeam's artists in residence and fellows that includes interviews, photos, and other information on Eyebeam’s artists and creative technologists. It is authored by Eyebeam intern Katherine DiPierro.

Eye to Eyebeam is a series on Eyebeam's artists in residence and fellows that includes interviews, photos, and other information on Eyebeam’s artists and creative technologists. It is authored by Eyebeam intern Katherine DiPierro.

Alan Sondheim is a transmedia artist, a musician, a theorist, and a writer. In past interviews, he has described himself as falling “between” literature and the arts; similarly, his projects fall between real and virtual bodies and worlds. For nearly forty years, Alan has employed his talents in writing and art-making to produce books, videos, performances, and net art. Through prolific writing and art-making, Alan has worked on many projects that link philosophy, psychology, language, body, sexuality, and virtuality. Eyebeam intern Katherine DiPierro (virtually) sat down with Alan Sondheim to find out more about his past and current work.

Eye to Eyebeam is a series on Eyebeam's artists in residence and fellows that includes interviews, photos, and other information on Eyebeam’s artists and creative technologists. It is authored by Eyebeam intern Katherine DiPierro.

Eye to Eyebeam is a series on Eyebeam's artists in residence and fellows that includes interviews, photos, and other information on Eyebeam’s artists and creative technologists. It is authored by Eyebeam intern Katherine DiPierro.

At a time when “sustainable” and “environmentally friendly” are the latest marketing buzzwords, Maria Michails creates projects which invite both meditation and participation in the processes of ecology and the consumption of energy. Her interactive sculptures relate the exploitative effects of human consumption of energy (past projects have highlighted the effects of industrial agriculture and fracking) and graft natural materials with precise electronic instruments and participant-powered mechanisms. Eyebeam intern Katherine DiPierro sat down with Maria to talk about her past and current projects.

Eye to Eyebeam is a new series on Eyebeam's artists in residence and fellows. The series will include interviews, photos, and other information and is authored by Eyebeam intern Katherine DiPierro.

From sound collages and virtual sculpture to his collaborative website gifpumper, Slava Balasanov’s projects are riotous, self-aware of their digital status. The Digit, an augmented reality sculpture of two connected thumbs, is only visible through an iPhone app, where it can be seen hovering over Union Square, its chrome surface mirroring the sky and ground. After making a few additions to gifpumper, Eyebeam intern Katherine DiPierro sat down with Slava for a chat about some of his past work.

Katherine DiPierro: What are you planning on doing during your residency?