The Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism (ECFJ) is an experimental grant-making program that supports artists and artist-journalist teams producing innovative and revelatory journalistic work for major media outlets.
Underwritten by Craig Newmark Philanthropies, ECFJ is the first initiative of its kind to directly facilitate artists’ major media commissions in the realm of journalism. With the belief that artists are central in the invention and design of our shared future, and also critical in shifting public debate, ECFJ supports the execution of pieces that focus on reimagining the way stories are told, particularly around technology and society.
The funds distributed to grantees assist with research, travel, and other expenses many media outlets struggle to cover, allowing stories that are often out of reach in today’s climate to be produced.
Read the full press release here.
ApplyA collection of articles supported by Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism as seen in The Atlantic, Gizmodo, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, and Wired.
Role of Technology in Society
Alison Killing , Megha Rajagopalan for Buzzfeed News
Read the last in the Pulitzer Prize-winning series by Alison Killing & Megha Rajagopalan, supported in part by Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism and published in BuzzFeed News. This reporting revealed that there is enough room to detain over 1 million Muslims in the Xinjiang detention camps in China.
Role of Technology in Society
Anna Filipova, Henry Fountain for The New York Times
Eyebeam supported Anna Filipova on her journey to the Norwegian Arctic to document a crucial satellite station providing essential data on the effects of climate change.
Role of Technology in Society
Bayeté Ross Smith, Jimmie Briggs for The Guardian
In the latest for ECFJ, Bayeté Ross Smith has revisited the sites of Red Summer, a period of time in the early 20th century marked by white supremacist terrorism and race, to create a five-part 360 video series for The Guardian.
Role of Technology in Society
Ben Mauk, Matt Huynh for The New Yorker
Currently, there is likely the largest internment of ethnic and religious minorities since WW11. Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism and the Pulitzer Center supported reporting in Xinjiang, China. The project employs immersive 360/VR film and browser-based interactive technology for the New Yorker to uncover an increasing surveillance state being used for cultural assimilation.
Elections
Radcliffe Roye, Rebecca Lee Sanchez for The New York Review of Books
Radcliffe Roye photographed years of Trump rallies and published the unsettling history in an article written by Rebecca Lee Sanchez, “‘God, Guns, & Trump’: Anatomy of the Crowd.”
Role of Technology in Society
Alison Killing, Megha Rajagopalan for Buzzfeed News
Alison Killing and Megha Rajagopalan expose the “virtuous” solar power industry in the US for using forced labor of #Uyghur Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
Role of Technology in Society
Alison Killing, Megha Rajagopalan for Buzzfeed News
Alison Killing and Megha Rajagopalan use satellite image analysis, detainee interviews, and Chinese government documents to uncover forced labor of Muslims in Xinjiang.
Role of Technology in Society
Alison Killing, Megha Rajagopalan for Buzzfeed News
Alison Killing and Megha Rajagopalan use satellite images, architectural analysis, and digital reconstruction to expose the cruel reality of the modern-day internment camps of Xinjiang.
Role of Technology in Society
Alison Killing, Megha Rajagopalan, Christo Buschek for Buzzfeed News
Our latest collaboration reveals a network of internment camps imprisoning Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Role of Technology in Society
Haroon Siddique with investigation and spacial reconstruction by Forensic Architecture for The Guardian
The police shooting of Mark Duggan led to the largest riots in modern English history, and was widely cited by #BLMUK. Forensic Architecture uses VR and 3D mapping to cast doubt on a key finding from the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission).
Role of Technology in Society
Michael Mandiberg for The Atlantic
In Mapping Wikipedia, Michael discovered a data set that offered an entry point into the geography of Wikipedia’s contributors. By parsing 884 million edits to English Wikipedia, they were able to collect and geolocate 43 million IP addresses, determining some troubling patterns: high edits in swing states; low edits in religious counties in the Plains; low edits in Black rural South and Native American reservations.
Artificial Intelligence
Latoya Peterson, Stephanie Dinkins for Wired
The city is rich in opportunity for African Americans, who are largely underrepresented in the industry. It’s also poised to become a hotbed for AI innovation. Our latest ECFJ piece by Latoya Peterson and Stephanie Dinkins. How can technology become more diverse and welcoming to underrepresented groups? The answer may be where few are looking—the city of Atlanta.
Countering Disinformation
Maya Millett with art commissioned by Johnalynn Holland, Andrea Pippins, Erin Robinson, Elise R. Peterson, Adriana Bellet, and Xia Gordon for The New York Review of Books
How many black women journalists from the 19th century can you name? Six artists have recreated portraits of the pioneering women working in the field of journalism who have been largely erased until now.
Role of Technology in Society
Celine Wong Katzman, Angela Washko for The Nation
Artist Angela Washko gives us a behind-the-scenes look into her latest video game, “The Game: The Game,” which exposes misogyny from lived-experience to online message boards. “The Game” allows for players to recognize the patterns of the male-seduction community through a simulation that interacts with infamous pick-up artists.
Elections
Radcliffe Roye for The New York Review of Books
In April 2019, Radcliffe (Ruddy) Roye traveled to Lynch, Kentucky, to photograph black miners in a town that once boasted the largest coal camp in the world. He found a community of fewer than 700 people, without industry, left behind and largely forgotten in national conversations about coal country that presume a white face.
Interrogating Harmful Technologies
Mairav Zonszein, Sam Lavigne for The Nation
The challenge comes in response to a case filed by Israeli settlers against Airbnb. Artist Sam Lavigne created a visual, linguistic and geographic dataset that explored the images and language of Airbnb ads along with their locations on the map of the West Bank.
Interrogating Harmful Technologies
Dhruv Mehrotra for Gizmodo
Here, Dhruv Mehrotra talks about the process of creating a VPN for Gizmodo’s deputy editor for the Special Projects Desk, Kashmir Hill, and her five-part series blocking tech giants.
Interrogating Harmful Technologies
Kashmir Hill for Gizmodo
Our very first ECFJ supported piece was a five-part series from artist-technologist Dhruv Mehrotra. Together with Kashmir Hill, Gizmodo’s deputy editor for the Special Projects Desk, he created a VPN that blocked tech giants, including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple.
An Investigation Into Uighur Detention Camps Funded by Eyebeam Art and Technology Center Has Won a Pulitzer Prize via Art Net News
How to block Big Tech with Kashmir Hill via NBC News
Trying to cut tech giants out of your life is even harder than you think via Marketplace
Why We Can’t Break Up With Big Tech via NPR
Eyebeam Center Invites Artists to Delve Into Journalism via The New York Times
Eyebeam Launches Arts Grant Program for Journalistic Projects via Artforum
The Founder of Craigslist Is Funding a Program That Pays Artists to Pursue Journalism via artnet
NY nonprofit offers grants to artists producing journalism via AP News
Support this program and the groundbreaking and urgent work of these artist journalists.
The inaugural year of this program has been supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
“Sometimes artists can express truths much more effectively than anyone can with straight explanation. We’re hoping that can be a means to counter disinformation used against us all.” – Craig Newmark
