Eyebeam, that invests deeply in socially concerned artists, anywhere, and explores how humans should live in the future, today announced the newest and second cohort of The Democracy Machine, a radical experiment and ongoing cycle of transdisciplinary art and activism created to unlock artist-led invention in the areas of self-governance, technology, and democracy. A dozen artists, writers, and activists—pathbreaking, visionary individuals from nearly every continent in the world—were selected last year by the cycle’s inaugural cohort of Black, disabled, and Indigenous artists to participate in a lively eight month fellowship that began this winter. A diverse cohort, and possessing collectively an extraordinary range of art, writing, and social practices, has again taken over the reins of Eyebeam’s flagship fellowship and are together exploring issues from the movement to decolonize technology, to privacy and surveillance, to the challenging of dominant narratives. The initiative is funded by Ford Foundation and Mellon, among others.
“We must give artists a rich space to imagine and contemplate how humans should live in the future if we are to create a different and more humane relationship to technology,” said Roderick Schrock, executive director of Eyebeam. In a new Eyebeam film, Schrock remarked that the organization is building on a young, adventurous legacy to create a whole new way to support artists who are defining the future. “The new cohort hails from nearly every continent and have come together virtually to examine with us the relationship between humans, technology, and ethics and explore, as artists, social and cultural issues such as motherhood in the 21st century, sustainable technology, and healing and resistance within Black and Indigenous communities.”
“Ford is delighted to provide support for this groundbreaking artist-led initiative unlocking new ideas and challenging dominant narratives to create a more just and equitable world,” said Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, senior program officer for Creativity and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation. “With The Democracy Machine, Eyebeam continues to center artists who are interrogating democracy and creating space for equity in art and technology.”
Background
The cycle takes place against an ongoing transformation at Eyebeam and builds on Rapid Response for a Better Digital Future, a fast moving initiative created early in the pandemic so that artists could come together and explore the dark frontier of power that commodifies personal information at the expense of democracy and freedom. Artists were invited to consider the call, “How do we begin to exit surveillance capitalism as the dominating form of digital life and what can replace it?”A subsequent festival of ideas and actions delved into pressing topics that affect everyone, from consensual coding to the gentrification of the internet, and launched artist made responses created during the pandemic on Open.Eyebeam that put power into the hands of people, from Rashaad Newsome’s Being 1.5, an app that delivers online mental health therapy to the Black community, to Dillon Sung’s landmark public archive of thousands of PRA (Public Records Act) documents received from the Los Angeles Police Department and the city of Los Angeles. The convening featured pioneers such as computer programmer Joan Greenbaum; curator, writer, and artist Legacy Russell; and new media artist and poet Shawné Michaelain Holloway.
Artists
The newest cohort of The Democracy Machine—a dozen artists, writers, and activists whose boundary dissolving practices push the confines of their mediums and demand more space and equity in society and culture, from the bolstering Black art history in Columbia to the “possibility” of an anticolonial gaze and spanning a diversity of locations, such as Colombia, India, Nepal, and Peru and in U.S., Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, —were chosen by the inaugural 2021/2022 cohort. Each 2022/2023 artist is receiving $20,000, combined with profound professional development opportunities and the camaraderie and mutual support of a residency.
Elizabeth Pérez
Elizabeth Pérez is a mother, multidisciplinary designer, and educator interested in the confluence of motherhood, world-building, and the possibilities of design. She has taught at Parsons School of Design and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program in New York where she received her graduate degree.
CY X
CY X is a queer agender love influencer, earth tender, and cyber witch “holding hands with past, present, and future as we traverse through portals that break capitalistic enclosures.” They are grounded in: Black and Indigenous feminism, queer mysticism, trans shapeshifting, sex magic, abolition, and “more-than human collaboration.” They are also the founder of pleasure ceremony, an eco-erotic embodied research, care work and collaborative ceremonial practice and co-founder of Synth Library NYC.