A cohort of 30 artists have received funding to find creative solutions to 21st-century problems like surveillance, digital inequality and inherited trauma.
“There is a hunger for the generative thinking that artists can supply,” said Roderick Schrock, the executive director of Eyebeam. “I think that interest comes from a general breakdown in trust for our world leaders.”
With $300,000 raised from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Eyebeam is providing significant resources to its artist cohort tasked with responding to “a time of crisis and systemic collapse” during the coronavirus pandemic. Each artist will receive $5,000 to develop their projects and a select number will receive an additional $25,000 in October.
Funded proposals include Maxwell Mutanda’s visualization of the mobile data gap in sub-Saharan Africa, where access to the internet is often expensive; Roopa Vasudevan’s field guide for artists looking to subvert surveillance technology; and Kyle McDonald’s critique of the controversial practice of predictive policing through machine learning.
And for artists like Rashaad Newsome, 40, the program has been an opportunity to dream big. Currently based in Oakland, Calif., Newsome is developing “Being 1.5,” a virtual therapist powered by artificial intelligence to respond to the collective trauma that African-Americans experience. The idea came to him amid the George Floyd protests. “Through critical thinking with the bot,” Mr. Newsome said, “I hope people will find new ways to navigate systems of oppression.”
