Gray Area

Media arts educators, we want to hear from you! If you teach art, creative technology, media arts, writing, design, architecture, games, sound, curation/research, or related fields, we’d love your perspective on how AI tools are changing the classroom and studio. Gray Area is partnering with researchers to document how artist-educators are adapting in real time. The survey takes less than 5 minutes. (And as a thank you, pick up a free Moleskine journal next time you’re at Gray Area) Share your perspective → docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

NEXT WEEK! 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 Experience immersive installations, interactive poetry, artistic games, and experimental digital environments created by artists, designers, and technologists from Gray Area’s flagship Creative Code Intensive. This year’s showcase features work by 13 participants exploring themes of connection, memory, surveillance, and cultural identity in a moment where AI increasingly shapes social interaction and the ways we relate to technology. Over two days, experience the work, meet the creators, and get inspired by emerging voices working across art and technology. 📍 Gray Area / Grand Theater 📅 May 20 – 21, 2026 Opening Night May 20 🥂 Member Preview + Happy Hour: 6 – 7 PM 🥂 Public Hours: 7 – 10 PM Showcase Open Hours May 21 5 – 9 PM All ages Sliding scale admission: $0–30 Free for members Featuring work by: charles_irl Chih Yu Chen Connie Liu Dylan Peet Fabian Fabro Faraday Jeanette Andrews Lizzie Suh Sarah Alli SiQi He Theo Popov Tracy Jones Wolf Boxuan Chen Learn more and RSVP: grayarea.org/event/gray-are…

On 13 May, 邊界 will be hosting an evening gathering at @index_space_org Greenpoint, NYC, bringing together a cross-coastal group of artists, researchers, technologists and cultural intermediaries from New York and San Francisco. The event is designed to foster meaningful dialogue around the role of artistic practice in shaping how technical institutions, research communities, and public imaginaries intersect. With the support of @GrayAreaorg and @FWBtweets. We will be presenting @yalla_halim work, “Singulars”: a series of live poetry duels between a human poet and a machine. The audience votes to decide the winner, and their votes train the machine for future performances, helping poetry and machine reach, possibly, a new singularity. DM for more information!

We partnered with Gray Area to commission five artists to train custom AI models on their own work. Join us May 9th as @arvidabystrom, @hauntrezz, Lou Fauroux, @fang_yvonne, and Sharon Zheng discuss the concepts behind their models and what AI means for their practice.

@alicescope_ @titlesxyz

Curated by @alicescope_ and presented by @titlesxyz, 𝘿𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙈 𝙈𝙊𝘿𝙀𝙇𝙎 brings together artist talks and live demos for a look inside what an artistic practice looks like when it’s dreaming. ✧ Free with RSVP ✧ Drinks will be served ✧ All Ages ✧ Seated Program May 9 at Gray Area 6:30PM 2665 Mission Street, San Francisco RSVP: luma.com/3c7tytnl

𝘿𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙈 𝙈𝙊𝘿𝙀𝙇𝙎 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭? We’re living through a crisis of the image. Generative AI has made visual production feel infinite, authorless, and increasingly detached from reality. At the same time, questions of authorship, ownership, and artistic agency are becoming harder to ignore. This Saturday, May 9, @arvidabystrom, @hauntrezz, Lou Fauroux, @fang_yvonne, and Sharon Zheng unveil custom AI models trained exclusively on their own work. @habitual_truant

𝐓𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰: 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐤𝐢 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐊𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐧 RML and Gray Area present a rare evening with William Basinski, the legendary experimental composer behind The Disintegration Loops. Using obsolete technology, analog tape loops, and the slow decay of recorded sound, Basinski creates haunting compositions that hold memory, time, and impermanence in suspension. The night also features Kelly Moran, a New York-based composer and pianist known for expanding the piano into hypnotic, textured, and deeply expressive territory. Thursday, April 30 8 PM Gray Area Last tickets available: grayarea.org/event/william-…

What does an art practice look like when it’s dreaming? This spring, TITLES and @GrayAreaorg gave five artists an unusual brief: train a custom AI model on your own creative practice, and see what it dreams up. On May 9th, Arvida Byström, Huntrezz Janos, Lou Fauroux, Yvonne Fang, and Sharon Zheng unveil their models for the first time, and explore what happens when a body of work begins generating from within itself. Curated by Alice Scope (@alicescope_) Free RSVP at the link below. Saturday, May 9, 2026 Doors at 6:30 PM Gray Area / Grand Theater 2665 Mission St, San Francisco

𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 Our popular hands-on workshop returns this spring, led by audio-visual artist Sean Russell Hallowell aka isorhythmics. Over two days, you’ll learn how to design basic electronic oscillators with integrated circuits and discrete components. By the end, you’ll have built your own playable instrument, capable of generating synth melodies and sequencing drum patterns in real time. No previous experience is necessary, and all materials are provided. Dates: Tuesday, May 12 + Wednesday, May 13, 2026 Time: 6 – 9 PM Scholarships Available 🏗️ 🎛️ Enroll: grayarea.org/course/breadbo…

Grantee Spotlight 🔦 {B/qKC} launches online archive of midwestern Black queer history—and it took no data centers to do it. In 2025, Gray Area teamed up with @techsoup and @FFDWeb to launch the Cultural Memory Lab. An incubator for artists and archivists leveraging decentralized tech for community-driven memory work, the Cultural Memory Lab sought to support projects developing new models for digital archives—projects like {B/qKC}, led by Nasir Anthony Montalvo. {B/qKC} is a grassroots archive of Black queer history based in Kansas City, MO. The archive’s new website, bqkc.1800nasi.net, launched in February, opening its digital archive to the public and inviting people to explore its inaugural collections focused on Kansas City’s historic Black gay bar, Soakie’s. Powered by decentralized web technology, {B/qKC} offers a new model for digital archiving that allows the archive to exist outside of third-party services and corporate-controlled servers. {B/qKC}’s website is archived on IPFS and is hosted on a physical server (powered simply by a Raspberry Pi 4) operated by its team, ensuring full control over data access and security. Beyond its technical innovations, {B/qKC} is using its archive as a conduit to build better futures for its community. The archive operates on a unique co-licensing model with its elders, allowing the archive to share elders’ stories while ensuring they remain in control of their original materials. By providing an ethical, accessible, and sustainable approach to data stewardship, {B/qKC} serves as a powerful example of how communities can use decentralized technologies to steward their own histories. To access the archive, visit bqkc.1800nasi.net. Congratulations to the {B/qKC} on this historic achievement! bqkc.1800nasi.net

📽️💙SCREENING‼️🎟️ GOOD MODELING PICTURE at Gray Area 🩶 San Francisco 🍿 Videos by: Dahlia Bloomstone Molly Soda Conner O’Malley Laurel Nakadate Daniela Rodriguez Trevor Shimizu 💚⭐️🩵🎁💛🧸❤️💋💙💌🩶🚪🩷🔗🖤 We are here tonight! This is me! I think I did it again. Are you getting this? It’s an honor to be drawn by you. I think I might cry. Do you ever get lonely in there? I think you look really cute with your hair that short. Makes me regret my haircut that I just got. 📸 5-8-2026 ✅ 7:30PM ❣️ Curated by Molly Soda 🎦 ⁉️ Q&A moderated by Gray Area Associate Curator Wade Wallerstein Special thank you to Electronic Arts Intermix Tickets: grayarea.org/event/molly-so…

Happening this Wed 4/22 at @GrayAreaorg a live audiovisual performance by CROSSLUCID with experimental violinist Sayaka Botanic. Botanic instrumentalizes her body as the substrate of oceanic data, her bow tracing the logic of Pacific stick charts through sound, enacting an embodied wayfinding between ancient piloting traditions and tidal data streams. Presented with @berggruenInst Future Humans. More details here: na2.hubs.ly/H04Tqg50

Earth Day Performance at Gray Area: 𝐓𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 𝐍𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐃 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐤𝐚 𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜 grayarea.org/event/tidal-tr… °°° How does intelligence emerge across environments, signals, and relationships? °°° This Wednesday, @xCROSSLUCID transforms real-time oceanic data, shaped by a self-evolving AI ecosystem, into a live audiovisual performance. Featuring experimental violinist Sayaka Botanic, the work explores ecological intelligence, perception, and interdependence. Botanic instrumentalizes her body to channel oceanic data, using violin and movement to connect ancestral wayfinding traditions, like Pacific stick chart navigation, with contemporary tidal data. Following the performance, Future Humans director @claire_i_webb joins the artists for a panel discussion. °°° Presented by Future Humans, a research initiative housed in the @berggruenInst that examines how ideas of life, intelligence, and consciousness are being reshaped in the twenty-first century. °°° Wednesday, April 22, 2026 6 PM Gray Area / Grand Theater

Opening tonight as part of ./local_memory: DSS by @shihandesign, with @mingyong_art , Han Zhang, Ziwei Liu, and Jiaye Leng, invites you into a speculative future where humans replace bees as pollinators. Step into the work and experience an interactive environment of touch, sound, and ecological fiction.

See you tonight for the opening of ./𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡_𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙮: 𝙨𝙤𝙛𝙩 𝙨𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙨, with a reception from 6 to 10 PM featuring the artists behind the exhibition. Curated by Jeff Hawkins, Irish Tee-Sy, and Chris Giang, the show brings together new works by fifteen emerging Bay Area creators examining how digital systems shape identity, memory, and perception. Across three nights, it spans immersive installations, intimate artifacts, and hybrid forms. grayarea.org/event/local-me…

𝐓𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 𝐍𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐃 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐤𝐚 𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜 A live audiovisual performance by @xCROSSLUCID with experimental violinist Sayaka Botanic, driven by a system of generative AI entities that processes oceanic data. The work explores how intelligence and perception emerge across systems, environments, and relationships. Following the performance, Future Humans director @claire_i_webb joins the artists for a panel discussion. Presented by Future Humans, a research initiative housed in the @berggruenInst that examines how ideas of life, intelligence, and consciousness are being reshaped in the twenty-first century. Wednesday, April 22, 2026 6 PM Gray Area / Grand Theater Get tickets: grayarea.org/event/tidal-tr…

Today, Gray Area finds itself at the center of fierce debate surrounding artificial intelligence and its role in society. Harvey's work offers a timely critique that speaks to the kind of speculative, pseudo-religious language that Silicon Valley uses to promote innovation. We are so excited to bring this work to the Bay Area in 2027 as part of the Further Triennial. Teiger Foundation’s Quarterly Hosting grants support the presentation of contemporary visual art exhibitions or projects that originated elsewhere. The Foundation views hosting as a form of curatorial collaboration, one that deepens relationships among artists, communities, and institutions. It extends the life of an exhibition while allowing it to take on new meaning and deepen knowledge in a different context. Congrats to all our fellow #TeigerFoundation grantees!

We are thrilled to announce that Gray Area and our associate curator @habitual_truant have received a Teiger Foundation Hosting grant to bring Auriea Harvey's "(This Room Is A Sculpture Called) PROPHECY" to San Francisco! This exhibition, originally developed by curator @pitarreola for @arebyte, is composed of a new body of work by Harvey, a pioneering American digital artist. The show unfolds as interactive installations, all of which drawing inspiration from 18th century notions about the prophetic and possible spiritual qualities of technology that circulated during the industrial revolution.