Gray Area

📢 We're partnering with @modal to offer a new development and exhibition opportunity for artists with sustained engagements in artificial intelligence and the arts. This global open call seeks proposals for creative projects that demonstrate the intentional use of AI to further artistic expression. Generative media, enabled by models trained at network-scale and proliferated by agentic systems, has opened an expansive toolkit for artists. As aesthetic practices evolve, how can artists help us interpret the new realities unlocked through scaling computation? Against a prevailing narrative where inference equates to automation, homogenization, and slop, we think there’s another story. One where artists harness the inherent creativity of inference to expand perspectives, create novel forms, and suggest alternative ways of sensing the world. Selected artists will receive: 📌 $2,000 honorarium 📌 Up to $5,000 in materials and production stipends 📌 Up to $20,000 value in Modal credits to use for custom model training and cloud GPU compute. 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘: 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝟭𝟱 Full details at modal.art

ANNOUNCING: Albert.DATA Entangled Others Esen K. Tütüncü Kyle McDonald Katie Hofstadter & Memo Akten What happens when AI begins to feel less like a tool and more like an adaptive, expressive, and sometimes unsettling system? On July 26, this pioneering group of artists, researchers, and creative technologists come together for an evening of talks, installation, and live performance exploring AI, embodied perception, ecological imagination, and more-than-human systems. Esen K. Tütüncü (@esenktutuncu) presents “Interfaces That Feel Back: Designing Adaptive, Expressive and Co-Creative Systems,” a talk exploring adaptive interfaces, neuroscience, immersive environments, and co-creative systems. Kyle McDonald’s (@kcimc) “Blind Self-Portrait” installation and talk “How Do We Turn It Off?” move through recent projects with voyagers, whales, robots, surveillance systems, athletes, and anomalous materials to ask how artists can work at the edge of what is technically possible and socially acceptable. Entangled Others (@entangledothers) present “self-contained” & “(di)atomic garden”, tracing how genetics, mutation, DNA encoding, radioactivity, and oceanic contamination can become conceptual and material frameworks for image-making and real-time performative systems. Memo Akten (@memoakten) and Katie Hofstadter (@KatieHofstadter) will present a new project following “Superradiance”, continuing their collaborative research into the entanglements of technology, embodiment, consciousness, culture, AI, data systems, and ecological experience. The evening culminates with 'SYNAPTICON,' a live performance by Albert.DATA (@Albert_DATA) translating brain activity into language and immersive audiovisual expression through a closed-loop AI system. _ Grab your tickets now at grayarea.org/event/albert-d… 🌀 📅 Sunday, July 26 ⏰ 6-8 PM 📍Gray Area / Grand Theater

See Nancy Baker Cahill’s city-scale participatory AR artwork over Alcatraz from your phone. 'FREE' explores the subject of who freedom is extended to and who remains excluded, with each personal message sent taking flight as a digital paper plane and transformed into a bird that joins a growing conversation. Download the free bilingual '4th Wall' app on iOS or Android and view the AR artwork from the San Francisco waterfront, or send a message from anywhere in the world. 🪽

🚨 Final ticket warning 🚨 July 17 is SOLD OUT and tickets for July 16 are going fast. Max Cooper's (@maxcoopermax) 𝟑𝐃/𝐀𝐕 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞: 𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑻𝒐𝒖𝒓 arrives at Gray Area for two evenings of sound, light, motion, and architecture. From intricate visual projections to deeply moving electronic compositions, experience the world of Max Cooper. Grab your tickets for July 16 now, bring your friends, and experience it live! tickets.grayarea.org/events/019e18e…

@lm_netwebs @habitual_truant can’t wait 🙌

On July 12th between 6 and 8, @GrayAreaorg in SF will host an artist talk and happy hour. Wade Wallerstein @habitual_truant will ask me intelligent thoughtful questions and I will get drunk and swear at everyone. (invite in comments)

See you there ✨🍸💫 #iconsonly

Oh, and members will receive a free drink ticket on arrival! See you there 💫 🌐: grayarea.org/event/in-conve…

From 4chan trawls to Times Square takeovers — #netart legend @lm_netwebs joins us this Sunday for happy hour at Gray Area! ✨🍸 Come for cocktails and a yap session, led by our curator @habitual_truant. July 12 · 6-8PM RSVP 🎟️ 👇

And yes of course we have the SF BAY AREA PREMEIRE OF NOVA '78 the film made of clips from the Nova Convention that honored William S. Burroughs in NYC in 1978 featuring Burroughs, Zappa, Ginsberg, Leary mondo2000.com/deliria2/ @GrayAreaorg tickets look left on page

I'll be doing a live virtual Q&A with the @GrayAreaorg team about this open call for art pieces that explore new aesthetic possibilities with large-scale generative models and artificial intelligence. $2k honorarium, $20k in GPU credits, and $5k in materials/production support. Sign up here: luma.com/gj6lkiim

Tomorrow is the deadline to apply for scholarships and enroll in this summer’s online intensive courses! Explore 3 courses designed for artists, musicians, creative technologists, and curious beginners looking to build new skills through hands-on experimentation: ✶ 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬: 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢-𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐎-𝟖 with Tonz Beglari Tuesdays, July 7 – August 11 Create a small, playable game that communicates a feeling, memory, or idea. Over six weeks, participants will explore game design through PICO-8, learning interaction design, animation, sound, and playtesting through the creative constraints of a retro-inspired platform. ✶ 𝐇𝐲𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 with Roxanne Harris Wednesdays, July 8 – September 9 Create real-time audiovisual systems that bring together live coding, sound, visuals, and interactive media. You’ll work with tools and technologies including Sonic Pi, Strudel, Hydra, Max/MSP, TouchDesigner, MIDI, OSC, and Ableton Live. ✶ 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝟑𝐃 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 with Claudia Miranda Saturdays, July 11 – September 12 Build a personal 3D world in Blender. This 10-week beginner friendly intensive uses Blender, Scaniverse, Mixamo, and New Art City to explore 3D scanning, modeling, texturing, character animation, and interactive worldbuilding. Scholarship applications and enrollment close tomorrow, June 24! Enroll: grayarea.org/learn/ #onlineworkshop #creativetechnology #creativecoding #gamedesign #pico8 #blender3d #livecoding #generativeart #electronicmusic

🌀 ONE MONTH AWAY! 🌀 Max Cooper @maxcoopermax brings his groundbreaking 𝟑𝐃/𝐀𝐕 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞: 𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑻𝒐𝒖𝒓 to Gray Area for an immersive audiovisual experience. Expect towering visuals, spatial storytelling, and electronic music that surrounds you from every angle. July 16 + 17, 2026 21+ 📍 Gray Area / Grand Theater, SF 🎟 Tickets are selling fast: tickets.grayarea.org/events?categor…

This Friday: Visible Cloaks @visiblecloaks return to Gray Area: grayarea.org/event/visible-… “A hazy, metallic dreamlike edge” — @thewiremagazine Experience "Paradessence", the duo’s first album since 2017’s "Reassemblage". Blurring the boundaries between acoustic and synthetic sound, the record unfolds through shimmering digital environments. Opening the evening is Bay Area composer and performer Madalyn Merkey. 📅 Friday, June 12 🕢 7:30 PM 📍 Gray Area / Grand Theater Video: Thinking (ft. Félicia Atkinson, Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano) / Shapes (ft. Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano) Directed by Spencer Doran

𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐓𝐚𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐢 @tchoi8 Workshop Instructor: Lecture Performance on the Web Taeyoon Choi is an artist, educator, curator, and activist whose work explores poetry, technology, society, and human relationships. Taeyoon also co-founded the School for Poetic Computation @sfpc , where he taught between 2013 and 2020. His is work has been shown everywhere from grassroots spaces to institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, and MASS MoCA. In this video, Taeyoon introduces lecture performance as a form where the artist performs pedagogy, with roots in avant garde and Fluxus inspired experiments. In this two-part workshop, you’ll get a short set of micro lectures on the form, then develop and deliver your own lecture performance designed for the World Wide Web as a site specific venue. 𝐋𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐛 🗓️ Sundays, June 7 + June 14, 2026 🕛 12 – 1:30 PM PT 💻 Online 🔗 Enroll: grayarea.org/course/lecture…

📣 Calling all media arts teachers and artist-educators! Gray Area is partnering with academic researchers to better understand how generative AI is reshaping media arts education, teaching practices, and creative learning environments. We invite media arts educators and professionals to participate in a short survey exploring how AI tools are impacting learning, instructional methods, and the future of education. Conducted by Alm Chung in collaboration with Gray Area, this research will inform an upcoming web report on the evolving relationship between generative AI and media arts education. Whether your experience with AI has been positive, negative, or mixed, we want to hear from you. Your perspective will help shape ongoing research into how educators are adapting to the era of GenAI. This project is supported by an NEA Research Grants in the Arts award. 🔗 Survey link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

THIS COMING MONDAY: 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐲: 𝐄𝐱𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐅𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫 + 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞 Part collage, part code, part chaos: In this online workshop, artist and creative technologist @Laure_Michelon explores the surrealist logic of the exquisite corpse through @fuserstudio's node-based AI workflows, image generation, and Creative Code tools. Generate fragmented figures, build chance-based compositions, and create strange new anatomies through AI-assisted collage and code. By the end of the session, you’ll leave with a working Fuser workflow and a pile of beautifully wrong bodies. No prior coding experience required. 📅 Monday, June 1 🕕 6 – 9 PM PT 💻 Online 🎟️ $40 Limited capacity. Enroll today: grayarea.org/course/strange…