Shows
InformerGetting the Story: A Conversation with Zachary SmallToday's conversation is with Zachary Small, staff reporter for the NY Times. I have been following their arts journalism since they wrote for Hyperallergic years ago. They're often the first to identify new, consequential developments in a field that thrives on change.A little less than a year ago, they became a staff reporter at the Times – a well deserved and enlightened hire. In particular, they have been hot on the trail of the NFT "situation" (remember that) and I suspect we'll be hearing much more about art and digital tokenization over the months and years ahead....2024-03-0256 min
InformerEmbracing Juxtaposition: Prem KrishnamurthyToday's conversation is with Prem Krishnamurthy, designer, author, and educator. His multifaceted work explores the role of art as an agent of transformation at an individual, collective, and structural level. This manifests itself in books, exhibitions, images, performances, publications, systems, talks, texts, and workshops.He is one of those thinkers and makers whose brain is spinning out ideas and reflections as fast as you can absorb them. And I appreciate so much his emphasis on the importance of embracing juxtaposition as a prerequisite not only for artistic creativity but also as a key ingredient for healthy civic...2023-05-3054 min
InformerWhat Does It Mean To Have A Body?: Sara WookeyWhat does it mean to have a body that moves in three dimensional space in our current time? How do cultural institutions better relate to the public in a way that takes into consideration the massage changes in technology over the last three years? Can relating to the other than human beings help us learn how to be better partners to the planet? These are the types of questions London-based choreographer and dancer Sara Wookey dives into. She is one of the most interesting thinkers on the relationship of bodies and material space and how post-modern dance can open...2023-04-1053 min
InformerConditions for Creativity: Ruby LernerIf you are an artist, or someone who cares about the health and wellbeing of the arts in the United States, I think you will find this conversation to be both insightful and inspirational. There's only one Ruby and I am honored to be able to work with her through my directorship at Eyebeam, where she serves on the board. It was a pleasure to dig into the shifts in the culture since the meltdown of the NEA in the 90's to the current version of the culture wars we are experiencing now from her perspective, as an arts...2023-04-101h 12
InformerInfrastructure As IdeologyMy friend, the designer and artist, Mushon Zer-Aviv was in town a few months ago so we sat down to catch up. Having worked in open, values-driven design in tech for the last two decades, Mushon goes deep into what he sees as being the mistakes of the early internet and how we can avoid them in the future. His thoughtfulness is always optimistic: as he says, he is a designer so he wants to design! He points to the contradictions inherent in our tendency to offload "ethics into infrastucture" and the kind of return of the tech bros...2022-12-2258 min
InformerWoo, With Rigor: Deborah FisherDeborah has a reputation as an innovative arts leader here in New York. Over the past couple of years, she has fully transformed into a sharp-eyed astrologer building from decades of experience in the arts as well as a lifelong spiritual practice. In this, the final Dog Days 2022 episode, Roddy and Deborah discuss the value of astrology in the context of being an arts director where everybody is obsessed with knowing the future. And what it means for Deborah to give notice, then begin a full-time astrology practice in upstate NY. This is a wide-ranging conversation about the value o...2022-08-2555 min
InformerArtwork as Service: Constant DullaartThere are a handful of contemporary net artists for whom I have particular affection. Constant Dullaart is one of them. Since I first learned of his work in the early aughts, I've found an extraordinary depth to every move he makes. As our understanding of the internet has matured, Constant's work becomes more relevant. I most recently worked with him as one of our Eyebeam fellows in our Rapid Response for a Better Digital Future initiative in 2020. I appreciated this conversation so much, his insistence on thinking through powerful ways to help people re-think ways of being together digitally...2022-08-2059 min
InformerDe-Escalating Complexities: Jonathon KeatsAs we enter these long, hot days of this unusual year, I'll be releasing three special episodes that aim to provide some dreamy inspiration for late summer. Between now and labor day, I'll be speaking with three dynamic artists over three episodes. The conversations move from foundational questions around what technology actually means to playful platforms for new forms of co-creation and community, and then finally to a discussion of astrology as an ancient, vital technology for spiritual practice.These artists, Jonathon Keats, Constant Dullaart, and Astrologer Deborah Fisher, give us new space to dream as we...2022-08-131h 00
InformerTalismanic Media: B CovingtonB Covington, a multi-modal sound artist whose work is as formally challenging as it is joyfully satisfying, was in New York last month and sat down for a conversation with me at my office in Brooklyn. I enjoyed our time so much an it is the first episode of Informer that was recorded in person. We started by talking about the incredibly radical work of the Public Television Workshop, creators of Sesame Street, and the influence that had on B's practice and his ideas around "public narrativity". Our rollicking, wide-ranging conversation then took us many places, including t...2022-06-2632 min
InformerWays of Being: James BridleJames Bridle imagines new modes of invention and engagement inspired from relationships with non-human beings. He's a fascinating thinker and this is one of my favorite conversations.His relentless inquiry into how we can co-create technologies that better serve the world, not just a few humans, is inspiring. His latest book, Ways of Being, is a tour-de-force of imagining not only how our definitions of intelligence can expand to be more all-encompassing to how these new definitions can open new ways of imagining our relationships to machines. James BridleCharles StrossE...2022-06-0750 min
InformerDeepfake Auto-Fiction: K Allado-McDowellI first heard about K when they were active in the electronic music scene of the bay area in the early 2000's. I've enjoyed following their work from that time into becoming a force for thoughtful engagement with AI, thinking about it in very expansive way, involving anthropology and cosmology.I find that their work unites the abstract with the personal in an elegant way, spotlighting the weird and unexplained in the technological. It was an absolute joy to connect on today's episode. K Allado-McDowellAmor Cringe (K's new book)2022-05-2649 min
InformerNew Art Infrastructures: Julia KaganskiyI really enjoyed this chance to catch up with her and hear what she's seeing as being exciting developments in the fields of art, technology, and science. And we had a great time discussing what an intra-institutional approach to building a new tech-art infrastructure could be, as a counterpoint to the dominance to the dominance of a few tech. companies. We get into the weeds on potential funding structures that would allow non-profits to collaborate to build a more humane and human version of the metaverse. Shownotes and links: https://www.informerpodcast.com/episodes/15/index.html
2022-04-2642 min
InformerTechnoshamanist Art: Angelo Plessas"As an artist I am trying to see the hidden connections between things and trying to understand things that I feel as a person that thinks in slightly different ways." - Angelo PlessasIn early February of 2020, I was invited to an impromptu lunch at the lovely and large home of artist Chrysanne Stathacos in the Kolonaki neighborhood of Athens, the day before my return to New York.We all have moments that stand out as markers of the time before covid and all that has been left in its wake. That afternoon with friends...2022-04-2251 min
InformerDigital Intimacies: Mendi+Keith ObadikeIt's always a pleasure to be in conversation with Mendi and Keith Obadike. The sound art duo have been working together for 25 years, which gives them perspective to be able to identify trends, changes, and ongoing challenges in the field. Their sound work is beautifully designed, often utilizing the human voice as an instrument, and typically they take on issues often ignored in sound art, like race relations in the United States or the country's histories of exclusion. In this conversation, we covered a lot of ground, including their recent refusal to accept an award from ZKM, a media...2022-02-1244 min
InformerDifference Machines: Paul Vanouse and Dr. Tina Rivers RyanI had the privilege of visiting an insightful and rich exhibition at Albright-Knox, Buffalo, last month. Co-curated by curator and art historian Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan and artist Paul Vanouse, it focused on the impact of "difference machines" AKA computers in shifting our notions of identity. Featuring many artists that I have been fans of for years, I hope that this ground exhibition continues to make waves. You can dig into their ideas on this, the latest episode of Informer."You can not talk about contemporary life without talking about technology."Photo: Dr. Tina Rivers...2022-01-1841 min
InformerTechnology Is Nature: Tamiko ThielThere are so many fascinating stories to be told about the present and future of technology in the arts, especially in this moment of a profound, digital turn. Tamiko Thiel, a truly singular artist, tells a numbers a number of them. As a very early innovator in the field of VR, along with a side career as product designer which includes creating the visual design of the The Connection Machine, the world's first AI computer and now in the permanent collection of MoMA, her work has been and continues to be groundbreaking. It's motivated by a deep curiosity about...2021-12-2135 min
InformerMaking Worlds With Words: Zach LiebermanZach Lieberman is one of the leading creative coders and digital artists in the world. And what I love about the way Zach works is that he is equally dedicated to thoughtful and open pedagogy as he is to creating poetic digital works. This wide-ranging conversation reveals the motivations in his co-founding of the School for Poetic Computation as well as his continuing fascination with the human, machine dialogue that results in the creation of new worlds. For those listeners who may not know, DOS was an operating system that was fully text-based and was marketed as b...2021-11-2944 min
InformerHow Algorithmic Are You: Lauren Lee McCarthyI’m excited to share this fascinating conversation with LA-based artist Lauren Lee McCarthy. She reminds us that, actually, creating technology is one of the most human of activities. Her work is largely about trying to get us to take responsibility for the machines we are building. She suggests, that we need to get “out of our dorm room” in how we approach machine learning and the way it’s changing the world. She states, “the difference between machines and humans is that humans can reflect on their values to make decisions about the future. Machines can’t.” I hope you’ll en...2021-10-3140 min
InformerLiving In Upgrade Culture: Julia ChristensenI’ve known Julia Christensen for quite a long time, since we were both graduate students at Mills College in Oakland in fact. One of my first memories of her was when we were both in Pauline Oliveros’s composition class.Since then, I’ve kept up with Julia’s work on and off over the years, seeing her when she would exhibit in town or by catching up at artist retreats in upstate New York. I think it’s the expansiveness of her work that has always intrigued me most, leaping from the micro to the macro with...2021-10-0747 min
InformerSave The World and Have Parties: Mutale NkondeLast month, I had the opportunity to speak to Mutale Nkonde about her work in leading AI For The People, a non-profit communications agency that utilizes art to engage communities in the risks and rewards of machine learning. Her work has taken on new urgency as quantum, or super high-processing computing, becomes the standard driving machine learning systems.In this episode, I discuss everything from how she started in a career in journalism then went on to taking jobs with people and organizations with “funny names” in the mid aught’s. I appreciate her focus on the role t...2021-09-1030 min
InformerBuilding Cultural Democracy: Gonzalo CasalsI’ve known Commissioner Casals for a number of years, since his time at the Highline, where he was creating very forward looking public art programs. His philosophy of building cultural democracy is quietly radical, particularly in a city like New York which has spent most of the last twenty years betting on high-profile legacy institutions. It seems to me that Gonzalo is working to draw a new map of interdependence for the arts in New York.
2021-09-1025 min
InformerI Had To Make This: Bassem SaadBassem Saad has a background in design and architecture, and he talks about how viewing a Shana Moultin piece at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris triggered his hunger for making video. I find his work deeply incisive in this strange moment, and it was a pleasure to speak to him on the line from Berlin. I began by asking him about how he grew up, where, and how he made the transition from architecture to art.
2021-08-1121 min
InformerCyborgian Living: Lynn Hershman LeesonLynn Hershman Leeson and Roddy Schrock discuss everything from tech's origins in porn and military research as well as the challenges she faced of working as a woman in a patriarchal art world.
2021-07-2226 min
InformerMagic In Action: Jesse DarlingOn episode two, I had the immense pleasure of taking part in a wide-ranging conversation with Jesse Darling, a Berlin-based artist whose work has been featured in numerous exhibitions at key galleries and museums, including the Serpentine Gallery and the Tate Britain. I mostly listened, as Jesse generously served sharp, insightful observations on how we define technology, the fallacy of the digital commons, and life as an artist in an increasingly precarious world. Jesse’s lived experience of exploring embodiment through performativity, from online sex work to playing in bands, allows for insights into issues such as how...2021-07-0834 min
InformerFull Pro-topia: Stephanie DinkinsStephanie Dinkins speaks about always being on the edge of technology, while becoming disillusioned with careers in publishing and advertising as well as navigating a world which wants to overlay its own narratives on her as a person and a practitioner. Stephanie’s story speaks to anyone who has worked or is working on finding their way as an artist in a world under capitalism. And, she lays out the inherent limitations in trying to improve tech. development by imbuing it with perceived “values.”I find Stephanie’s work to be incisive and playful in the way that it...2021-07-0825 min
InformerHouses of AI: Kate CrawfordOn this inaugural episode, it’s a pleasure to be in conversation with Kate Crawford. I’ve known Kate for quite a few years; I’ve invited her to be a part of numerous panels and projects throughout that time and am always captivated by her eloquence in laying out emerging challenges in our relationships to technology. She does so in a way that centers artists as part of the solution. It’s unsurprising to discover that she also is a musician, with a background in composition and currently in the band Metric Systems, which I’d highly recommend.Kate i...2021-07-0534 min