eyebeam

Google backs tax-transparency challenge

Google has thrown its support behind a contest that searches for ways to map out the U.S. government's esoteric spending patterns. Called "Data Viz Challenge," the contest has been assembled by the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, a digital-arts collective headquartered a stone's throw from Google's Manhattan satellite office, and promises $5,000 to the entrant who can best "visualize how your individual federal income taxes are spent."

Winners will be announced, fittingly, on April 18--the day that tax returns are due. The data is to be sourced from WhatWePayFor.com, a … Read more

Artist leaves secret USB ports in NYC walls

Sometimes it feels like sharing a flash drive around an office is dangerous enough. The question is, do you feel lucky enough to trust one stuck in a public wall?

Aram Bartholl has begun installing USB "dead drops" throughout New York City as a living experiment in public data networks. Bartholl's an exhibiting German artist in residence at Eyebeam in New York City with numerous installation art projects under his belt. Currently, these dead drops are in five locations, with more to come.

"Dead drop" refers to a spy term for physical locations where information … Read more

New York digital art center honors Craig Newmark at annual benefit

NEW YORK--"We skipped the paparazzi," Eyebeam director Amanda McDonald Crowley said as she welcomed several hundred people to the digital art center's annual benefit on Tuesday night. "We've got a photo-taking duck."

That requires a little bit of context.

On display at Eyebeam's "Freedom and Creativity"-themed benefit, held at the organization's headquarters in the post-industrial West Chelsea neighborhood, were a number of commissioned artists' and fellows' projects. One of them was Taeyoon Choi's "Camerautomata," literally a robotic duck that skittered about the floor, Roomba-like, taking … Read more

A Crave shout-out of the Graffiti Research Lab variety

A few months ago we wrote about the Graffiti Research Lab, a set of artists who have created LASER Tag, the hacked projector that can be used to create temporary laser graffiti. The guys at GRL got their start at Eyebeam, an art and technology center in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood that always has some Craveworthy stuff going on (a few months ago, they had a real live Mooninite on display!)

Last night, at Eyebeam's tenth-anniversary benefit party, I had the chance to play around with one of the GRL's laser pointers and tag the side of a … Read more