Gray Area

San Francisco's center for art, technology, and culture.

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

📣 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: https://t.co/OPnnTn1WTR

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

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: https://t.co/9S6jlvz55q

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

A few moments from opening night of the Gray Area Creative Code Showcase. Thank you to everyone who came out!

The showcase continues tonight from 5 – 9 PM at the Grand Theater.

📷
"hidden units" by SiQi He
"Under the Mango Tree" by Sarah Alli
"Quadrant Ensemble" by Jeanette Andrews
"Awe Engine" by Faraday

Gray Area 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞
📍 Gray Area / Grand Theater

🎟️ Learn more: https://t.co/tgjO8NMYTE

[margo @_wetbox]

INDEX is a project I have been developing over the last few months; it was installed in NYC at our event in collaboration with @GrayAreaorg and @FWBtweets, and was also shown as a live visual performance variation at Rockefeller Centre last week for the closing of @rhizome 7x7.

The project critically examines the relationship between technology and economy through the lens of digital frameworks and language.

It is a project about the dynamics of metadata containment and the production of information as a dynamic movement.

INDEX is a piece that forms part of a much larger project, and is the result of years of research and production. It has a strong philosophical grounding.

If you’d like to see it or find more about it, my DMs are open. This piece is also available for sale.

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

A first sneak peek at the 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞!

Four artists made works concerning emotional inheritance, personal mythology, mourning, transformation, and the construction of selfhood through symbolic or ritualized experiences.

Wolf Boxuan Chen uses a fairy-tale dance game to interrogate purity, violence, symbolic roles, and suffering beneath idealized narratives in their project “Blood, Snow and Ebony.”

Lizzie Suh invites participants to reflect on identity, memory, grief, and transformation while still in the process of becoming in their piece “In Present Memoriam.” Through a series of questions, the work generates symbolic portraits using an AI model trained on the artist’s own paintings, blending machine generation with a distinctly human artistic voice.

Connie Liu examines local Chinese burial traditions in Bay Area cemeteries in their installation “Daytrip to Colma.” Sifting through genealogy records originally assembled by the U.S. government to investigate immigration fraud from Hoisan, the project reflects on the contemporary practice of descendants seeking traces of their ancestral origins through gravestones amid generations of separation, anti-immigration, language loss, and diminished Chinese literacy.

Tracy Jones reframes procrastination as a reflection of grief, overwhelm, and productivity culture in their piece “Procrastination.” Visitors contribute their own procrastinations to a living system that transforms them into immersive visuals and sound.
See all their projects and more at the Creative Code Showcase!

𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞
📍 Gray Area / Grand Theater
📅 May 20 – 21, 2026

May 20
🥂 Member Preview + Happy Hour: 6 – 7 PM 🥂
Public Hours: 7 – 10 PM

May 21
Showcase Open Hours: 5 – 9 PM

🎟️ RSVP: https://t.co/fzXMbH1D3P

[Charles 🎉 Frye @charles_irl]

showing a lil piece i made called "Playcard" at @GrayAreaorg this Wednesday + Thursday evening, come thru

https://t.co/BPSbeRbRF2

it turns any space in which it's installed into "art" by describing it in "the labels voice" -- kinda like this description of this post:

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

And come celebrate an incredible 7x7 day for @rhizome with a beautiful night of sound and visuals.
Hosted at @reSOUND_newyork , co-hosted by @GrayAreaorg , @artw__rld , True Love, and Artifice.

Featuring performances/sets/visuals from… @nonperformant , @delibeat , @bianjie_systems , Loka, Naz, and Dorothy Carlos.

Post-Containment / rhizome 7x7 after party
May 16, 2026 | 9:00 PM NYC
Tickets: https://t.co/8gxAE65hY3

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

We’re proud to sponsor this year’s rhizome 7x7, @rhizome legendary gathering pairing 7 artists and 7 technologists to "make something new" together.

7x7 has long been a point of connection between internet art, experimental technology, and the people shaping culture around them. We're excited to support this year’s edition and the ongoing exchange between East Coast and West Coast creative communities.

Curated by Rhizome, Neema Githere, and 邊界 (Ian Margo & Alexandre Montserrat | 世然), this year’s edition draws from Zoë Sofia’s writing to explore containment through themes of interdependence, care, and connection.

7x7 takes place at the @newmuseum in NYC tomorrow, May 16, 2026.

Learn more: https://t.co/xfZk602gx9

[TITLES @titlesxyz]

Last week at Gray Area (@GrayAreaorg), five artists shared their own AI models for the first time.

Dream Models brought together Arvida Byström (@arvidabystrom), Huntrezz Janos (@hauntrezz), Lou Fauroux, Sharon Zheng, and Yvonne Fang (@fang_yvonne) to present custom models trained on their own visual worlds — each one distinct, strange, personal, and impossible to separate from the artist behind it.

Thank you to everyone who came out, experimented with the models, and stayed late talking with us. And thank you to Gray Area and curator Alice Scope (@alicescope_) for helping make space for this kind of work to exist publicly.

This is the future we want for creating with AI: not anonymous systems flattening culture, but tools shaped by real artistic perspectives and built to keep artists connected to the value their work creates.

[Laure Michelon @Laure_Michelon]

Excited to teach a @fuserstudio workshop June 1 with @GrayAreaorg - sign up and let's make some 'Strange Anatomy' together!

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐈𝐬 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 ☀️

Design poetic mini-games, build virtual worlds in Blender, create live audiovisual systems with code, experiment with AI collage, or perform a lecture on the web.

This summer’s workshops and intensive courses are led by artists and practitioners working across game design, experimental media, music, creative coding, and networked performance.

𝓘𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓼𝓮𝓼

✶ Expressive Systems: Making Poetic Mini-Games in PICO-8
with Tonz Beglari

✶ Hybrid Live Coding: Designing Systems for Audiovisual Performance
with Roxanne Harris

✶ Personal Worldbuilding with 3D Modeling in Blender
with Claudia Miranda

𝓦𝓸𝓻𝓴𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓹𝓼

✶ Strange Anatomy: Exquisite Corpses with Fuser Compositor and Creative Code
with Laure Michelon

✶ Lecture Performance on the Web
with Taeyoon Choi

✶ Techno Improvisation with Beat DJ
with Nes Croft

~

Become a Gray Area Member: Education perks start at the Co-Creator level, including 20% off workshops, discounts on intensive courses, early access to registration, and free entry to events for you + guest.

Learn more: https://t.co/9zCgv2iCil

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

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 → https://t.co/OPnnTn1WTR

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

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: https://t.co/fzXMbH1D3P

[邊界 @bianjie_systems]

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!

[TITLES @titlesxyz]

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.

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

@alicescope_ @titlesxyz

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

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

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

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: https://t.co/jJyQXJU17W

[Gray Area @GrayAreaorg]

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: https://t.co/BgcHOKTBpv

[TITLES @titlesxyz]

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