mood: dawoud bey on transcending difference: “no matter your position, inside or outside, it’s about intention.”

watching: radiograph of a family. 2020. norway/iran/switzerland. directed by firouzeh khosrovani.

listening to: paper planes by M.I.A

working on: a response to beyond story study group #1, from my perspective as a former film commissioner, now filmmaker on an AI research team

thinking about: books like the sensual home by ilse crawford and house rules: an architect’s guide to modern life by deborah berke

want to see more: objects from sophie buhai

what’s this? a weekly post to share what’s on my mind. leave a note, ask a question, say hello: kozanecka@gmail.com

mood: something has to change

reading: anatomy of the studio visit from pablo helguera

watching: homecoming: a placeless place, commissioned by scarborough museums trust, in response to a selection of replies from the general public in Scarborough to a public call out in August 2020, asking the question, ‘what does home mean to you?’

listening to: there’s a possibility by lykke li

thinking about: how strongly the music of lykke li takes me back to 2011: an edit room in new york, wrapping a commercial for microsoft, my colleagues talking about how I was leaving the advertising business to study french in vermont. then, me going to france to make movies

working on: the garden project, and sketches for climate-related AI experiments

mood: “when and why did story become today’s pre-eminent mode for documentary? what gets lost when storied structures prevail?” via world records journal

reading: an ultraviole(n)t border by ersela kripa & stephen mueller (thanks, shelby doyle)

watching: call my agent! (via netflix), it’s in french, cynical and witty

listening to: avril 14th by aphex twins (via youtube)

thinking about: shade equity and site perspectives, after listening in to to student presentations on accessible dwelling units (ADUs) and machine learning at SCI-Arc. the class is part of a research effort supported by google’s artists + machine intelligence program.

working on: a lightning talk on how i work with artist communities at google research

what’s this? a weekly post to share what’s on my mind. leave a note, ask a question, say hello: kozanecka@gmail.com

mood: four-season gardens and piet oudolf

reading: (1) bravey: chasing dreams, befriending pain and other big ideas by alexi pappas

watching: the family album by alan berliner (more about the film)

listening to: don’t let the sun go down on me by george michael and elton john

working on: immersive research field-guide (see last week); proposal for driving the human

thinking about: rewilding the planet, one garden at a time

what’s this? a weekly post to share what’s on my mind. leave a note, ask a question, say hello: kozanecka@gmail.com

mood: pay attention, motherfuckers

reading: (1) harun farocki: working on the sightlines edited by thomas elsaesser (2) the inland sea by madeleine watts

watching: terra femme by courtney stephens

listening to: you are everything by the stylistics

working on: a manual on creative approaches to image, sound and form inspired by documentary film practices for user experience researchers

thinking about: eyal weizman (founding director, forensic architecture) on open verification and an aesthetic commons; check out his conversation with martine syms on her new-ish podcast, mirror with a memory, in episode 6: power

want to see more: research grants for documentary filmmakers (thx, catapult film fund)

what’s this? a weekly post to answer questions no one’s asking. leave a note, ask a question, say hello: kozanecka@gmail.com

Hello. Welcome to May, and a monthly newsletter from Artists + Machine Intelligence.

In the past year, we’ve experimented with formats to keep you, dear readers, informed of program news. We’re restarting this monthly newsletter to share what we’re up to. Let us know what you’d like to see more or less of in the comments below.

This month, as I sit to write this newsletter, I am surrounded by magazine cut-outs and clippings.

Has anyone else succumbed to the calm of collage?

My manner of collage is very much a manual one: cut-up, tape-down, pin-up. It’s far, far from the ‘Cut-and-Paste’ kind, the latest AR prototype to take the internet by storm from Google Arts & Culture artist-in-residence Cyril Diagne. (Think Weird Cuts, but in-camera.)

While May is generally a time for launches and announcements (ahem, I/O), this is no playbook year. In lieu of (very big) program announcements (do read on for previews!), I’ve found energy and inspiration in my weekly conversations with collaborators working at the intersection of art, technology, and machine creativity.

Last month, after featuring an excerpt from Naho Matsuda’s every thing every time, Naho kindly took a break from grading student projects (she’s currently an instructor at Goldsmiths’ Interaction Research Studio) to speak to us about homesickness, memory, and the power of abstraction to reveal new narratives. Her latest project, ‘Moderately Interested,’ examines the role of language in how we choose jobs, careers, callings. Read Naho’s Q&A.

I’m also excited to share this week’s Q&A with artist, poet, and computer programmer Allison Parrish. Allison shares her passion for the material qualities of language in asemic poetry (think: mock letters, pseudo-writing, drawing). Plus, the poetry and prose of Anne Carson’s Plainwater. Read Allison’s Q&A.

Finally, I am happy to announce that a new research grant cycle will re-open in June 2020. Research grants support faculty at non-profit universities pursuing creative AI research and/or tool-making. Follow Artists + Machine Intelligence (right here, or on twitter) for more details in the month ahead, and meet past recipients here and here.

So, what’s on my moodboard?

• Japanese photographer Fumi Ishino uses surveillance cameras to explore his homeland remotely. (!!) “This is a way to see what’s going on in my country, because reading the news is just not enough,” he says. “You have to see it for yourself.” Ishino estimates he clicks through 1,200 videos each day, returning at different times to see the subtle changes. (via California Sunday)
• Samanta Schweblin’s latest fiction novel, “Little Eyes.” It’s about “robotic stuffed animals controlled remotely by humans,” and the New York Times describes the work as Schweblin’s answer to “talking about technological without getting caught up in technical terms.” (I’m in!) Read an excerpt, or buy the book at your local community bookstore. Reading club, anyone?
• Interdependence, a new podcast from musicians Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst. The logo is eye-catching, the premise is very compelling..and I need a few more episodes before I cast my vote. If you’re a fan, tell me why.
• Radio Garden, a global, live radio station. This sound experiment allegedly went viral in 2016, but it missed my corner of the internet, which is why I’m recommending it now. “Exceptionally vivid, it’s like looking through a keyhole,” writes Rosa Lyster. It’s the closest I’ve come to defying quarantine lock-down. (thank you, Winnie Street)

What are you reading, watching, thinking about? Write me, or leave a comment below.

Stay well, and have a great month ahead.

Eva

Eva Kozanecka is a content strategist at Google AI, where she explores how diverse media can improve the representation and communication of emerging technologies. She also co-leads Artists + Machine Intelligence, a program at Google that invites artists to work with engineers and researchers together in the design of intelligent systems. Questions? Feedback? Email ekozanecka@google.com

Hello. Welcome to April, and a monthly newsletter from Artists + Machine Intelligence.

In the past year, we’ve experimented with formats to keep you, dear readers, informed of program news. We’re restarting this monthly newsletter to share what we’re up to. Let us know what you’d like to see more or less of in the comments below.

The world feels different this month. It’s my fifth week of working from home in Brooklyn, New York. And I’m finding it hard to believe that this time, last year, Kenric and I were hanging vinyl, and hosting a project space at Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair at MOCA.

As many of us remain in lockdown, I am finding solace in artworks that remind me of my favorite places. Like this piano recording in an Austrian cafe (thank you, Austin Kleon, Jez Burrows, and Phil Smith). And Naho Matsuda’s every thing every time, an ephemeral, poetic narrative powered by public data streams. The following excerpt describes one day in Manchester, England, but it might as well be New York this morning…

the sun rises

the streets are empty

today is the last day of the term

the car park is almost empty

the traffic light turns green

the cleaning shift starts

the bus is on time

and it is colder than yesterday

In what artworks, activities, or hobbies, are you finding comfort, strength, or inspiration? Send me a note, and we’ll share responses in next month’s newsletter.

Here’s what else is happening:

We are beginning to compile funding resources for artists affected by Covid-19. A few, to start, include: Creative Capital’s List of Arts Resources During the COVID-19 Outbreak, Intersection for the Arts (for SF Bay Area artists), Printed Matter’s Resources for Artists and Independent Publishers, and Field of Vision’s Documentary Freelancer Relief Fund.

Our Q&A series continues this month, celebrating writers and poets working with generative techniques, in honor of National Poetry Month. First up is Ross Goodwin. An artist, creative technologist, gonzo data scientist, and ‘writer of writers,’ Ross shares, among many things, how not to make a Rothko painting, and why his next project might include a weather balloon.

Kenric McDowell recently spoke with For the Wild’s Ayana Young on what an Earth-centered technological paradigm might look like. Play the episode.

And David Hockey sends a message of hope: Do Remember They Can’t Cancel Spring.

Stay healthy, and have a great month ahead.

Eva

Eva Kozanecka is a content strategist at Google AI, where she explores how diverse media can improve the representation and communication of emerging technologies. She also co-leads Artists + Machine Intelligence, a program at Google that invites artists to work with engineers and researchers together in the design of intelligent systems. Questions? Feedback? Email ekozanecka@google.com

Welcome to a monthly newsletter from Artists + Machine Intelligence

Hello, and welcome to March, and a monthly newsletter from Artists + Machine Intelligence. In the past year, we’ve experimented with formats to keep you, dear readers, informed of program news. We’re restarting this monthly newsletter to share what we’re up to. Let us know what you’d like to see more or less of in the comments below.

Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Met on ways we might advance art-making through AI and open access. Archives, personal or otherwise, are a foundational material in art practices leveraging machine learning, and I was excited to participate, if only to say that AI technologies can be one part (and one part only) of a broader, technological stack, and that GANs have aesthetics, too. Selfishly, the event also reminded me of how I ended up in this field, so I thought I’d share the story with you.

It was 2016, and I was in Paris, attending an arts and machine learning conference at Google Arts & Culture. At the time, I was a filmmaker with the Museum of Modern Art. I knew very little of machine learning, but I knew of DeepDream (including, yes, this Starry Night-inspired rendition). A number of works were installed at the Lab, among them, “ X Degrees of Separation,” by Mario Klingemann and Simon Doury. Positioned as an AI experiment, “X Degrees” claims to “chart the visual connections between works as disparate as a 4,000 year old oil painting and Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night” (Google’s words) by displaying a chain of artworks (or visual journey) between any two artifacts.

Was the experience playful and surprising? Yes. (It still is.) Are visual sorting tools that let us navigate large collections helpful? Sometimes. Of course, I couldn’t help but think, what happens when visual similarity is no more than a faux amis, the French term for words in a foreign language bearing a deceptive resemblance to words in one’s own language? And better yet, what about moments when visual difference masks underlying similarity?

I also saw works like Ross Goodwin’s Word.camera (including a generative poem in response to a Rothko painting that is, sadly, no longer online — the poem, not the painting), and I fell in love. More of this, I thought. Works that bring our attention back to the primary subject, be it object or landscape, and help us interrogate it, as only humans might.

This is why, in 2018, I accepted an offer to to co-lead Google’s Artists + Machine Intelligence program with my colleague, Kenric McDowell. Now, as we kick off a fourth year of AMI programming, I wanted to share what’s top of mind for me in a more open format (this newsletter), starting with a few resolutions for 2020.

No more ‘AI art’ conferences. Let’s get specific. Picture-making with GANs. Ethics in co-writing. We won’t be able to build a shared vocabulary until we create time and place for specificity. More ‘art with machine intelligence.’ An artist’s practice may be defined by their use of a certain technology, but we don’t call work by contemporary photographers (ahem, Lucas Blalock) ‘photoshop art’, do we? Why, then, do so many writers, curators, and critics insist on the term, ‘AI art’? A longer historical lens, please. As museums shift to rehang collections outside of historical time frames and media, why do curators still revel in art + technology shows? If Picasso’s “Demoiselles” can hang next to Faith Ringgold “American People Series #20: Die” (1967), why not hang Adam Basanta’s flatbed scans with color field painters like Barnett Newman or Mark Rothko, or screen Anna Ridler’s silent film animations alongside Bill Morrison’s decayed film works?

I hope this monthly letter encourages rigorous discussion and enables some sense-making in this rapidly emerging field. Send me an email or a tweet with what you’re thinking about — and ask me your questions about art, technology, and machine creativity. I’ll answer one per week.

Eva

Here’s what else is happening:

We announced six artist grant recipients for our inaugural grant program, produced in collaboration with Google AI and Google Arts & Culture. We are thrilled to be supporting a portfolio of projects spanning generative and interactive film, poetry, spoken word, and sound.

We continued to award research grants, as part of an ongoing collaboration with Google AI to support researchers at universities pursuing creative AI tool-making and research.

To celebrate our collaborators at Google and beyond who make endeavors like this possible, we are introducing a new Q.&A. series. This week’s post spotlights Holly Grimm, an artist and creative technologist at Google, who ‘taps’ Mark Dion as an artist not working with machine learning, but who very well could be. Mark is known for appropriating scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, exploring “what gets to stand for nature at a particular time for a distinct group of people” (his words, as written in one of my favorite exhibition catalogues, “The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect.”) Which artist would you nominate to explore AI techniques?

Finally, as part of CultureHub’s Re-fest 2020, join artist Allison Parrish for a conversation on how style is implicitly or explicitly built into generative systems. With Maxwell Neely-Cohen, Blair Simmons, and Katy Ilonka Gero. (Thursday, March 12, 7:15 p.m., RSVP).

Eva Kozanecka is a content strategist at Google AI, where she explores how diverse media can improve the representation and communication of emerging technologies. She also co-leads Artists + Machine Intelligence, a program at Google that invites artists to work with engineers and researchers together in the design of intelligent systems.

Questions? Feedback? Tweet us or email: ekozanecka@google.com

Hi! I am hiring a creative producer to support the production of multidisciplinary projects (film, print, and digital) on a research and strategy team at Google AI.

Some of you know, I co-lead an art-based research effort at Google called Artists + Machine Intelligence (AMI). With AMI, we support artists and researchers exploring creative applications of A.I. technologies with grants (for artists and faculty researchers) and community programming.

This effort is part of a larger research and strategy team within Google AI responsible for designing and narrating strategies of emerging technologies. We work on multiple, soon-to-be released products that use machine learning to solve complex problems. These products are only possible through a combination of user experience (UX) explorations of new technologies, rapid iteration, sprinting, testing, and collaborations with other UX teams across Google.

This role will work with me to produce a number of multidisciplinary projects that support the representation and communication of these emerging technologies. This is a five-month assignment (starting ASAP, through December 2019) based in New York City.

As a creative producer, you will plan requirements with internal teams and partners and/or external agencies and usher projects through the entire project lifecycle. You will nurture inter-team collaborations and relationships, defining tactical requirements and scope for projects, reinforcing production best practices from creative briefing to launch, and helping us find the most impactful outlets for our work. Your projects will span offices, time zones, and media. From producing documentary films to short-form publications and event programming, it will be your job to keep all the team coordinated on the project’s progress and deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Find and manage the best partner production companies and resources.
• Reinforce best practices in production from creative briefing to launch. Manage the resulting seamless workflows.
• Partner with Executive Producer to define tactical requirements and scope for projects. Deftly pivot when it changes and proactively identify solutions.
• Keep tight, tidy budgets and schedules for multiple concurrent projects.
• Be an equal and collaborative team player. Promote high quality standards on all deliverables. Champion the pushing of boundaries.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 3+ years of creative production experience, with experience across media: documentary film, interactive and/or publishing

We value experience with advertising agency methodologies. Ideally, you will have experience working with cross-functional teams and partners, and expertise with project management tools, techniques, and procedures. You feel comfortable working under deadlines and responding to shifting priorities, schedules, and deliverables across multiple work streams. You can identify, disambiguate, interpret, and prioritize information, and communicate concepts and production approach to stakeholders.

Timeline

This is a five-month position based in New York City, with an hourly rate, and overtime eligibility.

To apply

Please send your resume, CV and portfolio link (if applicable) to ekozanecka@google.com, with the subject line: Creative Producer. I may not be able to reply to all inquiries.

At Google, we don’t just accept difference — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

This call was inspired by Kyle McDonald and Lauren McCarthy, who borrowed from Taeyoon Choi, who had help from Tatyana Mustakos. Thank you!

I left MoMA in May 2018 (with the channel nearing 180,000 subs; more on why later), and in leaving, I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes such growth possible — and how more cultural organizations can do the same. Art has capacity to effect change by modeling ways to look and think about the world. We need arts and culture programming now more than ever, and there is room for better, smarter, and more impactful storytelling.

This post is an attempt to share my approach to strategy, production and creative direction from the program’s early days as an individual effort. It is the first post in a series on how to build a video program from the ground up. If you are a producer, filmmaker, or video-program stakeholder at an arts or cultural organization, I would love to hear from you. What challenges are you facing? What topics would like to explore in-depth? Share in the comments below, or email me: kozanecka@gmail.com

1. Remind the world what they love about your brand. A museum may have many reasons to want to invest in a video program. Particular audiences may be in decline; membership renewals might be stagnant. Video is a proven way to reach certain audiences, and when done well, the format can resonate more profoundly than other media. But a successful video program must be grounded in a vision that is greater than ticket sales. Why? Video is expensive, and time-intensive to produce. In fact, there often are other (less intensive, equally measurable) ways to achieve audience development goals. Internal clarity about why the investment matters is critical. That clarity may not come from a museum’s mission statement alone. For me, it was a personal vision, grounded in a reality that more first and only encounters with art take place online, and two steadfast beliefs: that there is an artwork for everyone (our mission would be to help you find it!); and that, as a filmmaker, I have a responsibility to both the film medium and the artwork. This vision guided my advocacy for what films I commissioned, and what form those films took.
2. Short form content is a long-term investment. I am often asked how much budget is required to start a program. A dedicated budget is key, but the figure is somewhat arbitrary. Start with a first hire: a seasoned, creative producer. An expert producer can be imaginative in how a budget is applied and amplified via partnerships and collaborations. What is critical, however, is a multi-year commitment from an organization. A staff hire. A committed budget. (I advocate for at least three years.) The reason why is that we live in a rich, albeit fragmented, digital media ecosystem. A single film will not shift a brand’s perception, but a number of films, over time, might. A three-year commitment allows a producer enough time to scale production, develop storytelling skillsets internally, and build trust amongst staff to open an institution to innovative approaches.
3. Success equals an engaged online community. Too often marketers reward high views (“x% views in two weeks!”), but views are a sign of interest, not engagement (“I stuck around to watch it because it was good”). Building an engaged community starts with making films people want to see (track: watch time) and if you deliver on this experience consistently, you will see more subscribers. As you continue to develop programming, track subscriber engagement to make sure content aligns with audience interest. Always invite audience feedback. Pro-tip: It is okay to start with short films. (Our very first films at MoMA were just under 2-minutes!) As you get better at producing films as an organization, and are able to maintain audience watch-time, you can increase your running time to tell more complex stories. In subsequent posts, I’ll explore how to design single-year and multi-year strategies to advance audience development goals steadily and sustainably.
4. Know your user. Building a community starts first with imagining a user. At many organizations, this is a demographics exercise (“We need more young people!”). Admittedly, during my first two years at MoMA, we also described it as such: 18–34 year olds, with YouTube as our primary platform. While this was an intentional strategy to signal to stakeholders that forthcoming content may not appeal to them, a demographics-led approach is an oversimplification of the task at hand. YouTube is the second largest search engine, and equally relevant to diverse audiences, from millennials to Baby Boomers. Each audience may use the platform in unique ways, but some ways are more consistent than you might think. Say, learning. You’ll want to take care that the stories you pursue are of interest to your target audience(s), and are presented in a format and tone that resonates with them. In subsequent posts, I’ll explore ways to design audience journeys that reconcile diverse target audiences, business needs, and creative aspirations.
5. Frequent and consistent publishing is key, but contrary to many studies, the frequency is yours to set. Many studies report brands must publish 3-4 times a week in order to stay relevant. This is not be feasible for many brands, let alone, museums, but it is not a reason to despair. In subsequent posts, I’ll explore ways to reconcile an on-site exhibition calendar with an online publishing rhythm and an annual production budget.
6. Design serial narratives, or narratives that unfold over time. The advantage to serial programming is simple: it helps your audience develop a sense of expectation, which, in turn, makes audiences comfortable, and compels them to return again and again to formats they like and are familiar with. Ultimately, it increases fan loyalty. In subsequent posts, I’ll explore creative (read: lightweight, nimble) approaches to serial programming.
7. Benchmark video: your performance, and your competitors. Tracking monthly subscriber growth and views across related channels allows you to measure and communicate the health of your vertical to stakeholders. How fast is your museum’s channel growing in comparison to other museums? How fast is the for-profit sector growing? Secondly, monthly reporting clues you into when another organizations may be changing up their strategy, and what impact that strategy has on their audience. For example, when we began releasing our “In the Studio” series in May 2017, our monthly subs skyrocketed. (If other museums were tracking monthly growth, they may have realized audience demand for arts-related “how-to” programming. In fact, Tate may have been studying MoMA’s channel too closely, as they released their own “How to paint like Picasso” two months after MoMA’s.) We’ve seen similar exponential subscriber growth with The British Museum and their runaway-hit host Irving Finkel. Identifying their success allowed us to further illustrate the impact of host-led, serial programming to our video-program stakeholders.
8. Benchmark video against other museum programming. Video content will always appear to be more expensive than other storytelling initiatives, until a museum considers the cost, time, staff and impact of other content. A year and a half into my time at MoMA, I was invited to join the Museum’s Public Program Review Committee. The committee is tasked with developing public programming proposals with curators and educators. When films were suggested as alternative storytelling approaches to public program proposals, some stakeholders would underscore how expensive artist profile documentaries were — that is, until I was able to remind the team that a single film cost as much as a single panel program, with a fraction of the audience and reach! Increased visibility into cost and impact of non-video programming helped me guide and justify programming decisions.
9. Think big. Act small. A program starts with a vision — and whatever else you may have. Embrace scrappiness. The largest organizations have to remember to act small, whereas you may have no other possibility. Be confident and creative in imagining quarterly milestones that bring you nearer to your goal. Leverage your strongest platforms to build a relationship with your audience(s) and to pilot content. Our tentpole series ,“At the Museum,” was inspired by a turn of phrase: tour-de-maison. Our museum director, Glenn Lowry, would use the expression in all-staff meetings as an invitation to senior directors to share updates from their teams. I dreamed of it as a documentary series, but it would never have been green lit as such: too much risk, too much investment! Instead, it was produced with our existing budget and team in an agile manner, starting in the Fall of 2016 as a series of weekly “scenes.” (Scenes may be a generous description: some episodes were a single shot, or three: a staff member installs a disco ball in advance of New Year’s Eve; a visitor enjoys the first snowfall in the Sculpture Garden.) However, the same care and intention was applied to each scene as if it were a part of an film documentary, and with this vision, my team flexed to the produce the first season one year later. Through word of mouth, we received a write-up in the New York Times.

This post is a preview of my approach to strategy, production and creative direction from the video program’s early days as an individual effort. I hope to share more case studies and tutorials in the weeks forthcoming, exploring questions like: How do I know who my target audience is? How can I make a pitch for a first video-team hire? How did MoMA produce and release its “At the Museum” series? Can a museum launch a YouTube channel if it doesn’t have budget for original programming? How can organizations foster and develop storytelling efforts amongst its staff?

If you are a producer, filmmaker, or video-program stakeholder at an arts or cultural organization, I would love to hear from you. What challenges are you facing? What topics would like to explore in-depth? Share in comments below, or email me: kozanecka@gmail.com

Eva Kozanecka is a New York-based filmmaker and producer specializing in content strategy, creative direction and film development. She currently co-leads Artists and Machine Intelligence, a program at Google that brings artists, researchers and engineers together to realize projects with machine intelligence. Previously, she developed films for The Museum of Modern Art, and produced commercials for Google, Microsoft, Macy’s, and Royal Caribbean.

Make someone’s day and share this post. ❤

Questions? Feedback? Tweet me, or email kozanecka@gmail.com