Instagram Story Viewer

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 @charles_irl
Chih Yu Chen @____cychen
Connie Liu @theliuvre
Dylan Peet @sue_veneer
Fabian Fabro @firahfabe
Faraday @infinite_alchemy
Jeanette Andrews @jersas
Lizzie Suh @leeeezeeee
Sarah Alli @sarah.cr2
SiQi He @siq____
Theo Popov @theopopo1
Tracy Jones
Wolf Boxuan Chen @wolfboxuanchen

RSVP: link in bio!

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 → bit.ly/pedagogy-after-AI (Link in bio)

Join us on May 30th in San Francisco for an evening of community, solidarity, and action in support of our medical solidarity work in Palestine 🇵🇸

We’re excited to announce Tommy Marcus as the second speaker in our lineup. Tommy will be joining the evening as part of a special panel discussion alongside other voices committed to justice, advocacy, and collective action for Palestine.

The evening will also feature additional speakers, local vendors, and opportunities to connect with community members dedicated to the cause.

If you’re in the Bay Area, we hope you’ll join us as we come together to raise critical funds and stand in solidarity with Palestine.

📍 San Francisco: Gray Area Theatre
📅 May 30, 12:00 to 5:30pm

TICKET LINK IN BIO

Join us on May 30th in San Francisco for an evening of community, solidarity, and action in support of our medical solidarity work in Palestine 🇵🇸

We’re excited to announce Tommy Marcus as the second speaker in our lineup. Tommy will be joining the evening as part of a special panel discussion alongside other voices committed to justice, advocacy, and collective action for Palestine.

The evening will also feature additional speakers, local vendors, and opportunities to connect with community members dedicated to the cause.

If you’re in the Bay Area, we hope you’ll join us as we come together to raise critical funds and stand in solidarity with Palestine.

📍 San Francisco: Gray Area Theatre
📅 May 30, 12:00 to 5:30pm

TICKET LINK IN BIO

🌀 Save the Date 🌀
Max Cooper @maxcoopermax returns to Gray Area for 2 nights of 3D/AV Live, his immersive audiovisual performance system.

July 16 + 17, 2026
21+
📍 Gray Area / Grand Theater, SF

Customized to each venue, 3D/AV Live transforms architecture and space into sculptures of light and sound. Featuring his latest album "Feeling Is Structure" and music from across his catalog, exploring the human experience through sound.

🎟 Sign up for first access to tickets: https://maxcooper.os.fan/sign-up-for-first-tickets (link in bio)

More soon!

What does it mean to own an image, when the image no longer points back to anything real?

This weekend, at @grayareaorg, we got five different answers.

Thank you to Arvida Byström (@arvidabystrom), Huntrezz Janos (@huntrezz), Lou Fauroux (@loufauroux), Sharon Zheng (@sharon), and Yvonne Fang (@_yvonnef_) for sharing the custom models they trained with TITLES, and to Alice Scope (@alicescope) for bringing the evening together.

What does it mean to own an image, when the image no longer points back to anything real?

This weekend, at @grayareaorg, we got five different answers.

Thank you to Arvida Byström (@arvidabystrom), Huntrezz Janos (@huntrezz), Lou Fauroux (@loufauroux), Sharon Zheng (@sharon), and Yvonne Fang (@_yvonnef_) for sharing the custom models they trained with TITLES, and to Alice Scope (@alicescope) for bringing the evening together.

What does it mean to own an image, when the image no longer points back to anything real?

This weekend, at @grayareaorg, we got five different answers.

Thank you to Arvida Byström (@arvidabystrom), Huntrezz Janos (@huntrezz), Lou Fauroux (@loufauroux), Sharon Zheng (@sharon), and Yvonne Fang (@_yvonnef_) for sharing the custom models they trained with TITLES, and to Alice Scope (@alicescope) for bringing the evening together.

What does it mean to own an image, when the image no longer points back to anything real?

This weekend, at @grayareaorg, we got five different answers.

Thank you to Arvida Byström (@arvidabystrom), Huntrezz Janos (@huntrezz), Lou Fauroux (@loufauroux), Sharon Zheng (@sharon), and Yvonne Fang (@_yvonnef_) for sharing the custom models they trained with TITLES, and to Alice Scope (@alicescope) for bringing the evening together.

What does it mean to own an image, when the image no longer points back to anything real?

This weekend, at @grayareaorg, we got five different answers.

Thank you to Arvida Byström (@arvidabystrom), Huntrezz Janos (@huntrezz), Lou Fauroux (@loufauroux), Sharon Zheng (@sharon), and Yvonne Fang (@_yvonnef_) for sharing the custom models they trained with TITLES, and to Alice Scope (@alicescope) for bringing the evening together.

What does it mean to own an image, when the image no longer points back to anything real?

This weekend, at @grayareaorg, we got five different answers.

Thank you to Arvida Byström (@arvidabystrom), Huntrezz Janos (@huntrezz), Lou Fauroux (@loufauroux), Sharon Zheng (@sharon), and Yvonne Fang (@_yvonnef_) for sharing the custom models they trained with TITLES, and to Alice Scope (@alicescope) for bringing the evening together.

“What surprised me was how immersive and focused I became.”

At the Department of Species Services, visitors step into the role of human pollination technicians — manually transferring pollen between California poppy flowers in response to pollinator decline.

Some people move carefully.
Some become unexpectedly emotional.
Some don’t want to stop.

What begins as a simple task slowly shifts into something else:
attention,
care,
and ecological labor.

___

Visit Gray Area in San Francisco to find your match and enter the system.

On view through 5/9 @grayareaorg

___
· @shihan.design Director & Design Futurist
· @mingyong_art Creative Technologist & New Media Artist, UC San Diego
· @hanzhangpqqo Interactive Engineer & Computer Musician, UC San Diego
· @clclem.liu Visual Artist
· Jiaye Leng AI Engineer & Researcher, CityU of Hong Kong
· @abigail.movesDancer & Choreographer
· Neal WilliamsConsulting Pollination Ecologist, UC Davis

Curators:
· @habitualtruant
· @hwkns.art
· @exteeng
___

#FutureOfWork #Ecology#SpeculativeDesign #MoreThanHuman #NewMediaArt

(For) You, Optimized at Gray Area last month .✦ ݁

A larger-than-life feed of algorithmically generated self-help text, built from the most highlighted passages in bestselling Kindle books on productivity, success, and personal transformation. These excerpts have already been picked out and saved by thousands of readers each, so they’re like condensed little pieces of aspiration, whole books reduced to quick, motivational takeaways. The Markov chain then remixes that material into an endless stream of synthetic advice that sounds convincing at first, but starts to slip between making sense and total emptiness. Traces of the original source texts remain beneath the feed, surfacing the collective habits, desires, and interactions of the people who highlighted them. I was interested in optimization as a cultural logic, how it shows up in self-help and AI through these constant promises of transformation, productivity, and improvement.

There’s also a stat that people spend < 30s looking at an artwork in a museum. So I was thinking a lot about whether familiar dark patterns–like infinite scroll, soft gradients, and the smooth, addictive logic of social media–can be redeployed for a different purpose… if these are the same mechanics that keep us scrolling on our phones, could they also hold us in front of an artwork for longer? Long enough to confront the ways these technologies shape our attention, behavior, and identities?

Huge thank you to the curators of @local.memory @hwkns.art @exteeng @_t__sy and @habitualtruant @grayareaorg staff for the space and support!!!

Video documentation by Jun (@ilovemytransfriends)

⋆˙⟡ ⋆ ₊⟡ ⋆

#generativeart #artexhibit #newmediaartist #socialmedia #selfhelp

SAN FRANCISCO — JOIN US FOR OUR FIRST EVER EVENT IN THE BAY AREA! 🌉

On May 30, Glia is bringing together the Bay Area community to inspire unique ways of pooling knowledge, resources, and capital to scale durable med-tech solutions for Gaza’s destroyed healthcare systems.

The event will feature:

👉A keynote conversation with Alana Hadid
👉Reflections from Dr. Tarek Loubani following his frontline medical work and recent return from Gaza
👉A live panel featuring Alana Hadid, Tommy Marcus@quentin.quarantino , Lara Kiswani, and Bridget Rochios, moderated by Nora Barrows-Friedman
👉A curated art auction and live fundraiser
👉A local vendor market and served appetizers from Lulu’s, a local Palestinian restaurant

Ticket sales are donations toward Glia’s life-saving medical projects in Gaza. 🏥

📍 Gray Area Theatre, San Francisco
🗓️ May 30, 2026 | 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM
🎟️ Tickets live now! LINK IN BIO

Gray Area is a San Francisco-based nonprofit cultural incubator and serves as the fiscal sponsor for Glia, supporting its work through nonprofit infrastructure and administrative stewardship.

📽️ 💙 THIS FRIDAY ‼️ 🎟️

𝙂𝙊𝙊𝘿 𝙈𝙊𝘿𝙀𝙇𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙋𝙄𝘾𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙀‼️ at Gray Area 🩶 San Francisco 🍿

A night of artist-made films selected by internet artist and performer Molly Soda [@molly__soda], exploring fame, fandom, online intimacy, and the strange ways digital culture has shaped how we see ourselves and each other over the past 25 years. Soda will introduce the films, followed by a Q&A moderated by Gray Area Associate Curator Wade Wallerstein [@habitualtruant].

Featured Clip:

In 𝙈𝙚𝙚𝙚𝙚, Molly Soda enters TikTok livestreams where streamers rate the profile pictures of their viewers. She joins the chat, asks for a rating, and occasionally sends virtual gifts, including roses, hand hearts, and corgis, in the hopes of getting noticed.

The piece turns the tiny rituals of livestream attention into something funny, strange, and painfully familiar: a performance of wanting to be seen inside a system built to measure, rank, and reward visibility.

💚⭐️🩵🎁💛🧸❤️💋💙💌🩶🚪🩷🔗🖤

𝙂𝙊𝙊𝘿 𝙈𝙊𝘿𝙀𝙇𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙋𝙄𝘾𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙀‼️ will also screen videos by:

Dahlia Bloomstone @the_dancr_next_door
Conner O’Malley @conner_omalley_
Laurel Nakadate @laurelnakadate
Daniela Rodriguez @danini_star
Trevor Shimizu @trevorshimizu

📸 5-8-2026 ✅ 7:30 PM ❣️

Special thank you to @electronicartsintermix

Ticket link in bio!

On 13 May, 邊界 (@bianjie.systems) will be hosting an evening gathering at @index_space 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 @fwb.help.

We will be presenting @yalla_halim’s 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!

ARVIDA BYSTRÖM
HUNTREZZ JANOS
LOU FAUROUX
SHARON ZHENG
YVONNE FANG

Five artists, five artist-trained models, curated by @alicescope in collaboration with @grayareaorg

Join us for Dream Models on May 9th
RSVP at the link in our bio

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, Arvida Byström (@arvidabystrom), Huntrezz Janos (@huntrezz), Lou Fauroux (@loufauroux), Yvonne Fang (@_yvonnef_), and Sharon Zheng (@sharon) unveil custom AI models trained exclusively on their own work.

Curated by Alice Scope (@alicescope) and presented by TITLES (@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 at the link in bio

featured works:

- What Remains, Genesis by Lou Fauroux
- The Offisse by Sharon Zheng
- hadrians gate in ECLIPSATRIX MAGICAL by Huntrezz Janos
- Maya B Kronic in PET by Arvida Byström
- Technical-Pipelines from Dream Field 2.0 by Yvonne Fang
- ai爱pod Sushi AI by Sharon Zheng