Gray Area

How do you find an island that only exists in words? While the Scaling Intelligence exhibition closed on November 1, we’re continuing to share conversations with the artists behind the exhibition’s 11 commissioned works, presented by Gray Area and Modal. @DrawingMoving's Searching For (Bradley Land) sends a fictional satellite intelligence named Argus after a phantom island that explorer Frederick Cook once claimed to chart over a century ago. A custom system generates island after island, following Cook’s own written description, each one closer but never quite right. Searching For (Bradley Land) comes from a larger project—End of Signal series—which explores maps, belief, and what AI “hallucination” can reveal as well as reflecting on the construction of truth and fiction. Learn more about Cezar's Searching For (Bradley Land) at grayarea.org/exhibitions/sca…

UNTIL THIS WEDNESDAY NOV 4 🕊️

There’s still time to explore Nancy Baker Cahill’s FREE at San Francisco’s waterfront or from anywhere in the world! 🕊️🌁🕊️

This week, 𝙎𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 transformed Gray Area into a space for experimentation, where 13 artists explored what becomes possible when machine intelligence is treated as a creative medium. Only two days left to experience 𝙎𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚: Saturday, October 31: 1 – 8 PM Sunday, November 1: 1 – 8 PM (final day!) 📍 Gray Area, 2665 Mission St, San Francisco Free admission — Reserve your visit: grayarea.org/exhibitions/sca… Walk-ins welcome! Presented with @modal Featuring (in order of appearance): IMPRINT — Sasha Sorokina 00100 — @graysonearle Protobyte Phylogeny — @iragreenberg (Φ ᆺ Φ) asya — @xMiguelNovelo The Metabolic Choir — @TinaPulejkova Tuning — @ideeplistening Free Agents — @spencerc99 What is it like to be a river? — @colin_odonnell, Justine Sun Dela Cruz & Will Gardiner Activation Studies — @rashedhaq Searching For (Bradley Land) — @DrawingMoving Between Machine and Machine — @pkmital

Named after "Asya," the cat who kept Soviet linguist Yuri Knórozov company when he deciphered the Maya script in 1952, @xMiguelNovelo invites you to draw and speak new Maya glyphs into being. Built alongside Maya speakers and scientists from the Yucatán Peninsula and the Bay Area, the project uses a custom machine learning model trained on the structure of the logographic script. Each symbol you create becomes a 3D form that appears holographic in the gallery, building a collective narrative. Scaling Intelligence opened this past Wednesday, featuring 11 newly commissioned works by 13 artists exploring the creative possibilities of AI and large-scale cloud computing. And there’s still plenty of time to experience the exhibition: explore all 11 works during our free gallery hours TODAY until 8 PM and throughout this weekend. 🕑 Exhibition Hours TODAY, Oct 30: 2 – 8 PM Sat, Oct 31: 1 – 8 PM Sun, Nov 1: 1 – 8 PM 📍 Gray Area, 2665 Mission St, San Francisco Free admission, donations welcome. More info at grayarea.org/exhibitions/sca…

Biiig love to everyone who brought the show to life. Photos © Barak Shrama 💚

Touch sand. Draw glyphs. Hear yeast sing. And watch AI agents bargain. Scaling Intelligence is open until Nov 1. Free Admission too btw. 💚 📍Gray Area, 2665 Mission St, San Francisco

More from Scaling Intelligence 💚💚

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate Scaling Intelligence with us last night! 💚 We drew in sand and watched our marks become new glyphs inspired by Maya writing, listened to a living yeast colony whose metabolic activity was translated into choral music, released digital creatures into an evolving ecosystem, and watched autonomous AI agents negotiate over pixels. We followed a satellite on an endless search for an island that never existed. We watched smartphones navigate our digital lives without anyone holding them. The exhibition is open today from 2 – 6 PM, followed by Inference as Instrument at 7 PM, a conversation exploring AI as a creative instrument. (Panel is sold out, waitlist open!) Missed opening night? There’s still time to explore! Gallery Hours Thu: 2 – 6 PM Fri: 2 – 8 PM Sat & Sun: 1 – 8 PM Free admission! On view through November 1. 📍Gray Area, 2665 Mission St, San Francisco Featuring @CezarMocan @colin_odonnell + Justine Sun Dela Cruz + Will Gardiner @graysonearle @ideeplistening @iragreenberg @TinaPulejkova @xMiguelNovelo @pkmital @rashedhaq Sasha Sorokina @spencerc99 Presented in partnership with modal. Photos © Barak Shrama <3

Last night’s opening of Scaling Intelligence! ✨💚 @modal We're open today from 2 – 6 PM, followed by Inference as Instrument at 7 PM, a conversation exploring AI as a creative instrument. Explore the exhibition through Sunday, Nov 1. grayarea.org/exhibitions/sca…

OPENING TOMORROW! Scaling Intelligence opens Wednesday, October 28, featuring 11 newly commissioned works by 13 artists exploring the creative possibilities of AI and large-scale cloud computing. Can listening change a machine? In Tuning, artist Iana Chugunova @ideeplistening brings together nine open-weight AI models to listen, respond, and tune with humans and one another. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros’s Tuning Meditation, the work explores listening as a form of shared attention between human and artificial intelligence. Each AI voice has a limited budget to stay present and learn from human encounters. When its resources run out, it falls silent. Visitors can interact with the voices online at any hour, without their voices being recorded. What does it mean to feel heard by a machine, and what does it cost to pay attention in the age of AI? Scaling Intelligence @modal x @grayarea 🌐 Opening Night is SOLD OUT! But there’s still plenty of time to experience the exhibition: explore all 11 works during our free gallery hours throughout the week. 🕑 Exhibition Hours Thu, Oct 29: 2 – 6 PM Fri, Oct 30: 2 – 8 PM Sat, Oct 31: 1 – 8 PM Sun, Nov 1: 1 – 8 PM 📍 Gray Area, 2665 Mission St, San Francisco Free admission, donations welcome. More info: grayarea.org/exhibitions/sca…

✳ NOVEMBER COURSES & WORKSHOPS ✳ From creating interactive 3D art with AI to building modular synthesizers from scratch and protecting your digital privacy, expand your creative toolkit online and in-person at Gray Area: 🖥️ Vibecheck: Building 3D Generative and Interactive Art with AI with Kate Hollenbach November 2 – 23 | Online → Learn to create interactive 3D art for the web using creative coding and AI-assisted tools. Experiment with animation, generative systems, and interaction while developing your programming skills. No coding experience required! 🎛️ Breadboarding Modular Synthesizers: Part II with Sean Hallowell November 9 & 11 | In Person → Take your DIY synthesizer skills further! Build new circuits, experiment with sequencing and logic gates, and explore new ways to shape sound through hands-on electronics. 🔐 How to Not Get Doxed as a Political Artist with David Huerta November 14 | Online → Learn practical strategies to protect your personal information from doxing, online harassment, and surveillance. Explore social media security, data brokers, and digital privacy tools to help safeguard yourself and your creative practice. Registration is open! Explore the full program and sign up: grayarea.org/learn/

Scaling Intelligence: Modal x Gray Area AI Commissions opens NEXT Wednesday, October 28 at Gray Area. 13 artists debut new work built with AI and large-scale cloud computing, moving between scales that rarely meet: a satellite’s planetary view beside a microbial colony, the inside of a neural network opening onto forests and watersheds, a day of visitor conversation becoming a creature’s memory. Rather than using AI to make more of the same, these artists treat it as a translation layer, letting intelligences of vastly different sizes and speeds sense one another. @spencerc99's Free Agents reconnects us to the humanness within these AI systems and invites audiences to reflect on our relationship with them and how we want to define it moving forward. Drop in, play, and discover at opening night! 🌐 Opening Night Wednesday, Oct 28, 7-10 PM RSVP: luma.com/5j93bc4c 🕑 Exhibition Hours Thu, Oct 29: 2-6 PM Fri, Oct 30: 2-8 PM Sat, Oct 31: 1-8 PM Sun, Nov 1: 1-8 PM Visit:grayarea.org/exhibitions/sca… 📍Gray Area, 2665 Mission St, San Francisco Free admission, donations welcome

Scaling Intelligence: Modal x Gray Area AI Commissions opens NEXT Wednesday, October 28 at Gray Area. 13 artists debut new work built with AI and large-scale cloud computing, moving between scales that rarely meet: a satellite’s planetary view beside a microbial colony, the inside of a neural network opening onto forests and watersheds, a day of visitor conversation becoming a creature’s memory. Rather than using AI to make more of the same, these artists treat it as a translation layer, letting intelligences of vastly different sizes and speeds sense one another. @colin_odonnell and Justine Sun Dela Cruz’s “What is it like to be a river?” invites visitors to connect with nature through AI. With a tactile interface, they can send gentle ripples and shifts in flow back to the river itself, which are sensed and folded into the model in real time. Drop in and play with nature at opening night! 🌐 Opening Night Wednesday, Oct 28, 7-10 PM RSVP: luma.com/5j93bc4c 🕑 Exhibition Hours Thu, Oct 29: 2-6 PM Fri, Oct 30: 2-8 PM Sat, Oct 31: 1-8 PM Sun, Nov 1: 1-8 PM Visit: grayarea.org/exhibitions/sca… 📍Gray Area, 2665 Mission St, San Francisco Free admission, donations welcome

Last night’s Patch Bay workshop with Erik B. ⭐️

TOMORROW at Patch Bay: From Lore to Logic: Building Interactive Worlds with AI + Figma, led by Erik B. In this hands-on workshop, Erik B. will lead from story and concept to working prototype using Figma, AI, and vibe coding. Using his civic simulation project Supertino as a case study, we’ll build out the storyboard, UX, narrative, characters, and visual assets, team up with a large language model to turn behaviors and interactions into code and logic, and bring it all together into an interactive prototype. We’ll wrap with Q&A, troubleshooting, and an honest conversation about where these tools shine, where they break, and how to use them more intentionally. Come through tomorrow night and build something with us! 📅 Wednesday, October 21 🕕 6 PM 📍 Gray Area / Grand Theater 🔗RSVP at luma.com/vi6p9wpc Patch Bay is a new Wednesday night series for media artists, creative technologists, and anyone looking to get hands-on with emerging technology, exchange ideas, and connect with the Bay Area creative community. 💭 Have an idea for a future Patch Bay session? We especially want to hear from people looking for a place to share bold, critical, and creative work. Send us a note at [email protected]