MVR 2.3

With the decreasing size and cost of computer vision, digital components, and advances in virtual reality, we are faced with a renewed awareness of the impact of current digital practices on the physical body. Returning for its second year, MVR is a lecture event series focused on new forms of exchange between body and technology developed by Eyebeam Alumni Nancy Nowacek and David Sheinkopf, Director of Technology at Pioneer Works. MVR is a platform for sharing projects and ideas concerning these new interactions between body and information, device, and action and explores an expansive breadth of subjects and technologies including Virtual Reality, Augmented reality, robots, video games, choreography, and machine learning. Speakers represent a wide spectrum of expertise—coding, dance, anthropology, furniture design— and have included Gene Kogan, Liat Berdugo, Amelia Winger, and Daniel Temkin.

OpenBCI Co-Founder and CEO, Conor Russomanno, comes from a mixed background of engineering, art, and design. As an undergraduate at Columbia University, Conor studied civil engineering & engineering mechanics while teaching computer graphics and developing Unity-based virtual environments under an NSF grant. Conor later discovered brain-computer interfacing (BCI) as an MFA student at Parsons School of Design. He has been pushing the industry of BCI forward ever since, making technologies for recording brain activity more cost-effective and accessible to everybody. Conor has led two successful crowdfunding campaigns, raising close to $500,000 to develop OpenBCI. Conor now teaches Creative Coding, Designing Consciousness, and The Body Electric at Parsons School of Design and NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Stephanie Dinkins is an artist interested in creating platforms for ongoing dialog about artificial intelligence as it intersects race, gender, aging and our future histories. She is particularly driven to work with communities of color to develop deep-rooted AI literacy and co-create more culturally inclusive equitable artificial intelligence. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at NEW INC and project catalyst for Team Haptics, Cyborg Futures 2017.
Dinkins holds an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is also an alumna of the International Center of Photography, the Independent Studies Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Artist in the Marketplace Program of the Bronx Museum of Art. Her work is exhibited at a broad spectrum of public, private and institutional venues – including, Institute of Contemporary Art Dunaujvaros, Hungary; Herning Kunstmuseum, Denmark; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art; Contemporary Art Museum Houston; Wave Hill, Studio Museum in Harlem; Spedition Bremen; and the corner of Putnam and Malcolm X Blvd, Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn – by design. She has received grants from Harvestworks, Puffin Foundation, Trust for Mutual Understanding and Lef Foundation. Past residencies include the Whitney Independent Study Program; Aim Program, Bronx Museum of Art; Santa Fe Art Institute, Art/Omi, Foundation and Center for Contemporary Art, Czech Republic and Blue Mountain Center, NY. Professor Dinkins teaches video and emerging media at Stony Brook University.

Born and raised in Riyadh, Daanish Masood has lived and worked in New York for 16 years. In 2007, Daanish joined the UN Alliance of Civilizations, a special initiative launched under Kofi Annan, which conceives of and executes experimental projects to investigate the role of identity in violent conflict. Through the Alliance of Civilizations, Daanish has run projects around the world intended to address religious, cultural, and ethnic tensions. In May 2014, he joined BeAnotherLab to develop conflict resolution applications for The Machine to Be Another and create partnerships with researchers, investors, and institutions interested in using the machine. Daanish studied Philosophy at New York University and speaks Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu.

Hyphen-Labs is an international team of women of color working at the intersection of technology, art, science, and the future. Through our global vision and unique perspectives we are driven to create meaningful and engaging ways to explore emotional, human-centered and speculative design. In the process we challenge conventions and stimulate conversations, placing collective needs and experiences at the center of evolving narratives.