AI and Tech in the Hands of Artists

Symposium & Public Art Exhibition
Santa Barbara, CA October 7, 8 & 9th

Background: Nancy Baker Cahill, ‘Aftermath,’ projection-mapped sculpture, 2025 

Programming: TUE. 10.07

Tue. 10.07

3:15- 3:30pm

Historic Masonic Temple
16 E. Carrillo Blvd.
DOORS 2:15pm

3:30 -4:30pm

Historic Masonic Temple
16 E. Carrillo Blvd.
DOORS 2:15pm

4:00-6:00pm

Museum of
Contemporary Art S.B.
Paseo Nuevo Arts Terrace
653 Paseo Nuevo

PUBLIC WELCOME

7:00pm

Private Residence

Opening Remarks

Michael Delgado: EP, Brandwell Arts

PANEL

“The Human Element: Designing Empathy into the Machine Age”

> How do we ensure that the future of artificial intelligence remains rooted in human values, emotion, and connection? In this cross-disciplinary conversation, Kevin Davis (Director, Product Manager – Tech, Artificial General Intelligence – Information for Amazon) and Forest Stearns (artist-in-residence at Google’s Quantum AI Lab in Goleta) explore the quiet power of design, voice, and visual culture in shaping how we live with intelligent systems. While Davis works at the cutting edge of conversational AI, Stearns Stearns and his collaborators works shoulder to shoulder at the intersection of art and science in the Quantum AI campus. With a dynamic practice of epic scale illustration based productions, art direction and facilitation of the artist in residence program; his ongoing creative exchange brings inspiration, warmth and humanity into the built environment which would traditionally be stark and boring. Together, they ask: What does it mean to make machines — and the spaces around them — feel more human? <

Moderator: Michael Delgado, EP, Brandwell Arts
Kevin Davis, Director, Amazon Alexa AI
Forest Stearns, Artist in Residence, Google Quantum Lab

Welcoming Reception; AR Installation by Nancy Baker Cahill

Sponsored By Kunin Winery

> Join the artists, speakers, and fellow attendees for beverages while experiencing Baker Cahill’s special AR piece. MCASB’s companion exhibition featuring DJ Xavier will also be open.<

Private Reception

Invitation only: Artists, Speakers, Curators, Donors, Sponsors, and VIP ticket holders

Programming: WED. 10.08

Wed. 10.08

10:00-11:30am

Historic Masonic Temple
16 E. Carrillo St.


DOORS: 9:30am

1:00-5:30pm

2:30-3:30pm

Contemporary Art Workshop
(CAW)
631 Garden St.

HOURS: 10:00am-6:00pm

PUBLIC WELCOME

PANEL

“Signals & Systems: Artists Rewiring Perception in the Age of Intelligent Media”

> This multimedia panel brings together four pioneering artist-speakers in a dynamic conversation about the new architectures of perception, connection, and meaning in our digitally entangled world. Through video, still imagery, and conversation, these artists will present their own deeply distinctive works that explore themes of embodiment, ecology, technology, and consciousness. They will also engage in dialogue around works by fellow Brave New Work artists Yuge Zhou, JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Richelle Ellis Gribble, and the SuperCollider Collective, highlighting how this new generation of interdisciplinary practices collapses boundaries between science and art, virtual and real, data and sensation. Whether through biometric sensing, immersive environments, networked ecosystems, or poetic data visualizations, each artist brings a lens on how creative technology can shape more intuitive, interconnected, and reflective futures.

Moderator: Alan Macy, Founder SBCAST, BIOPAC
Nancy Baker Cahill : Artist (Via Video)
Victoria Vesna: Artist, Director Art & Science Program (UCLA)
Beatie Wolfe: Musician, Artist (Via Video)

Lunch Break

11:30am-1:00pm

Area Restaurants

12:30 - 5:30pm

Breakout Opportunities

Transportation Between Venues / Walking Routes

> S.B. MTD routes are complimentary for all ticket holders. < No host shuttle cars are also available along a set route.< > Walking: Several of the venues are within a three-quarter-mile radius of each other in the downtown area. < > Shuttle service begins at noon.<

EXHIBITION

“Symbiosis or Schism: The AI -Human Odyssey”

Companion Exhibition Curated by the Brill Family Foundation

> More than 12 artists address a theme of the opportunity and threats posed by AI in wide-ranging approaches. <

2:30-3:30pm

VADA (SBHS)
700 E. Anapamu St.

DOORS: 2:00pm

Every 20min (viewing limited to 15 guests per experience)

The Allosphere
USCB Campus (See Map)

FIRST DOORS: 2:15pm

3:00-4:00pm


McCune Conference Room

(6020 HSSB) at the Humanities & Social Sciences Building,
UCSB Campus

DOORS: 2:30pm

6:30-7:30pm


Santa Barbara Museum of Art Auditorium

1130 State St.

DOORS: 6pm

Sunset - 9:00pm


Santa Barbara Public
Library Plaza

40 E Anapamu St

ARTIST PRESENTATION

“New Storytelling Methodologies”

Isabel Beavers and Sarah Maria Rodriguez

> Supercollider.LA founding member Isabel Beavers and Sarah Maria Rodriguez present their fascinating work at the intersection of art and science.<

2:30 - 4:30pm

Artist Performance : Quantum Concerto in the Allosphere

JoAnn Kuchera-Morin

> JoAnn Kuchera-Morin performs excerpts of her groundbreaking concerto in which she uses quantum mechanics in the way that a composer writes a classic work for a traditional orchestra. < As a pioneer in musically and visual immersive experiences, now most recognized in the technologies employed at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Kuchera-Morin is the godmother of these artistic and scientific capabilities.<

“Encoded Gazes: Women of Color on Bias, Power, and Possibility in AI”

Moderator: Ana Briz: Curator, Art, Design & Architecture Museum
Haewon Jeong: Assistant Professor, Electric and Computer Engineering, UCSB
Kira Xonorika (Guarani): Artist

Ana Briz and her panel explore inherent bias in AI algorithms. Framed through the lens of women of color, this panel interrogates the inherited biases embedded in AI systems, from facial recognition and data training sets to the aesthetic tropes of generative art. Through visual works and critical reflection, the speakers explore how identity, mythology, queerness, and resistance can become tools for subverting dominant technological narratives.

7:00- 10:00pm

Sullivan Goss Gallery

11 E. Anapamu St.

(Across Anapamu from the Michael Towbes Library Plaza)

Public Reception

A Brief History of the Impossible

James Glisson: Chief Curator, Santa Barbara Museum of Art

> Glisson explores how historical artists anticipated AI in a fascinating look at art history through the lens of contemporary technologies. <

Projected Public Art Works

Art Works by Nancy Baker Cahill, Richelle Ellis/ SuperCollider.la, Victoria Vesna, Beatie Wolfe, and Yuge Zhou

> The Michael Towbes Library Plaza comes alive with stunning art works, produced with sophisticated technologies that focus on environmental, societal, and humanist themes in inspiring ways. <

Programming: THU. 10.09

Architectures of Perception: Immersion, Intelligence & the Shape of Conscious Futures

> This multidisciplinary panel explores how architectures — digital, biological, cultural, and material — shape consciousness and perception. From subatomic structures like brain organoids to immersive environments and tactile artworks made from reclaimed matter, the conversation interrogates how artistic and scientific practices are building new forms of embodied experience. Together, these speakers consider the spatial, ethical, and aesthetic frameworks that define how we feel, know, and connect in a changing world.

Moderator: Silvia Perea, Curator, Art, Design & Architecture Museum (UCSB)
Markus Novak, Director, Media Arts & Technology Program (UCSB)
Dr. Ken Kosik, Harriman Professor of Neuroscience & Co-Director, Neuroscience Research Institute (UCSB)
Mingo Opazo, Artist and Environmental Material Researcher (Ojai, CA)

Closing Party/Open Studios

Sponsored by Patrón Tequila

7:00-10:00pm

S.B. Center for Art, Science and Technology (SBCAST)
513 Garden St.

PUBLIC WELCOME

> MAT Graduate Students open their studios, perform and showcase special installations. There will be live music and a taco truck.

10:00-11:00am

Historic Masonic Temple
16 E. Carrillo St.

DOORS: 9:30am