Gray Area Foundation for the Arts
Encyclopedia
Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) is a new media
arts organization and exhibition space in San Francisco, California
. Gray Area hosts exhibitions and music events, software and electronics classes, a media lab and resident-artist program. Situated in a 4000 square feet (371.6 m²) former porn arcade
in San Francisco’s historic Tenderloin and Mid-Market Districts, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts’ stated purpose is to bring “together the best creative coders, data artists, designers, and makers to create experiments that build social consciousness through digital culture.”
Founded in 2006 by its Executive Director Josette Melchor and Board Chairman Peter Hirshberg, GAFFTA joins similarly focused institutions, like Eyebeam Art and Technology Center and Ars Electronica
, in promoting the intersections of art, technology and community by working to produce, exhibit, and develop the creative technical skills that allow for experimentation with and exploration of the most contemporary technologies.
and was renamed Gray Area Foundation for The Arts. In June 2009, Gray Area relocated to its present facility near the end of Taylor Street . In total, the 8000 square feet (743.2 m²) location had included in addition to the pornography arcade, a bar (Club 65) and liquor store. Leased from property owner Jack Sumski, the space allowed Gray Area to expand its well-established exhibition platform to include artist residencies, educational workshops and symposiums, growing Gray Area into the comprehensive and integrated center for the creation and promotion of technology-based art it is today.
When the Art Theatres pornography arcade
that had been there since the 1970s moved out, Sumski decided that "it was time to do something in my old age, to get something going, and give the Tenderloin a future" and invested heavily to prepare the site for Gray Area. Gray Area Foundation for The Arts is part of a coalition of city agencies, arts organizations and community service providers seeking to revitalize a neighborhood that has historically struggled with the affects of substance abuse, addiction and poverty.
and technology
, by local and international artists.
Past exhibitions held at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts:
, such as Processing
, SuperCollider
, openFrameworks
and Arduino
as well as electronic sewing, soft circuitry, and wearable technology
.
to produce an multi-faceted series of community initiatives and symposiums called Senseable Cities Speaker Series.
City Centered Festival brought together artists, educators and community leaders within the Tenderloin district to generate ideas of using 'locative media' to better understand and connect in their environment.
Syzygryd is a collaboration with three other arts organizations (Interpretive Arson, False Profit Labs & Ardent Heavy Industries), to create a large scale interactive art piece to be unveiled at the 2010 Burning Man
event.
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
arts organization and exhibition space in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. Gray Area hosts exhibitions and music events, software and electronics classes, a media lab and resident-artist program. Situated in a 4000 square feet (371.6 m²) former porn arcade
Adult video arcade
Adult video arcades are X-rated movie previewing areas. They arealmost always attached to a sex shop or an adult book store , where magazines,movies, and sexual aids are sold. An arcade consists of typically a dozen...
in San Francisco’s historic Tenderloin and Mid-Market Districts, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts’ stated purpose is to bring “together the best creative coders, data artists, designers, and makers to create experiments that build social consciousness through digital culture.”
Founded in 2006 by its Executive Director Josette Melchor and Board Chairman Peter Hirshberg, GAFFTA joins similarly focused institutions, like Eyebeam Art and Technology Center and Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...
, in promoting the intersections of art, technology and community by working to produce, exhibit, and develop the creative technical skills that allow for experimentation with and exploration of the most contemporary technologies.
History
Following a conversation in 2006 about the lack of proper venues for the exhibition of new media and technology based art work, Melchor and Hirschberg initially opened Gray Area Gallery in San Francisco's South of Market (SoMa). By 2008, the gallery incorporated as a non-profitNon-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
and was renamed Gray Area Foundation for The Arts. In June 2009, Gray Area relocated to its present facility near the end of Taylor Street . In total, the 8000 square feet (743.2 m²) location had included in addition to the pornography arcade, a bar (Club 65) and liquor store. Leased from property owner Jack Sumski, the space allowed Gray Area to expand its well-established exhibition platform to include artist residencies, educational workshops and symposiums, growing Gray Area into the comprehensive and integrated center for the creation and promotion of technology-based art it is today.
When the Art Theatres pornography arcade
Adult video arcade
Adult video arcades are X-rated movie previewing areas. They arealmost always attached to a sex shop or an adult book store , where magazines,movies, and sexual aids are sold. An arcade consists of typically a dozen...
that had been there since the 1970s moved out, Sumski decided that "it was time to do something in my old age, to get something going, and give the Tenderloin a future" and invested heavily to prepare the site for Gray Area. Gray Area Foundation for The Arts is part of a coalition of city agencies, arts organizations and community service providers seeking to revitalize a neighborhood that has historically struggled with the affects of substance abuse, addiction and poverty.
Exhibitions
GAFFTA regularly hosts exhibitions focusing on interactive multimediaMultimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, by local and international artists.
Past exhibitions held at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts:
- Zimoun: Solo Exhibition Zimoun
- Milleux Sonores: Daniel Bisig/Martin Neukom/Jan Schacher, Jason Kahn, Yves Netzhammer/Bernd Schurer, Felix Profos and Jeroen Strijbos/Rob van Rijswijk.
- Open: C.E.B ReasC.E.B ReasC.E.B. Reas is an artist whose conceptual and minimal works explore ideas through the contemporary lens of software. Reas’s software and images derive from short text instructions explaining processes that define networks. The instructions are expressed in different media including natural...
, Camille UtterbackCamille UtterbackCamille Utterback is an interactive installation artist. Initially trained as a painter, her work is at the intersection of painting and interactive art.-Biography:... - Prototype: Alphonzo Solorzano, Gabriel Dunne, Ryan Alexander, Miles Stemper & Daniel Massey
- Transpose: Aaron KoblinAaron KoblinAaron Koblin is an American digital media artist best known for his innovative uses of data visualization and crowdsourcing. He is currently Creative Director of the Data Arts Team at Google Creative Lab in San Francisco, California....
& Robert Hodgin
Education
Gray Area Foundation for the Arts offers educational workshops in open source softwareOpen-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
, such as Processing
Processing (programming language)
Processing is an open source programming language and integrated development environment built for the electronic arts and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching the basics of computer programming in a visual context, and to serve as the foundation for electronic sketchbooks...
, SuperCollider
Supercollider
A Supercollider is a high energy particle accelerator. The term may refer to:* Superconducting Super Collider, planned 80 km project in Texas, canceled in 1993...
, openFrameworks
OpenFrameworks
openFrameworks is an open source toolkit designed for "creative coding". OpenFrameworks is written in C++ and runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux...
and Arduino
Arduino
Arduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVR...
as well as electronic sewing, soft circuitry, and wearable technology
Wearable technology
Wearable technology, tech togs, or fashion electronics are clothing and accessories incorporating computer and advanced electronic technologies...
.
Partnerships & Projects
Gray Area Foundation for The Arts has partnered with MIT Senseable City LabMIT Senseable City Lab
The MIT Senseable City Laboratory aims to investigate and anticipate how digital technologies are changing the way people live and their implications at the urban scale. Director Carlo Ratti founded the Senseable City Lab in 2004 within the group at the , as well as in collaboration with the MIT...
to produce an multi-faceted series of community initiatives and symposiums called Senseable Cities Speaker Series.
City Centered Festival brought together artists, educators and community leaders within the Tenderloin district to generate ideas of using 'locative media' to better understand and connect in their environment.
Syzygryd is a collaboration with three other arts organizations (Interpretive Arson, False Profit Labs & Ardent Heavy Industries), to create a large scale interactive art piece to be unveiled at the 2010 Burning Man
Burning Man
Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
event.