Brave New Work: AI and Tech in the Hands of Artists
A Symposium and Public Art Exhibition

Programming: 

Tuesday, 10.07

3:15 -4:30pm Historic Masonic Temple

Opening Remarks

“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

4:00-6:00pm Terrace, Museum of Contemporary Art SB

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.<

7:00pm Private Residence

Private Dinner Reception

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

PROGRAMMING:

Wednesday, 10.08

Historic Masonic Temple

“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)

11:30am-1:00pm

Lunch Break

12:30 - 5:30pm

Breakout Opportunities

1:00-5:30pm

Shuttle Between Venues / Walking Routes

> SB 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.<

ROUTES & TIMETABLES

2:30-3:30pm

Symbiosis or Schism? The AI - Human Odyssey

NOTE: THIS IS COMPANION PROGRAMING, CURATED AND PRODUCED INDEPENDENTLY BY THE BRILL FOUNDATION. THIS SHOW OPENS BEFORE BNW AND RUNS AFTER BNW ENDS. THERE IS A WELCOMING RECEPTION TO THIS SHOW AS DESCRIBED BELOW. WE HIGHLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO JOIN US THERE AND TO CATCH THE SHOW BEFORE IT CLOSES!

Companion Exhibition Curated by the Brill Family Foundation

> "Symbiosis or Schism? The AI-Human Odyssey" is a group AI Art exhibition with an opening reception event on October 2nd from 5:30-8:30pm at the Community Arts Workshop in Santa Barbara. This exhibition invites you to witness a conversation between human imagination and artificial intelligence—a dialogue where art becomes the shared language. The opening event promises to be an exciting evening filled with music, keynote speakers, artist presentations, a grant award ceremony, and refreshments, as well as a first peak at the innovative and incredible work of all the artists involved. The gallery opening will be the kick-off to the Brave New Work Art and Tech Symposium and will also be included as a stop on the 1st Thursday Art Walk. The exhibition will be showing from October 2-12, 2025. <

2:30-3:30pm VADA (SBHS)

Artists’ Presentation

New Storytelling Methodologies

Isabel Beavers

> Supercollider.LA founding member Isabel Beavers presents her fascinating work at the intersection of art and science.<

Every 20min (viewing limited to 12 guests per experience)

2:30 - 4:30pm The Alloshpere USCB MAT Campus

Artist Performance/ The Allosphere

Joann Kuchera Morin: Quantum Concerto

> 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.<

3:00-4:00pm McCune Conference Room

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

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

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.

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

6:30-7:30pm Santa Barbara Musem of Art Auditorium

A Brief History of the Impossible

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

James Glisson, Chief Curator Santa Barbara Museum of Art

Sunset - 9:00pm Library Plaza

Projected Public Art Work

> 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. <

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

7:00- 10:00pm Sullivan Goss Gallery (Across from Library Plaza)

Public Reception

PROGRAMMING:

Thursday, 10.09

10:00-11:00am Historic Masonic Temple

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

> This multidisciplinary panel explores how architectures—digital, biological, cultural, and material—shape conciousness 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)

7:00-10:00pm SBCAST

Closing Party/ Open Studios

Sponsored by Patron Tequila

> MAT Graduate Students open their studios, perform and showcase special installations. Live music, Taco Truck

> BNW is an intimate forum. Lectures are capped at only 150-200 attendees. The value of this conference is precisely in its scale.< > It is a rare opportunity to see world leaders talk about their explorations at the intersection of art and science and to interact with passionate regional leaders focused on building a like minded community. All ticket sales are final and non-refundable.