Stephanie Dinkins

Artist and Professor, Stony Brook University

Living on the Edge: Where Art, Technology & Communities Collide

Artificially intelligent systems are becoming the ubiquitous, unseen arbiters of daily life. As society becomes more reliant on artificial intelligence (AI), many voices are left out of the creation of systems that make both frivolous and consequential decisions about the way we live, make, love, and remember. As algorithmic technologies expand and grow, people of color, the disabled, LGBTQIA, and other marginalized communities most likely to be negatively impacted must actively participate in the creation, training, and testing of the AI matrices that appraise, assist, and surveil us now, and will do so with ever-increasing consequences in the future. This keynote address takes a practical look at the connections between art, community, activism and our future histories.

Dinkins will discuss her multipronged approach to advocating for an equitable digitally mediated world through her art practice that weaves together technology, social interaction, exhibition, and public speaking to encourage action toward making artificial intelligence transparent and accessible for all. As artists, designers and educators, we are emissaries, well-placed to help develop literacy in AI, a necessary 21st-century competency. We are leaders in helping the public understand why such deeply rooted topics are relevant to day-to-day lives. We must work openly and collaboratively toward digital practices that develop and succeed by including knowledges, cultures and ethical perspectives that sit outside supremacist norms.

About Stephanie Dinkins

Stephanie Dinkins is an artist and professor at Stony Brook University fostering dialog about artificial intelligence as it intersects race, gender, 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. Dinkins holds an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is also an alumna of the International Center of Photography and the Independent Studies Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her artwork is exhibited internationally at a broad spectrum of community, private and institutional venues – by design. These sites include Institute of Contemporary Art Dunaujvaros, Hungary; Herning Kunstmuseum, Denmark; Spellman College Museum of Fine Art; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; Wave Hill, Studio Museum in Harlem; The Long Island Museum, NY; Spedition Bremen; and the corner of Putnam and Malcolm X Blvd, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She is a 2017 A Blade of Grass Fellow and a 2018 Truth Resident at EYEBEAM, NY. She has received additional support from Joan Mitchell Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Lef Foundation, and Residency Unlimited. Artist residencies include Pioneer Works Tech Residency, NEW INC, Blue Mountain Center; Aim Program, Bronx Museum; The Laundromat Project; Santa Fe Art Institute, Art/Omi and Center for Contemporary Art, Czech Republic. Her work has been cited in media outlets such as Art In America, The New York Times, Washington Post, and Baltimore Sun and SLEEK Magazine.

Twitter: @StephDink
Instagram: Stephanie.Dinkins