Cybersentics Book Club October 2026: Here/There

Gray Area (Mission) Event Link HYBRID IN-PERSON / ONLINE Join us for October's Cybersentics Book Club, where we'll discuss a chapter on artists' work with telepresence, focusing on the Satellite Arts Project—pioneering telecollaborative performance work created by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz between 1975 and 1977. This month, Cybersentics Book Club meets in person and online to discuss Chapter 4 of Kris Paulsen's Here/There: Telepresence, Touch, and Art at the Interface. Long before "videoconferencing" and "the cloud" entered our vocabulary, Galloway and Rabinowitz (working together as Mobile Image) were already asking what it might mean for bodies, gestures, and performances to exist simultaneously across distant places. The book chapter reads this as a foundational moment in telepresent art: an attempt to imagine touch, presence, and collaboration across a distance technology alone couldn't close. Last year, Gray Area hosted a screening with Kit Galloway. This Month’s Reading: Paulsen, Kris. Here/There: Telepresence, Touch, and Art at the Interface. MIT Press, 2017. § Chapter 4: Inhabiting the Interface: The Mixed Reality of Satellite Telecommunication. N.B. We have a physical copy of the book in Cybersentics Little Library donated by Vanessa Chang of Leonardo/ISAST. Access Reading Also Included with RSVP: You’ll receive the reading link in your confirmation email. About Kris Paulsen: Kris Paulsen is an Associate Professor of History of Art (and, by courtesy, Theatre, Film, and Media Arts) at The Ohio State University, specializing in contemporary art, video, and new media. Her first book, Here/There: Telepresence, Touch, and Art at the Interface (MIT Press, 2017), received the 2018 Anne Friedberg Award for Innovative Scholarship from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Her work traces the intersections of art and engineering, with a particular emphasis on telepresence, virtuality, and artificial intelligence. About the Cybersentics Book Club: Gray Area is pleased to host a new reading group, the Cybersentics Book Club that will explore the human sensorium through the lens of art and technology. In the first cycle, Cybersentic's reading list will center key themes related to the bidirectional flow of information between bodies and the environment. The outward perspective examines biofeedback, while the inward perspective focuses on cyborg art. This book club is a fit for artists, makers, researchers, scholars, engineers, and anyone curious about the integration of technology and art. Join us as we investigate how to enhance our sensory experiences, from biofeedback and sonification to embedding sensors that challenge our perceptions. Our group's purpose is to cultivate a welcoming community that fosters knowledge-sharing and collaboration. Whether you're seeking to connect with potential collaborators, look for answers to pressing questions, gain critical insights, or engage in peer learning, this is the place for you! Cybersentics is organized and led by Gray Area Research Fellow Anastasia Chernysheva as part of the Biofeedback Art|Research Network (BARN). Accessibility: All ages welcome. A high school reading level or above is recommended. Hybrid event In-person meeting hosted upstairs in the Gray Area Incubator, not wheelchair or mobility accessible. Online Zoom link provided upon RSVP. View our FAQ page for more info, or contact us at info@grayarea.org with any accommodation requests. location provided by event source: "Gray Area / Grand Theater, 2665 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA" ―――――――――― SF Stuff To Do