Ultradilute Podcast

A wide-ranging and necessary conversation with composer and performer Colin Self about redefining "health" for ambitious creators. Colin discusses re-orienting their practice toward attunement: the daily skill of noticing relationships between self, others, and the environment. We explore why, after major institutional commissions, smaller rooms often hold bigger truths . The dialogue traces how t...

A live conversation with writer Joon Oluchi Lee and jeweler Tracy Steepy on how creative people uniquely define health and why it matters. For Lee, health is the luxury of forgetting the body entirely; for Steepy, it’s the rare feeling of being fully present and generative. Both have learned that creativity cannot be forced through discipline alone—it requires a body willing to meet you there. We...

A clear-eyed conversation with homeopath and former educator Kristina Jermain about the realities of launching a practice fresh out of school. Jermain’s path began when her daughter’s severe autism and PANS diagnosis led her beyond conventional medicine—and past non-classical homeopathy—to the gentle, profound efficacy of the classical tradition. Now, just one month into her practice at North Star...

An in-depth conversation with artist and arts leader Shaun Leonardo about how creative practice reveals the body’s innate intelligence and capacity for transformation. Leonardo’s decade of work with incarcerated individuals and trauma survivors has led him to a radical premise: certain experiences cannot be processed through language alone. His methodology strips away narrative to access what he c...

A recounting by arts organizer Roddy Schrock about his pivot to homeopathy and redefining wellness for creative people. Schrock unveils his new podcast, Ultradilute, as a space to explore what he terms "a radical healing technology." He argues that homeopathy and creativity are parallel processes, both operating through the subtle mechanisms of imagination and consciousness rather than conventiona...

Today's conversation is with Zachary Small, staff reporter for the NY Times. I have been following their arts journalism since they wrote for Hyperallergic years ago. They're often the first to identify new, consequential developments in a field that thrives on change. A little less than a year ago, they became a staff reporter at the Times – a well deserved and enlightened hire. In particular, th...

Today's conversation is with Prem Krishnamurthy, designer, author, and educator. His multifaceted work explores the role of art as an agent of transformation at an individual, collective, and structural level. This manifests itself in books, exhibitions, images, performances, publications, systems, talks, texts, and workshops. He is one of those thinkers and makers whose brain is spinning out idea...

What does it mean to have a body that moves in three dimensional space in our current time? How do cultural institutions better relate to the public in a way that takes into consideration the massage changes in technology over the last three years? Can relating to the other than human beings help us learn how to be better partners to the planet? These are the types of questions London-based choreo...

If you are an artist, or someone who cares about the health and wellbeing of the arts in the United States, I think you will find this conversation to be both insightful and inspirational. There's only one Ruby and I am honored to be able to work with her through my directorship at Eyebeam, where she serves on the board. It was a pleasure to dig into the shifts in the culture since the meltdown of...

My friend, the designer and artist, Mushon Zer-Aviv was in town a few months ago so we sat down to catch up. Having worked in open, values-driven design in tech for the last two decades, Mushon goes deep into what he sees as being the mistakes of the early internet and how we can avoid them in the future. His thoughtfulness is always optimistic: as he says, he is a designer so he wants to design!...

Deborah has a reputation as an innovative arts leader here in New York.  Over the past couple of years, she has fully transformed into a sharp-eyed astrologer building from decades of experience in the arts as well as a lifelong spiritual practice. In this, the final Dog Days 2022 episode, Roddy and Deborah discuss the value of astrology in the context of being an arts director where everybody is...

There are a handful of contemporary net artists for whom I have particular affection. Constant Dullaart is one of them. Since I first learned of his work in the early aughts, I've found an extraordinary depth to every move he makes. As our understanding of the internet has matured, Constant's work becomes more relevant. I most recently worked with him as one of our Eyebeam fellows in our Rapid Res...

As we enter these long, hot days of this unusual year, I'll be releasing three special episodes that aim to provide some dreamy inspiration for late summer. Between now and labor day, I'll be speaking with three dynamic artists over three episodes. The conversations move from foundational questions around what technology actually means to playful platforms for new forms of co-creation and communit...

B Covington, a multi-modal sound artist whose work is as formally challenging as it is joyfully satisfying, was in New York last month and sat down for a conversation with me at my office in Brooklyn. I enjoyed our time so much an it is the first episode of Informer that was recorded in person.  We started by talking about the incredibly radical work of the Public Television Workshop, creators of...

James Bridle imagines new modes of invention and engagement inspired from relationships with non-human beings. He's a fascinating thinker and this is one of my favorite conversations. His relentless inquiry into how we can co-create technologies that better serve the world, not just a few humans, is inspiring. His latest book, Ways of Being, is a tour-de-force of imagining not only how our definit...

I first heard about K when they were active in the electronic music scene of the bay area in the early 2000's. I've enjoyed following their work from that time into becoming a force for thoughtful engagement with AI, thinking about it in very expansive way, involving anthropology and cosmology. I find that their work unites the abstract with the personal in an elegant way, spotlighting the weird a...

I really enjoyed this chance to catch up with her and hear what she's seeing as being exciting developments in the fields of art, technology, and science. And we had a great time discussing what an intra-institutional approach to building a new tech-art infrastructure could be, as a counterpoint to the dominance to the dominance of a few tech. companies. We get into the weeds on potential funding...

"As an artist I am trying to see the hidden connections between things and trying to understand things that I feel as a person that thinks in slightly different ways." - Angelo Plessas In early February of 2020, I was invited to an impromptu lunch at the lovely and large home of artist Chrysanne Stathacos in the Kolonaki neighborhood of Athens, the day before my return to New York. We all have mom...

It's always a pleasure to be in conversation with Mendi and Keith Obadike. The sound art duo have been working together for 25 years, which gives them perspective to be able to identify trends, changes, and ongoing challenges in the field. Their sound work is beautifully designed, often utilizing the human voice as an instrument, and typically they take on issues often ignored in sound art, like r...

I had the privilege of visiting an insightful and rich exhibition at Albright-Knox, Buffalo, last month. Co-curated by curator and art historian Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan and artist Paul Vanouse, it focused on the impact of "difference machines" AKA computers in shifting our notions of identity. Featuring many artists that I have been fans of for years, I hope that this ground exhibition continues to m...

There are so many fascinating stories to be told about the present and future of technology in the arts, especially in this moment of a profound, digital turn. Tamiko Thiel, a truly singular artist, tells a numbers a number of them. As a very early innovator in the field of VR, along with a side career as product designer which includes creating the visual design of the The Connection Machine, the...

Zach Lieberman is one of the leading creative coders and digital artists in the world. And what I love about the way Zach works is that he is equally dedicated to thoughtful and open pedagogy as he is to creating poetic digital works. This wide-ranging conversation reveals the motivations in his co-founding of the School for Poetic Computation as well as his continuing fascination with the human,...

I’m excited to share this fascinating conversation with LA-based artist Lauren Lee McCarthy. She reminds us that, actually, creating technology is one of the most human of activities. Her work is largely about trying to get us to take responsibility for the machines we are building. She suggests, that we need to get “out of our dorm room” in how we approach machine learning and the way it’s changi...

I’ve known Julia Christensen for quite a long time, since we were both graduate students at Mills College in Oakland in fact. One of my first memories of her was when we were both in  Pauline Oliveros’s composition class. Since then, I’ve kept up with Julia’s work on and off over the years, seeing her when she would exhibit in town or by catching up at artist retreats in upstate New York. I think...

I’ve known Commissioner Casals for a number of years, since his time at the Highline, where he was creating very forward looking public art programs. His philosophy of building cultural democracy is quietly radical, particularly in a city like New York which has spent most of the last twenty years betting on high-profile legacy institutions. It seems to me that Gonzalo is working to draw a new map...