The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts and Black Public Media have announced the second cohort of their new residency program for creative technologists, called the Black Public Media Residency at the Carson Center.
This year’s recipients are Eboni Zamani, J. Bird Lathon and Conrad Burgos, who developed creative technology projects while they were in residence at the Carson Center July 10-21. The program just recently received a $40,000 award from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Grants for Arts Projects program.
Zamani is an artist and entrepreneur from Philadelphia. She has been writing since she was four years old and started making films in high school. Her first documentary was about youth in the military. Using visual storytelling as an outlet, she has been making media ever since. As a self-taught photographer, Zamani originally took it up to be a better camerawoman and came to appreciate all that can be said in a single image. See more on Zamani’s work.
Her Carson project, “Air Quality Orange Interactive,” indexes the stories and work of Black and Latino communities working to end environmental racism in Philadelphia. The interactive experience will act as a tour guide through familiar sights and sounds of the city from an environmental lens. The project will connect audiences with Black and Latino Philadelphians in Nicetown, Hunting Park and Eastwick.
Lathon is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and filmmaker born and raised in Clarksville, Tennessee. His creative journey began as a visual artist and student of architecture before transitioning into multimedia design in the early 2000s. Lathon has written and directed short films that have screened in festivals nationally and internationally. Some of his current projects include “Impaled and Inhaled,” a short poetry film about his experiences on and after Sept. 11, 2001, and “Cat Call Continuum,” a photographic history of street harassment dramatized with modern responses. See more on Lathon’s work.
His project is titled “Falling Stars and Freedom Fighters.” On the night of Nov. 12, 1833, the beliefs of some enslaved Africans and their masters change after they witness one of history’s extraordinary celestial events. The project explores how the Leonid Meteor Shower affected the minds and convictions of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and Amanda Young, a young girl enslaved in Tennessee. In addition to their accounts, others including Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Smith, Agnes Clarke and elders of the Pawnee and Lakota Nations provide historical, cultural and spiritual interpretations in context with American, racial, religious and geopolitical ones.
Burgos is an educator, performance artist and media maker from Buffalo, New York, and based in Philadelphia. His works include short documentaries and episodic documentary series exploring artistic practice and history. His work is included in the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s collection of Buffalo Artists, and Termite TV has screened on BPTM and WHYY. He is a production facilitator with the Precious Places Project and works as an educator and facilitator with Scribe Video Center, PhillyCAM and WHYY. See more on Burgos’ work.
His Carson project, “LASTSUMMER,” is an experimental variety show during the last summer on Earth. The program is an episodic project that brings short doc and experimental video to a live audience. As emcee, Burgos facilitates an immersive learning experience through humor, interview and performance—often showcasing guests. He engages multichannel installation, AR and that sacred technology—call and response. The show evolves from the expectations/boundaries of a “late night talk show” into something else, exploring our impact on nature, questions of ethical pet ownership, street freedom, isolation and self-delusion.
Megan Elliott, the Johnny Carson Endowed Director in Emerging Media Arts, and Lisa Osborne, the director of emerging media at BPM, designed the residency to offer access to specialized equipment, studio facilities and workspace.
“The first year of the residency program really exceeded all of our expectations,” Elliott said. “I can’t wait to see what this year’s artists will accomplish. We are very honored to be part of expanding the access to emerging technologies through these Black Public Media residencies.”
The Carson Center and BPM designed the residency to serve Black filmmakers, artists and creative technologists — given the well-documented, low numbers of Black filmmakers, executives and artists working in the tech industry and the high cost to acquire specialized equipment, such as motion-capture rigs, professional 360 cameras and VR headsets and training on emerging technology equipment and software.
In addition to up to three weeks on site at the Carson Center, the residency provides a grant from BPM to develop their projects further.
Upon completion of their residency, select artists may be invited to receive additional training in preparation for BPM’s PitchBLACK Immersive Forum, the largest U.S. pitch competition for independent filmmakers and creative technologists developing new projects about the global Black experience in the U.S. and present their VR/XR/AI projects. The winner of the PitchBLACK Immersive Forum will receive up to $50,000 in funding for their project.
Founded in 1979, BPM supports the development of visionary content creators and distributes stories about the global Black experience to inspire a more equitable and inclusive future.
