Hi Beryl,

Greetings !

> I was interested that on the Eyebeam site it says that the New York bit of
> the series "was initiated by current R&D OpenLab fellow Zach Lieberman, and
> will be curated and produced by Eyebeam staff, fellows and residents." So
> it's always interesting I think that an initiator quite often ends up
> somehow 'responsible' throughout a process, even if a lot of other people
> are involved. I think every project needs some kind of initiator role, but
> could you say a but more about your role in this case?

Sure - it's an interesting situation we have now because we have done
this workshop for 3 years in madrid (the thrid one is happening right
now) and this year we are taking it to different locations, and that's
a huge learning process -- seeing how the formula, which we like alot,
adapts and changes in new environments.

I see my role as the following:

a) Pushing for the project when I started at eyebeam --
b) Convincing the administration to get behind it
c) Trying to make a strong argument for not changing many of the core
principles too much

While I'm the initiator in this case -- (I did alot of propoganda work
here at eyebeam when I first arrived) -- luckily the folks around saw
this as a good event that would fill a void and got behind it.  that
really got the train on the track.   Also, once the connections
started to happen (eyebeam w/ medialab prado, eyebeam w/ laboral) etc,
it started to feel to everyone much more official.

since I am teaching in the workshop (along with Taeyoon Choi and
Friedrich Kirschner) I've tried to stay out of the administrative
elements and just focus on the part which I love -- helping make
projects -- but wherever I can try to offer input about what has
worked/not-worked the other times.  This hasn't always been easy,
since people have different ideas and come from different places, and
my relationship with the madrid folks goes way back so it's different
working with folks I know less well, but it's been interesting and
really helps boil down what is essential the work.

take care,
zach