Cybersentics Book Club
October 2026: Here/There
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.
Cybersentics Book Club
Sunday, October 18, 2026
12:00 – 2:00 PM
Hybrid Event: In-Person and Online (Zoom Link included with RSVP)
All ages welcome. A high school reading level or above is recommended.
Hosted upstairs in the Gray Area Incubator, not wheelchair or mobility accessible.
View our FAQ page for more info, or contact us at [email protected] with any accommodation requests.
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.
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.
We have a physical copy of the book in Cybersentics Little Library donated by Vanessa Chang of Leonardo/ISAST.
Last year, Gray Area hosted a screening with Kit Galloway as well.
About the Author
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
Cybersentics Book Club is a monthly reading group at Gray Area where we discuss literature on the political implications of neural engineering, cultural perceptions of disruptive technology, present-day applications of cybernetics and cyborg theory, and more.
The book club is a great fit for artists, makers, researchers, scholars, engineers, and anyone curious about the integration of technology and art. Our purpose is to cultivate a welcoming community that fosters knowledge-sharing and collaboration. Whether you're looking to connect with potential collaborators, find answers to pressing questions, gain critical insights, or learn alongside peers, this is the place for you!
Thanks to book club donations, and in an effort to give back to our community, we established the Cybersentics Little Library, with items available for browsing and loan. Check it out here.
Cybersentics is organized and led by Anastasia Chernysheva.
An open-access library that accompanies this book club can be accessed here.
About the Host
Anastasia Chernysheva
Anastasia Chernysheva is a scholar and curator specializing in the cultural reception of neurotechnology and the mediation of knowledge about the brain and mental life through art. To learn more, check out Cybersentics Book Club and Library at Gray Area.
Become a Gray Area Member
As a Gray Area Member you get special access to events, behind-the-scenes content and more. Gray Area is a dedicated family of supporters who believe in the power of creative action to catalyze social transformation. Join as a member today to provide sustaining support for our globally unique arts, education, research, and incubation programs.
