7pm Presentation: DiLL Research in collaboration with rootoftwo
This presentation shares key insights from Locust Projects’ Art + Tech Visioning and Listening Workshop, a facilitated session developed with rootoftwo that brought together Miami-based artists and technologists to reflect on the conditions shaping digital and technology-driven art practices in the region. Through a series of participatory exercises, artists mapped existing support systems, identified gaps in access to tools, software, and space, and considered how institutions might better support experimentation without reproducing rigid or centralized models. This presentation will include an interactive element that directly engages community participants.
8pm Panel: Toward A Regional Infrastructure for Tech-Based Artmaking
This panel convenes artists and cultural leaders working across digital and technology-driven practices to assess the current state of Miami’s art-tech ecosystem. Drawing on ongoing insights gathered through Locust Projects’ DiLL programming and community knowledge, the discussion identifies shared challenges in digital production and presentation, as well as strategies for strengthening regional infrastructure that allows artists to develop and present experimental work. As part of Locust Projects’ Digital Innovation Initiative, the program advances a broader conversation on how institutions, community partners, and artists can work together to support the future of tech-centered artmaking in Miami.
Lauren Monzón is a filmmaker, editor, and curator whose work spans experimental cinema, hybrid documentary, and community-centered storytelling. She is the Program Manager of Digital Engagement at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), where she develops digital initiatives that expand public access to film, video, and time-based media. A member of the Caribbean film collective Third Horizon, she contributes to collaborative filmmaking, festival programming, and efforts to amplify diasporic and historically overlooked voices in contemporary media.
Marc Aptakin is the Executive Director of Mad Arts and the visionary founder behind Bad Space. His early experiences in intimate, underground art venues inspired him to create expansive, accessible spaces for local artists. With the acquisition of a 50,000-square-foot building in Dania Beach, Mad Arts has become a pivotal institution in South Florida, championing a laboratory for research and development where artists, technologists, and creative entrepreneurs converge to push the boundaries of digital art and immersive experiences.
Tara Long is a Miami-born and based multidisciplinary artist whose work spans performance, installation, video, digital interactive projects, software development, and oil painting. Rooted in her exploration of self-identity as a response to early orphanhood trauma, Long creates various personas to magnify facets of her identity through which she navigates captivating narratives of resilience, mythology, transcendence, and connection. Her work has been featured at the Museum of Modern Art PS1, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Oolite Arts, and Spinello Projects. She is also known for her avant-garde music project and alter-ego, Poorgrrrl, and longstanding contributions to the III Points Music Festival, and other collaborative projects including: Divine Nymphs, 229, √iøle†a§, #IHAITIBASEL, TvvinHaus LLC, JIT REAL, and NRM Gallery in NYC. Long received her BFA from Parsons School of Design in New York in 2003 and her MFA from the University of Hartford. She is currently a resident artist at the Bakehouse Art Complex.
Dimitry Saïd Chamy is an award-winning artist, transdisciplinary designer, and educator. Working from a queer, mixed Haïtian-Lebanese immigrant perspective, he explores speculative futures, generative communities, and symbolic world-building through co-creation and participatory artifacts creation and multi-modal storytelling. Chamy has exhibited work from Miami to Beijing, including Fashion Week at Lincoln Center, New York, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. He has worked on multiple scales in diverse sectors, including art, education, fashion, technology, and the non-profit world. Chamy holds an MFA in Graphic Design from Yale University. Born and raised in Port-au-Prince before immigrating to the United States, Chamy has taught at six universities and served as an Erasmus+ Scholar and Honorary Chair at the Art Academy in Latvia. Chamy is currently a Research Associate Professor and Resident Artist at the Ratcliffe Art + Design Incubator at Florida International University in Miami, where he bases his studio.
9pm Performance: doris dana and Susannah Simpson present AMNIOTIC: A Sonic Embodied Devotion
Susannah Simpson (poetry, movement, performance) and Mónica Mesa (aka sound artist doris dana) merge worlds in their new piece, AMNIOTIC—an immersive performance where evolving sound and quiet movement unfold together, transforming Locust Projects into a fluid womb of pleasure as each follows their own fervent pathways of devotion.
This event is free and open to the public, and presented as part of the Knight Digital Innovation Initiative at Locust Projects. Refreshments are provided for guests aged 21 and older, courtesy of our 2025–26 sponsors The Tank Brewing Co. and Topo Chico.
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