Alexia Bonatsos
What did you explore in your residency?
As 2025 Residency Director, I wanted to contribute to a very successful finale event and I wanted the ten geniuses in our Residency fold to make something in their residency projects that could both be historical (aspirationally like this poster) and to bring a culture of aesthetics and art to 2025 San Francisco. As AI reduces humanity to a series of optimizations and predictions, the idea of creating something with "aura," originality spoke to me, in addition to the opportunity to work with my close friend Maran Nelson. We brought together creative technologists exploring the next cliff of intractable human problems for eight weeks, culminating in a four-day long Symposium on September 11th.
In addition, both Maran and I wanted the Residency to jumpstart my own writing, and I thought that being around other people who had concrete deadlines to their creative projects would help. While I have not yet completed my creative (versus operational) Residency project, I did start my own Substack, published a post, developed a cadence of writing, an hour in the mornings before people need something from me, and developed a draft of my book proposal during the Residency.
Despite some noted room for improvement, the Residency and Symposium were operationally a success.
Key insights and learnings
My biggest learnings were that:
• Creativity and creative solutions can break you out of the Karpman drama triangle, or that you can always "riff" on where you're at to make any situation better and more beautiful.
• That being organized and planning in the past is worth ten times as much in the present.
• Most people try to boil the ocean with their goals – the most successful projects were atomic – dealing with discrete entities like worms or tea.
• I love working with a team! Thank you Katherine and Maran for all of the support.
• It's easier to have multiple jobs and a newborn baby if everyone you work with understands what a miracle a baby is and helps you adjust your priorities and timelines accordingly.
What's next?
I will write and send my book synopsis [link tk] to at least one person who offered an agent intro. I will continue to write in the mornings. I will publish at least one more Substack post [link tk]. In addition, I will write a story based on where I think we're at with memory and social media "forever current thing" and put it in the 20 pre-addressed, stamped envelopes I received from a friend 25 years ago. They were a gift so I, as a young writer, could send a story to literary magazines, which I will finally do today/asap.
Our devices have created an eternal present, distracting us from our long term goals and desires, and I intend to explore this as a fictional reinforcement of this essay: "How Social Media Shortens Your Life." But also the medium is the message, and closing the loop on the envelopes will be immensely satisfying and prove my point. Where did the past 20 years go? Scroll, scroll, scroll. During the Residency I arranged for these envelopes to be sent to SF where they now sit in my garage, waiting for the next phase of this project.
Favorite memory from the Residency
Our moveable feast 💗
Fresh Veggies
What later became delicious ratatouille.
How has Interact shaped your relationship to technology?
The people afraid of technology, and these days specifically AI, are right, but will not get anywhere with that attitude. The right way to confront tech is with eyes open and a creative stance, not fear.
About Alexia
Alexia Bonatsos served as the 2025 Residency Director, bringing together creative technologists to explore intractable human problems through an eight-week residency culminating in a four-day Symposium. She wants to create work with "aura" and originality in an age where AI reduces humanity to optimizations and predictions.
Artifacts & Links
