James Powderly
Born 1976 (age 47–48) Education
New York University ,
Interactive Telecommunications Program Known for
Street Art ,
Robotics , and
Internet Art Notable work
L.A.S.E.R. Tag ,
LED Throwies Awards 2010
Japan New Media Art Festival Excellence Prize, 2010
Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Interactive Art, 2010
Design Museum Brit Insurance Design of the Year in Interactive Art, 2010 Future Everything Award, 2006-2007
Eyebeam OpenLab Senior Fellowship, 2006
Ars Electronica Award of Distinction, 2006,
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council , Off the Record Commission, 2005-2006
Eyebeam OpenLab Fellowship, 2005
Eyebeam Artist in Residence
James Powderly (born 1976 in
Chattanooga, Tennessee ) is an American artist, designer and engineer whose work has focused on creating tools for
graffiti artists and political activists, designing robots and augmented reality platforms,
[1] and promoting open source culture.
Biography
Powderly studied music composition at the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga . After college, he received a master's degree from
New York University 's
Interactive Telecommunications Program . James worked at Honeybee Robotics and was part of the team that worked on the
Mars Exploration Rovers
Rock Abrasion Tool . As the collaborative team Robot Clothes, Powderly and artist
Michelle Kempner , received an artist residency at
Eyebeam for its project, Automated Biography. The project used small robots to tell the "personal story about a sick person and their partner".
[2]
In 2005, Powderly became a Research and Development Fellow at Eyebeam where he began collaborating with
Evan Roth . Working as the
Graffiti Research Lab , Roth and Powderly developed
open source tools for graffiti writers and activists, such as
LED Throwies and
L.A.S.E.R. Tag .
[3] Together, they also founded the
Free Art and Technology Lab (F.A.T. Lab). Most recently,[
when? ] Powderly has won awards for his work on the
EyeWriter project, including the 2009 Design of the Year in Interactive Art from the
Design Museum , London, the 2010
Prix Ars Electronica ,
[4] the 2010 FutureEverything Award
[5] and featured on
NPR
[6] and
TED .
[7]
Exhibitions
Selected exhibitions, screenings and performances include:
2004 ArtBots, Harlem, New York
[8]
2005 Eyebeam with Michelle Kempner, New York
2006 Ars Electronica, Goodbye Privacy , Linz, Austria
2007 Sundance Film Festival, New Frontiers , Park City, Utah
[9]
2007 2nd Digital Arts Festival, OpenPlay , Taipei City, Taiwan
[10]
2007 Microwave Festival, Luminous Echo , Hong Kong
[11]
2007
Ars Electronica , Second City , Linz, Austria
2007 Esther M Klein Gallery, "Artbots", Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
[12]
2007 Eyebeam, Open City , New York City, New York
[13]
2008 Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Beyond a Memorable Fancy ,
[14] New York City
2008 Museum of Modern Art, Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge , New York City
[15]
2008 Museum of Modern Art, Design and the Elastic Mind , New York City
[16]
2008 Tate Modern, Street Art , London, UK
[17]
2009 Platoon Kunsthalle, Showcase, Seoul, South Korea
2009 Street Art Dealer Interactive Exhibition,
[18] Bristol, UK
2010 Design Museum, Brit. Insurance Design of the Year 2010, London, UK
2011
Museum of Modern Art , Talk to Me , New York City
[19]
2012 Ljudmila, "The Lickers", Ljublana, Slovenia, 2012
[20]
2013
Eyebeam , FAT GOLD, New York, NY
[21]
Detention in China
In June 2008, before the
2008 Summer Olympics , Powderly was contacted by
Students for a Free Tibet who wanted to use his laser stencil invention, which can laser project simple stencils up to 2 km away, to project the words "Free Tibet" on a Beijing landmark, without acquiring any permission from the local authority. He said, "My understanding of the Tibetan issue was not in depth," but that he wanted to make "a general statement about freedom of speech". After practicing his message projection out of an apartment,
[22] he and two other protesters were arrested,
[23] interrogated, and detained at
Chongwen Detention Center and given 10 days for "disrupting public order", which is unusual for American activists detained in China.
[22] He was released on the closing day of the Olympics, on August 24.[
citation needed ]
See also
References
^
"Learn | Magic Leap" . creator.magicleap.com . Retrieved 2019-06-29 .
^
"Robot Clothes" . Archived from
the original on October 1, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2008 .
^ Dayal, Geeta (June 25, 2006).
"High-Tech Graffiti: Spray Paint Is So 20th Century" .
New York Times . Retrieved January 25, 2008 .
^
"Prixars" . Archived from
the original on October 25, 2010.
^
"The Eyewriter" . FutureEverything . Archived from
the original on October 6, 2011. Retrieved November 4, 2011 .
^
"Paralyzed Graffiti Artist Draws With His Eyes" . NPR. March 21, 2010. Retrieved November 4, 2011 .
^
"Mick Ebeling: The invention that unlocked a locked-in artist" . TED . Retrieved November 4, 2011 .
^
"ArtBots" . Archived from
the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2009-10-06 .
^
Graffiti Research Lab , Sundance
Archived 2008-03-14 at the
Wayback Machine
^
OpenPlay , 2nd Digital Arts Festival
^
Luminous Echo , Microwave Festival
^
Artbots , Esther M Klein Gallery
Archived 2010-07-09 at the
Wayback Machine
^
Open City , Graffiti Research Lab
^
Beyond a Memorable Fancy , Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
^
Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge , Museum of Modern Art
^
Design and the Elastic Mind
Archived 2008-03-23 at the
Wayback Machine , Museum of Modern Art
^
Street Art , Tate Modern
^
"Steal From Work" . Archived from
the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2009-10-06 .
^
"EyeWriter" , Museum of Modern Art
^
"Artist-in-Residence: James Powderly & Eun-Jung Son" , Društvo LJUDMILA
^
F.A.T. GOLD , Eyebeam
^
a
b
"Artist Tells all about Time in Chinese Jail" . ArtNet . August 27, 2012. Retrieved September 2, 2008 .
^
"Beijing: Artist James Powderly, Detained" . Freetibet2008. August 19, 2008. Archived from
the original on September 2, 2008. Retrieved September 2, 2008 . - Elsa Wenzel (August 30, 2008).
"How to get thrown into a Chinese prison" . Cnet . Retrieved August 30, 2008 .
External links