Free Art and Technology Lab
 | |
| Established | 2007 |
|---|---|
| Location | San Francisco, Mexico City, New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Tokyo |
| Website | fffff.at |
The Free Art and Technology Lab a.k.a. F.A.T. Lab is a collective of artists, engineers, scientists, lawyers, and musicians, dedicated to the merging of popular culture with open source technology.[1] F.A.T. Lab is known for producing artwork critical of traditional Intellectual Property Law in the realm of new media art and technology. F.A.T. Lab has historically created work intended for the public domain, but has also released work under various open licenses. Their commitment is to support "open values and the public domain through the use of emerging open licenses, support for open entrepreneurship and the admonishment of secrecy, copyright monopolies and patents. F.A.T. Lab's mission has been approached through various methods of placing open ideals into the mainstream popular culture, including work with the New York Times, MTV, the front page of YouTube and in the Museum of Modern Art permanent collection."[2]
History
The F.A.T. Lab was founded in 2007 by Evan Roth and James Powderly which are also known for the Graffiti Research Lab. A large part of its members were research fellows, artist in resident or otherwise affiliated with the New York-based Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in 2005–2008. Most F.A.T. Lab members are based in North America as well as Central Europe and Asia. The F.A.T. Lab is fully international and Internet based. Due to the use of the Austrian Country code top-level domain '.at' many people imply the origin of F.A.T. in Austria which is not the case. Connected through the Internet, its members cooperate on mostly digital and web-based art projects which are published on the F.A.T. website. Often its members also publish their own artistic work under the label of F.A.T.
F.A.T. Lab was nominated for the Transmediale Award 2010 at the media art festival Transmediale, Berlin, February 2–7, 2010.
Current members
- Evan Roth: Research Director (US)
- James Powderly: Research Director (US)
- Theo Watson : Virtual Research Fellow (UK)
- Bennett Williamson : Virtual Research Fellow (US)
- Mike Baca: Convicted Fellow (US)
- Todd Polenberg: Virtual Research Fellow (US)
- Jamie Wilkinson: Virtual Research Fellow (US)
- Borna Sammak: Virtual Research Fellow (US)
- Tobias Leingruber: Virtual Research Fellow (DE)
- Becky Stern: Virtual Research Fellow (US)
- Michael Frumin: Chief Curmudgeonly Officer (US)
- Steve Lambert: Communications Minister (US)
- Jonah Peretti: Board Member (US)
- John S. Johnson: Adviser (US)
- Randy Sarafan: Virtual Research Fellow (US)
- Aram Bartholl: Real Research Fellow (DE)
- Geraldine Juárez: Becaria de Investigación Virtual (MX)
- Michelle Kempner: Virtual Research Fellow (US)
- Greg Leuch: Virtual Research Fellow (US)
- Golan Levin: Virtual Research Fellow (US)
- Magnus Eriksson: Virtual Research Fellow (SE)
- Christopher “moot” Poole : Virtual Research Fellow
- Kyle McDonald : Virtual Research Fellow (US)
- Addie Wagenknecht: IRL Research Fellow (US)
- KATSU: Research Fellow (US)
- Maddy Varner: Virtual Research Fellow (US)
Exhibitions
Selected exhibitions, workshops, screenings and performances include:
- 2013, Eyebeam, F.A.T. Gold, New York City, New York
- 2010, Transmediale FUTURITY NOW!, Berlin, Germany
- 2009, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Versions, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 2009, Betahaus, Upgrade! Halloween edition, Berlin, Germany
- 2009, Pecha Kucha Berlin Vol. 14, Berlin Germany
- 2009, iMal, Openframeworks, Brussels, Belgium
- 2008, New Museum Rhizome Commissions 08, New York City, New York
- 2007, Gadgetoff, New York City, New York
Projects
A QR Hobo Code, with a QR stencil generator, was released by the Free Art and Technology Lab in July 2011.[3]
WifiTagger was released in 2012 by the Free Art and Technology Lab.[4]
References
- ↑ Wortham, Jenna (2009-02-12). "Firefox Add-Ons Double as Art, Pranks and Fun". New York Times.
- ↑ http://fffff.at/about/
- ↑ "QR Code Stencil Generator and QR Hobo Codes". F.A.T., Free Art and Technology Lab. 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
- ↑ "WifiTagger Lets you Tag Wi-fi Hotsports". F.A.T., Free Art and Technology Lab. 2013-01-14. Retrieved 2013-01-14.