“Art is a tool of empowerment and social change, and I consider myself blessed to be able to create and use my work to promote health reform, bring awareness about ALS and help others.”
- Tony Quan, aka Tempt One
Evening SuperForest,
I know I just posted about some fun and super cool-looking graffiti technology, but this is a little different. The cats at Graffiti Research Lab have been doing innovative things with urban communication for for years (and have featured on SuperForest before) – and their latest project, a practical application to help people is, I think, an extra level of excellent:
The EyeWriter project is an ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people, who are suffering from ALS, with creative technologies.
GRL, members of Free Art & Technology (FAT) Lab (whose mission is to enrich the public domain through the research and development of creative technologies and media – with the excellent motto “Release early, often and with rap music – This is Notorious R&D”), openFrameworks and The Ebeling Group have teamed-up with a legendary LA graffiti writer, publisher and activist, named Tony Quan, aka TEMPTONE, to create the EyeWriter – a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software (created using openFrameworks) that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) to draw using only their eyes.
Tony was diagnosed with ALS in 2003, a disease which has left him almost completely physically paralyzed… except for his eyes. This international team is working together to create a low-cost, open source eye-tracking system that will allow ALS patients to draw using just their eyes. The long-term goal is to create a professional/social network of software developers, hardware hackers, urban projection artists and ALS patients from around the world who are using local materials and open source research to creatively connect and make eye art.
Tempt’s “eye tags” can be projected onto buildings, and you can see tags uploaded directly from his eyewriter here. AND it’s all defiantly open source – they provide DIY info, source code, free software and tutorials on the site.
Art & Love & Open Source = a recipe of awesome!
Love
P
Recent Comments