The Free Art and Technology Lab a.k.a. F.A.T. Lab was a collective of artists, engineers, scientists, lawyers, and musicians, dedicated to the merging of

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

with

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

technology. F.A.T. Lab was 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 The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

, 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 The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

permanent collection."

History

The F.A.T. Lab was founded in 2007 by

Evan Roth Evan Roth (born 1978) is an American artist who applies a hacker philosophy to an art practice that visualizes transient moments in public space, online and in popular culture. Biography Evan Roth received a degree in architecture from Universi ...

and James Powderly also known for their work with the

Graffiti Research Lab Graffiti Research Lab is an art project founded by Evan Roth and James Powderly James Powderly (born 1976) is an artist, designer and engineer whose work has focused on creating tools for graffiti artists and political activists, designing ro ...

. Their logo features a recolored NBC

peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...

, the use of which they were apparently never challenged on. A large part of its membership consisted of research fellows, artist in resident or otherwise affiliated with the New York-based

Eyebeam Art and Technology Center Eyebeam is a not-for-profit art and technology center in New York City, founded by John Seward Johnson III with co-founders David S. Johnson and Roderic R. Richardson. Originally conceived as a digital effects and coding atelier and center for ...

in 2005–2008. Most F.A.T. Lab members were based in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

as well as

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. The F.A.T. Lab was fully international and Internet based. Due to the use of the Austrian

Country code top-level domain A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all t ...

'.at' many people imply the origin of F.A.T. in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

which is not the case. Connected through the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, its members cooperated on mostly digital and web-based art projects which are published on the F.A.T. website. Often its members published their own artistic works under the F.A.T. label. F.A.T. Lab was nominated for the Transmediale Award 2010 at the media art festival

Transmediale Transmediale, stylised as transmediale is an annual festival for art and digital culture in Berlin, usually held over five days at the end of January and the beginning of February. Transmediale takes the form of a conference (sometimes called ...

in Berlin. On August 1, 2015, the F.A.T. Lab announced that it would be shutting down operations, with the F.A.T. website remaining online as an archive of its projects. The announcement stemmed from a consensus among its community that the war against the increased surveillance and commercialization of technology and the internet had been lost, a position articulated by Peter Sunde of

Piratbyrån Piratbyrån ( "The Pirate Bureau") was a Swedish think tank established to support the free sharing of information, culture, and intellectual property. Piratbyrån provided a counterpoint to lobby groups such as the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau. ...

and

The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated as TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute mag ...

. In a presentation entitled "We Lost" at F.A.T. GOLD at

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization supporting art and technology for social good in San Francisco, California. Gray Area hosts exhibitions and music events, software and electronics classes, a media lab, ...

in San Francisco, members Magnus Eriksson and

referenced both events, stating:

It would be unwise to predict ten years into the future again. But one thing is clear, tactics of the last 5 years whether legal, political, activist or artistic have resulted in little progress and have not kept up with the latest control measures. There's no use banging our heads against the wall anymore. Either your head will explode or they will simply open the door and let you in. Either way, no house will come crumbling down. It was as true in 2005 as when Peter says it in 2015. Let's face it, we lost, we all lost.

Exhibitions

Selected exhibitions, workshops, screenings and performances include: * 2015,

, F.A.T. GOLD curated by Lindsay Howard, San Francisco, California *2013, MU Eindhoven, F.A.T. GOLD curated by Lindsay Howard, Eindhoven, The Netherlands *2013, Eyebeam, F.A.T. GOLD curated by Lindsay Howard, New York City, New York * 2010,

FUTURITY NOW!, Berlin, Germany * 2009, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Versions, Amsterdam, Netherlands * 2009,

Betahaus Betahaus is a coworking space in Berlin and was started in January 2009 by the six founders Tonia Welter, Gregor Scheppan, Stephan Bielefeldt, Madeleine von Mohl, Max von der Ahé and Christoph Fahle, the official opening in Berlin took place in A ...

, Upgrade! Halloween edition, Berlin, Germany * 2009,

Pecha Kucha PechaKucha (Japanese: ぺちゃくちゃ, IPA: etɕa kɯ̥tɕa ''chit-chat'') is a storytelling format in which a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each. At a PechaKucha Night, individuals gather at a venue to share personal ...

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 A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; and a bum neither travels nor works. E ...

, with a QR stencil generator, was released by the Free Art and Technology Lab in July 2011. WifiTagger a project by member

Addie Wagenknecht Addie Wagenknecht (born 1981) is an American artist and researcher living in New York City and Austria. Her work deals primarily with pop culture, feminist theory, new media and open source software and hardware. She frequently works in collectiv ...

was released in 2012 by the Free Art and Technology Lab.

References

External links

* {{official, http://fffff.at/ Computer art Non-profit organizations based in New York (state) International artist groups and collectives