2009: Year of the FAT from james powderly on Vimeo.

In February 2010, the most renowned curators and critics in the world nominated the best 100 designs of the previous year for the Design Museum London’s Design of the Year Show. Amongst the fancy chairs, fabric sports cars and dresses for chubbers, 3 projects by FAT fellows were nominated in the category of Interactive Art: openFrameworks, Graffiti Taxonomy, and the EyeWriter. 100 designs were honored… but only one can win… probably gonna be that dead fashion designer…

So, like Babe Ruth, I’m calling my shot: The FAT Lab is gonna win the Interactive Art Category. Im so certain of it, that i am making a challenge to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. If the F.A.T Lab wins, I will wear a red toupee for 3 months. If Amazon’s Kindle 2 wins, Bezos will have to wear the rug for a mere 30 days. If neither of us wins, we both do. C’mon Bezos, you know my number… let’s do dis! Usman, Eno, Jason, you want a piece of this action? In the words of another notorious loser, “Bring it on!”

If you’re in London (i feel sorry for you…), head down to the Museum to check out the show and tune-in to the Culture Show on BBC2 London on March 4th at 19:00 GMT for the results and may the best looking head win! And Tivo that shit, cuz I aint got a TV.

Congrats to Zach, Theo, Chris, Evan, Mick, Tony and the rest of the FAT crew for a great year. LYLAS!

2009: Year of the FAT from james powderly on Vimeo. In February 2010, the most renowned curators and critics in the world nominated the best 100 designs of the previous...

Namaste! The EyeWriter development team just hit the streets of Mumbai, India on a mission to develop a GML-compliant version of the EyeWriter with the best engineers in the near-east from IIT Bombay for TechFest 2010. Maharashtra-style! We will be updating FAT and the EyeWriter blog on the maybe daily with news and instruction sets on how to survive in ole’ Bombay, which hand to use for every occasion, how to be a slumdog hundredaire, etc… oh, and also how to make your own MumbaiWriter.

For the first Mumbai how-to we’ll share some of the advice we got from the original artwankers at c6: How-to haggle down a market vendor in bad Hindi.

(written phonetically cuz we don’t know any better)

– You go into a market and you approach a vendor who is selling something you want. Point at the item and say…

You: “Kidna pasa” — how many pennies for this?

– the vendor is offended. You basically just said they are selling cheap shit. But everyone respects an arse, so they give you a decent price in rupee.

You: “Bo jadda” — too much!

– What did you just say? The vendor should be shocked a dumb foreigner like yourself can speak any Hindi at all and come back with a lower price out of pity…

You: “Com corro” — a little less.

– Are you serious? If the magic is in the air, they may give you an even lower price…

You: “Or com corro” — a little more less?

– WTF? You’re breaking my balls here! Whatever the vendor says next, you should take it. Its probably as low as its going to go for you.

You: “T.K.” — OK.

Don’t be shocked if this goes horribly wrong and stay tuned for more field R&D from sunny Mumbai! If you want to get involved with the project send us an email at info at eyewriter dot org.

FAT LAB HQ in Mumbai

Big thanks to Mick Ebeling and Anurag Garg for making this happen.

Namaste! The EyeWriter development team just hit the streets of Mumbai, India on a mission to develop a GML-compliant version of the EyeWriter with the best engineers in the near-east...

“That was the first time i’ve drawn anything since 2003! It feels like taking a breath after being held underwater for 5 minutes.”   –Tony Quan aka Tempt One

eyewriter.org is live!!

Tony Quan, aka Tempt1, is a legendary LA graffiti writer, publisher and activist. He was diagnosed with ALS in 2003, a disease which has left him almost completely physically paralyzed… except for his eyes. Earlier this year, members of FAT, OpenFrameworks, G.R.L., The Ebeling Group and Tempt1, teamed up to create a low-cost, open source eye-tracking system that will allow ALS patients to draw using just their eyes. Check out the project along with source code, free software, diy instructables and eyetags by Tempt1 at eyewriter.org.

The EyeWriter core development team consists of Tony Quan, Evan Roth, Chris Sugrue, Zach Lieberman, Theo Watson and James Powderly.

With support from: The Ebeling Group, the Not Impossible Foundation and Parsons Communication Design & Technology.

Many thanks to: Keith Pasko, LM4K, Eleanor Dunk, Jamie Wilkinson, and Greg Leuch.

“That was the first time i’ve drawn anything since 2003! It feels like taking a breath after being held underwater for 5 minutes.”   –Tony Quan aka Tempt One eyewriter.org...