Julian Bleecker

Julian Bleecker is an artist and technologist with a history developing innovative mobile research projects.

Career
Bleecker holds a Ph.D. from the History of Consciousness Program at University of California, Santa Cruz where he studied with Donna Haraway, Angela Davis, Victor Burgin, and James Clifford.

He's been an artist-in-residence at Eyebeam, exhibited work at Ars Electronica, a Research Fellow at the Annenberg Center for Communication and an Assistant Professor at the USC Interactive Media Division.

Bleecker has been active as a researcher in the areas of mobile computing, pervasive networks and near-field interaction systems. In 2006, with Nicolas Nova, he organized a workshop entitled "Networked Objects" at [EPFL | Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne], held in May 2006, exploring his interest in Near-Field Interaction and the Internet of Things.

This vector of research on mobile computing, pervasive networks and near-field or proximity-based interaction systems has been a theme of Bleecker's research and design projects for a number of years. One of his earlier projects in this area was PDPal (2003–2005), a series of technology project that investigated how mobile devices could be integrated into a system to allow people to annotate the experiences they have, as in a location-specific diary. The PDPal series was commissioned by Eyebeam in New York City, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis to find ways for creating art-technology projects that made use of readily available mobile devices, such as PDAs and mobile phones. PDPal was a collaborative project with designers Marina Zurkow and Scott Patterson.

Other more exploratory projects looked at ways to use common technologies, such as WiFi, in unexpected ways. WiFi.Bedouin and WiFi.ArtCache were two projects that use wireless communications networks to create local networks that make digital content available in very location-specific ways. WiFi.ArtCache was invited for exhibition at ISEA 2006 in San Jose, California, and was the winner of the Audience Choice Award. It was also commissioned for exhibition at the group show "Reclaim the Spectrum" in Seville, Spain (2006).

More playful commissioned art-technology projects include "Pussy Weevil", an animated, sensor-based, screen-based character, which was selected for exhibition at Ars Electronica (2005), the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City (2003–2004), and Art Interactive in Boston (2003).

Bleecker was lead technologist on the Sonic Memorial Project, a Peabody Award-winning website and radio documentary based on audio recollections of the events of September 11.

In 2008 he wrote the essay Design Fiction: A Short Essay on Design, Science, Fact and Fiction that lead to the development of the futures design approach Design Fiction.

He founded his cycling product company OMATA in 2014 after working for 7 years at Nokia, and sold it in 2021. He now focuses his time on developing the third evolution of Near Future Laboratory, a multidisciplinary consultancy and global community focused on developing more robust futures practices through Design Fiction. His podcast The Near Future Laboratory Podcast features discussions on the relationship between imagination, creativity, and innovation practices.