Introduction

In 2003, Los Angeles-based graffiti writer, publisher, and activist Tony Quan, aka TEMPT1, was diagnosed with late-stage Lou Gehrig’s disease, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (AML), which has left him almost completely physically paralyzed except for his eyes.

In response, members of Free Art & Technology (F.A.T.), OpenFrameworks, the Graffiti Research Lab, and The Ebeling Group worked together with TEMPT1 to develop an open source, low-cost eye-tracking device and software to allow the artist, as well as other ALS patients, to draw on a computer screen using only their eyes. Projecting the resulting images live onto the sides of buildings has enabled the paralyzed street artist back onto the street to engage in the larger dialogue of art, graffiti, and urbanism on a heretofore-unprecedented scale.

The long-term goal of the EyeWriter is to link together an international network of developers, hackers, and artists suffering from AML-induced paralysis to implement local materials and open source software in creating this device. In the open source spirit of the project, the team has published a tutorial on the website Instructables.com, enabling almost anyone with the time and materials to construct their own EyeWriter—the result is a proliferation of EyeWriter varieties by makers all over the world.

After seven years of immobility, TEMPTONE now uploads the graffiti designs he makes with this technology directly from his EyeWriter to a Flickr account online.