TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE
Ed Bear
DIY Transmitter Hacking Workshop Image. Courtesy Ed Bear. (Apr 29, 2015)
Portrait of Ed Bear. Photographed by Lucy Bohnsack. (Aug 05, 2023)
Wave Farm 1997-2017: Ed Bear performance. Photographed by David La Spina. (Oct 21, 2017)
Wave Farm 1997-2017: Ed Bear performance (2). Photographed by Wave Farm. (Oct 21, 2017)
Wave Farm 1997-2017: Ed Bear with Jeff Thompson's "Every Radio Station" installation. Photographed by David La Spina. (Oct 21, 2017)
Ed Bear's Radio Organ. Photographed by Alex Sherman. (Jul 25, 2015)
Ed Bear [b. 1983] is an American performing artist and engineer. His work with robotics, sound, video, transmission and collective improvisation investigates the questionable calibration of perception. As an educator and designer committed to an open source world, he researches and practices material reuse and as a civil responsibility.
He has toured extensively in North America and Europe as a performer and teacher, working with organizations such as The Mattress Factory, The Montreal Pop Festival, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute. In 2009 and 2010 he received NSF and other funds to study e-waste streams as educational resources, software defined radio and novel energy harvesting using ionic polymer metal composites. He is a 2012 LMCC SwingSpace artist-in-residence, 2010 free103point9 AIRtime fellow and received the 2008 Roulette Emerging Composer Commission. His music is available on Peira, Azul Discographica, Roar Tapes, and several other record labels.
Since receiving his B.S. In Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of NYU, Ed Bear has provided freelance design, manufacturing and engineering services to start-ups, acclaimed artists and musicians, film and theater productions, and leading education institutions. As a research specialist at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he investigated technology-neutral, commercially viable solutions to dimming and control of emerging solid state lighting systems for multiple markets with funding from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Alliance for Solid-State Illumination Systems and Technologies industry partners. He is currently working with littleBits, Inc. to revolutionize modular electronics.