Resume & CV

My career as a visual artist is strongly interwoven with both my career as a technologist and my passion for community organizing. I have a B.A. in Fine Arts and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology. While working on innovation teams as a research technologist from 2000 to 2021, my artwork has simultaneously evolved to incorporate technology in large-scale, collaborative installations. Beginning in 2021 I focused my attention more exclusively on my individual art practice, my art group Totally Legit, and art/tech community organizing as the President of Third Place Technologies. My recent projects have explored how we may use interactive technologies to embed social information in our physical environments, and my paintings often incorporate futurist themes. As a creative director and community organizer, my passion is building those communal and physical environments that lead to truly innovative, interdisciplinary work — through collaborative installations, makerspaces, exhibitions, and life-long learning opportunities.

EXHIBITIONS AND COMMISSIONS

2024     Sky Artworks, Sky Artworks Mural, with Federico Seco de Lucena +

2024     Critical Northwest, Celebrating Balance

2024     Eastend Studio & Gallery, Wagner Ballroom Mural with Jeffrey Larson and Aubrey Thomke-Damron

2023     Tunnel Days of Skykomish, Train and Goat Mural

2022     TimeWarp Pinball Bar, Rick Deckard Intergalactic Spaceport

2022     TimeWarp Pinball Bar Cyberpunk Pinball Seattle Installation (Totally Legit)

2019     Bumbershoot, Infinity Kaleidoscope (Totally Legit)

2018     Critical Northwest, Photon Spiral (Totally Legit)

2016     The Skykomish Hotel, Town of Skykomish, The Blue Lady Ghost (Totally Legit)

2015     Skykomish Bridge, The Skykomish Bridge Project (Totally Legit)

2014     Microsoft Research Lobby, The Neighborhood Table

2010     Web 2.0 Expo, Moscone Center, San Francisco, The H.E.Ai.D. (Ubergeek)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024     Sugar Plum Art Kitz and Printz at Passable, Sugar Plum Fairy Music Box

2024     Passable, Ye Olde Curiosity Shop at Passable, Installation, Cursed Items in Resin

2024     Creative Coder’s Code Craft, Spaceship Spinner

2024     Repsychled at Passable, Prototype Celebrating Balance

2024     SUN WIND WATER at Electric Sky, Tine Spaceship Armada

2024     Skykomish, A Frontier Mountain Town at Sky Artworks, Maloney General Store 1800s

2024     Sky Artworks, Exploring the Elements, Windswept Triptych

2024     Augmented at Passable, Ghost

2024     Prison of Peen at Passable, Universal Queen

2024     Alpine Sky 3 at Sky Artworks, A Starry Sky

2024     Fly-By at Passable Seagull in San Francisco, Peace Tree Installation

2023     Art Kitz at Passable, LED Spaceship and Laser Cut Xmas Ornaments

2023     Interconnected Ecosystems, Sky Artworks, Collaborative Murals

2023     Extra Terrestrial at Passable, Alien Skins

2023     Alpine Sky 2 at Sky Artworks, Golden Mist

2023     Mad Scientist at Passable, Installation, with Soylent Green Micropainting

2023     Seattle City of the Future, Command and Control (Totally Legit)

2023     Story of Maps at Passable, Seattle ‘Hoods

2023     Circuit Tree at Electric Sky, Neural Map of Seattle Well-being

2022     Luminous Sky at Sky Artworks, numerous including Luminous Forest Mural

2022     A Midsummer Night’s Tempest at Electric Sky, A Fairy Village

2022     Game On at Vermillion Art Galler and Bar, I Dream in 8 Bit

2022     Swamp Thing at Passable, Swamp Thing

2022     WitchCrafts at Passable, Wearable Spider and Wearable Flying Monkeys

2022     Alpine Sky at Sky Artworks, Sun-dappled #1, 2, and 3

2022     Summer Sky Reflections at Sky Artworks, Summer Fun River Girls

2022     Chain Gang at Passable, Portrait of a Mad Scientist

2021     I Like Big Bots at Passable, Battle of the Big Bots

2021     Lusio, Chandelier Dreams, Installation (Totally Legit) + Infinite Chase

2021     Chandelier Dreams at Passable, Infinite Chase

2021     Game On at Electric Sky, Morel Compass (Totally Legit)

2020     Covid House of Horrors, Art Saves Me / PublicDisplay.Art, Trump Hell Mouth and Math Maze (Totally Legit)

2020     ‘Scapes at Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar, Robot Love in the Jungle Matrix

2019     Biozoom, A/NT Gallery, Seattle Center, The River Table and the Time Machine

2019     Biozoom, Electric Sky, The Upper Sky River Table (Totally Legit)

2018     The Final Frontier, Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar, Photon Spiral

2018     The Digital Frontier, Electric Sky, The Digital Frontier (Totally Legit), and Photon Spiral

2017     Attacks from Mars, We Welcome our Robot Overlords, Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar, Murals / Defender Robot, Attacks from Mars Playfield, Flying Saucers (Totally Legit)

2017     The Wondering Woods, Lusio, Trees Can See

2017     The Wondering Woods, Arts-a-Glow, Burien, WA, The Garden Path, Trees Can See

2017     The Wondering Woods, Electric Sky, Skykomish, The Garden Path

2017     The Luminous Garden II, Skykomish Maloney Store, Sensor Mote Swarm II

2016     The Luminous Garden II, Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar, Sensor Mote Swarm II

2016     Lusio, Seattle WA, The Luminous Garden, Sensor Mote Swarm II

2016     Arts-a-Glow, Burien, WA, The Luminous Garden, The Garden Path

2016     The Luminous Garden, Electric Sky, Skykomish, WA

2015     Attacks from Mars Giant Pinball Machine, Burning Man, Murals and light art playfield

2015     Electric Sky, Sensor Mote Swarm I

2014     Microsoft Employee Art Show, The Neighborhood Table

2014     Burning Man, The Zymphonic Wormhole

2013     Oscillate, Vermillion Art Gallery, Seattle, Robot Marilyn

2010     Winter Lights, Vermillion Art Gallery, Seattle, Hear Light, Speak Lights, See Lights

2009     Burning Man, Steve: the Robot H.E.Ai.D.

2009     People Doing Strange Things with Electricity, Steve the Robot H.E.Ai.D. Chandelier

2008     Strange Things, Dorkbot, 911 Media Arts Center, My Twee

2007     People Doing Strange Things with Electricity, 911 Media Arts Center, The Scrying Pool

2007     The Bridge Motel, 8 Legs

ART WORK EXPERIENCE

2014-2025        Executive Director -> President, Third Place Technologies(501c3)

2013-2025                 Co-founder & Creative Director, Totally Legit LLC (Art/tech Group)

TECHNOLOGY WORK EXPERIENCE

2021-2022        Senior UX Researcher, Facebook contract role via Planet Interactive

2018-2020        UX Researcher & Analyst, Google contract role via Zenith

2011-2014        Research Lead, FUSE Labs, Microsoft Research

2009-2010        Senior Staff Researcher, Yahoo!

2006-2009        Co-founder & Research Consultant, Pathable (startup)

1999-2005        Researcher, Virtual Worlds / Social Computing Group, Microsoft Research

RELATED TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2020-2024        Workshops Instructor, Sky Artworks, Laser Cut Candle Holders, LED Lamps, LED NEON art, Resin Making, Story in Portrait Painting with Acrylics, Abstract Painting with Acrylic, Laser cutter and Xmas Ornaments, How to Paint a Mural, Sip n’ Paint, Painting for Tube Lamps with Backlit Film

2014-2024        Workshops Instructor, Electric Sky, Playing with Wind: Make an LED Pinwheel or Mini Wind Turbine, Make Your Own Operation Man, Solar Powered LEDs, Make a Fairy House, Light Boxes, LED Tree Orb, LEDs and Arduino, Fairy Wings with EL Wire, LED Kaleidoscope

2017                  Adjunct Instructor, Cornish College for the Arts, Embedded Interaction and the Internet of Things

2019-2024               Workshop Instructor, Totally Legit, Critical NW, Wearable LEDs, LED Pinwheel, Wings and Antennae, Ears and Tails, LED Kaleidoscope

2018                  Instructor, Digital Media Academy (summer program for teens), Wearable Technology

2015-2017        Instructor, Sky Art Week, Laser Cutter; LED Shadow Lamps

2000                  Adjunct Professor, Dept of Digital Media and Communications, University of Washington, Social Media 2.0

RELATED ROLES IN ORGANIZATIONS, EXHIBITIONS, EVENTS, AND SPACES

2024                  Grants Panelist, 4Culture, Doors Open Facilities

2023-2024        Curator, Passable, Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, From Surreal to Sublime in AI, Story of Maps, Mad Scientist

2015-2025        Producer/Curator, Electric Sky, Skykomish Ball Park

2022-2024        Organizer, Pop-up Makerspace, Totally Legit at Critical Northwest

2023                  Producer and Chair of Selection Committee, Seattle City of the Future, Seattle, WA

2022                  Curator, Luminous Sky, Sky Artworks

2021                  Communities and Technologies, Conference Chair

2020                  Founder, Passable Art

2020                  Co-founder, Sky Artworks

2014                  Organizer, Art and Tech Initiative Workshop, June 2014. See paper.

2013                  Curator, Oscillate at Vermillion Art Gallery

2010                  Curator, Winter Lights at Vermillion Art Gallery

2009                  Producer, People Doing Strange Things with Electricity V, Dorkbot

2006-2009       Organizing Committee Chair, Dorkbot

2008-2009       Founder & Creative Director, The UberGeek Project

2009                   Producer, Frayed Wire, Seattle, conference for tech creatives

2008                  Producer, People Doing Strange Things with Electricity IV”, Dorkbot / 911 Media Arts Center

2007                  Producer, Thingamajiggr, Art and Tech pop-up exhibition and party

2006                  Producer, SalonTC (Salon de Technologie et de Creativite)

2005-2006       Vice President, SV Arts Collective (501c3)

AWARDS, GRANTS, HONORS

2025     Grant, Conru Foundation, for Third Place Technologies

2025     Grant, 4Culture, Doors Open Sustained Support for Third Place Technologies

2025     Grant, 4Culture, Doors Open Facilities for Sky Artworks via Third Place Technologies

2024     Grant, Critical Northwest, for Celebrating Balance

2024     Grant, Community Accelerator, ArtsFund, for Third Place Technologies

2023     Grant, Community Accelerator, ArtsFund, for Third Place Technologies

2022     Grant, 4Culture, Sustained Support for Third Place Technologies

2019     Grant, OneReel, Bumpershoot, for Infinity Kaleidoscope

2019     Grant, Port of Seattle, for the Historic Walking Tour Project

2018     Grant, 4Culture, Organizations for Electric Sky

2018     Grant, Critical Northwest, Photon Spiral

2017     Public Artist Roster, City of Seattle Arts and Culture

2017     Grant, Arts-a-Glow, for the Wondering Woods

2017     Grant, 4Culture, Projects The River Table

2016     Stipend, Lusio, for The Luminous Garden

2016     Fiscal Sponsorship, Hack for Good and Azure Nonprofit Sponsorship, Microsoft

2016     Grant, 4Culture, for The Luminous Garden

2015     Program, Accepted to eScience Institute Data Science for Social Good at the University of Washington, summer incubator program

2015     Grant, Microsoft, Microsoft Research Azure Research Award

2014     Grant, Burning Man, for the Zymphonic Wormhole

2014     Grant, Critical Northwest, for the Zymphonic Wormhole

2014     Grant, Critical Northwest, The Cage

2009     Grant, Burning Man, for Steve:The Robot H.E.Ai.D.

2009     Honor, Top 100 Women in Technology in the NW, TechFlash

2009     Best New Technology Award, WordWide Technology Watch, for Pathable

1993     Full academic scholarships: University of Washington, Georgetown University, Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (See CV for Full List including Tech Research)

Cheng, L., Farnham, S., Stone, L.  (2002).  Lessons learned:  Social interactions in virtual environments.  Digital Cities II:  Computational and Sociological Approaches, pp 597-604.  Springer Berlin/Heidelberg.

Hui, J., Farnham, S. (2016) Designing for Inclusion: Supporting Gender Diversity in Independent Innovation Teams. Proceedings of SIGCHI Conference on Supporting Groupwork.  Sanibel Island, USA. GROUP ’16. ACM Press.

Farnham, S., Brice, J., Tremblay, G., Christie, C., and da Silva, A.  (2015).  Fostering a community of innovation at the intersection of art and technology in the Pacific Northwest.  In Proceedings of the 21st International Symposium on Electronic Art.

Farnham, S., Brown, P., Schwartz, J.,  (2009).  Leveraging social software for strategic social networking and community development at events.  In Communities and Technologies 2009.

Farnham, S. D., (2007). Art in the age of social participation on the mega scale: Using crowdsourcing for your projects. ONSCREEN Magazine, May 2007, 911 Media Arts.

Farnham, S., Lahav, M., Raskino, D., Cheng, L., Ickman, T., Laird-McConnell, T. (2012).  So.cl:  An interest network for informal learning.  In Proceedings of ICWSM 2012.  Best Paper Nomination.

Farnham, S.D., G Tremblay. (2013).  Art and Technology Incubation for Technology Creatives: A Questionnaire Study.  White paper.

NOTABLE MEDIA MENTIONS

2023     Seattle & Art: The Future is Now! PublicDisplay.Art by Marty Griswold

2023     Take a sneak peek into the future at this new art exhibit, Evening Magazine, King 5 by Jose Cedeno

2023     With restaurant plans off the table, Capitol Hill’s old R Place starts new life as The Teal Building arts space with Seattle: City of the Future exhibition, Capitol Hill Blog Seattle

2023     Seattle City of the Future Exhibit Takes Over RPlace Building for June, Seattle Gay Scene by Michael Strangeways

2023     Mike’s adventures in art: City of the future and MoPoP’s ‘My Mic Sounds Nice’, KUOW by Mike Davis

2019     In the Woods outside Seattle, Technology Fuses Art, Hackathon Style Electric Sky Gathering, Geekwire

2019     Why I Hate Facebook, by Shelly Farnham, Ignite Talk on NPR, presented at Ignite, Seattle, O’Reilly Media

2009      TechFlash, by Todd Bishop. Top 100 Women in Technology in the NW

2009      MeetingsNet. Pathable wins event technology contest

2008      Social Capitol Blog, Thomas Saguaro. Anxious about non-friends inviting you to be their Facebook ‘friend’? You’re not alone.

2008      Social Hallucionations. Successful Facebook applications drive socializing

2008      Internet Evolution, by Nicole Farrago. Suffering from social networking anxiety disorder (SNAD)

2008      SFGate, by Anastasia Ustinova.  Developers compete at Facebook conference.

2008      Ignite, Seattle, of O’Reilly Media. Community genius: Leveraging community to increase your creative powers.

2007      On the Air, Ted Leung, Ignite Seattle 3

2007     Seattle PI. Before the Bridge Motel Goes Crashing Down

2007     Scott Berkun Blog. Social software applied: Pathable

2007      Scott Berkun Blog. More social software: Crowdvine + Pathable.

2007      Chris Pirillo Podcast. Interview on Social Computing

2007      Science Magazine, by Siri Carpenter.  Behavioral scientists get off the trail.

2006      Kolabora, by Robin Good. SMS text messaging + social networking = swarming.

2006     Switched. Microsoft’s SLAM.

2006     Ignite, Seattle (O’Reilly Media).  Dorkbot: At the intersection of technology, science, art, by Shelly Farnham

2006     Very Spatial. SLAM, Microsoft’s foray into mobile social networking.

2003      Microsoft Wallop in user trials. Techcrunch by Michael Arrington

2003    Wired, by Kari Lynn Dean. Will Microsoft Wallop friendster?

2003      eWeek, Darryl Taft, Microsoft Research packs a Wallop.

Ph.D. in Social Psychology, University of Washington

B.A. in Fine Arts and Psychology (double major), Georgetown University

H.S. Diploma Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences (4 years of art)

ART SKILLS

Art and Tech Installations

Painting (Acrylic, Oil)

Creative Technology (Coding, Electronics, Physical Computing, LEDs, Arduinos)

Data Analytics and Visualization

Design Tools (Illustrator, Photoshop)

Maker Equipment (Laser Cutter, 3D Printer)

R&D TECHNOLOGY SKILLS

Mixed Methods Research

Statistics and Data Analysis

Prototyping (.Net / C# / SQL)

Behavioral Social Data and Social Networks Analytics

LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Community Organizing

Project Management

Non-Profit Arts Organizing

Project Team Leadership for Interdisciplinary, Creative Collaboration

Thought Leadership via Grants, Publications, Presentations

Events, Exhibitions, and Conference Organizing

ART AND TECH THEMES

Light Art, Controllable LEDs

Light Art in the Woods

Interactive Tech

Futurist

Emerging Tech

Eco Art, Eco Metrics in Art

Social Data in Maps

Festival Art

Wearable Tech

Renewable Tech in Art

Immersive Environments

PAINTING THEMES

Futurist

Skykomish

Pacific Northwest Flora / Fauna

Portraits

RESEARCH THEMES

Creative Collaboration

Community Technology

Community Well-being

Civic Media

Hyperlocal, Place-based Community

Social Computing

Social Identity

Computer Mediated Communication

Computer Supported Cooperative Work

Social Networking

Social Media

OTHER NOTABLE

13 Patent Awards, 8 as First Author

Town Councilmember, Town of Skykomish

Google Scholar: H-index:41, i10-index: 67, 13345 citations

Panelist, NSF