Resume & CV
Please see either my Artist Resume below, my two-page Researcher Resume, or my full academic Curriculum Vitae with complete list of papers and patents.
Shelly Farnham, Ph.D. ARTIST RESUME
Seattle WA 98102 :: Shelly [at] totallylegitllc [dot] com :: two oh six 226-3586
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
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. |
EDUCATION
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 |