Paul Garrin A’82

Paul Garrin A’82 is a media artist whose work explores the social impact of technology and issues of media access, free speech and public/private space. He began studying video while at The Cooper Union, collaborated with video art legend Nam June Paik from 1982 to 1996, and, since 1989, has worked with interactive media.  Garrin’s work has been exhibited and broadcast internationally, including the Lyon Biennale, the Kwangiu Biennale, the São Paulo Biennale, Galleri Faurschou, Copenhagen and others.  Garrin was Artist in Residence at the Berlin Videofest in 1990, and has received numerous awards for excellence, including the Prix Ars Electronica in 1997; ZKM Karlsruhe Medienkunstpreis in 1992; New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in 1988; and New York State Council on the Arts Media Grant in 1990.

In 1996, Garrin founded NAME.SPACE and was the first to create hundreds of new Internet Top Level Domains (TLDs) including .NYC, .ART, .MUSIC, .SPACE, .SUCKS and .GREEN, pioneering the expansion of the Internet Domain Name System while others opposed it.  NAME.SPACE endeavored to bring its TLDs to market by means of an antitrust case against Network Solutions 1997-2000, and after the formation of ICANN in 1998 through application in 2000 where it was considered in the top 10 “strong candidates” (out of 44 applicants) but delegation was deferred in favor of domain industry incumbents. Garrin’s project NAME.SPACE exists today as a social enterprise corporation and continues to seek recognition of its domains as more TLDs come into acceptance on the Internet, and is a participant in the 2012 ICANN gTLD process.

On May 5, 2015, Paul Garrin A’82 received a Lower East Side History Project’s Community Hero Award, and a special Citation from the NY City Council. Paul leads the WiFi-NY cooperative community broadband project, and has partnered with many community-based organization to create a resilient citizen’s electric network

In 2015, Paul was elected to the CUAA Council.

Paul Garrin received the 2001 President’s Citation and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.