Sean Bonner is an American technologist, community organizer, and artist whose work spans media art, citizen science, civic technology, and online publishing.[1][2][3] He is a co-founder of the environmental monitoring organization Safecast, which was formed after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.[2][4][5] He was a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow from 2014 to 2017, working on open environmental sensing tools.[6][7]
Sean Bonner | |
|---|---|
| Born | Washington, D.C., U.S.[1] |
| Occupations | Technologist, community organizer, artist |
| Known for | Co-founding Safecast, Metroblogging, and Crash Space |
Early life
editBonner was born in Washington, D.C.[1] He has lived and worked in Los Angeles and Tokyo.
Career
editArt spaces and media art
editBonner co-ran the art gallery Sixspace with Caryn Coleman, first in Chicago and later in Los Angeles.[8][9] Los Angeles Times coverage identified Bonner and Coleman as the owners of Sixspace, including in connection with the exhibition Sent: America's First Phonecam Art Show.[10]
In December 2007, Bonner was an artist in residence at MuseumsQuartier in Vienna through the Q21 program in the field of media art, invited by art group monochrom.[11]
Bonner was also part of the art and music collective Cross My Heart Hope To Die, which was featured in the 2014 exhibition Vita E Morte at Subliminal Projects.[12][13]
Bonner worked as art director for punk label Victory Records, and Shepard Fairey credited him with designing the packaging for Bad Brains' Omega Sessions.[14][15]
Blogging and online media
editBonner co-founded Blogging.la, a Los Angeles-focused group blog launched with Jason DeFillippo in 2003. The site later expanded into the Metroblogging city-blog network.[8][1][9] He was also a contributing editor to Boing Boing.[16]
Safecast and citizen science
editAfter the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Bonner co-founded Safecast with Pieter Franken and Joi Ito.[2][4][5] The organization became known for its citizen-generated environmental radiation data and later expanded into other forms of environmental sensing.[2][5] Bonner's Shuttleworth fellowship supported the development of open sensing tools connected to this work.[6][7]
Hackerspaces and public events
editBonner was a co-founder of Crash Space, a Los Angeles hackerspace.[17][3] He also participated in Roboexotica in Vienna, giving a 2007 talk at the Roboexotica symposium Geist in der Maschine at MuseumsQuartier Wien.[18]
He appeared in the documentary Traceroute (2016), directed by Johannes Grenzfurthner.[19]
Recent work
editBonner was a contributor to the 2024 book CryptoPunks: Free to Claim, published by Phaidon Press.[20]
References
edit- 1 2 3 4 Pierce, Tony (23 August 2006). "26 Questions for Sean Bonner". LAist. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Bloomfield, Mark (15 December 2025). "Radiation-detection systems are quietly running in the background all around you". Wired. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- 1 2 "Sean Bonner". Uses This. 31 December 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- 1 2 Harris, Richard (19 August 2015). "Japan's next nuclear emergency will be crowdsourced". Next City. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- 1 2 3 Furuta, Juliana; Yoffie, David B. (23 April 2019). "Safecast: Bootstrapping Human Capital to Big Data". Harvard Business School. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- 1 2 "Welcome Sean Bonner". Shuttleworth Foundation. 26 August 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- 1 2 "Sean Bonner fellowship conclusion". Shuttleworth Foundation. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- 1 2 Smith, Travis (13 May 2004). "To live and blog in L.A." Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- 1 2 "Sean Bonner". Cool Hunting. 28 November 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ Knight, Christopher (8 July 2004). "You can call it art". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ "Sean Bonner". MuseumsQuartier Wien. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ "Plugged In: Cross My Heart Hope To Die". Artsy. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ "Cross My Heart Hope To Die x Subliminal Projects". Obey Giant. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ Anthony, David (9 October 2017). "The Story of Jud Jud, the World's Only A Capella, Straight-Edge Hardcore Band". Vice. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ "The High Cost Of Free Speech". Obey Giant. 9 March 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ "Sean Bonner, Author at Boing Boing". Boing Boing. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ "Bios of Speakers". HOPE. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ "The inmates have taken over the asylum..." Philosophical Audiothek. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ "Traceroute". monochrom. Retrieved 7 April 2026.
- ↑ "CryptoPunks: Free to Claim". Phaidon. Retrieved 7 April 2026.