John Crawford

John Crawford is an intermedia artist, performance director, and systems designer. Engaging directly with emerging technologies, his work creates immersive environments and compelling interactive experiences through embodied interaction.

His artistic projects have been performed in theaters, exhibited in galleries, and presented as interactive installations that explore environmentalism, climate justice, and community engagement. His work investigates how humanity’s drive to transform the environment has unleashed destructive forces that endanger the planet and ourselves.

Crawford originated the Active Space concept, an intermedia software framework that he has evolved for nearly 30 years. His embodied media research connects body-centered artistic practices with expanded media performance, multi-site interactivity, and responsive system design.

He is professor of intermedia arts in the UCI Department of Dance, where he directs the Embodied Media Research Group, integrating socially engaged artmaking with emergent media and connected design. At UCI, he has served in numerous leadership roles, including associate dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, and directed the campus-wide Digital Arts Minor program for nine years.

Crawford is co-founder of Eco ArtLab and Eco DesignLab, nonprofit organizations employing art and design to respond to the escalating climate crisis. Eco ArtLab develops artistic performances and exhibitions that enhance ecological awareness through emerging media technologies. Eco DesignLab is building an online platform to support transdisciplinary artistic projects that combine body-centered performance with embodied human-computer interaction.

Active as an intermedia artist since 1992, Crawford has presented work across North America, Asia, Europe, and South America, and has been a visiting artist and researcher at universities and cultural venues worldwide. He frequently participates in transdisciplinary research projects connecting the performing arts and emergent media with computer science, engineering, and medicine.

Before joining academia, Crawford pursued parallel vocations as a theater artist and software developer. As a director and actor in the 1970s, he studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, worked with companies including Factory Theatre Lab and Theatre Passe Muraille, and directed an experimental performance group in Vancouver. As a software designer and research manager in the 1980s and 1990s, his credits included projects for Adobe, Microsoft, and other leading companies.