How We Did It

March 2007
Mick and Caskey Ebeling attend a fund-raising event hosted by Tony's friends, graffiti peers and family. That night the seed was planted to somehow return Tempt to making his art.

June 6, 2007
Mick writes Tempt, his family and friends the email that started it all, committing to creating “a custom application that will allow Tempt to paint again with his eyes” and “giving ALS artists or other artists affected by neuromuscular conditions the ability to freedom of expression to once again paint, draw, write and artistically communicate.”

March 2008
Mick is invited to present ideas on the topic of “Innovation” at the Design, Art, and Technology Symposium in North Carolina. He meets James Powderly and Evan Roth, the founders of the Graffiti Research Lab. The GRL is dedicated to creating open source digital tools for graffiti writers, artists and activists that allow artists to “paint” with technology such as lasers and LEDs.

April 2008
Mick approaches James and Evan with the idea of building a tool to enable Tony to create art again, using the only his eyes. After taking a whopping 24 hours to consider it, and always ready for a challenge, James and Evan commit.

November 5, 2008
After Mick and his company (The Ebeling Group) push and coerce many of the medical and insurance powers that obstructed the process, a MyTobii machine arrives at Tony’s hospital room, allowing him to use his eyes to communicate with his family. The first milestone was reached.

April 2009
After 1 year of planning, scheming and dreaming, an international team of artists and engineers converge on the Ebelings’ home in Venice Beach, CA, sleeping on couches, blow-up mattresses and floors. The team (including members of the Free Art and Technology Lab and the OpenFrameworks community) works with Tony to develop the first open source DIY EyeWriter.

April 10, 2009
The last day of the two-week programming and fabrication experiment, a wireless projector is set up outside his hospital, and in front of his friends and family, Tony creates art again for the first time in 7 years. The EyeWriter is officially born.

August 2009
Fresh with new improvements, the GRL/FAT/OF team returns to the Ebeling house to work on EyeWriter 2.0.

August 24th, 2009
Tony makes a number of drawings in his hospital bed in Alhambra, California and transmits them over the Internet to a team of artists waiting in downtown Los Angeles to project his artwork (in real-time) onto a 10-story building beside the Santa Monica Freeway. After seven years, TEMPT is back!