20 years ago tomorrow, we filed the first patent for the technology that eventually became the basis for my first venture, Submedia. Entrepreneurship gave me an escape from the path academia laid out for me that I loved at first but no longer wanted. Working on an invention, a business plan, and so on reinvigorated me.

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I didn’t know it would help lead to my latest book, Initiative, hence “Over twenty years in the making” if you click the link.

Here is a video from our 2002 New York City launch.

I first conceived of the idea, developed a working model, and wrote most of the patent, but a team of a co-founder, engineers, salespeople, investors, advisors, suppliers, and more made it possible.

Oh, what the heck. Here are some more videos around our early launches. I was about 30 years old:

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Later I made art with the medium. Here is a display I installed with NYU’s ITP program under Bryant Park:

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Here’s an early model for pieces I showed at Lincoln Center:

There’s more at Videos and a short history of my invention and Submedia, the company I co-founded in 1999 and 59 new videos of my art, from my solo gallery show. There’s lots of media coverage in my press page.

Anyway, since I understand patents go into the public domain after 20 years, I believe today is the last day the U.S. government will protect our limited monopoly for that patent.

We kept developing the technology, so later patents cover more advanced and useful designs. In any case, at least my first invention will become part of the public domain tomorrow. Enjoy!

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