John Craig Freeman

John Craig Freeman is an artist with over three decades of experience using emerging technologies to invent large-scale public work at sites where globalization impacts local communities. Through his practice, Freeman expands the definition of “public” by exploring how digital technology and mobile networks transform our sense of place.

A founding member of the international artists collective Manifest.AR, Freeman has pioneered augmented reality art since 2010. He has produced and exhibited work worldwide, including in London, Mexico City, Havana, Venice, Beijing, and across America.

In 2022, he was a fellow and research affiliate at the MIT Open Documentary Lab. His achievements include a 2016 ZERO1 American Arts Incubator travel grant to Wuhan, China, and commissions from LACMA’s Art+Technology Lab, Rhizome.org, and Turbulence.org. He also received an NEA Individual Artist Fellowship in 1992.

Freeman’s work is reviewed in publications such as The New York Times, Art in America, and Wired, and is cited in foundational texts such as Christiane Paul’s Digital Art. His own writing appears in Leonardo and the Journal of Visual Culture.

Freeman joined Emerson in 2002, after teaching at the University of Florida and the University of Massachusetts Lowell