A Meet-up Brings Together Art and Tech

This profile is part of TakePart’s “Re-Visionaries” series, in which we highlight people who are shaking things up—and making a difference—in their field and community.

Eddie Lee’s passions lie at the intersection of art and technology. As the head of a video game company, he knows plenty about harnessing the power of 1s and 0s and creating something beautiful. He started Hypercube—a meet-up group for people who use technology to express themselves—because he wanted to meet others who were interested in the same thing. TakePart talked to Lee about his project.

TakePart: What is Hypercube?

Eddie Lee: Hypercube is an organization that I started. We’re a meet-up group. I’m currently hosting it in Pasadena at an art museum, [Armory Center for the Arts].

TakePart: What is the original idea?

Lee: Before I started Hypercube, I was living in Japan, and I was hanging out with a lot of art and tech people. People who did projection mapping, visuals, veejaying, things like that. When I moved back to L.A., I was hungry to meet other like-minded people. I started the Hypercube kind of as a way to connect the people who are interested in the intersection of art and technology. I started off expecting maybe three dozen people, sitting at a bar or something and just talking about what’s hot. Right now, I think, we’re almost at 1,300 members.

TakePart: How is Hypercube different from what already exists in Los Angeles and the rest of the tech world?

Lee: A lot of tech conferences and tech meetings are very, very tech-based. We focus more on the underlying goal, which is people using technology to express themselves, because everyone’s trying to build something, either to change who they are or change the world.

TakePart: How do you envision the future of Hypercube? And how will you use $5,000 to realize that vision?

Lee: All of our events are free. We try not to charge anyone. We don’t even charge for alcohol and food, and we ask for donations, if people want. People have been generous enough to support the cause. But in general, I’m paying out of pocket, because I believe in the community. With that money, we could increase the production value and spread it more widely.

It’s also very, very time-consuming. We’d love to get some kind of support, either financially or otherwise.

TakePart: Hypercube isn’t your day job. What inspires you to continue doing it even if it is a time-consuming project?

Lee: I’m just glad and faithful that a lot of people share a similar vision. And I think our generation grew up with technology, so we use technology to express ourselves. I just want a platform for people to show off and show what’s possible. That’s what drives me.

TakePart: When you hear “Re-Visionary,” what does that evoke for you?

Lee: The way I see it and how I relate it to Hypercube is, you recycle ideas within technology. And for us, we recycle technology for art. Traditionally, if you were painting, your palette would be colors, right? But we reinvent the concept of palette. Instead of colors on a palette, it’s actually like your palette is code or algorithms or math, and you use that on a canvas to express yourself. That’s the “Re-” part of “Re-Visionary.”