James Powderly (born 1976 in Chattanooga, Tennessee) is an American artist, designer and engineer whose work has focused on creating tools for graffiti artists and political activists, designing robots and augmented reality platforms,[1] and promoting open source culture.

[2] In 2005, Powderly became a Research and Development Fellow at Eyebeam where he began collaborating with Evan Roth.

Powderly has won awards for his work on the EyeWriter project, including the 2009 Design of the Year in Interactive Art from the Design Museum, London, the 2010 Prix Ars Electronica,[4] the 2010 FutureEverything Award[5] and featured on NPR[6] and TED.

[7] Selected exhibitions, screenings and performances include: In June 2008, before the 2008 Summer Olympics, Powderly was contacted by Students for a Free Tibet who wanted to use his laser stencil invention, which can laser project simple stencils up to 2 km away, to project the words "Free Tibet" on a Beijing landmark, without acquiring any permission from the local authority.

He said, "My understanding of the Tibetan issue was not in depth," but that he wanted to make "a general statement about freedom of speech".