Starting as his assistant in 1981,[3] Garrin eventually emerged as one of the most important collaborators of video art superstar Nam June Paik, working closely together from 1982 to 1996.
This influence is seen emerging in such works as "A Place to Hide", 1985, and a series of pieces in collaboration with musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and video artist Kit Fitzgerald sponsored by SONY Corporation, 1985–86, most notably "A Human Tube".
[18][21] In 1988, Garrin created one of his most groundbreaking videos entitled "Free Society"[8][22] featuring original music by downtown composer and musician Elliott Sharp.
Since 1989, Garrin has been working with interactive media, and developed three highly acclaimed works, "Yuppie Ghetto with Watchdog",[8] 1989–90, "White Devil", 1992-93 and "Border Patrol" 1995–97, all of which were produced with the technical collaboration of friend and artist David Rokeby,[28] [29] creator of the "Very Nervous System", evolutions of which formed the basis of "Yuppie Ghetto", "White Devil", and "Border Patrol".
Garrin also enlisted Don Ritter, another friend and artist working in the same realm to create the live targets in the Border Patrol installation.
[30] Garrin's works have been widely exhibited and broadcast internationally including the Biennale d'art contemporain de Lyon, 1995–96,[19] Kwangju Biennale, 1995,[4][28] São Paulo Art Biennial, 1994,[31] Holly Solomon Gallery in New York,[32] Musee d'art contemporain de Montreal, 1997,[4] Galleri Faurschou, Copenhagen, 1997,[33] Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz, 1998,[4] Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany, 1999,[4] and has been reviewed in The New York Times,[34] Art in America, Artforum, and others.
[4][33][38] His major works "Yuppie Ghetto with Watchdog", "White Devil" and "Border Patrol" are in the permanent collection of the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany.
Aesthetically pleasing and amusing footage of the news, pop-culture, and art world are altered and synthesized with the pair's signature image-processing techniques.
[52]: 55 : A-7 [54] The media notoriety of the riot video with Garrin as videographer is believed to have inspired[55] the late playwright and then East Village, Manhattan resident Jonathan Larson to create the character "Mark Cohen" in Rent (musical).
Entitled "Ethics, Law & Surveillance Culture" the program featured author James Bamford, criminal defense attorney Stanley L. Cohen, New York Civil Liberties Union Director Donna Lieberman, and independent journalist Paul DeRienzo.
[74] Name.Space's creation of hundreds of TLDs predates the formation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which incorporated in 1998[75][76] As an early proponent of a shared TLD registry system, Name.Space helped shape the adaptation of a wholesale-retail domain registration market that is in practice today.
Name.Space endeavored to bring its TLDs to market by means of an antitrust case against Network Solutions 1997–2000[77][78][79] (based on the successful MCI v. ATT[80] that broke up the telephone company monopoly in the US in 1983).
The Name.Space v. Network Solutions, Inc. antitrust lawsuit gave momentum to the restructuring of the domain name registration market from a single monopoly based system to a wholesale-retail one.
[85] Name.Space was considered in the top 10 "strong candidates" out of 44 applicants,[86] but delegation was deferred in favor of a very limited group of domain industry incumbents, almost all closely tied to ICANN, to the exclusion of many viable new entrants.
In her syndicated column in SFGate, an online version of the San Francisco Chronicle, she wrote: "... the proposal of Name.Space appealed to me precisely because it was a mix of commerce and principle.