Stephen Medaris Bull is an American inventor, entrepreneur, mixed-media technologist, and media producer whose work spans the fields of technology, design, interactive media, and film production.
Over several decades, Bull has established and led multiple ventures, overseen the creation of tech-driven products, and contributed to experimental media projects that combine art and technology.
Bull’s career includes various entrepreneurial endeavors. He has founded and managed multiple companies, all centered on applying technology to practical or creative fields. At Breathe-Global Devices Ltd., Bull has directed the design and manufacturing of the Venti device, intended for respiratory health applications.
Through Preminder Inc., he has developed communication solutions focused on improving the monitoring of patient–provider care plans, with an emphasis on increasing adherence to prescribed treatments.
Bull has overseen several notable technology projects across different domains. AI in the Cockpit is a training simulation designed to prepare pilots for emergencies, focusing on enhancing in-flight decision-making and crisis management skills.
His mobile art app AzZa, which creates algorithmic artworks, was distributed in the UK by O2 Network and for Sony Ericsson devices via Handango. In augmented reality, Bull developed AR War of 1812, an interactive educational experience funded by the New York Council for the Humanities, using AR to present historical events.
Bull’s Cellphonia project merges telecommunications technology with performance art. Funded by the New York State Council on the Arts, the initiative operates as a “cellphone opera” engine and has been staged in fifteen national and international performances.
In research, Bull contributed to Paul Allen’s interval research, a think tank on experimental applications. His work included the Story Island IoT Prototype, an interactive storybook with IoT elements; You-In-A-Movie, a prototype booth inserting visitors into cinematic scenes; and Venus, a digital game engine with a behavioral research reward system.
In addition to his technology and entrepreneurial work, Bull has had a significant career in media production. He served as first assistant director on hundreds of television commercials and documentaries, collaborating with directors such as Sam Peckinpah, Stephen Frears, Eric Red, and Lindsay Anderson.
Bull co-directed the experimental bio-documentary Margaret Sanger: A Public Nuisance with Terese Svoboda. The film was screened at the J. Paul Getty Museum and ranked among the decade’s most significant experimental biographies. He also served as second-unit director and production manager on WHAM! in China, documenting the band’s historic tour.
Bull has contributed to academic and creative literature on technology and storytelling. He co-authored Neighborhood Narratives with Hana Iverson in an edited volume by Drew Hemment, which examines locative media and community-based storytelling.
The New York Times covered his cellphone-guided audio tour of Greenport in an article by Stacy Albin. Art critic Jori Finkel reviewed Cellphonia in the context of the ISEA ZeroOne global festival in San Jose. CBS MarketWatch reviewed Rat Race USA, a real-time traffic reporting project.
His speaking engagements include the “Mobilized!” conference at Brooklyn Tech, where he discussed the technical aspects of Cellphonia’s Asterisk code, and a seminar at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, where he addressed the “Future of Pervasive Gaming.”
His scholarly work, indexed on Google Scholar, includes Click History: Wherever, Whenever, and Low Earth Orbit Space Farm, the latter exploring speculative concepts in space technology. He has also been developing Cellphonia: In the News, expanding on his mobile performance art project.
Bull’s projects have attracted attention in various media outlets. NYArts Magazine profiled his work on mobile art in Molly Kleiman’s article “A Phone is a Phone is a…”. His TouchToneTours initiative was reviewed in the Montreal Mirror under the title “Our World and Others.”
Bull’s career is marked by an ability to merge disciplines, combining technology, media, art, and research into projects that explore new forms of interaction and communication. His work spans functional health technology, creative mobile applications, interactive art, and documentary filmmaking, illustrating a cross-disciplinary approach that links practical problem-solving with experimental media practice.
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