Cal Chamberlain born Mark Chamberlain, was an artist and Internet pioneer based out of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. He was among the first journalists to achieve notability through online media.

Early life

At the age of 15, Chamberlain ran away from his home in Seattle, Washington for a life in New York. Before becoming involved in the Internet media, he worked as a club promoter and model for designer Stephen Sprouse

Stephen Sprouse

Stephen Sprouse was a fashion designer and artist credited with pioneering the 1980s mix of "uptown sophistication in clothing with a downtown punk and pop sensibility" .-Career:...

. He became friends with singer and actress Debbie Harry

Debbie Harry

Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...

 and appeared in a video directed by Talking Heads

Talking Heads

Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...

' frontman David Byrne

David Byrne

David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...

.

Later career

In 1994, Chamberlain began blogging with Pseudo.com

Pseudo.com

Pseudo.com was a website for live audio and video webcasting. Founded in late 1993, its parent company Pseudo Programs Inc. filed for bankruptcy following the end of the Dot Com Bubble in 2000. Its assets were purchased by INTV in 2001...

. A highpoint of his career came as a blogger-correspondent at the 2000 Republican and Democratic national conventions; he later donated the keyboard and webcam he used to cover those events to the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

. Using a character from Judge Dredd

Judge Dredd

Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...

as an inspiration, he changed his name to Cal Chamberlain

Judge Cal

Chief Judge Cal is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip in 2000 AD. He was loosely based on the real life Roman emperor Caligula, who is widely considered to have been insane...

 and hosted a web based television show named =JUDGECAL's= High Weirdness.

After Pseudo.com folded in 2000, he briefly became a political blogger for CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, though at the time of his death he moved away from online media and was creating metal sculptures with an art combine named the Madagascar Institute. His involvement with the group led him to participate in the Burning Man

Burning Man

Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...

festival.

Death

Chamberlain was found dead in his New York apartment in late July 2008. Based on the level of his body's decomposition, the coroner estimated that he had died on July 25. It took several weeks to find his relatives, who, aside from occasional phone calls or emails, had not seen him for more than 20 years. No official cause of death has been listed.