Shawn Lawson is an artist and programmer whose practice mimics science's intent to acquire new knowledge and to gain a better understanding of reality. His experiential artworks explore the intersection of new technologies on consciousness and perceptions of time. His artwork has exhibited in museums, galleries, festivals, and public space in England, Russia, Italy, Korea, Portugal, Brazil, Turkey, Malaysia and the USA. Lawson's collaborative, Crudeoils, critiques structures of power: surveillance, economic exploitation, and authoritarian corruption. The collaborative is represented by Dean Jensen Gallery. He has been awarded grants from the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts and the Experimental Television Center's Finishing Funds Program.

Lawson studied fine arts at Carnegie Mellon University and École Nationale Supèrieure des Beaux-Arts. He received his MFA in Art and Technology Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2003. He is an Associate Professor of Computer Visualization in the Department of Art at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.