Dev Harlan was born in Arizona and grew up in Silicon Valley, California. As a self-taught artist, he was particularly interested in the experimental “subcultures” of video and computer piracy in San Francisco. Then the video production took him to New York where he began producing sculpture, 3D animation and video projection mapping. His current artistic practice uses technology to address concerns about climate change and the ecological impacts of a technology-dominated society. His ideas are articulated through the digital transformation of particular objects and materials as well as the surrealist imagination in which he immerses them.

Dev’s projection works often encourage a transcendental viewing mode. Indeed, he aspires to have his work understood as a gateway to the imaginative subconscious. He likes to suggest the existence of fictional objects possessing their own radiant power and let the imagination of the spectators speculate on the sublime cosmic origins of the object. As for his main sources of inspiration, he feels indebted to artists such as James Turrell and other artists of the "Light and Space" movement who have reached the sublime thanks to their clean and radical use of light.