Jimmy Joe Roche (now)

( Jimmy Joe Roche )

Soon after an exhibit at New York's Rare Gallery in 2008, Roche was in a brutal bicycle accident, and wound up impaled by his handlebars. After spending several months recovering, he shot a series of films where he attached electrodes to his face and used muscle movements to control video and audio signals. This past spring, he taught a Baltimore filmmaker's class at Johns Hopkins University, and the college hired him to teach a new series of digital filmmaking classes starting this fall. He's the poster boy for the 2012 High Zero festival, and is currently producing a two-man exhibition piece with London-based artist Nathaniel Mellor for the Baltimore Museum of Art's new contemporary wing. "Every time I find something I'm good at, I stop doing it and start doing something else," said Roche, who is now 30. "I'm always finding a new thing I'm fascinated with."