He is born in New Mexico, 1961 and he is a sculptor engineer. He was educated at the University of Arizona, and graduated from UCLA in 1987, in New Forms and Concepts.

In 1991, he founded a collective, Amorphic Robot Works (ARW), group of artists and engineers working together to create machine art performances as well as immersive, visual and acoustic environments. These have always involved anthropomorphic, organic, and abstract robotic forms. MacMurtrie is the ARW's artistic director.

With ARW, he has exhibited in major museums and institutions worldwide, including: Museo de la Reina Sofia, Madrid; NAMOC, Beijing; MUAC, Mexico City; Beall Center for Art and Technology, Irvine (CA); ARTEC, Nagoya, Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai; Pioneer Works, Brooklyn (NY), SESC SP, Sao Paulo; Cité des Sciences, Paris.

MacMurtrie received more grants and awards than can be listed here, but these include those of the Rockefeller Foundation, Langlois Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award, and Fundación Electronica.

MacMurtrie and Anthropic Robot Works are currently based in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York.