Brendan Dawes
Bio
Brendan Dawes is a designer and artist exploring the interaction of objects, people, technology and art using an eclectic mix of digital and analog materials.
Ever since his first experiences with the humble ZX81 back in the early eighties, Brendan has continued to explore the interplay of people, code, design and art through his work on brendandawes.com where he publishes ideas, toys and projects created from an eclectic mix of digital and analog objects.
His work is featured in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at the Manchester School of Art.
'Fillings for rectangles' is how he often describes his work. Over the years those rectangles have come in various shapes and sizes including websites, iPhone apps, posters, books, electronic circuits and pieces of plastic. Whilst his output takes on many forms, running through all his work are consistent themes of playfulness, curiosity and experimentation.
He believes passionately in putting new objects into the world that disrupt the status quo and ask questions about accepted practices; such as his Doodlebuzz news interface - a celebration of chance encounters and serendipity - featured in the Talk to Me exhibition at MoMA in New York and earlier won a D&AD award for interface design.
Session
Contains one scene of sheep skinning
Today we seem to live in a world driven by accountants, lawyers and over cautious men in black from the Health and Safety executive.
Whatever happened to taking a few risks and seeing what happens? Remember when going to a movie didn't use to have a "contains mild peril" warning? As designers it's in our hands to change the status quo to create better, more fun experiences that take risks and ask questions.
Using material from his new book "Analog In / Digital Out" Brendan talks about the stuff that keeps him awake at night inspired by society and the world around him and how that helps him to make better interactive experiences.