Challenging anthropocentrism in design. Questioning humanism in the systems that shape how we create and innovate. Exploring technology beyond Big Tech.
I’m a designer and maker – a design leader with expertise across materials, technologies and physical–digital experiences.
More specifically, I am a post-disciplinary artist-designer and researcher working at the convergence of creative technology, research through design and critical posthumanism, with a particular interest in place, relationality and attunement.
Through making, research and education, I question the human-centred assumptions embedded in design and creative technology, and the wider systems through which we research, innovate and create. I explore what design might become when the human is no longer its assumed centre, and when progress is not defined only by speed, scale, efficiency and growth.
I’m interested in technology beyond Big Tech: local, decentralised, open, slow and situated. Technology that can be understood, lived with and cared for; that responds to the places and conditions in which it exists.
My practice takes form through Performative Artefacts – playful objects that act as gentle provocations and participate in world-making. I use technology subtly, drawing from slow approaches while amplifying the texture, capacity and magical animism of object-based interaction.
I founded my studio in 2014 and is based in Dundee, Scotland.
I’m also Consultant Design Director at Strange Thoughts and Arcade Strange, London; Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Bristol; Doctoral Researcher at the University of St Andrews; and Visiting Tutor at the Glasgow School of Art.
Client Highlights
Commonwealth Games 2022; Skoda; Selfridges; British Library; Reach; UNMADE; Senseye (Siemens), WWT and Raucous Theatre. Brand activations for Currys, YO! Sushi, Ocado, Beavertown, Premier Inn, Deliveroo, Unilever / AXE and Innis and Gunn. Brand experiences for Adidas, Marriott, Sky, Twitter, Gartner, and Guardian. Collaborating with agencies like Publicis, Saatchi, W Comms, Golin, Here Be Dragons, PHD Media, Manifest and Uniform.
R&D Funders
Research and Development funded by: Google DNI, Unilever, UKRI (incl. Innovate UK, AHRC, EPSRC, ESRC), Arts Council England, Creative England, Creative Scotland, Creative XR, Arts Council Tokyo
Selected Exhibitions, Performances and Events
Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh (2023); Coventry UK City of Culture, Herbert Gallery, Coventry (2022); MAYFEST, Bristol Old Vic, Bristol (2022); Materia Gris, CentroCentro, Madrid (2021); Playable City Tokyo, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo (2018); Google Digital News Initiative, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2018); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2009, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2024); London Design Festival, Brompton Design District, London (2012, 2014, 2016, 2018).
Selected Talks and Workshops
International Festival of Journalism, Perugia, Italy (2017); Interaction16, Helsinki, Finland (2016); Crafts Council: Make:Shift, London, UK (2014); O’Reilly Solid, San Francisco, USA (2014, 2015); and SXSW, Austin, USA (2012, 2013, 2016).
Selected Academic Conference Contributions and Journal Publications
CHI, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems; TEI, Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions; ITS, Interactive Tabletops & Surfaces; CHI Play, Computer-Human Interaction in Play; IDC, Interaction Design and Children; ACI, Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction; International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Press
Brand Activations have regularly featured in Daily Newspapers across Print and Digital, national, and international. Other work featured in design magazines like Wallpaper, Blueprint and Creative Review.