Design Researchers in Residence Event
Solar Talks: Thomas Thwaites and April Barrett
Join designer Thomas Thwaites in conversation with April Barrett, Design Researcher in Residence.
This talk brings together Thomas Thwaites, the designer behind the iconic Toaster Project and GoatMan, and April Barrett, one of this year's Design Researcher in Residence at the Design Museum, for an in-depth conversation on technological infrastructures and their small tech alternatives.
The talk builds on April’s work as part of Solar, this year’s residency programme hosted by Future Observatory.
Event timings
18:00 Solar display open to visitors
19:00 Talk begins
19:30 Q&A
19:45 Talk ends
Book online
Adult: £5
Student/Concession: £4
Members: £3
Speakers
April Barrett is a Canadian design anthropologist based in Edinburgh. She recently graduated from the Design for Change MA programme at the University of Edinburgh with distinction and the Edinburgh College of Art’s Andrew Grant Postgraduate Scholarship. As a Design Researcher in Residence, April brings her ethnographic methods to the design and digital culture space and has a particular interest in alternatives to Big Tech.
Thomas Thwaites is a designer exploring the psychological and social impacts of technology. As a researcher, he shows his process through live performance-lectures, books, moving image and in exhibitions. His first book, The 'Toaster Project', captures his attempt to make an electric toaster from scratch, and his second book, 'GoatMan', is about his project to take a holiday from being human by becoming a goat.
Related display
Future Observatory is coordinated by the Design Museum in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) which is part of UK Research and Innovation, funding independent researchers in a wide range of subjects from history and archaeology to philosophy and languages, design and effectiveness of digital content and the impact of artificial intelligence.
Background image: photography by Henry Mills. Data Do-Nothing Machine by April Barrett.
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