Solar Talks: Thomas Thwaites and April Barrett

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.

A free display of design research responding to the climate crisis by this year's Researchers in Residence.

Future Observatory is the Design Museum’s national research programme for the green transition.

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.