Biography

I’m a Berlin-based artist and designer working across sound, image, installation and technology. After many years working in design and tech, I’ve become increasingly interested in what technology is actually doing for us and our planet.

Music, design and technology

My route into art has come through music, design and technology. I grew up in Glasgow in the 1980s and became involved in independent music culture from an early age. Record collecting, DJing, pirate radio and broadcasting have been part of my life ever since, and continue to influence how I think about sound, communication and the movement of information between people and places.

Alongside this, I spent more than twenty-five years working in product design. I was originally drawn to design because it was about understanding what people needed and making things that helped them. Over time, I became increasingly aware of the tension between designing for people and designing towards commercial goals. I watched products become better at measuring, predicting and influencing behaviour, and began questioning my own role within that.

Art has given me a different way of thinking about the technology I spent so long working with. Instead of starting with a problem to solve or an outcome to achieve, I can start with a question and see where it takes me.

Process and enquiry

My work develops through research and experimentation, using sound, moving image, archival material, field recordings, data and technology. I’m often interested in taking technologies out of their usual context, repurposing them, or pushing them beyond what they were designed to do.

The work has moved through subjects including memory, broadcasting, migration, control, altered states and the body. These projects initially felt quite separate, but I’m beginning to see a thread between them: questions about who or what is in control, what happens when something human becomes data or a signal, and what technology can and can’t hold onto.

I don’t think I have a neat answer to any of this yet. That uncertainty is increasingly part of the work.

Wider practice

I continue to work across art, music and independent culture. I’m a co-founder of Iyagi, a Berlin-based label and curatorial platform, and my wider practice includes publishing, radio, composition and collaborative projects.