⠀

Brendan Dawes is a UK based artist using generative processes involving data, machine learning and algorithms, to create interactive installations, electronic objects, online experiences, data visualisations, motion graphics and imagery for screen and print.
A Lumen Prize Alumni, his work has featured in many exhibitions across the world including Big Bang Data in thirteen cities, three MoMA shows in New York together with his Cinema Redux work becoming part of the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2008. His recent Art of Cybersecurity work is featured in Art Futura 2020.
Clients include Airbnb, Twitter, PWC, Google, Seagate, BBC, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Atlantic, Bravo, M&C Saatchi, EE, Arup, Intel, Cancer Research UK, Mailchimp, Trend Micro, Deloitte and many others.
Highlights include creating 99,999 generative snowflakes for the Winter 2020 limited edition release of Field Notes; a story-telling installation at the Sundance Film Festival for Airbnb; a generative installation for Twitter creating real-time digital creatures in response to tweets; a campaign for Trend Micro showing the beauty of Cyber security data; a print campaign for EE visualising social media traffic in eleven UK cities captured over three days; a 360 degree video projection for Platts displaying the journey of over 3000 ships as well as work now part of the permanent collection at MoMA in New York, creating a visual fingerprint of an entire movie.
If you'd like to talk with Brendan about working together then please Get in touch.
Download a PDF showing selected work highlights together with client testimonials.
Exhibitions
- Renaissance 2.0 / Rome / 2020
- Art Futura 2020 / Europe and North America / 2020
- Brighton Digital Festival / Brighton / 2019
- ZKM Season of Media Arts 2019 / Germany / 2019
- Big Bang Data / Artscience Museum / Singapore / 2016
- Big Bang Data / Espacio Fundación Telefónica / Santiago / 2016
- Impression 3D / Le Lieu Du Design / Paris / 2016
- Big Bang Data / Somerset House / London / 2015
- re_manufactum / Szczecin / 2015
- Designing with Data / Hyundai Card Design Library + MoMA / Seoul / 2015
- Big Bang Data / Buenos Aires / 2015
- Big Bang Data / CCCB / Madrid / 2015
- Designer Data / National Centre for Craft and Design / Lincolnshire / 2014
- Big Bang Data / CCCB / Barcelona / 2014
- Dot Dot Dot / Sheffield Institute of Arts / Sheffield / 2013
- Cinema Redux / Richard Goodall Gallery / Manchester / 2012
- Talk to Me / MoMA / New York / 2010
- Action! Design Over Time / MoMA / New York / 2010
- Design and the Elastic Mind / MoMA / New York / 2008
Publications
- The Age of Data / Braun Publishing / 2021
- HAS Magazine 01 / Unesco / 2020
- The Book of Circles / Princeton Architectural Press / 2017
- Thoughts on Information Design / Lars Muller Publishing / 2014
- Infographics - Designing and Visualising Data / Promopress / 2014
- Play Matters / MIT Press / 2014
- Talk to Me / MoMA / 2010
- Design and the Elastic Mind / MoMA / 2008
- Graphic Design: The New Basics / Princeton Architectural Press / 2008
- Small Tech: The Culture of Digital Tools (Electronic Mediations) / University Of Minnesota Press / 2008
- Analog In, Digital Out / New Riders / 2006
- The Digital Canvas / Abrams Studio / 2006
- Personal Web Sites / Rockport / 2002
- Drag Slide Fade / New Riders / 2001
- In Your Face Too - the best of interactive interface design / Rockport / 2000
- New Masters of Flash / Friends of Ed / 2000
- Flash deConstruction: The Process, Design, and ActionScript of Juxt Interactive / New Riders / 2000
Coverage
- Interview on Kait Borsay show Times Radio
- Buyers splash out on art that doesn’t exist The Times
- How cryptoart is turning creators into millionaires ITV News
- The Bitcoin Elite are Spending Millions on Collectable Memes Wired
- 3 Examples of Data Viz at the Boundary of Tech and Reality Infogr8
- Brendan Dawes's Seven Rules of Creativity Magenta
- Artist Fireside chat with Brendan Dawes
- The Science of Fine Art with Brendan Dawes Makersplace
- Beyond Work Danielle Newnham
- Interview on the This is HCD podcast
- Beyond The Chart Data Stories
- Data Stream Day BBC Radio 4
- Stories hidden in Data Creative Bloq
- Audio interview for Lecture in Progress
- An iOS App That Freezes Moments - A Chat With Kennedy's Brendan Dawes Forbes
- Artist Brendan Dawes selects his top 5 sources of inspiration Somerset House
- Brendan Dawes Sharing Your Work Make
- The Age of Hard and Soft Interview With Designer Brendan Dawes On Six Monkeys Image Source
- Visualizing Data With 3D Printing A Chat With Brendan Dawes Forbes
Testimonials
-
Watching ‘Fermata’ develop from it’s earliest iterations, through to the final piece on screen now, has been a revelation to us. The final piece bears testament to the collaborative journey that Bruntwood have been on with Brendan, and I wouldn’t hesitate in working with him again if the opportunity arose. — Simon Bushell, Design Coordinator, Bruntwood
-
Working with Brendan on our project was a true collaboration. Not only did he answer the brief, but he provided creative input, a lot of thinking and managed to improve the work at every stage. The result is something the client loves and one of my personal favourite bits of Peter and Paul commissioned work. — Lee Davies, Creative Director, Peter and Paul
-
Our work with Brendan helped to transform our branding and, in turn, how we communicate with our prospective clients. Brendan's ability to grasp our complex data concepts and transform them into simple and communicative visuals was incredible and, as a result, we now use one of these stunning visuals as our logo. — Edwina Dunn, CEO, Starcount
-
At PSLIVE Brendan Dawes took a huge subset of our data and created art. The @TheNextWeb then created a lovely article. All of it amazing — Nate Walkingshaw, Head of Experience, Pluralsight
-
Using data as a medium is a complex task and getting to a result that's both artful and conceptually relevant is a bit of a journey. Brendan gets that. His methodology, the way he explains process, his affable demeanor, his ability to reflect input at every stage ... it all builds faith (and excitement) bit by byte as surely as the data he's wielding. And, of course, the end result speaks for itself, beautifully. — Sean Benton - Partner / Creative Director, Partners Creative












