Short:
Author Designer. Design Director. Professor of Design.

Not So Short:
Tom Metcalfe is a Designer. His works explore the human–nature relationship through functional art and installations, and facilitate intriguing and playful experiences within public and private spaces.

Longer:
Tom Metcalfe is a Designer from rural Dumfries and Galloway. His works explore the human–nature relationship through functional art and installations, and facilitate intriguing and playful experiences within public and private spaces.

Tom’s functional art or “performative artefacts” act as subtle portals to the natural world. Using diverse materials including internet-connected slow technologies, living and fossilised plants and mixed media, the work relies on social interaction. At the heart of his practice is a form of quiet activism, from social change to climate justice and the ethical priority of working susatainably and impacting minimally. He often incorporates ideas from within Biophilic Design: the affiliation of nature with the modern built environment in recognition of how this can reduce stress, enhance creativity and clarity of thought, improve well-being and expedite healing. Presented in ambient and unintrusive ways, each piece is created singularly or as a limited edition. A rigorous process of design, testing and skilled craftsmanship underpins the development of Tom’s speculative forms, fuelled by a drive to push the limits of forgotten technologies and experiment with modern fabrication methods

180 words / 1233 characters (with spaces)

Long:
Tom Metcalfe is a Designer from rural Dumfries and Galloway. His works explore the human–nature relationship through functional art and installations, and facilitate intriguing and playful experiences within public and private spaces.

Metcalfe’s functional art or “performative artefacts” act as subtle portals to the natural world. Using diverse materials including internet-connected slow technologies, living and fossilised plants and mixed media, the work relies on social interaction. At the heart of his practice is a form of quiet activism, from social change to climate justice and the ethical priority of working sustainably and impacting minimally. He often incorporates ideas from within Biophilic Design: the affiliation of nature with the modern built environment in recognition of how this can reduce stress, enhance creativity and clarity of thought, improve well-being and expedite healing. Presented in ambient and unintrusive ways, each piece is created singularly or as a limited edition. A rigorous process of design, testing and skilled craftsmanship underpins the development of Metcalfe’s speculative forms, fuelled by a drive to push the limits of forgotten technologies and experiment with modern fabrication methods.

Metcalfe graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee in 2009. He is an alumnus of the art group Random International and founded his own studio in 2014. He is a current resident of the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol (since 2013); a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; Associate Professor in Design at the University of Bristol; and has been a visiting tutor at various institutions internationally including: Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow; Royal College of Art, London; Hyper Island, Manchester / London; National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India; Istituto Europeo Di Design, Master Design Innovation, Madrid, Spain.

Past exhibitions and commissions include: Coventry UK City of Culture, Herbert Gallery, Coventry (2022); Materia Gris, CentroCentro, Madrid (2021); Playable City Tokyo, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo (2018); Google Digital News Initiative, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2016); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2009, 2011, 2014, 2016); London Design Festival, Brompton Design District, London (2012, 2014, 2016, 2018); Selfridges, London (2014).

His work has been supported by international and UK-based organisations including: Arts Council Tokyo; Google Digital News Initiative; Creative XR; Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); Innovate UK; British Council; Korea Foundation; Arts Council England; Creative England.

 His work has featured in publications including Wallpaper, Creative Review, Blueprint and Fast Company. He has published academically, particularly in the field of Human-Computer Interaction including: CHI (2020) – CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems; TEI (2018) – International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interactions; CHI Play (2020) – Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play; IDC (2019) – International Conference on Interaction Design and Children; International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference (2016); Research Through Design (2013); Special Issue Multimodal Technologies and Interaction (2022).

Metcalfe has spoken globally and locally on issues of audience experience and emerging technology, including: ‘NewsThings: Exploring IoT News Media’, International Festival of Journalism (2017), Perugia, Italy;  ‘Prototyping The Internet Of Things’, Interaction16 (2016), Helsinki, Finland;  ‘Tools & IoT In Craft, Design And Making’, Crafts Council: Make:Shift (2014), London, UK; ‘Prototyping User Experiences For Connected Products’, O’Reilly Solid (2015), San Francisco, USA; ‘UX In IoT: A Collaborative Approach’, O’Reilly Solid (2014), San Francisco, USA; ‘Subtle Interfaces: Designing For Calm Tech’, SXSW (2016), Austin Texas, USA; ‘Pitchforks And Printed Electronics’, SXSW (2013), Austin Texas, USA.

566 words / 4086 characters (with spaces)