At the end of 2018 I looked at my recent work and felt more than a little depressed. I felt like I had become complacent and was using the same techniques over and over again. So over the Christmas break I took a step back and decided to do a complete reset. I dove into this thing called Houdini and as luck would have it was then commissioned in the January to create a piece of work called The Art of Cybersecurity for Trend Micro. I decided to use my new found enthusiasm and approach on this project, to see where it could go.

The reception to the work was wonderful including being long listed for the Lumen Prize and being featured in Art Futura.

I’m now grateful for that period at the end of 2018 when I thought all my work was rubbish, as it made me reevaluate, take stock and discover new ways of creating. Comfort is the C word.

https://brendandawes.com/projects/artofcybersecurity

WORDS BY BRENDAN DAWES: “I’ve always been fascinated by the possibilities of creating with computers. From the moment I plugged in a Sinclair ZX81 and a cursor blinked back at me, inviting me to type something to the generative systems I now build to “make a thing which makes a thing” the curiosity has only increased. It’s through working with these machines — these code based collaborators — that I can put into the world my thoughts and ideas exploring our relationship and interactions with the analog and digital.”

Demanding participation, Brendan Dawes’ artistic practice harnesses time as medium in his explorations of the surrounding world. By means of code, data, and generative systems, Dawes’ interest in human connection is revealed across electronic objects, screens, physical sculpture and interactive installation. Much of the artist’s work instigates dialogue. Take real-time generative work You, Me, and the Machine (2022) – created for the Herbert W. Franke Tribute – which morphs its appearance in relation to a viewer’s proximity, or Passengers BCN (2023) – created for Digital Impact, Barcelona – which responds to official passenger data from Barcelona airport during COVID and gives sculptural form to the relationship between digital and physical. An openness to collective authorship gives Dawes’ conceptual approach a tangible accessibility and a playful edge, which serves to interrogate the rigidity and revelations of data.