Thomas Thwaites (designer)

Thomas Thwaites is a British designer and writer. He describes himself as "a designer (of a more speculative sort), interested in technology, science, futures research & etc."[1]

Thwaites in 2011 at Poptech in Maine
Toaster and casing from "The Toaster Project", on display in the V&A in September 2022

Thwaites studied economics and biology at University College London and in 2009 gained an MA in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art.[2]: 192 

In a nine-month project as part of his MA course, Thwaites attempted to build a toaster from scratch. The project was inspired by a quote from Douglas Adams' 1992 novel Mostly Harmless: "Left to his own devices he couldn't build a toaster. He could just about make a sandwich, and that was it."[2]: 35  A toaster has about 400 components: he simplified the materials list to copper, steel, plastic, mica and nickel and attempted to mine, refine, and otherwise process all the raw materials needed.[3] He published The Toaster Project: Or a Heroic Attempt to Build a Simple Electric Appliance from Scratch (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011: ISBN 978-1568989976), and gave a TED talk "How I Built a Toaster - From Scratch".[4] The tools and artefacts from the project are on display as an installation in the Victoria and Albert Museum, in room 76 "Design 1900 to Now".[5]

The Toaster Project installation at V&A August 2017

He later spent several days living among goats in the Alps, using prosthetic goat-like legs and eating grass using an artificial rumen, to explore the life of goats.[6][7] This resulted in GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human (Princeton Architectural Press, 2016; ISBN 978-1616894054) and an IgNobel Prize.[8]

In January 2017 he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Museum of Curiosity. His hypothetical donation to the imaginary museum was a history book written in 2222AD, covering the present time.[9]

In 2017–2018 he was a visiting professor in the Industrial Design department of Rhode Island School of Design.[1][10]

References
  1. "Hello". Thomas Thwaites. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  2. Thwaites, Thomas (2011). The Toaster Project. Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 978-1-56898-997-6.
  3. Cangeloso, Sal. "Nine month project to build a toaster from scratch results in a book, toaster-like monstrosities". Geek. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  4. "How I built a toaster — from scratch". TED. 12 January 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2017. Includes link to video of full talk
  5. "The Toaster Project". Collections. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  6. Barkham, Patrick (15 May 2016). "No kidding: what I learned from becoming GoatMan". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  7. Graham, Chris (28 May 2016). "No kidding: Why Thomas Thwaites lived as a goat in Switzerland". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  8. "Ig Nobel win for Alpine 'goat man'". BBC News. 23 September 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  9. "The Museum of Curiosity: Series 10, Episode 1". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  10. "Thomas Thwaites". Industrial Design: Faculty. Rhode Island School of Design. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
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