Theodore Watson

design-io.com
@design_io
Theo Watson is an artist, designer and experimenter whose work is born out of the curiosity and excitement of designing experiences that come alive and invite people to play. Theodore's work ranges from creating new tools for artistic expression, experimental musical systems, to immersive, interactive environments with full-body interaction. His work includes The Eyewriter, an eye controlled drawing tool, Graffiti Research Lab's Laser Tag, laser graffiti system and Funky Forest, an immersive interactive ecosystem for young children. Theodore works together with Zachary Lieberman and Arturo Castro on openFrameworks, which is an open source library for writing creative code in C++.

Theo is Partner and Creative Director at Design IO, a creative studio specializing in the design and development of cutting-edge, immersive, interactive installations and new forms of storytelling. Design I/O develops installations and digital experiences for events, galleries, museums, exhibitions and public space and specializes in creating engaging, meaningful interaction with the public. With more than 15 years experience in interactive media, Design I/O and its partners have and continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in the intersection between design and technology.
Session
Worlds of Play

For the past 15 years Design I/O has been developing systems to support unconventional approaches to play and creative expression. By Imagining worlds of alternative realities, their work invites audiences to playtest different futures and explore a more playful present. These worlds are designed to be poked at, revealed and explored, often framing a story or setting a stage and allowing the curiosity and experimentation of the audience to make it their own.

In this talk Design I/O will dive into these imaginary worlds, including large scale immersive installations, music you can jump into, empathetic robot arms and open world video games. They will also share their process, the challenges involved and the worlds they want to play in the future.