About PostSpectacular

PostSpectacular is a small London based design studio and consultancy founded by Karsten Schmidt to actively explore the growing possibilities at the intersection of various design disciplines, art and software development in a multitude of contexts.

Working cross-disciplinary with a network of other creatives, our design approach is based on treating ideas as software at the heart, which in turn informs all other facets of each project. We are using code as primary design tool to build unique, highly adaptable platforms, installations, services and systems for some of the world's most respected & innovative brands. Read more about this in the manifesto.

Karsten Schmidt (aka toxi) is a London based computational designer merging code, design, art & craft skills. Originally from East Germany and starting in the deep end of the early 8-bit demo scene, for the past 2 decades he's been adopting a trans-disciplinary way of working and been laterally involved in a wide range of digital disciplines. With his studio PostSpectacular, he is actively exploring current possibilities at the intersection of design, art, software development and education and applying these in a variety of fields. A strong conceptual thinker and always striving for maximum creative freedom, Karsten’s design approach is based on treating ideas as software at the heart, which in turn informs all other facets of each project. When not creating, he travels the world consulting and teaching workshops about the generative design approach, open source and employing code as creative tool. He's been an early contributor to the Processing.org project and to various books about programming and graphic design, and his work has been featured in the press and exhibited internationally, including the MoMA, New York and Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

• Brit Insurance Design Awards 2010 (Shortlist):
  • onedotzero identity with W+K London
• Type Directors Club Winner 2009:
  • Type & Form sculpture for Print magazine cover design
• European Design Award 2009 (Bronze):
  • London College of Fashion 2008 graduate exhibition in collaboration with Moving Brands
• Brit Insurance Design Awards 2009 (Shortlist):
  • Fid.Gen fiducial marker generator
• European Design Award 2008 (Winner):
  • London College of Fashion 2007 graduate exhibition at Moving Brands
  • KEF Muon installation at Moving Brands
• D&AD 2008 (Nomination):
  • London College of Fashion 2007 graduate exhibition at Moving Brands
• D&AD 2007 (Nomination):
  • London College of Fashion 2006 graduate exhibition at Moving Brands

• Talk at Design for music conference at St.Bride Library, London, January 29, 2010
• Talk at Decoding the Digital conference at V&A, Feb 5, 2010

• Design Computing London, RIBA, December 2009
• UID Fall Summit 2009, Umeå Institute of Design, Sweden, Nov 2009
• Flash On The Beach, Brighton, September 2009
• onedotzero identity de-brief/process presentation, British Film Institute, London, Sep 2009
• OFFF, artist talk, Lisboa, May 2009
• This Happened #7, London, March 2009

• Advanced Beauty screening & artist talk at British Film Institute, London, 2008-11-15 (as part of Onedotzero)
• Semi-permanent, Auckland, August 2008
• Lovebytes International Arts Festival 2008, Sheffield, May 2008
• FMX 2008 conference, Stuttgart, May 2008
• Kitchen Budapest Social, Budapest, January 2008

• London Flash Platform User Group, October 2007
• Information Aesthetics Symposium, TodaysArt festival, The Hague, 2007
• Mediamatic, Amsterdam 2007
• BD4D, ICA London, 2007

• CyberSonica, CyberSalon/Dana Centre, London, 2006
• CyberSonica, CyberSalon/Dana Centre, London, 2005
• Soundtoys, Watershed/dshed, Bristol, 2005
• MediaRuimte, Brussels, 2004
• Sonar, Barcelona, 2004

• 4-day intensive Connected Systems/Interaction Design workshop with Processing/Eclipse, Umeå Institute of Design, Sweden, Nov 2-5, 2009
• 3-day intermediate workshop about data visualization with Processing @ CADA, Lisboa, April 20-22, 2009
• 3-day intensive Processing & Digital Fabrication workshop at Sheffield Hallam University, 02/2009
• Ad-hoc interactive workshop in Auckland with Joel Gethin-Lewis, Auckland, August 19, 2008
• Tinker.it H3: Arduino & Processing workshop (with Spencer Roberts), London, December 8-9, 2007

• Decode: Digital Design Sensations at Victoria & Albert Museum, Dec 2009 - April 2010 (3 contributions)
• Designing Seeds exhibition at Sheffield Institute of Art and Design, February 18th-March 4th, 2009
• Fid.Gen shortlisted & exhibited at Designs of the year 2009 exhibition @ Design Museum London, 02/2009
• Forever, with Universal Everything & Freefarm, Victoria & Albert museum London, Nov 2008 - Feb 2009
• Processing Light @ Maxalot, TodaysArt Festival, The Hague, 2008
• Advanced Beauty @ Lovebytes, Sheffield, 2008
• Generator @ San Francisco International Film Festival, 2008
• Design & The Elastic Mind @ Museum Of Modern Art, New York, 2008
• Information Aesthetics 2 @ TodaysArt festival, The Hague, 2007
• FURTHER PROCESSING, Medienturm, Graz, 2006
• Transposition, Ars Virtua Centre, Dowden (SecondLife), 2006
• FILE2005, Sao Paulo, 2005
• Web3dArt, SIGGRAPH, LA, 2005
• CyberSonica, CyberSalon/Dana Centre, London, 2005
• Soundtoys, Watershed/dshed, Bristol, 2005
• Cimatic Festival, Brussels, 2004
• MRini / Organic*ram, MediaRuimte, Brussels, 2004
• Web3dArt, SIGGRAPH, LA, 2004
• Sonar, Barcelona, 2004
• Digital Showcase, AMODA, Austin, 2004
• Coded Cultures, Super5, Vienna, 2004
• Test-Portal, NSDM, Amsterdam, 2003
• CyberSonica, CyberSalon / ICA, London, 2002

• 8-page feature & interview in Eye Magazine issue 74
• Feature in Dutch Items magazine, April issue 2009
• Feature in German PAGE magazine, April issue, 2009
• EYE Magazine issue 70 feature as part of an article about Digital Craft
• Creative Review 4-page studio feature about PostSpectacular, October 24, 2008
• Design Week "Rising Stars" feature (out 1st week in October)
• Creative Review, Faber Finds feature (print & online), 08/2008
• Print magazine Cover design & main feature, August 2008 issue, 08/2008
• Creative Review, Nokia Friends feature, 07/2008
• Unlimited magazine interview, New Zealand, 07/2008
• Eye Magazine, issue 65, Lovebytes feature, 10/2007
• Processing book contribution, MIT Press, USA, 09/2007
• Page Magazine: 6 page interview and feature about Processing, Germany, 09/2007
• Boards Magazine, online/print edition: interview about Processing in Motion Graphics, Canada, 08/2007
• Grafik magazine, Lovebytes feature, London, 05/2007
• Built with Processing book, artist feature, Japan, 05/2007
• IdN Magazine (issue v14n1) feature as part of 15 degrees series, Hong Kong, 02/2007
• Tres Logos contribution to logo compendium book, DgV, Germany, 11/2006
• MacPeople feature, Japan, 2006
• A Book Designed To Help, DgV, Berlin, 2005
• XFUNS feature as part of Processing article, Taiwan, 2004
• Neural.it, Online/Paper edition,Italy, 2003
• Cre@teOnline, 2 page interview and feature about Coming soon, UK, 2003
• E-Projects, Vol.2 book feature, HBI, Taiwan, 2002
• Director 8.5 Studio co-author and book outline, Friends Of Ed, UK, 2001
• Anime 72dpi, book & DVD, DgV, Berlin, 2001

“Understood in its totality, the spectacle is both the result and the goal of the dominant mode of production. It is not a mere decoration added to the real world. It is the very heart of this real society’s unreality. In all of its particular manifestations — news, propaganda, advertising, entertainment — the spectacle represents the dominant model of life. It is the omnipresent affirmation of the choices that have already been made in the sphere of production and in the consumption implied by that production. In both form and content the spectacle serves as a total justification of the conditions and goals of the existing system. The spectacle also represents the constant presence of this justification since it monopolizes the majority of the time spent outside the production process.”

Guy Debord, The Society of Spectacle, Thesis n° 6