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.

Bio

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.

Awards

Talks

2010

2009

2008

2007

Older...

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

Workshops

  • 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
  • Tinker.it H3: Arduino & Processing workshop (with Spencer Roberts), London, December 8-9, 2007

Exhibitions

  • 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

Books & press

About the name

“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
Last modified: 2010/02/16 16:47