Community Organizing

links design practice with the people it serves and empowers them. The following events are a selection from over ten years of directing and curating public arts gatherings in New York City. They range from small-scale meetups focused on supporting local communities to large exhibitions with hundreds in attendance.

Workshops & Talks

are an essential part of the creative process. Presenting forces a designer to distill their ideas, methods, and intentions. Sharing ideas publicly strengthens a creator’s connection with their audience and exposes them to new insights and perspectives that can later inform their practice.

Destiny Clock

is modular system for generating musical compositions through the use of binary signals. This constraint challenges composers to program their songs rather than write or perform them. The most interesting work created with Destiny Clock often uses a root frequency that is then subdivided into a series of overlapping harmonic patterns.

Theseus

is a platform for designing modular electronic instruments. Building upon the Eurorack synthesizer standard, Theseus uses 3.5 mm patch cables to interconnect its modules. Unlike the Eurorack standard, this system is entirely digital and produces MIDI/OSC control messages. This simple alteration allows for more affordable module design and easier to understand schematics.

Kiwi Electronics

was a small electronics design studio specializing in the creation of hardware interfaces for navigating sonic and visual environments. Founded in 2011, Kiwi started off catering to the noise and chiptune music communities through DIY products such as MIDI interfaces and matrix mixers. The studio closed in 2017 with twelve published designs and over 500 customers served.

Games & Controllers

are the defining ingredients of digital play experiences. Simply changing the input method on a controller can radically alter the way a game is approached. The devices here celebrate what becomes possible when you breakaway from the confines of screens, D-pads, triggers, bumpers, analog sticks, and buttons.

Performance Tools

is a collection of musical and video instruments designed specifically for live performance. Each device focuses upon a simple concept that is then left to the performer to interpret. These instruments were typically used only once, as this practice encouraged more experimental and disposable designs.

Graphic Design

is a skill I have used almost every day of my professional life. Whether it’s creating a promotional poster for an event or simply making sure an email has a nice balance to it, I will always consider the user-focused principles of quality graphic design.

Brendan Byrne