Design in Dialogue returns for a conversation with Tom Dixon, recorded recently from his London studio. This versatile, even chameleonic innovator has reinvented himself many times over the course of his long career. In our conversation, we return to his early days as an enfant terrible of the British scene. As a leading exponent of the Creative Salvage movement – featured in Friedman Benda’s exhibition Accidents Will Happen – Dixon pioneered a style of improvisatory bricolage, often incorporating industrial castoffs and vintage metal scrap. At once generative and dystopian, opportunistic and avant garde, this DIY methodology gradually expanded into more sophisticated techniques. Yet Dixon’s work has never lost the immediacy with which it began. In our interview, which also features contributions from guest curator Gareth Williams, we explore his transition from music to design, the characters and settings of 1980s London, and the legacy of Creative Salvage today.
Watch the conversation here:
Inaugurated in April 2020 in response to the pandemic lockdown, Design in Dialogue began as a way simply to keep the conversation going, and offer a meeting place for the design community.
Over time, the series has become an opportunity to expand the dialogue in unprecedented ways, exploring the breadth and diversity of design. Guests are able to speak safely and freely, in a conversational format offering audiences access to the full dimension of their practices.
We have recorded dialogues with over a hundred designers, makers, artists, architects, critics, historians, writers and curators, and heard them discuss their work and ideas in-depth, direct and unfiltered. To date, the series has been viewed over 700,000 times through our two channels (YouTube and Vimeo) and our distribution partners Dezeen and Designboom.
The world is shifting gears again now, as online connection gives way once more to in-person events. With this in mind, we have decided to transition from our regular weekly broadcast. Design in Dialogue will still continue in the fall of 2021 and beyond, with occasional new interviews. The archive will remain freely viewable in perpetuity, serving as a vital primary source of this moment.
