About me

I am a productive and highly motivated digital designer with a wide range of skills that incorporates virtual reality, augmented reality, computer-generated art, motion graphics as well as interactive and creative technologies. Adapting my skills to develop new ideas is something I’m passionate towards. I love the creative possibilities of new technologies and try to bring energy and a fresh perspective to everything I do.

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Projects

• myPerception.alter();myPerception.alter(); (2018) is a 3D virtual environment and augmented reality installation, which highlights Catholic rituals and iconography through the use of poetry, visuals and abstract sounds. Growing up in Ireland, I always had an interest in the prevalence of Catholicism within Irish society but never an understanding of the rituals or their intent. This project visualises my perception of Catholic ritualistic practice and the deeper meaning of some of its common icons. Three Catholic icons that had personal significance were selected; Communion, a cup of tea and a sandwich, and The Rosary. In the installation, a console table is set up with these three objects on top of it. With a sustained personal interest in the potentials of technology as a means of hosting collective memory, this will inform the project’s uses of AR and VR; reflecting the awkward clashes between contemporary technology and pious religion. Augmented reality (AR) forms one part of this project; the user interacts with the three shelves, which display a number of objects that lets you discover poetic text, through Android device. This is a collaboration with Jarlath Mulhern, a Glasgow based writer and poet originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mulhern, who I share a similar background with, wrote three poems which describe the meaning of each of the objects. Through the AR the user sees the poetic text, granting further insight into the significance of each personally selected item. The objects on the shelves are a reflection of some of the imagery described in the poems. The second part of the project is a virtual reality (VR) experience hosted on a virtual reality headset. This VR environment presents essential elements to encourage thought and conversation towards the values of Catholicism in today’s society. In this virtual environment, the user first interacts with a virtual table identical to the one they encountered within the installation. The user selects an object on the table through head movements. Each object takes the user into a unique abstract environment which gives a visual representation of the meaning behind the personal perception of each iconographic entity.
• playSdWav1.play(“absolution”);playSdWav1.play(“absolution”); (2017), an interactive speaker which plays the absolution prayer, stemmed from an idea that I was thinking about when in the process of making Untitled. Questioning what it means to be a Catholic in contemporary society and what it means to represent yourself with its beliefs, I began thinking about how its repetitions can almost become mechanical or robotic. In Maurice Halbwachs’ writing, he discusses the idea of a collective memory shared with two or more members of a social group. My work describes the collective memory of Catholic ritual, shared between peers. In small Irish towns, like the one in which I grew up, communities perform a kind of theocracy, using religion as a mode of representation, without the actual commitment of attending church and living virtuously. Visiting churches throughout my childhood, one image that I found particularly striking, even comical, was the mechanised candle, triggered by inserting coins and replacing the traditional candle; the over-engineering of a traditionally spiritual process seems absurd. Similar to the electric votive candle, the device playSdWav1.play(“absolution”); will take the money and in return, it will say the absolution prayer and cleanse the sins of the user. This device fast tracks the process of having to go to confession and refects the awkward clashes between contemporary technology and pious religion. In this work I use the coin as a symbol of capitalism, using money as a tool to make your soul spiritually cleaner than the less wealthy. Within my work playSdWav1.play(“absolution”);, a microcontroller is connected to a distance sensor that triggers the audio, programmed in software called Arduino. The audio in this work was designed to sound mechanical and have a rapid style; this produced the jarring aesthetic I was looking for, inserting the technological into the religious.
• ReflectionThis brief required us to create an abstract sculpture based on the notion of ‘identity’ by exploring the native characteristics offered by; a 3D printer and its filament, laser cutter or paper sculpture. With this brief giving a starting point it gives us the basis of creating an abstract representation of myself in the form of a bust (head and shoulders) whilst considering how identity transcends different media, 3D renders versus physical aesthetic, moving from the digital into the physical realm and access to the 3D printer should give more control and prototyping possibilities.
• Snapchat GeofiltersUsing the social media app Snapchat I was interested in the geofilters that can be used. The geofilters will appear when you’re in various locations within the app and you can use the filter within your ‘snap’ which you send to your social group. With various locations that I’m in from day to day, these geofilters didn’t appear so I decided to make them myself for the application. One for my university, workplace and my hometown. In April 2018, with all my live geofilters combined I’ve got over 5.2 million views.
• Late Night NonsenseThrough personal experience listening to drunk people can either be the worth thing in the world or sometimes the funniest. Working in a cinema that sells alcohol I regularly bump into customers that I frankly don’t have the patience for. As I started to think about my own patience and how easily I get irritated I started to think about other peoples jobs. Mine was had a very minimal impact towards it, how do bartenders stick it? How do taxi drivers feel?
• Diorama

Work history

New Designers ExhibitorNEW DESIGNERS
Jul 2018London, United KingdomFreelance
I'll be exhibiting my work at New Designers 2018 on the 4th - 7th July at stand #VC23.

Skills

• Digital Design
• Interaction Design
• UX Design
• Abobe Creative Suite
• 3D Artist
• Unity3d
• Virtual Reality
• Augmented Reality
• Arduino
• 3D Maya

Education

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BA (Hons) Interaction DesignThe Glasgow School of Art
Sep 2014Glasgow, United Kingdom
In Interaction Design, I learn and understand the fundamentals of code in an accessible manner alongside visual thinking and creative problem-­solving. When combined these aptitudes gives access to a fully­ featured and essential digital toolset. Skills and confidence are developed through supported exercises, which form the building blocks of knowledge and techniques, which can be quickly applied to the creative problems set in project briefs. Common projects include the process of digitisation, data visualisation, 3D form generation, contemporary narrative structures, interaction design, procedural drawing and motion graphics. The projects change year on year to reflect the fast ­pace of innovation in digital culture.