Digital Art and Technology with the School of Art and Media

Dan Efergan - Creative Director of Digital at Aardman Animations

Daniel has been the Creative Director of Digital at Aardman Animations for over five years. Within this role he spends a lot of time making games, forming online communities, inspiring kids to get involved in animation, developing multi-platform productions and solving other peoples’ digital problems. Dan was director of the Aardman team that won a BAFTA in New Media in 2011. 

Before joining Aardman, Dan was managing director of Subsub Skills and Production, a recruitment 'boutique' and production company and was both creative and technical lead on the Light Up Bristol digital arts festival. He was also the co-founder of the Submerge New Media Festival, a South West based festival celebrating the best digital new talent coming out of universities across the region. Dan is currently involved in The Tate Movie Project that makes use of digital communities, online tools and live events in a long-term production project.

Ruairi Glynn - interactive architect

Ruairi Glynn is an installation artist, curator, writer and teacher. In August 2012 he exhibited his largest and most ambitious artwork to date, titled “Fearful Symmetry”, at the Tate Modern in London. This interactive installation brought together robotics, sound, and light, with techniques borrowed from puppetry to animate the newly opened Tanks Gallery. Ruairi has also exhibited work at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the National Art Museum of China Beijing, Seoul’s Olympic Museum of Art, Sao Paulo’s Itau Cultural, Beall Center for Art + Technology in Los Angeles, the Madrid Art Fair, the Kunsthaus Graz and London Design Festival. 

Ruairi is currently Lecturer of Interactive Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, and Associate Lecturer on MA Textile Futures and MA Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins, University of Arts London. He also currently directs the Interaction Futures Research Cluster at the Bartlett School of Architecture.

Elixel

Elixel is a Plymouth-based digital creative agency set up by four graduates from digital art and technology.

"Without the teaching at University of Plymouth, Elixel just wouldn’t exist. Not only do they strive to teach new and emerging technologies, they encourage students to be entrepreneurial and think big."

Becky Veater, Technical Director of Elixel.

Elixel

Rachel Pizer

"I'm about to embark on a new adventure in digital consulting. The last five years were spent working at Comic Relief, both heading up the digital team and on innovation projects looking to future trends in technology. It's great to be able to do what I love and know that it's all for a great cause too! 

The key skills I learnt at Plymouth that help me in my job are the mix of creative, design and technical, as well as an understanding of user behaviour. These are key to both understanding what the digital strategy should be and in delivering it with my team. I'm currently inspired by the wave of social entrepreneurs in technology and am very excited about some of the future applications technology could have in this space." 

Mutant Labs

Based in Plymouth, Mutant Labs, who describe themselves as a new breed of 'media scientists’, specialise in unique interactive projects, iPhone development, flash development and web design.  

“After taking a module together on our course, myself and four of my course mates decided that starting a business and working together was something that we would like to explore after university. With such an uncertain future facing many graduates due to the economic slump, starting our own company seemed to make more sense. We could combine the skills learnt during our course to help us stand out by offering high-quality design and development services.”

Alex Ryley, Managing Director

Mutant labs