Thwaites in 2011 at Poptech in Maine
Toaster and casing from "The Toaster Project", on display in the V&A in September 2022

Thomas Thwaites is a British designer and writer. He describes himself as "a designer (of a more speculative sort), interested in technology, science, futures research & etc."[1]

Thwaites studied economics and biology at University College London and in 2009 gained an MA in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art.[2]: 192 

In a nine-month project as part of his MA course, Thwaites attempted to build a toaster from scratch. The project was inspired by a quote from Douglas Adams' 1992 novel Mostly Harmless: "Left to his own devices he couldn't build a toaster. He could just about make a sandwich, and that was it."[2]: 35  A toaster has about 400 components: he simplified the materials list to copper, steel, plastic, mica and nickel and attempted to mine, refine, and otherwise process all the raw materials needed.[3] He published The Toaster Project: Or a Heroic Attempt to Build a Simple Electric Appliance from Scratch (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011: ISBN 978-1568989976), and gave a TED talk "How I Built a Toaster - From Scratch".[4] The tools and artefacts from the project are on display as an installation in the Victoria and Albert Museum, in room 76 "Design 1900 to Now".[5]

The Toaster Project installation at V&A August 2017

He later spent several days living among goats in the Alps, using prosthetic goat-like legs and eating grass using an artificial rumen, to explore the life of goats.[6][7] This resulted in GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human (Princeton Architectural Press, 2016; ISBN 978-1616894054) and an IgNobel Prize.[8]

In January 2017 he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Museum of Curiosity. His hypothetical donation to the imaginary museum was a history book written in 2222AD, covering the present time.[9]

In 2017–2018 he was a visiting professor in the Industrial Design department of Rhode Island School of Design.[1][10]

References

  1. 1 2 "Hello". Thomas Thwaites. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  2. 1 2 Thwaites, Thomas (2011). The Toaster Project. Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 978-1-56898-997-6.
  3. ↑ Cangeloso, Sal. "Nine month project to build a toaster from scratch results in a book, toaster-like monstrosities". Geek. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  4. ↑ "How I built a toaster — from scratch". TED. 12 January 2011. Retrieved 15 January 2017. Includes link to video of full talk
  5. ↑ "The Toaster Project". Collections. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  6. ↑ Barkham, Patrick (15 May 2016). "No kidding: what I learned from becoming GoatMan". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  7. ↑ Graham, Chris (28 May 2016). "No kidding: Why Thomas Thwaites lived as a goat in Switzerland". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  8. ↑ "Ig Nobel win for Alpine 'goat man'". BBC News. 23 September 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  9. ↑ "The Museum of Curiosity: Series 10, Episode 1". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  10. ↑ "Thomas Thwaites". Industrial Design: Faculty. Rhode Island School of Design. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
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