For some, working between the worlds of art, design, craft and technology seems like a part of your everyday workflow. For inventor Dominic Wilcox, these means literally taking objects and ideas from across the widest points of any given scale and merging them into singular concepts that mix the four disciplines to create innovative and thought-provoking objects.
Among other projects that the inventive Wilcox has completed include a stained glass driverless car, a Binaudios device to listen to the sounds of an urban environment, a pair of shoes with built-in GPS functionality to guide a wearer to a given destination and a race involving a 3D printer of all things.
On his blog Variations on Normal, he shares some of his wilder concepts in the form of loose sketches that feature concepts ranging from a screw-in shoe/table combo to a “snoring solution device” that simultaneously relays a person’s snore directly into a pair of headphones while they’re sleeping in an effort to help them become more aware of the sleep habits.
According to fellow British designer Thomas Heatherwick, “Dominic Wilcox’s drawings aren’t just witty and beautifully drawn, they are serious challenges to the real world to keep looking at itself with innocent eyes, wondering what else is possible.”
In this short film by filmmaker Liam Saint Pierre, we get a behind-the-scenes look at the inventive mind of Wilcox and learn why sometimes the best way to get from point A to point B with concept generation is to “Do the ridiculous and by doing the ridiculous something else might come of it.”
“I’ve convinced myself that within everything that surrounds us, there are hundreds of ideas and connections waiting to be found. We just need to look hard enough. Some of my ideas develop from observations on human behaviour and I express them through the objects I create. I also experiment with materials to try to find surprises that can’t be found simply by thinking with a pen or a computer.”
Be sure to check out all of Wilcox’s work over at DominicWilcox.com.