Tom Barker (designer)

Tom Barker (born 1966) is a British designer and academic. He has held various appointments, including the Ontario College of Art and Design, Canada, the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, and the Royal College of Art, London.

SmartSlab cube, 2006 Mostra di Architettura di Venezia, (Venice Biennale of Architecture).

Barker invented SmartSlab,[1] a multimedia large scale digital LED display panel system,[2] in 1999, whilst working on a Millennium Dome zone with architect Zaha Hadid. Barker also developed the V/SpaceLAB virtual reality system for architecture which artists Langlands and Bell used for an exhibit at the Imperial War Museum in 2003.[3]

From 1997 to 2005, Barker ran DCA-b (later called b Consultants Ltd.), a multidisciplinary design practice.

Book

• Baker, Tom (2008). Weird Scenes from Inside the Goldmine: Innovating with Futuristic Technology and Amazing Materials in Design. Shoreditch: Black Dog Publishing. ISBN 978-1-906155-27-8.

References

1. Shelley, Tom (24 September 2007). "Dazzling future on display". Eureka engineering design magazine. Findlay Publications. Massively large displays have been developed that are strong enough to mount on the sides of buildings—or even form the floors of virtual reality environments. They are based on hexagonal LED cells in a honeycomb, which are optically more efficient than square cells and are addressed using a form of Ethernet.
2. Glynn, Ruairi (13 May 2005). "SMARTSLAB". Interactive Architecture.
3. Imperial War Museum (2003). "The House of Osama bin Laden - Langlands & Bell". IWM Collections. Archived from the original on 6 January 2009. Working with Tom Barker's V/SpaceLAB, Langlands and Bell used an interactive digital model to create a virtual exploration of the house and its surroundings.