Matthew Lee-Smith is an interdisciplinary designer, coder, researcher, and aspiring philosopher with a background and interest in posthumanism, discursive design, research through design, (post)human-computer interaction, and human-data interaction.

Matthew has a background in tinkering and experimenting with code, software, and technology. Starting out with building terrible flash games as a young teenager to undertaking a PhD focusing on questioning how we see data and technology. However, Matthew’s proudest achievement is how one exploration led to a tiny modification of Arduino’s Bluetooth code library.

Matthew’s research explores alternative interactions with technology and data through a ‘technological being framework’. This framework considers certain combinations of technology and information (data and code) as technological beings. These beings are not alive and do not need to adhere to the same rules as organic (living) beings. They instead can exist through different means and to different ends.

By starting from the perspective of these beings, asking how they might exist for themselves and manifest their existence, the research shifts the focus of design away from conventional human/user needs and does not seek to “solve problems”. Furthermore, it employs the techniques and applications of design and other disciplines to imagine and build physical examples of technological beings or be-things (entities which are part being, part thing) for consideration and interaction (with or without humans).