BIOGRAPHY

I am an artist and film-maker based in London, England. My current practice focuses on using short film to explore how architecture and landscape is debated in popular culture. I use experimental digital architectural animation techniques to dramatise how specific locations and architectures can become vessels for conflicting points of view about identity, local community values and those of society at large.

I develop scripts for my films based on extensive research into online internet comments and interviews. I’m very interested in using digital 3D animation to re-enact and to dramatise the fault lines raised in these online debates and their relationship to real and imaginary constructions.

My films have been selected to screen at internationally recognised film festivals including Sheffield Doc Fest (2018), DOK Leipzig (2018), Hamburg International Short Film Festival (2018), and the BAFTA-qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival (2017+2018). I’ve had solo exhibitions at the Royal Institute of British Architects (2015) and Arebyte (2017) and been shown in groups shows in Europe. I have been a recipient of the Tenderflix/Tenderpixel Artist Video Award (2017) and also was named winner Best Fiction Short at the Architecture Film Festival London (2017). I am an Associate Lecturer on MA Graphic Communication Design at Central Saint Martins.

e: maxdfcolson@gmail.com | m: +447 81 78 77 639

EDUCATION

2013 MA Documentary Photography & Photojournalism, London College of Communication (Grade: Distinction)
2007 BA English Literature, University College London

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS / FILM SCREENINGS

2018

Sheffield Doc Fest 2018, Sheffield, UK                                                                                                                                                                     Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Germany                                    DOK Leipzig: 61st International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Germany                                                                          Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York
Chicago Underground Film Festival, USA
Space Art and Technology Programme Showcase, SPACE, London, UK                                                                                                                  Rendered Cities (screening), Apexart, USA (New York)                                                                                                                                                          London Creative Network Showcase, SPACE, London, UK                                                                                                                                               Habitarium, La Condition Publique, France                                                                                                                                            Bolton International Film Festival, UK

2017

Tenderflix 2017, Royal College of Art, London
The Green and Pleasant Land, Arebyte gallery, London
Life 2.0, The Wrong – New Digital Art Biennale (group show curated by Isthisit?)
Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York
Kassel Dokfest, Germany
Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR), Netherlands
Milano Film Festival, Italy
Compilation Angst, KOE-05 gallery, Berlin, Germany
Architectural Film Festival London, ICA and Oxo Bargehouse, London
A Place for you to Dream (curated by ANGL), Republic Gallery, London [exhibiting with Felicity Hammond, Laura Yuile and Katy Connor]

2016

BoTu: Back and Forth, Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam, Netherlands [exhibiting with Michiel Cox, Max Colson, Dries Depoorter, Douwe Dijkstra and Bastien Gachet]

2015

Virtual Control: Security and the Urban Imagination, Royal Institute of British Architects, London
Induction Loop, PAMELA, London
The Deleted World (curated by After), 5th Base Gallery, London
Data Rush, Noorderlicht Gallery, Holland [exhibiting with Mari Bastashevski, Mark Curran, James Bridle, amongst others… ]

2014 – 2010

2014 Cities Methodologies, Slade Research Centre, London
2014 Brighton Photo Fringe OPEN14 shortlist, Victoria Gardens & Regency Townhouse, Brighton
2013 My Secret Life, C/O Berlin , Berlin
2013 Never Seeing Nothing, London College of Communication, London
2013 Cities Methodologies, Slade Research Centre, London
2010 A Luta Continua, Side Gallery, Newcastle

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND ARTICLES

2018 ‘Spots in Shots: Narrating the Built Environment in Short Film’ by Dr. Mélanie van der Hoorn (book published in the Netherlands by Nai010 Publishers)                                                                                                                                                                                                                  2017 ‘The Green and Pleasant Land’ (print and online – essay commissioned for The Green and Pleasant Land exhibition at arebyte gallery, written by Tom Jeffreys)
2017 Digicult, ‘Crude Golden Age: A Comment About the Green and Pleasant Land by Max Colson’ (online – article by Filippo Lorenzin)
2017 Hackney Citizen, ‘East End Exhibitions – Five of the Best for December 2017’ (print and online)
2017 London Art Journal blog (online – written by Giulia Pistone)
2016 Engaged Urbanism: Cities and Methodologies, (book, edited by Prof. Ger Duijzings and Dr. Ben Campkin, published by I.B. Tauris)
2016 Space Magazine (Korea), ‘Art and Its Permutation into Urban Space’ (print – article by Jeong Hye Kim) snippets here
2016 Vice, ‘An Artful Deconstruction of London’s Gentrification Problem’ (online)
2015 POSTmatter (online – written by Louise Benson)
2015 The Guardian (online)
2015 It’s Nice That, ‘Photographer Max Colson Captures Plant Life in the UK’s Most Secure Places’ (online)
2015 Architecture Today (print – review of Virtual Control exhibition by Anna Minton)
2015 Icon magazine (print)
2015 Fast Company Design, ‘An Artists’ Series Exposes the Sneaky Classism of Architectural Renderings’ (online)
2015 It’s Nice That , ‘On the Digital Composite Images Used to Market Luxury Builds’ (online)
2015 Because Magazine (online)
2015 Failed Architecture (online – review of Virtual Control exhibition by Mark Minjan)
2015 Noorderlicht Photofestival Catalogue (print)
2015 LOBBY Magazine (online and print)
2014 Urban Pamphleteer: Design and Trust (online and print)
2014 Super Massive BlackHole magazine (online)
2013 Magenta Flash Forward 2013: Emerging Photographers from Canada, the UK and the USA (print)
2013 Wild Culture (online)
2013 Darwin Photography Magazine (online)
2013 aCurator (online)

INTERVIEWS

2018 SPACE Art and Technology Artist In Residence Interview (online)
2017 Sink (online – interview by Mati Jhurry)
2015 World Photography Organisation (online – interview by Matthew Oxley)
2014 Darwin Photography Magazine (online – interview by Ryan Grimley)
2013 Hotshoe International (online – interview by Matthew Oxley)

AWARDS

2018 Lumen Digital Art Prize, Moving Image Category, Longlisted                                                                                                                              2017 Tenderflix International Experimental Film and Video Competition, Winner
2017 Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2017, Official Selection
2017 Architecture Film Festival London 2017, Winner of Fiction Short category
2017 Jerwood/FVU Awards 2017, Longlisted (last 17)
2016 Jerwood/FVU Awards 2016, Longlisted (last 20)
2015 Fotomuseum Winterthur, Plat(t)form 2016, Longlisted
2015 Jerwood Photoworks Portfolio Walk, Selected
2015 Artquest / The Photographer’s Gallery, Peer Forum Award Recipient
2015 Noorderlicht Photofestival 2015 Open Call, Selected
2015 After Projects’ Open Call, Selected
2014 Leverhulme Trust Artist in Residence Fellowship, University College London
2014 Brighton Photo Fringe OPEN14 , Shorlisted
2013 C/O Berlin: ‘My Secret Life’ International Open competition, Shortlisted
2013 Magenta Flash Forward Emerging Photographers competition, Shortlisted

RESIDENCIES / COMMISSIONS

2018 London Creative Network/ SPACE Artist Development Programme , London (April – September 2018)                                                    2018 Space Studios: HereNow Art and Technology Residency Programme, London (January – March 2018)
2017 Arebyte gallery ‘Control’ Residency Programme , London (March – May 2017)
2016 Showroom MAMA Rookies MA Residency Programme, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2014 – 2015 Leverhume Trust Art Residency at UCL Urban Laboratory , London (September 2014 – September 2015)

PUBLIC TALKS

2017 Interfaces Monthly (keynote presentation on the theme ‘Societies of Control’), the Trampery/ Barbican, London
2015 Perspectives on the Neoliberal City (panel discussion chaired by Anna Minton), Canary Wharf Executive Development Centre
2015 Photography for Prosperity, UCL Institute for Global Prosperity
2015 Photography and Manipulation: Documenting Virtual Control (discussion with Lewis Bush), Royal Institute of British Architects
2015 Defining Forms of Control in the Contemporary City (chaired panel discussion featuring James Bridle, Dr. Nathan Moore and Dr. Clare Melhuish), Royal Institute of British Architects
2014 Cities Methodologies, UCL Slade Research Centre, London
2014 UCL Geography Department, London
2013 Design Out Crime Association conference, Central St Martins, London
2013 Cities Methodologies, Slade Research Centre, London

TEACHING

2015 – 2016 Associate Lecturer, Central Saint Martins, MA Communication Design
2015 Visiting Practitioner, Central Saint Martins, MA Communication Design