BIOGRAPHY
My artistic practice explores the intersection between architecture, landscape and how they are seen through the lenses of photography, laser scanning and architectural animation. I make photographs, digital images and short films about these concerns.
In recent short films I’ve used 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. The scripts for these films have been developed from extensive research into online internet comments and interviews. I use digital 3D animation to re-enact and to dramatise the fault lines raised in these online debates considering 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 of the Best Fiction Short at the Architecture Film Festival London (2017). In 2019 I was selected to participate in Film London’s FLAMIN Fellowship development programme and the British Film Institute took my filmography into their archive.
e: maxdfcolson@gmail.com | m: +447 81 78 77 639
2019 CURRENT / UPCOMING
- FLAMIN Fellowship 2019, UK (Participant)
- Lumen Prize 2019, UK (Shortlisted)
- Loop Discover Award 2019, Spain (Shortlisted)
- DOK Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Germany (Screening and Talk)
- Brighton Digital Festival, UK (Group Exhibition)
- Cairo Video Festival, Egypt (Screening)
- Milano Design Film Festival (Screening)
- Unseen Amsterdam, Netherlands (Group Exhibition curated by Unseen Amsterdam)
- Picturing the City, Royal Academy, UK (Talk)
- 6×6 Project, Set Dalston, UK (Screening)
- Gateway Film Festival, Peterborough, UK (Screening)
EDUCATION
2013, MA Documentary Photography & Photojournalism, London College of Communication (Grade: Distinction)
2007, BA English Literature, University College London
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017, The Green and Pleasant Land, Arebyte, London
2015, Virtual Control, Royal Institute of British Architects, London
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2018
SPACE Art + Technology Programme Showcase, SPACE, London
London Creative Network Showcase, SPACE, London
Habitarium, La Condition Publique, France
2017
Life 2.0, The Wrong – New Digital Art Biennale
A Place for you to Dream, Republic Gallery, London [exhibiting with Felicity Hammond, Laura Yuile, and Katy Connor]
2016
BoTu: Back and Forth, Showroom MAMA, Netherlands
2015
Data Rush, Noorderlicht Gallery, Netherlands [exhibiting with Mari Bastashevski, Mark Curran, James Bridle, amongst others… ]
The Deleted World (curated by After), 5th Base Gallery, London
2014
Brighton Photo Fringe OPEN14, Victoria Gardens and Regency Townhouse, Brighton
My Secret Life, C/O Berlin, Germany
Cities Methodologies, Slade Research Centre, London
SELECTED FILM FESTIVALS AND SCREENINGS
2019
Vitrine gallery, UK (part of a series of screenings curated by William Noel Clarke)
Videorama, Werkleitz Centre for Media Art, Germany, UK
Concrete Revolution (with Xialou Guo), Bertha DocHouse London, UK (curated by UCL Urban Laboratory)
Shortwaves Festival, Poland
2018
World Architecture Festival, Amsterdam (screening Construction Lines)
Rendered Cities, Apex Art, New York (screening Construction Lines)
Sheffield Doc Fest, Sheffield (screening The Green and Pleasant Land)
Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Germany (screening Construction Lines)
61st International Leizig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Germany (screening The Green and Pleasant Land)
Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York (screening The Green and Pleasant Land)
Chicago Underground Film Festival, USA (screening Construction Lines)
2017
Tenderflix Shortlist Screening, RCA London (screening Construction Lines)
Kassel Dokfest, Germany (screening Construction Lines)
Architecture Film Festival London (screening Construction Lines)
Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands (screening Construction Lines)
Milano Film Festival, Italy (screening Construction Lines)
SELECTED AWARDS, RESIDENCIES, BURSARIES
2019
Film London FLAMIN Fellowship Programme, Participant
Artist Information Company Bursary, Recipient
2018
SPACE Art + Technology Residency, Selected
London Creative Network / SPACE Artist Development Programme, Selected
BFI Short Film Support Grant, Selected
2017
Tenderflix Artist Video Prize, Winner
Best Fiction Short, Architecture Film Festival London, Winner
Arebyte Gallery Residency Programme, Selected
2016
Showroom MAMA Artist Development Residency Programme, Netherlands, Selected
2015
Artquest / The Photographer’s Gallery, Peer Forum Award, Recipient
2014
Leverhulme Artist in Residence, Bartlett School of Architecture, London
2013
Magenta Flash Forward Emerging Photographers Competition, Shortlisted
C/O Berlin: ‘My Secret Life’ International Open competition, Shortlisted
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2019
‘Capital Culture’, Unseen Magazine #6, Netherlands
‘Max Colson satirises post-Brexit UK in a 3D-modelled animation‘, It’s Nice That, UK
2018
Anthology Book featuring Construction Lines, ‘Spots in Shots: Narrating the Built Environment in Short Film’ by Dr. Mélanie van der Hoorn (published by Nai010 Publishers)
Interview, SPACE Art and Technology Artist In Residence Interview (online)
2017
Essay, ‘The Green and Pleasant Land’ (commissioned for The Green and Pleasant Land exhibition at Arebyte gallery, written by Tom Jeffreys)
Article, Digicult, ‘Crude Golden Age: A Comment About the Green and Pleasant Land by Max Colson’ (online – article by Filippo Lorenzin)
Article, 2017 Hackney Citizen, ‘East End Exhibitions – Five of the Best for December 2017’ (print and online)
2016
Anthology Book featuring various projects, Engaged Urbanism: Cities and Methodologies, (book, edited by Prof. Ger Duijzings and Dr. Ben Campkin, published by I.B. Tauris)
Article, Vice, ‘An Artful Deconstruction of London’s Gentrification Problem’ (online)
Article, Space Magazine (Korea), ‘Art and Its Permutation into Urban Space’ (print – article by Jeong Hye Kim) snippets here
2015
Article, POSTmatter (online – written by Louise Benson)
Article, It’s Nice That, ‘Photographer Max Colson Captures Plant Life in the UK’s Most Secure Places’ (online)
Article, Architecture Today (print – review of Virtual Control exhibition by Anna Minton)
Icon magazine (print)
Article, Fast Company Design, ‘An Artists’ Series Exposes the Sneaky Classism of Architectural Renderings’ (online)
Article, It’s Nice That, ‘On the Digital Composite Images Used to Market Luxury Builds’ (online)
Interview, World Photography Organisation (online – interview by Matthew Oxley)
2014
Article, Urban Pamphleteer: Design and Trust (online and print)
Article, Super Massive BlackHole magazine (online)
2013
Anthology Book, Magenta Flash Forward 2013: Emerging Photographers from Canada, the UK and the USA (print)
Interview, Hotshoe International (online – interview by Matthew Oxley)
COLLECTIONS
2019 British Film Institute Archive
TEACHING
2015 to current date, Associate Lecturer, MA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins