He is the co-founder of Jafflechutes, the world's first airborne jaffle delivery service, creator of the video game snack dispenser Snackade, and worked closely on This Bike Has MS, a campaign to raise awareness of the invisible symptoms of multiple sclerosis. His most recent work is Sans Forgetica, a typeface specifically designed to increase memory retention, developed in collaboration with academics from RMIT University. Adam is currently Creative Director at the global innovation and experience design agency, AKQA.
Common Campfire
Adam’s initial idea came through noting that as individuals, we 'warm' ourselves with the lights from our personal electronic devices. So comforting are they that we're often loath to ignore them even when in the presence of others, with isolating effect. This work created another socially generated, comforting glow to challenge that isolation, and unlock an area of the city that may otherwise have been neglected.
Common Campfire’s light installation mimics the tantalising dance of a traditional, flame-lit campfire. Using motion sensing equipment, the ‘flame’ of the Crowdsourced Campfire grows larger and more elaborate as increasing numbers of people crowd around it. The heat of the fire comes not from the lights themselves, but from the people who sit and stand beside each other to experience the simple light show.
Adam noted he is drawn to small ideas that entice people – usually strangers – to interact with each other in urban environments. The work tests people's willingness to gather in a public space to share a relatively intimate, simple experience and explores Adam’s emerging hypothesis that people's openness to engage with those around them can be 'switched on' easily through small but meaningful novelties.