Dan McPharlin: Design, Sculpture, Illustration: Dan McPharlin was born in Adelaide, Australia in 1977. After studying Visual Arts at university he began working as an independent artist and designer. Working across various media, he developed a unique style of work that drew on early modernism, science fiction, surrealism and victoriana.

Dan’s parallel work in sound art and electronic music often influences his visual output, the Analogue Miniatures series being a good example. These tiny models of fictional synthesizers and recording equipment were inspired by Japanese capsule toys and the vintage aesthetic of cluttered analogue control panels.

Dan has produced work for record sleeves (as featured on Steve Jansen’s ‘Slope’), magazines, books and websites, and has exhibited his work in Australia and overseas.He explains his interest in miniatures this way:

… I’ve always been interested in human/machine interfaces and I think analogue synths and equipment are quite exciting visually because of all the knobs and sliders (usually one control for every function). I always wanted to design a synth but lacked the skills and resources, and making small models was something I could do.

As far as I was aware nobody had built miniature synths before. I was already building small sculptures out of framing mattboards so this seemed like a logical step.

How long does it take to make one?

Generally I’ll spend 2 to 3 days on each model, but I’m a perfectionist so if something isn’t right I will always redo it.

Can anyone buy one?

They can, but there is a bit of a wait. I have my hands full with other projects at the moment but hopefully in the second half of 2008 there will be some more available. In the meantime, we are working towards a few exhibitions in the US and Japan where people will have the chance to purchase.

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