The work of Simon Mckeown is complex in many ways – including technologically. So how does someone get access to cutting edge motion capture software, editing facilities, programmers and kit?

Simon does so through the support and encouragement of the University of Teesside where he is a reader based in the Institute of Design, Culture and the Arts. He teaches 3D Animation and Post Production in the School of Computing.

It’s a great relationship – he gets a wage, commitment to teaching, research and access to facilities and people that others only dream about. The university too benefits enormously, Simon regularly lectures across the UK and increasingly internationally on his own work and the technology that makes it possible.

As for all artists, time can become a tension – how much can one spend on ones own work if one is also teaching others – but it’s a balance that he is happy to play with. The university is clearly proud of Simon and his work – his page currently links to over 12 articles written about his work in 2012 alone, including within The Times and the Times Higher Education Supplement.

If you want to see some of the equipment Simon gets to use, and hear not only about his own work but more generally about his take on disability portrayal on TV too, it’s worth spending some time watching his 2010 TEDx talk for TEDxTeesside, again produced through a partnership with the university and focusing on digital technology.