Roy Mohan Shearer

My RCS official bio:

Roy Mohan Shearer grew up in Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire, and has lived in Glasgow since 2001, where he studied Product Design Engineering at Glasgow University and Glasgow School of Art. He initially worked as a design engineer and maker, specialising in prototyping and digital fabrication. In 2010 Roy was awarded funding by the then Scottish Arts Council to collaborate with researchers at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design experimenting with Open Design methods in DIY electronic products. This sparked his ongoing interest in programming, electronics and interaction design. Since 2016 he has been a consultant technician for artists, designers and small manufacturers. In 2018 he was awarded a commission by the Edinburgh International Science Festival, and created the interactive motion tracking installation Be The Goalie. This was followed by another commission with theatre designer and puppet maker Fergus Dunnet to create a reactive animatronic called The Elevark. Both successfully toured in subsequent years to science festivals around the UK. He again collaborated with Dunnet in 2022, providing electronic design and programming for The Dab Hands, commissioned by Manipulate Festival. He has at various times also worked with NVA, The Stove, National Theatre of Scotland, Soundplay Projects, MK Music, Civic House, Starcatchers, Ecodrama, Imaginate, The Glad Cafe, WaveParticle, and Guy Veale.

Alongside consultancy, Roy has worked longer term as a technician for a few notable Glasgow organisations: Bike for Good (wrangling the Glasgow fleet of city bikes), MK Whistles (manufacturing Low D whistles), EGG Lighting (remanufacturing architectural light fittings), and John Galvin Design (manufacturing luxury sculptural collectibles for the whisky industry)

Roy is also a musician and has performed in stage productions with Scottish Dance Theatre at the South Bank Centre, and in more than 120 pantomime performances at the Gaeity Theatre, Ayr. In 2016 he produced and performed in Cymbals, Snare and Kick - a series of three solo site specific percussion performances exploring spaces, light and mechanical contraptions. He regularly performs with alt-folk trio Hank Tree, amongst other bands, and has featured on 15 record releases.

In recent years Roy has developed his technical skills further towards stage and live events, and has recently gained experience as a LX technician and lighting designer at venues such as the Glad Cafe and the O2 Academy, and at the Kelburn Garden Party Festival. He is now looking forward to enhancing his technical and management skills by studying Production Technology and Management, with a focus on Stage Technology.

External links

Find out more about Zero One, my ongoing freelance technical work, here.

Find out more about my performance work here.