Nic Whyte
Founding Principal, Art Processors & CEO, Pladia - on Phrontisterion, Mona's new Library & rewriting the usual rules
Nic Whyte is a creative technologist and Founding Principal of Art Processors, an experience design company working with cultural institutions in Australia and internationally, including Mona, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Getty, the Bob Dylan Center and the National Civil Rights Museum. With a background in design and engineering, he joined Mona in 2006, five years before the museum opened, and led development of The O, the first spatially aware visitor guide built to replace wall labels in a museum. He co-founded Art Processors in 2011 with Tony Holzner to deliver that work at scale. He is also Chief Executive Officer of Pladia, a spatial publishing platform and visitor guide that emerged from the work at Mona and other leading institutions, now used by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the South Australian Museum, White Bay Power Station, and the Peabody Essex Museum to make their venues and collections more accessible. Most recently Nic led the design of the technology behind Phrontisterion, Mona's new library, which holds more than 30,000 books in no fixed order and no Dewey, and identifies every one by photographing its spine.
Nic Whyte serves as an unpaid board member and volunteer for Material Institute. Material Institute runs food education programs, social enterprises, and community events, most notably through 24 Carrot Gardens, which currently operates in twenty-four schools across Lutruwita / Tasmania, delivering hands-on experiences for children to learn how to grow, cook, and eat healthy produce.
