PUBLIC SPEAKING
I’ve had the opportunity to speak about art, technology, and creative systems at conferences and universities around the world, including:
3D Festival (Denmark)
ACE Conference (South Korea)
Annecy Animation Festival (France)
BAFTA (UK)
Beijing Film Academy (China)
Creative Media Industry Forum (Denmark)
Effects MTL (Canada)
FMX (Germany)
Kre8tif! (Malaysia)
LEAF (UK)
MOVE Summit (Edinburgh)
Pixelatl (Mexico)
Rendr Festival (Northern Ireland)
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH Asia
SXSW (USA)
THU (Portugal)
Vertex Conference (UK)
VIEW Conference (Italy)
PODCASTS, ARTICLES & ART BATTLES
Bunny, Teapot, and Legends Unveiled — ACM SIGGRAPH | 2023
CG Garage Episode #401 — Chaos | 2022
From VR to 3D Print — Substance Magazine | 2020
Evolving Technology in Animation — Artstation | 2020
Road to Tokyo VR Sculpt Battle — Reality Show Competition | 2019
ABOUT DYLAN SISSON
Artist • Technologist • Creative Systems
BIO
I’ve spent most of my career exploring what happens where art and technology intersect, and occasionally collide.
Early on I was an indie artist … I wrote and illustrated a comic book and experimented creating animated shorts. One of those early pieces received the Best Computer Animated Short award at the Ani.Mar Festival in Mallorca, Spain, which ended up opening a few doors.
In 1999 I joined Pixar Animation Studios and began working with the RenderMan team. Over the years my role has grown into something a bit unusual: helping connect artists and engineers while exploring how creative tools influence the images artists are able to make.
Tools aren’t neutral. They quietly shape what artists try, what results are possible, and directly impact the creative process.
Alongside my work at Pixar, I maintain a personal studio practice that moves between drawing, painting, sculpture, digital experimentation, and emerging media. Many of those experiments start as simple curiosities and eventually feed back into conversations about rendering, stylization, and creative systems.
I’ve also had the chance to speak about these ideas at conferences and universities including SIGGRAPH, FMX, VIEW Conference, Annecy Animation Festival, and BAFTA.
At the center of all of it is a simple question:
How do the tools we build shape what artists imagine?
SOLO SHOWS
SIGGRAPH, 2023 – Los Angeles
Modern Relics, 2010 – San Francisco
Zeitgeist, 2004 – Seattle
RealNetworks HQ, 2003 – Seattle
GROUP SHOWS
Gallery F, 2019 – Chicago
Sketchbook Project Tour, 2015 – USA
111 Minna Gallery, 2014 – San Francisco
WWA Gallery, 2013 – Los Angeles
Incline Gallery, 2011 – San Francisco
Varnish Fine Art, 2011 – San Francisco
WWA Gallery, 2011 – Los Angeles
Toy Art Gallery, 2010 – Los Angeles
WWA Gallery, 2010 – Los Angeles
Varnish Fine Art, 2009 – San Francisco
Mickey Halo Show, 2009 – Hong Kong
POVevolving Gallery, 2009 – Los Angeles
Varnish Fine Art, 2008 – San Francisco
The Showroom NYC, 2008 – New York
Windup Gallery, 2008 – Mesa
Gallery 1988, 2007 – San Francisco
Varnish Fine Art, 2007 – San Francisco
Windup Gallery, 2007 – Mesa
Varnish Fine Art, 2006 – San Francisco
SIGGRAPH, 2004 – Los Angeles
Zeitgeist, 2003 – Seattle
Roq La Rue, 2003 – Seattle