Meet Dylan Diamond | Digital Artist, Electronic Music Producer, Roboticist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dylan Diamond and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dylan, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
My mother is a traditional visual artist and my father is a musician so it is no coincidence I share a passion for many different forms of creative work. However, despite these creative callings I decided to pursue a degree in Applied Physics at Georgia Tech with the hopes of eventually transfering that knowledge to robotics. At the time I viewed robotic engineering as an inspirational intersection of technology, math, physics, engineering, and design. After finishing my degree I finally got my wish of becoming an engineer. The job involved AI, supply chain automation, industrial robotics, and all the things I had originally aspired to do. And I was miserable. The creative element that I once thrived in was absent and I didn’t have enough time to devote to my personal projects. I realized that the creative work I had done all my life gave me much more purpose and energy than the technical utilitarian work. I decided to leave my normal job and pursue my passions of electronic music, 3D digital art and animation, and designer robotics.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I get so excited by so many different forms of creative digital media. I’ve been a traditional visual artist my whole life and started producing electronic music in high school. I’m currently producing work in 3D art and animation as well as learning game design. I have dreams that I can one day combine my skills in music production, visual arts, and engineering into one cohesive experience such as a video game or a live show.

Manic Machines is my artist name for my music. Like my visual art, my music is heavily inspired by dystopian science fiction tropes with a heavy emphasis on narrative and setting. I am more inspired to make music that tells an emotive story rather than making a dance floor hit. I also am producing my own digital visuals to accompany my work involving a robot character named “Jarvis”. I have had success producing music videos, and I plan to incorporate my music into game development.

In addition to my digital work I still very much enjoy building and tinkering with real world projects. My most recent endeavor “The Moss Clock” is a mechatronic timepiece that has twenty eight panels uniquely driven by their own respective gear train and servo (servos are similar motors). From a few feet away the clock really does resemble a seamless digital display. This was a very difficult project as prototyping involves lots of trial and error but was well worth the effort. The clock was even featured at a High Museum event for a night.

Through all my creative work I’ve noticed that to matter what I was doing there’s always some cross pollination between artforms. Meaning that skills, especially in the creative world, feed into each other a lot more than we may initially realize. I didn’t think learning photography would help my 3D modeling skills but now I have real world experience for lighting and rendering settings. I didn’t think learning physics would help my music production but now I have a much more in depth picture of wave interference and phase cancelations. Learning to deal with troubleshooting hobbyist robotics projects made me more resilient with the difficulties of creative works. I learned that in a way, all these skills are just different sides of the same die. With this in mind I aim to continue to follow all my passions to produce involved works that encompass every fascist of what I can do.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
It may seem obvious but, going to Piedmont Park on a nice day is pretty hard to beat. Weather its for a pick nick or a run it is sure to be a good day. Of course at some point in the week we would have to walk up and down the beltline, maybe grab snacks on the way. For dinner, depending how much we would want to spend, The Optimist has amazing seafood, Tabla for Indian, OK Yaki for Japanese, Starfish for Sushi, or Fat Matts for barbeque. Another day we would go to the High Museum and then walk to Colony Square for a drink. For bars we would see some live music to see in EAV. Finally shopping and seeing a movie Atlanta station would make for a fun afternoon.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Since starting my creative journey there have been a lot of uncertainties on what I was doing and how I was going to stay afloat to pursue my passions. Luckily I was able to start working for Terry at Terry Furuta Designs to continue honing in my creative skills and collaborate with. Terry Furuta Designs is a luxury flower and floral design shop locked in Corso Atlanta in Buckhead. Her work takes influences from traditional Japanese Ikebana arrangements and Avant Garde trends. I work as a photographer, videographer, and general technology manager for her. The opportunity has been a great part time opportunity for me to grow as an artist. We even collaborated on a robotic moss clock project which used real moving parts to move panels of moss to resemble a large digital clock.

Website: https://www.ddfreelance.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dylanhdiamond/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-diamond-1a9307a6/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZombieSlushy

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgl5qqgowtZ0JepkRVoOczg

Other: Music Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manicmachines/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@manicmachines?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc