Creative Tech Week

Located at ArtCenter’s South Campus, the immersion lab hosts eight workstations and a dynamic technology library that includes a diverse array of virtual/mixed reality headsets, cameras motion capture suits, and sensor devices.

As a transdisciplinary resource, the Immersion Lab serves as a center for students, faculty and the spatial computing community to exchange skills and ideas, advancing the discourse around the future of augmented reality, mixed reality, virtual reality and everything in between. Join us for an open house to learn all about this resource and get your hands on some of the tech!

Jenny Rodenhouse

Jenny Rodenhouse is an interaction designer based in Los Angeles. She is the Associate Chair of the Interaction Design BS program and the Faculty Director of the Immersion Lab at ArtCenter College of Design.

This documentary film offers a deep dive into the many sides of Stewart Brand—creator of The Whole Earth Catalog, an influential member of Ken Kesey’s “The Merry Pranksters,” and founder of the modern environmental movement. Brand’s approach to his work and life influenced many, including Steve Jobs, who have gone on to shape our modern world. Now in his 80’s, he looks to leave a legacy for the long-term future with his efforts to resurrect ecosystems through de-extinction.

The screening will be followed by Q&A with co-executive producer Everett Katigbak (BFA 06 Graphic Design).

Everett Katigbak

Everett is the brand design lead at Anthropic, an artificial intelligence safety research firm focused on aligning AI with human values and building safe AI infrastructure. He is a storyteller, designer, and failed musician residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, who assists emerging companies in developing their brand identities.

What does it mean to be a futurist at ArtCenter? Our faculty represent a diverse range of futurist perspectives spanning foresight, speculative fiction and imaginaries. How do their practices intersect with creative technology and design? Where are they seeing opportunities for creatives to contribute in this space?

After the forum, join the panelists and ArtCenter community for an on-campus reception with refreshments.

Session curated by ArtCenter Professor and Futurist Julian Scaff

Panelists: Mashinka Hakopian, Richard Pelletier, Petra Wennberg, Sean Donahue, Tim Durfee

Julian Scaff

Julian Scaff is the Associate Chair of the Interaction Design MDes program at ArtCenter College of Design. His areas of expertise lie in interaction design, design research, HCI, and futurecasting.

Mashinka Hakopian

Mashinka Firunts Hakopian is an Armenian writer, artist, and researcher with expertise in technology and social justice. Her research delves into producing alternative imaginaries of the future by studying cultural practices.

Richard Pelletier

Richard Pelletier won the IDSA Gold award for “The Definitive Autonomous Car Experience,” in 2018 for his Lincoln Moonshot Advanced UX Design project. Richard has built and proven deep expertise in leading automotive context research, advanced design vision setting, design strategy and implementation of physical and digital experiences. 

Petra Wennberg

Petra is an early internet pioneer with extensive experience designing effective brands and digital products for both Startups and Fortune 500 companies. Born in Sweden, she studied communication design at ArtCenter College of Design (Europe) in Switzerland, then completing her BFA in Graphic Design at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.

Sean Donahue

Sean Donahue is internationally recognized for his social justice driven design research. He in teaches in ArtCenter's Graduate Media Design Practices program and is principal of RCD/LA, his award-winning California based Design studio. 

Tim Durfee

Tim Durfee's diverse solo and collaborative projects range in discipline, scale, and context and have been honored by the American Institute of Architects, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Architizer, PRINT, and BUILD. 

Jenny Liang and Natalie Barrett shed light on the current state of geospatial systems and why it is important for artists and designers to imagine and develop new ways to work with the data and technology underlying satellites, sensors and earth observation.

Jenny Liang

Jenny is an innovation expert, educator and scientist focused on developing equitable emerging technologies. She is a founder of Four Resolutions, a startup that develops aerospace applications for cities, and is the Chief Innovation Officer, Board Member and Secretary General of Sostento, a nonprofit serving frontline healthcare workers.

Natalie Barrett

Natalie Barrett serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center and a Loomis Council Member at the Stimson Center. While at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), she primarily focused on human-machine teams, artificial intelligence, advanced communications and climate strategy.

With climate-related disasters on the rise and the "Silver Tsunami" upon us, today’s 15% of the world’s population living with a disability is expanding. Our designed world, therefore, ought to be accessible. Join disabled designers, Joshua Halstead and Zebreda Dunham, as they inventory their own creative and critical practices around making access.

Joshua Halstead (he/him)

Joshua Halstead is an Assistant Professor and Faculty Director at ArtCenter College of Design's Designmatters department. He specializes in exploring the intersection of critical disability studies, philosophy of technology, and design ethics.

Zebreda Dunham (she/her)

Born with a disability, Zebreda Dunham is a MacGyver-like designer of accessible worlds. From inventing devices to open doors, handle scissors, and play soccer, to tinkering with the body itself as an assistive technology, Dunham navigates independence by bringing together unlikely ideas, objects, and communities. Taken together, Dunham’s body of work points toward a future that is creatively (and unapologetically) accessible.

How are creatives adapting, blending and merging existing technologies to develop new modes of virtual production for entertainment and game design? Learn how traditional camera systems, sound stages and post-production techniques are transforming into a new mode of creative making.

Eddy V.

Eddy founded YaKnowLike studios in 2017, an Extended Reality (XR) technology and production syndicate and full-service experiential creative agency based in Southern California that fuses cognitive research, technology, and art. Eddy is also Director of LAVA (Los Angeles Video Artists) —a community of video artists and creative technologists working primarily in the field of immersive experiential digital art.