Speakers

Amy Balkin: Session III: New Artistic Practices in the Culture of Ecology

Artist examining how humans impact their social and environmental spaces through collaborative interventions like This Is Public Domain (an investigation into transferring land to the "global public"), and Public Smog.

Francesco Bonami: Session I: Challenging Cultural, Political and Formal Boundaries

Manilow Senior Curator at large at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and Artistic Director of Fondazione Sandretto ReRebaudengo per l’Arte in Turin, and the Fondazione Pitti Discovery in Florence.

David Buckland: Session II: Conversation

Artist and creator of the Cape Farewell project, a series of expeditions to the High Artic bringing together artists, scientists and educators to create artworks, films and public information programs to raise awareness of climate change.

Stephen Burks: Session I: Challenging Cultural, Political and Formal Boundaries

Designer whose Readymade Projects has worked with Calvin Klein, Missoni and Vitra, among others, and is presently collaborating with crafts people in the developing world for Artecnica’s Aids to Artisans initiative.

Anna Deavere Smith: Closing Presentation

Playwright, performance artist and MacArthur fellow who has created a new, signature kind of theater blending theatrical art, social commentary, journalism and intimate reverie, presenting excerpts from Fires in the Mirror and Twilight Los Angeles among other pieces.

Steve Dietz: Session I: New Models of Cultural Production and Distribution

Artistic Director of ZeroOne: the Art and Technology Network, Director of ZeroOne San Jose: A Global Festival of Art on the Edge, and former Curator of New Media at the Walker Art Center.

Robert Enright: Session II: Conversation

Arts writer and cultural journalist working in print, radio and television, Senior Contributing Editor of Border Crossings magazine, and author of Peregrinations: Conversations with Contemporary Artists.

Bruce Ferguson: Keynote

Independent curator and critic, and former Dean, School of the Arts, Columbia University, whose recent projects include planning for a new institute for media, arts and culture at Arizona State University in Phoenix and consulting on exhibitions to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.

Ed Gillespie: Session I: Creating a Sustainable Future

Creative Director and Co-Founder of Futerra, a consultancy working with corporations, governments and non-profits to produce strategic and creative communications for sustainability.

Stanley Hainsworth: Session I: New Models of Cultural Production and Distribution

Vice-President Global Creative for Starbucks Coffee Company, whose new entertainment initiative markets and sells books, music and movies at Starbuck’s shops and on the web, and hosts Starbucks cultural salons nationwide.

Susan Harris: Session III: Connecting Local to Global / Past to Future

Editor, Words Without Borders, an advocacy organization devoted to promoting international communication by translating into English and then publishing important but normally unavailable works by international writers.

Lynne Hershman Leeson: Private Screening

Pioneering photographer, filmmaker and net-based artist whose documentary Strange Culture about artist Steve Kurtz (whose work exploring genetic modification led to his arrest) premiered simultaneously at the Sundance Film Festival and in the online virtual world of Second Life.

Natalie Jeremijenko: Session I: Challenging Cultural, Political and Formal Boundaries, Session I: Creating a Sustainable Future

Artist, engineer, former Director of the Experimental Product Design Initiative at Yale University, and currently professor at UCSD, who explores how technological innovation can be used toward social and ecological progress.

Simone Aaberg Kærn: Session III: Connecting Local to Global / Past to Future

Artist, pilot, and filmmaker whose Denmark to Afghanistan flight in a small 1961 Piper Colt was documented in Flying to Kabul. Kærn’s award-winning films also include Smiling In a War Zone and Sisters in the Sky.

Ruby Lerner: Session I: New Models of Cultural Production and Distribution

Moderator, Director of Creative Capital, a unique granting agency that supports adventurous work in all media, and focuses on cutting edge cultural practices, connecting artists to sponsors and presenters, and developing grantees’ careers.

Lu Jie: Session III: Connecting Local to Global / Past to Future

Curator of the Long March Project, an ongoing series of exhibits, performances, and workshops along the route of Mao’s six thousand mile journey, designed to "interrogate Chinese visual culture and revolutionary memory."

Rick Lowe: Session II: Interdisciplinary Artists and Unconventional Interventions

Curator of the Long March Project, an ongoing series of exhibits, performances, and workshops along the route of Mao’s six thousand mile journey, designed to "interrogate Chinese visual culture and revolutionary memory."

Ken Lum: Session II: Conversation

Artist and educator examining the intersections of identity and global urbanism who has recently completed public art projects in Zurich and Toronto, and is the founding editor of Yishu: The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art.

Bruce Mau: Session I: Creating a Sustainable Future

Visionary designer whose recent Massive Change project positions design as "one of the world’s most powerful forces…in a period were all economies and ecologies are becoming global, relational and interconnected."

Erika Dalya Muhammad: Session III: Connecting Local to Global / Past to Future

Moderator - Curator of the critically acclaimed nationally touring exhibition, Race in Digital Space, currently developing the Mount Vernon Hip-Hop Arts Center, the first multimedia space dedicated to global urban youth culture.

Lucy Orta: Session III: New Artistic Practices in the Culture of Ecology

Artist and designer whose Fluid Architecture and Refuge Wear blur the boundaries separating art, fashion and architecture to examine social structures, political systems, and ecological issues.

Anne Pasternak: Session I: New Models of Cultural Production and Distribution

Moderator - President and Artistic Director of Creative Time, a cultural production agency dedicated to introducing contemporary art to new audiences and preserving public space as a place of creative expression.

Adam Pendleton: Session II / Panel Discussion: Interdisciplinary Artists and Unconventional Interventions

Artist, writer, performer and founder of the think tank LAB, which produces projects including the experimental publication LAB MAG.

Dan Peterman: Session III: New Artistic Practices in the Culture of Ecology

Artist who investigates alternative processes of production, consumption and recycling in an aesthetic practice that is both localized and has global environmental implications.

James Rondeau: Session II: Interdisciplinary Artists and Unconventional Interventions

Moderator- Frances and Thomas Dittmer Curator and Chairman, Department of Contemporary Art at The Art Institute of Chicago.

Peter Sellars: Keynote

World-renowned director, MacArthur Foundation fellow, and professor of World Arts and Culture at U.C.L.A. where he teaches Art as Social Action and Art as Moral Action.

Jennifer Siegal: Session I: Creating a Sustainable Future

Award-winning architect, author, and founder of the Office of Mobile Design, recently featured in Fast Company’s "front lines of design" for her exceptional approach to utilizing new material and forms to create mobile architecture.

Stephanie Smith: Session III: New Artistic Practices in the Culture of Ecology

Moderator- Director of Collections and Exhibitions and Curator of Contemporary Art at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art, and curator of Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art.

Lynne Sowder and Victoria Burns: Introduction and Closing Remarks

Principals of Burns Sowder Arts Advisory. Cultural entrepreneurs committed to the development of new audiences through innovative communications strategies, cultural programs and art collections for private and institutional collectors.

Lawrence Weschler: Session II: Conversation

Interviewer, Former staff writer for The New Yorker, Director of New York Institute of Humanities, Artistic Director Chicago Humanities Festival, Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of Calamities of Exile, and Vermeer in Bosnia.

Mathew Wilson: Session II: Interdisciplinary Artists and Unconventional Interventions

Artist, educator and founding member of Industry of the Ordinary, an artist collective challenging received wisdoms and the status quo through performances, exhibitions, publications and the web.

Jon Winet: Session I: Challenging Cultural, Political and Formal Boundaries

Moderator - Artist, activist, and Area Head of Intermedia Programs at the University of Iowa, who often collaborates with scientists, technologists and various community groups in his politically engaged and net-based works.

Hiro Yamagata: Session III: Connecting Local to Global / Past to Future

Artist who explores the ways that natural phenomenon and cultural memory shape and are shaped by technology. Recent projects include his proposed projections of images of the Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.