Elisava’s Masters and Postgraduates area organizes, in collaboration with Disseny Hub Barcelona, the fourth edition of Elisava Masters’ Talks, a cycle of conferences starring some of the most relevant names in design, communication, architecture, art and innovation; outstanding figures, all of them, of the latest trends in contemporary design, engineering and creativity at a global level, connecting with Elisava’s commitment to research and innovation.
Across nonprofit and for profit, startups and scale, on boards and in residence, in print and with AI, as a writer, designer, teacher, and leader — Rob’s career has spanned a wide range of projects at the intersection of design, culture, and technology.
This talk will share some recent work from Notion as well as work from Google and MoMA, connected in their uses of strategic inquiry, brand-focused storytelling, and multidisciplinary human-centered design to convey unique stories and experience to global audiences.
Today, we can fabricate anything, complexity and customization are no longer impediments in design. However, design arguably appears confined by our instruments of design since we can only design what we can directly represent. In short: we can currently fabricate more than we can design.
Therefore, what is needed is a new type of design instrument. We need tools to draw the undrawable and imagine the unimaginable. What we stand to gain are entirely new spatial and haptic experiences. A playful design that stimulates the senses, elicits curiosity, and invites interaction. A design environment that simultaneously allows control and surprise, and that embraces and celebrates the unforeseen.
Michael Hansmeyer is an architect and programmer who writes algorithms to generate and fabricate architectural form. His recent work includes the design of a 3D printed concrete tower in the Swiss alps, an installation of a forest of columns at Grand Palais in Paris, among other projects. Hansmeyer taught architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, at Southeast University in Nanjing and at the CAAD group at ETH Zurich. He previously worked for Herzog & de Meuron architects, and holds an architecture degree from Columbia University.
Where does “AI” end and “we” begin? Artist and researcher Sougwen Chung’s ever-evolving work in human and machine collaboration builds upon a decade-long international journey. Starting with a simple line, the process has led to interdisciplinary insights, philosophical inquiry, and technological invention through pioneering artistic practice.
Intertwining perspectives in art and science, Chung’s practice envisions alternative futures for the relationship of humans and machines. “Embracing contradictions in art and research can pave the way to a third path, inspired by tradition and the development of new hybridities,” Chung says.
Sougwen 愫君 Chung is a Chinese-Canadian artist and (re)searcher based in London. Chung’s work explores the mark-made-by-hand and the mark-made-by-machine as an approach to understanding the dynamics of humans and systems. Chung is a former research fellow at MIT’s Media Lab and a pioneer in the field of human-machine collaboration. In 2019, Chung was selected as the Woman of the Year in Monaco for achievement in the arts and sciences.
Ray and Charles Eames demonstrated—time and time again—design’s unique ability to address disparate clients’ needs while finding ways to improve quality of life for all. What can we as designers and creatives learn from the Eameses that might apply to the challenges we face today?
Llisa Demetrios is the youngest granddaughter of iconic designers Charles & Ray Eames. She began her archiving career at the Mies van der Rohe Archive at MoMA in New York and has since dedicated herself to extending her grandparents’ most important gifts to the world: their infinite curiosity and iterative design process. Her personal mission is to equip everyone with lessons of Charles & Ray so that anyone can use design to solve problems at all scales.
Today, as Chief Curator at the Eames Institute, Llisa continues to share the learnings from her legacy through exhibitions, events, and public tours at the new public space in Richmond.
Designers across domains must increasingly engage with data. With the rise of AI, there is an opportunity to humanise data in innovative ways. In this presentation, I will introduce recent projects that explore these possibilities, ranging from an experimental tool translating energy forecasts into proverbs to an internal application enhancing organisational efficiency. To bridge technology and human experience and decision-making, data needs to speak human.
Yosuke Ushigome is a London-based designer/technologist, currently working for Normally as Lead Interaction Designer. He works across disciplines with a focus on interaction design, digital prototyping, and futures research. For over 10 years, he has been involved in various R&D and visioning projects with organisations worldwide, such as the NHS, Hitachi, and Swarovski. He also writes about more equitable and sustainable ways we interact with technology in design publications such as Core77 and ICON magazine.
Normally unlocks the transformative potential of AI for clients, including IKEA, Google, Panasonic, and the NHS. We have a decade of experience at the intersection of human-centred design and AI engineering, applying AI to enhance operational efficiency and growth and deliver innovative AI-enabled products and services.
How can we activate the information hidden in the air around us? Could the details carried by olfactory molecules transform the way we communicate? How can we approach critical issues from a whole new perspective through olfactory information? What if the essence of the content could be revealed through smell, offering a new way of perceiving the past, the present and the future?
In her lecture ‘Olfactory molecules are the alphabet of air’, Sissel Tolaas, a Norwegian-born smell researcher and artist based in Berlin (Germany), will explain her work in collaboration with experts and scholars from around the world, focused on developing a new approach to understanding, communicating and displaying the chemistry of smell in various contexts.
A pioneer in the field, Tolaas is known for her innovative and unique approach to advancing the science and understanding of olfaction. Drawing on her expertise in forensic chemistry, chemical communication, sensory ecology, linguistics and visual arts, she has developed a wide range of innovative interdisciplinary projects related to olfaction.
