Color defines her work. Ornament is her language. Form is her grammar. India Mahdavi creates environments that live, breathe, and delight—spaces in constant metamorphosis, shaped by light, mood, and memory.
Past Talks
has been a pioneer of combining fine art photography with photojournalism, and the longtime director of photography at The New York Times Magazine.
is a Dutch graphic designer and educator, whose autonomous practice has consistently developed since the 1960s, most notably through his monoprints.
is a celebrated artist and designer based in Paris, whose studio has collaborated with some of the world’s most prestigious design companies.
is a Belgian creative technologist and artist based in Ghent, who creates thought-provoking work about technology, surveillance, AI and social media in a playful way.
is a designer based in New York, where he is Head of Creative at Notion, a productivity tool celebrated by Forbes' "AI 50" list in 2024.
is an architect and programmer who writes algorithms to generate and fabricate architectural forms using techniques such as 3D printing, among others.
is a Chinese-Canadian artist and (re)searcher who explores the mark-made-by-hand and the mark-made-by-machine as an approach to understanding the dynamics of humans and systems.
is the youngest granddaughter of iconic designers Ray and Charles Eames and the chief curator of the Eames Institute, where she continues to share learnings from her legacy.
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.
is a Smell RE_searcher and artist, born in Norway, based in Berlin. Tolaas has been intensively researching, experimenting with, and working on the topic of smell since 1990. A pioneer in the field, she is renowned for her innovative and unique approach to advancing the science and understanding of olfaction.
is the founder and director of Forensic Architecture and professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, where in 2005 the founded the Centre for Research Architecture.
is a bookmaker based in Amsterdam. She has created over five hundred books. Her experimental approach often challenges the conventions of traditional books in both physical design and printed content.
and Grégoire Jeanmonod are the founders of BIG-GAME. Almost 20 years after founding the studio, transforming an idea into a product is still the most exciting part of their work.
shares a decade of insights from SPACE10, envisioning new possibilities where design and technology foster a healthier, more sustainable, and inclusive society.
serves as the first People's Artist for New York City at the Civic Engagement Commission and is the Founder of The People's Creative Institute. An architect by training, Yazmany art practice fosters community connections through expansive public art initiatives.
is an award-winning design critic and author, whose books include Design as an Attitude and, most recently, Design Emergency: Building a Better Future. Alice’s weekly design column for The New York Times was syndicated worldwide for over a decade.
is the creative director of The New York Times Magazine where she leads the creative team responsible for the design and art direction of The Magazine and its supplements. She is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a former board member of the Society of Publication Designers.
was included in the list of “25 People Shaping the Future of Design” and the list of “50 Most Interesting People Building the Future”. Currently he is a Presidential Professor at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and a Director of the Cultural Analytics Lab.
is head of design, founder & CEO of Teenage Engineering. Personal work has been recognised in magazines such as New York Times, Vanity Fair, GQ, Vogue, Wall Street Journal, Wallpaper, Wired, Popular Mechanics, G3 and many more across the globe. He believes in making products for everyone, no matter where you live or what language you speak.
is an inter-disciplinary practitioner focused on architecture and city culture and children's right to the city. She is a founding member of Assemble, where she delivered more than 15 major projects over ten years. Her work as a writer and filmmaker has been broadcast on the BBC, exhibited at the Venice Biennale, and published in E-Flux, among many others.
is an interaction and media design artist. Together with Roel Wouters she is head of the Amsterdam based Studio Moniker. With Moniker, they explore characteristics of technology, and how it influences our daily lives. They are experts in participatory projects and have a warm heart for the web, film and performances. Moniker authored the Conditional Design Manifesto, with Edo Paulus and Jonathan Puckey.
is a curator at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein. She is interested in exploring the contribution curators can make to rethinking design as a practice concerned with ecological and social sustainability. In her exhibition and teaching work, she experiments with new, collaborative approaches to curating and exhibiting.
is an architect, curator, educator and lecturer of experimental forms of art and architectural practice. She specializes in the making of alternative architecture histories and futures. Since August 2018 she has been Director of the Architectural Association in London.
is a filmmaker with a diverse range of talents combining different techniques and approaches, working across traditional hand drawn 2D, stop-motion, digital imagery and live-action. Anna's first music video won a Bafta at the New Talent Awards. More recently Anna has directed the short film 'What is Beauty?' released for International Women's Days 2018, which has received over 15 million hits.
is an American documentary photographer. She is member of Magnum Photos since 1976. She is best known for her images of war-torn Nicaragua and American carnival strippers. Her works have been published in The New York Times, The Times, among others.
is an Amsterdam based art historian. She is co-founder and director of Droog, the renowned experimental design initiative from the Netherlands, a down to earth design mentality with a human touch that opposed the high style and form based world of design.
is a London-based artist whose work is characterized by an engaging boldness, creating specific, local responses to each distinct audience that will see and experience the work, using it to create community and build identity. Morag has been fascinated by how colour and pattern can change urban environments and peoples perceptions of spaces into places.