Media Evolution

“We need an infrastructure that deepens our spiritual connection to the world – a spiritual infrastructure.” Filmmaker, designer and futurist Anab Jain (she/her) wants us to keep asking ”what if”. How might we flourish by living in a different way than today? You might know her work with the foresight and design studio Superflux from the Venice Biennale, where they created a banquet for 12 differe...

”We don’t have an energy problem, we have a matter problem.” Matt Jones (he/him) has been designing digital products and services since 1995. Most recently he was Head of Design at Lunar Energy, a company building the world’s best clean energy products to deliver home electrification at scale. From 2013-2021 he worked at Google as a Principal Designer, primarily in Google Research working on advan...

Kickstarter helps bring projects to life and as the first crowdfunding platform with $7 billion pledged and 239,000 projects funded, so what new concepts have emerge with this aid? In the session Laura Feinstein, Senior Design and Tech Editor at Kickstarter, dives into how fashion and textile creators are breaking out of labs and turning cutting-edge materials research and circular products into m...

“It’s very fun to make AI tools magical. [...] But when you make AI feel airy, you remove the possibility for people to ask questions. So it’s better to make it approachable.” Trudy is an active technology enthusiast who is convinced that AI tools can be as useful as electricity. By providing real-life examples and related metaphors of ceramic mugs and paper cups, the recent MIT graduate firmly be...

“Could AI ever be a common pool of resources?” Researcher Somya Joshi makes a compelling observation: the same extractive narratives of 19th century industrialisation are being reproduced today in our venture to conquer the AI ecosystem. Somya highlights how major technological shifts such as the Green Revolution relied on the premise that automation would always lead to progress, and the myth aro...

The Conference's main partner IBM hosted a talk during Wednesday’s Getting Grounded session focusing on approaches on AI, its uses and adaptations and our relation with it.  Artificial intelligence provides us with new ways to communicate through products. In her talk, Mary Wallace portrays how AI can be used to improve consumers’ retail experiences within various industries, such as the beve...

The Conference's partner IKEA hosted a talk during Wednesday’s Getting Grounded session focusing on IKEA most recent findings on play, design and why it all matters more than we think. Why is play important? And why is IKEA so obsessed with playfulness? Anna Granath and Maria Törn are ready to answer those questions, freshly armed with insight from IKEA’s recent children’s play report.  Simpl...

The Q&A from the session Late-Stage Digitalization with Somya Joshi and Trudy Painter

The Conference's main partner IBM hosted a talk during Wednesday’s Getting Grounded session focusing on approaches on AI, its uses and adaptations and our relation with it.  Matt Candy presents the numerous opportunities that generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) offers, and provides insight into IBM’s human-centred approach to leveraging new technologies in their business. Gen AI has a...

“How do we protect something we do not love and do not understand?” Seán Ronayne is the ornithologist who came up with the idea to sound-record every bird in Ireland, to show the world what beautiful and unique creatures they are. He is also the main character in the documentary Birdsong. With his extraordinary projects capturing soundscapes and imagery from nature’s most precious wildlife, he urg...

“We are living in a world where we do not agree.” The spoken word artist Joshua Idehen kicks off the session by delivering a humorous performance about the flaws of various ideologies, the world according to your mom, doing the washing. Aiming to unite the audience through music, he showcases the power of humor, language and love when speaking across differences.

Q&A from the session Structuring Structures with Jenny L Beijar, Marco Guadarrama, Emily Best, Sarah Watson and Györgi Gálik

Think about your childhood – what made you feel safe at home? For many of us, our childhoods were unplugged. Now, times have changed. We’re wired into tech at every turn. Parents have turned into safety officers—some offering trust and guidance, others building walls of protection. But for kids, the question is "What’s lurking in the dark?" IKEA, in collaboration with Our Normal Association, dives...

“Software is an interesting medium. At least in theory, once you make something and it doesn’t become successful, it doesn’t cost anything to change your mind. You can just stop running it.” Software is built upon software, forming a complex and often invisible dependency tree. This is the world Andie Nordgren (she/her) navigates, where large and aging codebases are like dynamic landscapes—constan...

Q&A from the session Entangled and Enmeshed with Andie Nordgren, Tony Olsson and Matt Jones

This century will be defined by society’s capacity to respond to climate breakdown. It’s not going to be like the movies, a CGI spectacle of eschatological earthquakes and meteorites. Climate breakdown is a slow and terrifying disaster. Györgi Gálik, City Transitions Co-Lead at Dark Matter Labs, emphasises our need to have an honest understanding of the challenge we face in order to make informed...

“Almost everyone has a story connected to their mobile phone. They are deeply personal and interconnected with our daily lives.” But what if technology isn't just what we do, but how we feel? Emily and Sarah knew this truth. Their experiences with tech left deep imprints, revealing that while Silicon Valley excels at innovation, it often overlooks the origin stories. Determined to change that, the...

“When we know who enters what, we can also adapt the situation accordingly” As a part of the session ”Entangled and Enmeshed”, Tony Olsson shares with us his experience of working on UX design for access control management products. Tony (he/him) has been in the tech industry for many years, including at companies like Assa Abloy who, through their manufacturing, work literally with doors and lock...

Are we in control of technological megasystems, or are they in fact controlling us? By taking on a critical approach to modern technology, Georgina Voss emphasizes the need to collectively challenge the systems that underpin our world. Humans suffer from hubris in terms of using technology to exert control. Voss draws a parallel to the film Jurassic Park, highlighting the role of technological sys...

The Q&A from session Time, Trust and Wisdom with Monika Jiang, Gustavo Noguiera de Menezes and Valeria Adani

“Trust is an outcome – not something you can design for.” For many years designers and users alike have been pushing for “seamless” technologies and services – but this approach has not always prioritised safety, privacy, and TRUST. We’ve been obsessed with making things easy to use, rather than making things that are transparent, accountable, and trustworthy. This dilemma is at the core of Projec...

“Underneath the experience of loneliness is always a longing”.  It is not part of our human nature to isolate ourselves from others – yet this is increasingly the reality of modern-day societies. Our physical environments (such as car-centric cities and single-person homes), our technologies (such as social media), and our attitude towards work (i.e. careerism and the false promise of busynes...

Katlyn’s talk digs deep into a critical question: "How did we get here?" She challenges us to confront a deeply embedded paradigm—the "Twin Transition" of sustainability and digitalization. She covers three aspects. First, she critiques how we define environmental impact as caused by CO2, ignoring the other serious issues this oversimplified focus creates. It’s a convenient narrative that silences...

The Q&A session from Shifting Systems with Dan Shefet and Dr. Katlyn Turner