MYCOCOSM Past Event

Dr. Keir Williams is the Course Leader for the BA (Hons) UX Design degree at the London College of Communication, UAL. He is an established participatory educator, designer, and creative technologist. His research and practice concentrate on the design and use of digital technologies to support advocacy, play, and education.

Riley Heasley is a UX designer and creative technologist who focuses on generative design for 3D modelling and interaction. He is currently studying for a BA in UX Design at the London College of Communication, UAL.

Roger Paez, PhD is an architect, professor and researcher. Professional experience in the studios of Alison+Peter Smithson and Enric Miralles. Founder of AiB architects. Design for City Making Research Lab leader and MEATS director at ELISAVA (UVic-UCC), architectural design professor at ETSALS (URL), guest professor at universities worldwide. Author of Operative Mapping: Maps as Design Tools (Actar 2019), and Plug-ins: Design for City Making in Barcelona (Actar 2022). Works at the intersection of design, architecture and the city, focusing on temporality, experimentation and social impact. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9038-552X

Manuela Valtchanova is an Architect (TUM, Munich/UACEG, Sofia, 2015), PhD (University of Barcelona, Department of History and Theory of Art), researcher at ELISAVA Research (Design for City Making) and associated professor for the Undergraduate Degree in Design and Innovation and the Master of Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Spaces (MEATS), ELISAVA. In her professional career, she has collaborated in several architectural offices with a specific focus on heterogeneous architecture formats, ranging from stage and exhibition spaces to interventions in public space. Her work focuses on the critical transaction between politics, space and intersubjectivity with a main research interest in the architecture of action. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7168-7645

Michal Teague is an Associate Lecturer in Design Studies working to facilitate the recently launched Design Studies program at the Hanoi Campus. She was the Key Academic Contact in Hanoi for the recent Vietnam Festival of Media and Design: Hanoi. For the past 10 years Teague has worked professionally as a transnational practitioner and educator in art, design and communication in the Middle East and Vietnam. Teague’s areas of research interest and creative praxis are social design, creative and cultural industries, urban spaces and transnational design pedagogy.

Dr Manny Ling is the Senior Program Manager for Design Studies at the Saigon South and Hanoi campuses. He is a professional designer where he specialises in typography, book design and calligraphy. He completed his PhD research in 2008 with emphasis on the integration of East Asian and Western cultural influences upon Western calligraphy. He is also interested in the impact of digital media and design upon this traditional art form.

Andrew Stiff’s practice focuses on experimental filmmaking processes that explore the space between urban occupancy and the built environment. Through his studies of urban spaces, he shines a spotlight on the impact of culture on the development of dense and tight urban spaces. The films capture the creation of space through the values of family and community and offer an insight into how cities may develop in the light of urban migration. Andrew Stiff Lecturer at RMIT University Viet Nam, teaching within the School of Communication & Design. He has completed a practice based PhD at RMIT University, in the School of Graduate Research: Architecture and Design. The research was titled: ‘Moving Experiences: Video Observations of Ho Chi Minh City’.

Chris Henschke is an artist who works with analogue and digital media, using methods and materials from experimental science, and has undertaken experimental interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists since 1991. Residencies include the National Gallery of Australia, 2004; an Asialink residency at Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, 2007; two residencies at the Australian Synchrotron, 2007 and 2010; and an ANAT Synapse residency with the CSIRO in Clayton, 2018-2019. Academic qualifications include a Doctorate of Philosophy from Monash University (2013-2017), comprised of on-site research/practice at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland, as part of the ‘art@CMS’ collaboration program.

Dr. Stephanie Andrews is currently the Program Manager for the Masters of Animation, Games, and Interactivity (MAGI) at the RMIT School of Design and holds a PhD in the creation of virtual reality experiences. She began as a Technical Director at Pixar, and has had a genre-spanning career around the intersection of art and technology since. She has worked extensively in 3D graphics, including animation, motion capture, programming, and UX design. Andrews has been a leader in curriculum innovation in 3D experimental art, winning major grants for stereoscopic research at the University of Washington. As an entrepreneur, she has also founded product design companies for the online metaverse Second Life, provided leadership to 3D printing startups, and worked as Creative Director in the virtual reality neuroscience industry.

Neal is a communication designer, design educator and a practice-led researcher into and through communication design. He has a background in design studios across a wide range of media. He commenced his Masters by Research with RMIT in 2004 and following this his PhD, completed in 2010. From 2014-2018 Neal was Program Manager of the Bachelor program, from 2018-2022 he was Associate Dean, Communication Design. Neal’s research lies in the intersection of design practice and the community and the intersubjective action with which design reveals and actualises possible futures.