Opening Ceremony and Keynotes

Opening Ceremony and Keynotes
Wednesday, June 20, 2018 • 17:00-20:00
Location: Hult Center for the Performing Arts (Silva Concert Hall)
One Eugene Center, Eugene, Oregon, 97401

The Opening Ceremony will feature welcomes from representatives of the State of Oregon, City of Eugene, and University of Oregon.

Wendy Chun"Exorcising the Ghost in the Network: De-segregating Networks, Building Futures"
Wendy Chun, Canada 150 Research Chair
Chair in New Media in the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology
Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, British Columbia)

Prof. Chun has studied both Systems Design Engineering and English Literature, which she combines and mutates in her current work on digital media. She is author of Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media, 2nd edition (MIT, 2017), Programmed Visions: Software and Memory, 2nd edition (MIT, 2013), and Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics, 2nd edition (MIT, 2008). She is co-editor (with Tara McPherson and Patrick Jagoda) of a special issue of American Literature entitled New Media and American Literature, co-editor (with Lynne Joyrich) of a special issue of Camera Obscura entitled Race and/as Technology, co-editor (with Anna Fisher and Thomas Keenan) of New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2015), and co-editor (with Goetz Bachmann, Mercedes Bunz, and Timon Beyes) of the In Search of Media Book Series (Meson Press and University of Minnesota University Press, forthcoming 2018). She was a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, ACLS and American Academy of Berlin Fellow, and she has been a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and a Wriston Fellow at Brown, where she was a professor in the Department of Modern Culture for almost two decades.

Marcin Jakubowski"Open Collaboration: A Medium of Sustainable Systems for Infrastructures"
Marcin Jakubowski, Founder
Global Village Construction Set
Open Building Institute | Open Source Ecology (Maysville, Missouri)

Dr. Jakubowski represents a new generation of digital breakthroughs that have the potential to deliver important social benefits by adopting technology in new and different ways.  He graduated with honors from Princeton University and earned his Ph.D. in fusion physics from the University of Wisconsin. He is the founder of Open Source Ecology, an open collaborative of engineers, producers, and builders, who are working on projects that represent decentralized production that give people the raw power to rebuild their communities and solve wicked problems. He is co-author (with Cameron Colby Thomson) of Toward an Open Source Civilization in Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization (MIT Journal, 2012). Dr. Jakubowski has been recognized as a 2012 TED Senior Fellow, a 2013 Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow, and a 2013 White House Champion for Change. As of May 2018, his presentation, "Open-sourced Blueprints for Civilization" is still in the Top 10 all-time TED Fellows’ Talks.

Harmonic LabSelections from Tesla: Light, Color, Sound
Harmonic Laboratory (Eugene, Oregon)

Harmonic Laboratory is a collective of artists, thinkers, educators and innovators that investigate the human experience through the integration of media and common theme. Their mission is to integrate art, science, and the humanities in the development of creative works that tell stories and unpack the dense cultural content around us. They believe such projects serve a greater educational purpose and enrich community through performative art. Harmonic Laboratory strive to tell stories of the human experience through the integration of media and performance. By fusing the disciplines of our four members: modern dance, classical composition, visual programming, and data-driven instrument creation, Harmonic Laboratory blends mediums that transcend the boundaries of our individual disciplines. Hybrid art as performance presents the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with broad audiences using newly formed creative forces.

  • Brad Garner, Associate Professor of Dance, School of Music and Dance, University of Oregon
    Garner is a choreographer, dancer, lighting designer, producer, curator and director. He serves as Artistic Director of GARNERDANCES, Board President of Integrated Arts, and Northwest Regional Board Member of the American College Dance Association.
  • John Park, Career Instructor in Art, College of Design, University of Oregon
    Park is an artist who blends expressive and algorithmic processes to make time-based and installation works—through animation, digital-art, projection mapping, and computer-programming.
  • Jeremy Schropp, Independent Composer/Musician
    Schropp is a music composer, conductor and performer, who combines traditional acoustic elements with emerging technologies and compositional practice.
  • Jon Bellona, Instructor Audio Production, School of Music and Dance, University of Oregon
    Bellona is an intermedia artist, composer, musician, and programmer who specializes in digital technologies.