Regional relevance

Twemlow will deliver short presentations at different points throughout the conference that reflect on the different types of learning happening in different conference venues and forums. These shorter presentations will culminate in a comprehensive presentation delivered on the final day of the conference, bringing her observations and learning gained throughout the whole conference to a conclusion. Moreover, Twemlow will close the conference with a panel discussion that involves both the speakers and the audience.

Bio

Alice Twemlow is chair of the design criticism MFA Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York and an M-Phil/PhD candidate in the design history program at the V&A Museum and the Royal College of Art in London. Twemlow writes about design for publications including Eye, Design Issues, I.D., Print, New York Magazine and Architect's Newspaper. Her essays are included in books such as The Barnbrook Bible (Booth Clibborn, 2007), Else/Where: Mapping (University of Minnesota Design Institute, 2006) and Looking Closer 5 (Allworth Press, 2007), and she is the author of What is Graphic Design For? (Rotovision, 2006).

Previously, Twemlow was program director at AIGA where she directed and produced several design conferences, including "Voice: AIGA National Design Conference" in Washington DC in 2002, "Being Here: Craft and Locality in Graphic Design," held in Berlin in 2004, and "Looking Closer: AIGA Conference on Design History and Criticism."

Regional relevance

Design has the power to influence many fields, yet this power resides solely within the perspective of brave, articulate designers like Ms. Jeremijenko. Right now, Qatar is a virtual land of design opportunity, a context insatiably hungry for the kind of wild, risky, high-impact experimentation of designers like Natalie Jeremijenko.

Bio

Natalie Jeremijenko (born 1966) is an artist and engineer whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. She is an active member of the net.art movement, and her work primarily explores the interface between society, the environment and technology. She is currently an Associate Professor at NYU in the Visual Art Department, and has affiliated faculty appointments in Computer Science and Environmental Studies.

http://www.environmentalhealthclinic.net/people/natalie-jeremijenko/ Natalie Jeremijenko is an artist whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. Jeremijenko’s projectsâ€"which explore socio-technical changeâ€"have been exhibited by several museums and galleries, including the MASSMoCA, the Whitney, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt. A 1999 Rockefeller Fellow, she was recently named one of the 40 most influential designers by I.D. Magazine. Jeremijenko is the director of the environmental health clinic at NYU, assistant professor in Art, and affiliated with the Computer Science Dept.

Jeremijenko directs the xDesign Environmental Health Clinic [http://www.nyu.edu/projects/xdesign/]. The Environmental Health Clinic develops and prescribes locally optimized and often playful strategies to effect remediation of environmental systems, producing measurable and mediagenic evidence and coordinating diverse projects to effective material change

Recently, Jeremijenko’s work was included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial of American Art and the Cooper Hewit Smithsonian Design Triennial 2006-7. Jeremjenko’s permanent installation on the roof of Postmasters Gallery in Chelsea Model Urban Development(MUD): provides infrastructure and facilities for high-density bird cohabitation in an environmental experiment in interaction with the New York City bird population.

Her work is described as experimental design, hence xDesign, as it explores opportunities presented by new technologies for non-violent social change. Her research centers on structures of participation in the production of knowledge and information, and the political and social possibilities (and limitations) of information and emerging technologies — mostly through public experiments. In this vein, her work spans a range of media from statistical indices (such as the Despondency Index, which linked the Dow Jones to the suicide rate at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge) to biological substrates (such as the installations of cloned trees in pairs in various urban micro-climates) to robotics (such as the development of feral robotic dog packs to investigate environmental hazards).

Jeremijenko is also a visiting professor at Royal College of Art, in London and an artist not-in-residence at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto. Previously, Jeremijenko was a member of the faculty in the Visual Arts at UCSD and in Engineering at Yale.

Regional relevance

Doha is home to some of the most exquisite automobiles in the world. Qatar features a receptive and responsive audience for the kind of high-performance, high-tech, luxury design typified by Porsche.

Bio

Porsche AG has anounced the appointment of Michael Mauer to take over as chief designer from Harm Lagaay, who will retire on July 1 after 15 years in the post.

Michael Mauer, 41, studied automobile design at Pforzheim University, and started his career at Mercedes-Benz. In 1989, he was appointed design project leader for the Mercedes V Class models, and was in charge of design work for the first SLK model generation. In 1995 he was appointed head of department and given design responsibility for the A-Class, SLK and SL models. In 1998, he moved to the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studio in Tokyo as general manager. In 1999 he was appointed as Head of Design at Smart, where he was responsible for the initial development of the Roadster Coupe. Afterwards he moved to head Saab Design and in March 2003 became responsible for GM Europe's Advanced Design studio in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Harm Lagaay first worked for Simca before moving to Porsche in 1971. In the following six years he worked on the 924 and 911 programs. In 1977 he moved to Ford in Cologne as Design Manager, where his Advanced Design Department worked on the Escort, Sierra and Scorpio. In 1985, he became chief designer at BMW Technik in Munich and played a leading part in the development of the Z1. Lagaay returned to Porsche in 1989 as a head of design. Under his leadership, the Boxster concept and final Boxster model took shape, as well as the 996-series Porsche 911 and the Cayenne. Lagaay's career at Porsche culminated with the Carrera GT high-performance sports car.

Regional relevance

Qatar seeks to construct a narrative that permits religious and cultural openness, understanding and tolerance among diverse peoples. The work of Dr. Al Mutawa aligns perfectly with this vision of social development.

Biography

Regional relevance

Fundamentally a social and visual society, Qatar is a social media hothouse, where socializing and electronic game play are ubiquitous activities that link culturally diverse communities in surprising ways. Heggen’s work on combining emerging technologies with strong design principles to create new and experimental forms of social gameplay will no doubt lend itself to the wild and wide mix of different gamers and designers that reside in Doha and beyond.

Biography

Mark Heggen is a game designer at Zynga New York. After studying graphic design at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Heggen joined Area/Code, a Manhattan-based game development studio focused on combining emerging technologies with strong design principles to create experimental new forms of social gameplay. At Area/Code, Heggen's game design credits include Parking Wars, Sharkrunners, Code of Everand, CSI: Crime City, and Drop7. In 2011 Area/Code was acquired by Zynga, the world's largest creators of games for Facebook, and became Zynga New York.

Heggen also teaches game design at University of Detroit Mercy.

Regional relevance

Qatar is emerging as a powerful link in a global chain of creative cultures. Tura is appropriately situated to articulate and locate Qatar within a skein of innovative global design networks that fuse business practice and design thinking to produce truly forward-thinking systems of synaptic thought and linking action.

Biography

Hunter Tura is the President + CEO of Bruce Mau Design, Inc. (a member of the MDC Partners network of companies) where he is responsible for driving global growth in all business sectors and expanding the legacy of the BMD brand. Tura has taken on the task of advancing BMD’s role in the conversation around contemporary design, design education and rethinking the contemporary design organization. Recent BMD collaborations include projects for the Oprah Winfrey Network, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Li Ning, and OCAD University in Toronto.

Prior to joining BMD, Tura was Managing Director at 2x4, Inc., responsible for leading operational and strategic business efforts in the U.S. and China. Before his time at 2x4, Inc, Tura was a designer at Rockwell Group/Studio Red in New York and has worked in the office of AMO/Rem Koolhaas. He has served on the design faculty of Columbia University and the Boston Architectural College and has lectured and served as a guest critic at Universities worldwide. He received his Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Regional relevance

Within the last few decades, Qatar has experienced what can only be described as a process of hyper-modernization. As a futurist thinker, an interesting developer, Ms. Raby wields the requisite experience and background to provide a special kind of insight into the future of Qatar.

Bio

Dunne & Raby use design as a medium to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the public about the social, cultural and ethical implications of existing and emerging technologies.

Anthony is professor and head of the Design Interactions department at the Royal College of Art in London. He studied Industrial Design at the RCA before working at Sony Design in Tokyo. On returning to London he completed a PhD in Computer Related Design at the RCA. He was a founding member of the CRD Research Studio where he worked as a Senior Research Fellow leading EU and industry funded research projects. Anthony was awarded the Sir Misha Black Award for Innovation in Design Education in 2009.

Fiona Raby studied Architecture at the RCA before working for Kei'ichi Irie Architects in Tokyo. She also holds an MPhil in Computer Related Design from the RCA. She was a founding member of the CRD Research Studio where she worked as a Senior Research Fellow leading externally funded research projects. She taught in Architecture for over 10 years before teaching in Design Interactions.

Their projects include, Hertzian Tales, a combination of essays and design proposals exploring aesthetic and critical possibilities for electronic products (MIT Press 2005); Placebo, a collection of electronic objects exploring well-being in relation to domestic electromagnetic fields (2001); and Technological Dreams Series: no.1, Robots (2007). Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects was published by Birkhauser in 2001.

Their work has been exhibited and published internationally and is in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Frac Ile-de-France and Fnac (Fond national d'art contemporain), as well as several private collections.

Regional relevance

As the Innovation Director for the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), Mr. Heidan is well positioned to elaborate on its role as a unifying synaptic center for innovators of all stripes. One of the driving principles of QSTP is to foster innovative research in a variety of sectors to help Qatar achieve its goal of becoming a robust and fully integrated knowledge-based economy and society within the next two decades.

Bio

Mr. Heiden is currently the Innovation Director for the Qatar Science & Technology Park, where he is responsible for driving innovation strategy and intellectual property policy. As deputy director of CIP Mr. Heiden currently manages the internationalization of the CIP platform and strategic industry relationships. His previous work at CIP involved strategic program development specifically focused on the building of collaborative innovation platforms to facilitate the creation and development of knowledge-based business. In this role Mr. Heiden has co-developed the Intellectual Capital Management Master program (ICM), which is a graduate education in knowledge-based business development and management for business, engineering, and law students. Mr. Heiden is also co-founder of the Gothenburg International Bioscience Business School (GIBBS), a graduate education that develops real bioscience ventures in an imbedded pre-incubator, and CIP Professional Services, which provides IP and business development services to both established firms and technology start-ups. Mr. Heiden has also developed CIP FORUM, which has grown to one of the leading knowledge-based business events worldwide. Current interests include the construction of an Intellectual Capital Incubator designed to package intellectual assets into viable innovations in a pre-venture setting with partners worldwide and the creation of social entrepreneurship platform focused on developing countries. 

Mr. Heiden holds degrees in engineering and technology management and his PhD work is in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship with a focus on intellectual property valuation and finance in knowledge-based sectors. Before turning his focus to the field of knowledge-based business, Bo played professional basketball in a number of European countries.

Regional relevance

Ms. Al-Mehain is a design pioneer for Arab women in the region. Carving out a space for design within a larger corporate structure, Ms. Al-Mehain literally created a design culture from the inside out. She not only creates and makes for her own company, but she also reaches out and links with other companies to form fruitful design partnerships. She is a true innovator, developing her own innovation practice appropriate to the modern and successful Qatari business-woman.

Bio

Al-Mehain, the force behind taking Barwa Media from a subsidiary to a full-profit centre for Barwa, has in her three years, crafted a list of accomplishments that have been instrumental in getting Qatari advertising and design global exposure.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Interior Design from VCUQatar, al-Mehain started her own design company Pexils and joined Barwa shortly thereafter.

She is currently the focal point between the Design department and the other departments at Barwa. Her job entails meeting new clients and getting them on board, briefing the team, making sure work flow is smooth and approving the same before it is presented to clients.

"Working for Barwa has been a great opportunity as I had the chance to start a department from scratch and build it up to where we are right now – a full design team capable of delivering all design services professionally and efficiently," al-Mehain stated.

The projects she and her team have delivered for clients reiterate this feat. They include the International Furniture and Design Exhibition and Qatar Real Estate Exhibition booth designs, creating an identity for Qatari rally driver Nasser al-Attiyah, projects for multi-utility service provider Marafeq, the Barwa Media website and the more famous Barwa and Diar taxi advertising projects in London.

The team is presently working on other projects and plans to announce them once they have been launched. The other members of the team are VCUQatar alumni - interior designers Kholoud al-Maneh (senior designer), Nayfa al-Henzab (marketing officer) and Maryam El Bishri (marketing and events officer); senior graphic designers Manar al-Muftah, Nelly al-Hariri and Jawaher al-Mahmoud; graphic designers Rana al-Wehaibi and Shaikha al-Romaihi; interior designers Haya al-Khayareen, Esraa al-Ibrahim and Shaikha al-Mannai.

"Injaz is an opportunity to prove that VCUQatar graduates are out in the market designing and inspiring others," al-Mehain observed.

She was of the view that these designers, with their continuous efforts over the last few years, have been able to change people’s views on design and how important it is.

"Injaz is also a great occasion to inspire new graduates and students, to provide them assurance and confidence so they can see designers like them succeeding and making a positive difference," she maintained.

Al-Mehain credits her education at VCUQatar for helping her develop her skills and her personality. "VCUQatar made me appreciate everything around me and look at the world from a different perspective, one that made me realize design is not a career that you choose to be in, it is a way of living, every day."

Al-Mehain would like to help the girls in her team achieve their goals, see their dreams to become signature designers come true. "My focus for the future is to make Barwa Media a one-of-a-kind services provider that offers unique design solutions to end users. I want people in Qatar to believe in us as designers and in design as a career," she added.

VCUQatar’s marketing and public relations director Moamer Qazafi said that the breadth of Amal al-Mehain’s achievements showcases the opportunities available to young designers today in a world where the sky is the limit.

Regional relevance

Qatar is a nation in the midst of a complex cultural negotiation between tradition and modernity. Baroudi and Hibri have the potential to serve as dynamic negotiators in this delicate, critical and ever-evolving cultural conversation, striking as their work does a refreshing balance between old and new

Biography

Bokja is a Turkish word that describes an intricately worked fabric created to cover a bride’s dowry. Lebanese designers Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri bring a similar passion for detail and history to the furniture, which they create under the same name. Baroudi and Hibri source furniture designs from the 50s, 60s and 70s, unearthed in Beirut’s flea-markets and antique dealerships, and then cover them with exuberant tapestries and textiles from the Levant and the legendary Silk Road countries of Central Asia.

Alongside their team of local artisans, they’ve applied their unique vision and deft craftsmanship skills to unusual objects such as a life-size Beetle they called the “Bokja Bug” exhibited at Spazio Rossana Orlandi during Salone 2010 and favored by press and design pilgrims.

In 2009, Bokja was chosen to be featured in Li-Edelkoort’s retrospective, where she highlighted what she judged to be the most important themes that have influenced trends in fashion, photography, and design.

Regional relevance

Seeking to provide a portable housing solution for low-wage migrant workers in Qatar effectively aligns student initiatives with one of the foundational goals of Qatar Foundation: to build human capital. In this way, the work of Innovation Qatar actively supports the collaborative research endeavors that contribute to Qatar's innovative and enterprising future.

Biography

Roman Turczyn is currently the Director of VCUQatar's Innovation Qatar (IQ) and of the Center for Design Research and Entrepreneurship. An architect by training, Roman Turczyn brings a wealth of design experience accumulated over thirty-six years of professional practice. He has played a leading role in the completion of a variety of planning and built projects in Canada, and since arriving in Qatar in 2003, Roman has applied his design expertise to a number of landmark architectural projects in Doha.

Regional relevance

ROTA's capacity to link design to community is definitive of its undertaking to contribute to the progress of a community while sustaining its culture and heritage.

Biography

Following a successful career as Head of Safety and Loss Prevention at the Qatar General Water and Electricity Corporation (Kahramaa), Essa Al Mannai joined ROTA as Senior Operations Manager in 2009, was promoted to the role of Acting Director in mid-2010 and now permanently takes responsibility for continuing the strategic course set by ROTA’s Board of Directors.

Al Mannai graduated from Qatar University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and has a Masters Degree in Business Adminis¬tration from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

Before joining ROTA, Al Mannai’s previous volunteering and charity commitments included volunteer placement in Belize, participation at the Disaster Management Camp, and being named the Best Volunteer at the 2005 Doha West Asian Games.