AUGUST 28TH 2024
DOORS AT 630
LIVE PODCAST & PANEL DISCUSSION AT 7
LASALLE COLLEGE VANCOUVER
VITAMIN D LOUNGE
35$ PER TICKET
RSVP INFO@THOMASKGIRARD.COM
// Panelists //
• Angela Fama, TEDx Speaker
Angela Fama (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist, creator and facilitator of the Death Conversation Game, photographer, and musician. Centralizing their praxis through pushing at the barriers surrounding sticky subjects, Fama is committed to exploring the relationships found within, and interwoven between, self and other through themes such as love, death, trauma, and identity. She works from an intersectional feminist perspective valuing inclusion and equity, actively aiming for allyship with a continued commitment to unlearning, learning and unlearning again.
• Mahyar Saeedi, Podcaster
Mahyar is a Vancouver-based podcaster, content creator, and strategist. His experience with spearheading marketing and content initiatives for diverse clients, from government entities to community-focused organizations, led to his passion for content creation. His podcast, No Fun City explores the diverse and inspirational stories of creative individuals from Vancouver and around the world. Through his personal YouTube channel, he was able to build Vancouver ESK8 (e-skate), a community hub and events group for PEV (personal electric vehicle) enthusiasts. His efforts have also provided him with sponsorships and affiliations with brands as well as career opportunities, which led to his current role as a Senior Marketing Manager.
• Garnet Hertz, Canada Research Chair
Garnet Hertz is Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts, and is Associate Professor of Design at Emily Carr University. His art and research investigates DIY culture, electronic art and critical design practices. He has exhibited in 18 countries in venues including SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, and DEAF and has won top international awards for his work, including the Oscar Signorini Award in robotic art, a Fulbright award, and Best Paper Award at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). He has worked as Faculty at Art Center College of Design and as Research Scientist at the University of California Irvine. His research is widely cited in academic publications, and popular press on his work has disseminated through 25 countries including in publications like The New York Times, Wired, The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, NBC, CBS, TV Tokyo and CNN Headline News.
• Srushti Kulkarni, TEDx Speaker
Srushti Kulkarni is a seasoned service designer with the provincial government. A TEDx Speaker and Master’s degree holder in Design, she has over four years of experience in healthcare, social, and consumer products and services. She is a passionate researcher and facilitator, advocating for empathetic human-directed design. Srushti explores the convergence of technology and research to optimize service experiences. Her TEDx talk shared insights from her research in eldercare and the interplay between senior communities and care technologies. Committed to nurturing future designers, Srushti mentors aspiring students and expands her practice through design consultation and workshop facilitation. She promotes a design-centric ethos to enhance service delivery within the design community.
// Moderator //
• Thomas Girard, Emerging Scholar
Thomas Girard (born 30 December, 1980 in Vancouver, Canada) is a Canadian scholar. Girard was accepted to attend University of Oxford in lectures equivalent to graduate coursework. Girard has received several Emerging Scholar awards, first at the Design Principles and Practices conference in Barcelona, Spain at the prestigious ELISAVA. At Emily Carr University of Art and Design he received his second Emerging Scholar award. Other awards include RBC Emerging Scholar, Royal Bank of Canada Foundation. For 2021, he has been awarded an Emerging Scholar award from the New Directions in the Humanities conference in Madrid, Spain.