Art & Tech
Days 24

Ben James is the CEO & Founder of 3D generative AI platform Atlas.

When Ben entered the architecture profession, he was shocked at the limited role new technology played in the design process, and discovered that the lack of automation meant that creative individuals spent too much time on tasks not suited to their expertise.

He founded Atlas in 2021 to augment and focus designers‘ creativity, with an emphasis on gaming and virtual world-building.

Ben graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC and worked as a financial and strategy consultant in NYC and London prior to getting his Architecture Master’s degree from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

His work has been exhibited in notable museums and galleries such as the Architectural Association visiting school in China, the A+D Museum in LA, the Storefront for Art & Architecture in NYC, and the Architecture Biennale in Tallinn.

Winy is a Founding Partner, Urban Planner, and Landscape Architect who has led MVRDV’s interdisciplinary team since its establishment in 1993. Co-founded with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, the award-winning Dutch practice has achieved international acclaim for a wide variety of buildings, cities, and landscapes that are innovative, experimental, and merge theory with practice.

Driven by this dedication to green, user-defined, sustainable cities and spaces, his leadership drives many of the office’s award-winning projects. These include the Dutch Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, Villa VPRO in Hilversum, WoZoCo in Amsterdam, Rotterdam’s Markthal, Crystal Houses in Amsterdam, the Tianjin Binhai Library, the Glass Farm in Schijndel, Radio Hotel and Tower in New York, Valley in Amsterdam and the first publicly accessible art depot in the world, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, which opened its doors end of 2021.

His broad portfolio are also several masterplans, including a vision for the future of Greater Paris, the Left Bank in Bordeaux, and the waterfront of Oslo. He also designed and supervised the world horticultural exhibition Floriade 2022 and supervised Eindhoven city centre from 2017 until 2022.

Winy balances practice with academic leadership. Besides his work for MVRDV, he is a Professor of Urbanism and Architecture at the Delft University of Technology. In 2008, he developed The Why Factory, a research institute that he leads within TU Delft, which explores possibilities for the development of cities of the future. In 2022, He was appointed visiting professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague.

His academic work also includes numerous visiting professorships at internationally notable institutions including the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Columbia University in New York, the Strelka Institute in Moscow, Hong Kong University, the Rotterdam Building Academy, and the Czech Technical University.

Besides the many awards MVRDV’s projects have received, in 2015 he was appointed to the Order of the Dutch Lion by the Dutch government. In 2011, the Government of France awarded him with the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur for his work characterized by experimentation, innovation, and sustainability.

Mitchell is Co-Founder of Terreform ONE, a non-profit research group for art, architecture and urban design. He is a professor at New York University and Co-Chair of Global Design NYU. As an architect, he worked in professional offices in LA, Massachusetts and New York. Mitchell has won many awards including: Fulbright Scholarship, NEA Grant for Arts Projects, LafargeHolcim Acknowledgement Prize, Ove Arup Foundation Grant, Architect R+D Award, AIA New York Urban Design Merit Award, Victor Papanek Social Design Award, 1st Place International Architecture Award, Zumtobel Award for Sustainability, Architizer A+ Award, History Channel Infiniti Award for City of the Future, and Time Magazine Best Invention with MIT Smart Cities.

His design works have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, including New York, London, Berlin, Toronto, Rotterdam, Venice and Prague.

He is a TED Senior Fellow and has been awarded fellowships with Safdie Architects, and the Martin Society for Sustainability at MIT.

He co-authored four books, “Super Cells: Building with Biology” (TED Books), “Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned” (Prestel, 2014), “XXL-XS: New Directions in Ecological Design” (Actar 2016), and “Design with Life: Biotech Architecture and Resilient Cities” (Actar 2019).

This prominent architect and urban planner has appeared in many articles: “The 100 People Who Are Changing America” in Rolling Stone, “The Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To” in Wired, “50 Under 50 Innovators of the 21st Century” by Images Publishing Group, “The NOW 99” in Dwell, and “Future of The Environment” in Popular Science.

Previously, he was the Frank Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto and faculty at Pratt, Columbia, Syracuse, Rensselaer, Washington (St. Louis), Cornell, Parsons, and EGS. He earned a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MAUD at Harvard University, M.Arch at Columbia University with honors.

Nahum is a Berlin-based artist and seasoned keynote speaker with over a decade of international experience in areas such as space culture, art thinking, and future imaginaries.

Nahum has become a driving force for change, advocating for greater inclusion of the arts in the space sector as well as for responsible space activities.

He has developed a series of artistic space missions in collaboration with organisations like NASA, SpaceX, ESA, and Roscosmos. From zero gravity performances to installing an artwork onboard the International Space Station.

Nahum is a founding director of the KOSMICA Institute, a space organisation dedicated to exploring the cultural dimensions of space activities and their impact on Earth.
He is a winner of the Space Leader Award by the Astronautical Federation. His innovative approach to public speaking involves combining music, hypnosis, and illusionism with his ideas and works to create unique performance talks.

Maya Offir Magnat is a performance artist, speaker and educator based in Tel Aviv, Israel. She has an MA in education and technology from Haifa University, M.F.A in Performance Research from the University of Tel Aviv and is a certified sex educator. Her thesis focused on sex education on YouTube, and how YouTubers perceive their role.

Her artistic work and research deals with mediated intimacy, sexuality and technology, woman and technology and interactive art and games. She is interested in finding different ways to create new kinds of intimacy using technology.

Maya is one of the founders of the „“Intimake““ community for people from various fields (makers, hackers, developers, researchers, educators, therapists, etc.) who wish to find different ways to create intimacy through technology, in the goal of facilitating closeness, intimacy and positive sexuality.

As a performer and speaker Maya performs at various festivals, theaters, museums, academic institutions, and conferences.

GPT, What is Love? The technological development of artificial intelligence in recent years and the pace at which people are adopting this technology is extraordinary. Artificial intelligence has and will continue to have a profound impact on all areas of our lives, including dating, relationships, sex, and even how we break up. We hope these tools will help us cope with the challenges and complexities of love and relationships. After all, we are used to turning to technology for solutions to any other problem… But can artificial intelligence truly assist with these challenges? In her talk, Maya will show examples of the various ways AI is currently being used in the context of sexuality and relationships. She will try to examine whether AI can help improve our intimacy and how we can use it to promote healthy sexuality.

Leon creates both physical and digital interactive experiences that disrupt the way people routinely interact with their environments, encouraging them to reflect on how their chosen behavior within the experience relates to their actions outside of it through play. In their work, they examine decision-making and mutual interaction, which is not based on social expectations and culture, but is the result of the influence of factors such as technology, creator’s intention, or mutual creation.

Most recently their work has focused on communicating the power that lies within the position of designing widely adopted technology like web interfaces or location-based games and has been exhibited at places like Ars Electronica, IMPAKT, and V2_ Lab.

Róbert is a screenwriter, director, master of sound and dramaturgical concepts at Onomatopoje studio in Košice. He studied at AKU in Banská Bystrica and completed his studies at VŠMU in Bratislava as a documentary filmmaker under Vlado Balc. He finished his studies with the graduation film Jonatán. He is the father of two children and the DOCsk documentary film festival, and the author of the Slovak Documentary Film Almanac and the Instagram project #chodimpešo. Currently, he is helping to start inclusive film clubs for children and teenagers in the Úsmev cinema in Košice. He is a dedicated runner, rides a longboard and is a lover of Knausgård. He prefers a contemplative approach to life and his work.