Introduction

HUDSONBEC
IF YOU COULD DO ANYTHING TOMORROW, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Design studio HudsonBec will speak about how they began working together through their self initiated publication project If You Could. They started If You Could in their second year of studying Graphic Design at the University of Brighton and are currently putting together the fourth installment of the project as well as running their own design studio and blog It's Nice That.

HudsonBec is a creative agency based in London, set up by Will Hudson and Alex Bec. Having worked together on self-initiated project If You Could for over two years, and more recently, It's Nice That, they share a passion for design and set up the studio in the Autumn of 2008.

Coffee break.

POLIMEKANOS
COFFEE & CIGARETTES
Polimekanos will talk about Morton Feldman says, a book published with Hyphen Press; Metaphors and metonymies, an exhibition curated and produced by Polimekanos for the Austrian Cultural Forum London; and Font clock, a design collaboration with Sebastian Wrong of Established & Sons.

Joseph Kohlmaier and Stefan Kraus started a conversation in a café over some objects which identified them as having a common history and shared interests: a newspaper, a book and a dictionary. They founded Polimekanos a few months later in 2001.

KARIN VON OMPTEDA & DR MARY C DYSON
LABORATORY TYPE: DESIGN FOR SCIENCE & SCIENCE FOR DESIGN
In the laboratory, typefaces transform into their lesser known role as test material for scientific investigation. What technologies, methods and knowledge reside in this unique space? This talk will explore interdisciplinary approaches that lead toward innovation in both typeface design and scientific research into human cognition.

Karin von Ompteda's research is focused on the integration of vision science and typography, with special interest in typeface design for people with visual impairments. With a background in biology and graphic design, she now conducts interdisciplinary research within the Communication Art & Design Department at the Royal College of Art.
Dr Mary C Dyson is a psychologist who is in the fortunate position of being immersed in a Design Department: Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. She has researched legibility issues when reading from screen, but has recently become more interested in how we perceive typefaces, both when we read and when we design them.

REVITAL COHEN & TUUR VAN BALEN
NATURAL KINGDOMS AND UNNATURAL ASSOCIATES
Could animals be transformed into medical devices? About a project exploring a complex symbiosis between man and machine vs. man and animal; created through a series of collaborations between one designer and seven kidney patients, a medical consultant, a greyhound trainer and a molecular biologist.

Revital Cohen is a designer and researcher who develops critical objects and provocative scenarios exploring the juxtaposition of the natural with the artificial. She exhibits and lectures within varied contexts and locations - from scientific and academic conferences to art galleries and design fairs.

WITH HIDDEN NOISE
Synthetic Biologists are people that design and build biological systems by programming DNA. They are either biochemists, molecular biologists or bioengineers, but never designers ... yet.

Tuur Van Balen does design research, although he still figuring out what that exactly means. He was an engineer for a while and then studied Design Interactions at the RCA. Now, he's an independent designer and visiting tutor at the Royal College of Art.

LUNCHBREAK

Introduction

RICK POYNOR & ALEX COLES
WRITING AS A CRITICAL PRACTICE
Art criticism has a long pedigree, while design criticism still struggles to emerge. What is the purpose of these two kinds of criticism and where are the best venues to undertake critical writing? Do art and design criticism have anything to learn from each other?

Rick Poynor is a research fellow at the Royal College of Art. He founded Eye magazine and writes columns for Eye and for Print magazine in New York. His books include the essay collections Design Without Boundaries (1998), Obey the Giant (2001) and Designing Pornotopia (2006).

Alex Coles is an art critic and an editor. He is the author of DesignArt released through Tate Publishing in 2005 and the editor of Design and Art released through MIT Press in 2007. His most recent article is a catalogue essay on Jorge Pardo for K21 in Dusseldorf.

ROB LA FRENAIS
THE ARTS CATALYST - SOME RECENT PROJECTS
Curator Rob La Frenais will show and discuss various site and venue-based projects and commissions by the science-art agency from recent years, with an emphasis on collaboration. Artists include Aleksandra Mir, N55, London Fieldworks, Tomas Saraceno, Anne Brodie, Simon Hollington and Kyp Kyprianou, Neal White and Ashok Sukumaran.

Dr Rob La Frenais is a curator and critic, living in London and Ambialet, France who has curated and produced interdisciplinary and visual art projects since 1987. Since 1997 he has worked with the Arts Catalyst, the science-art agency.

Coffee break

BEN TERRETT
I'M A DESIGNER USE ME BETTER
Ben Terrett will explain why the green crisis is the fault of designers and what we can do about that.

Ben Terrett is a designer with 12 years experience in creating great ideas, managing people, running a creative business and working with C level clients. He is currently a partner in the Really Interesting Group, a multi disciplinary organisation working in post digital design.

SIMON TYSZKO & DAVID ELLIS
YET ANOTHER DETOUR
Simon Tyszko and David Ellis will have a free form improvised discussion covering two major fine art projects they collaborated on: Simon's phlight, an aeroplane in his apartment, and David's detour, a road movie performance in obscure cinemas in Lithuania.

Simon Tyszko lives and works in London. Having never felt the need to conform to careerism he took a twenty year break in his art education to work with bands like the Clash. He has work in a number of private collections, and has recently been included in exhibitions and events at the ICA, London and the Jerwood Gallery, London.
David Ellis is a writer, performer and curator. He is a participant in a a TV/Film experiment in which he joins an unknown group of artists, writers & former utopianists in Nowa Huta, the Stalinist steel-town suburb of Krakow