Harry Yeff (Reeps100) in Conversation with Suhair Khan Harry Yeff, known as Reeps100, is a multi-disciplinary artist and researcher, specialising in voice, technology and performance. He has visualised the voice for over 10 years, through cymatics, performance, sculpture, and film. Harry unpacks his practice with generative models in a 1:1 chat wit…

Marcus du Sautoy (University of Oxford), Rebecca Fiebrink (UAL) & Ben Cullen Williams (Ben Cullen Williams Studio) moderated by Suhair Khan Ben Cullen Williams, a London-based artist exploring the dynamic space between technology & nature, through sculptures, installations, and video. Dr. Rebecca Fiebrink Professor of Creative Computing at the Univ…

Seetal Solanki (Ma-tt-er), & Chance Coughenour (Google Arts & Culture) moderated by Morgan Meaker Digitally preserving and democratising access to cultural heritage, Chance Coughenour coordinates cultural heritage preservation efforts on a global scale at Google Arts & Culture. Seetal Solanki, Author of "Why Materials Matter" (Prestel, 2018), is on…

Ego Obi (Google), Konstantina Palla (Spotify) & Samantha Niblett (Labour: Women in Tech) moderated by Suhair Khan Ego Obi, a senior Google executive who has had almost two decades at the forefront of building technologies and business around the world, and is currently completing a PhD on Ethics & AI. Samantha Niblett the Founder of Labour: Women i…

In this conversation, Sougwen Chung (Scilicet Studio), Freya Murray (Google Arts & Culture), and Suhair Khan (open-ended design) talk about the confluence of machine learning and robotics with artistic practice. Could we imagine an engineer as an artist, or an artist as an engineer? Can you make real innovations in designing with machine learning w…

In this conversation, Tom Dixon OBE (Tom Dixon), Karen Kang (TikTok), and Amon Kale (Central Saint Martins, LVMH) consider the role of creatives across digital platforms. They discuss the ways in which creativity is being decentralised, the role of social media in increasing access, and what is meant by an “authentic” brand voice. This conversation…

In this conversation, Diana Alcausin (WeTransfer), Mariasole Pastori (Diorama), Emily Benn (Editor, Councillor City of London), Dayo Olopade (Amazon Studios, YouTube), and Maxim Zhestkov (zhestkov.studio) speak about ethics, bias, and innovation in art and design across all digital platforms. Hear their collective first-hand experiences working wit…

In this conversation, Whitney Richardson (Apple, The New York Times), Greg Robson (Kintanna Ventures), Dara Huang (DH Liberty), and Suhair Khan (open-ended design) speak about how the role of creatives, architects and designers is changing with new markets, new users, and new platforms. Are we all hypocrites when it comes to designing and building …

In this conversation, Arthur Mamou-Mani (Mamou-Mani Architects), Shajay Bhooshan (Zaha Hadid Architects), Jen Haugan (Nexus Studios), and Suhair Khan (open-ended design) speak about placemaking and designing for the metaverse. Who defines the metaverse? Are we excited or terrified by what comes next? Who owns these spaces? They discuss building vir…

In this conversation, artist and designer Es Devlin speaks with Suhair Khan about how to thoughtfully engage technology to push the boundaries of imagination across art, culture, and design. This conversation is part of open-ended design’s Technology & Design Lab in partnership with London Design Festival 2022. The mission is to connect visionary c…

We continue our planet focused season this week with curator Diana Campbell, who is committed to fostering a transnational art world. Championing socially engaged artistic practices of underrepresented artists and regions has earned her recognition on the annual ArtReviewPower100 list. 🏆 Since 2013, Diana has served as the Founding Artistic Directo…

This week’s open-ended conversation is with the versatile Shloka Nath, head of sustainability and policy at Tata Trusts in Mumbai. Shloka Nath is a thought leader focused on funding climate in India across business and society.At the center of her work as the co-founder and Acting CEO of the India Climate Collaborative, is the question of how clima…

This weeks conversation is with architect and teacher Hussam Dakkak. Hussam has been the founder and program director of the AA Jeddah Visiting School since 2015, which critically archives and studies Makkah, a city sacred to all Muslims and home to the holiest site in Islam, the Ka'aba. A historian and archivist, Hussam's work is political and som…

This weeks conversation is with Katie Patrick, an environmental engineer and software designer based in San Francisco. Katie works at the intersection of environmental behaviour, gamification, and technology, tackling complex environmental issues by applying data-driven game and behaviour-change techniques.Passionate about the power of gaming to sa…

We kick off the new year with a conversation with multimedia artist Shezad Dawood, who works across the disciplines of painting, film, sculpture, performance, virtual reality and digital media. His work asks key questions of narrative, history, and embodiment, fusing artistic narratives with the issues of our time, challenging us to think about the…

This week’s Open/Ended conversation features Whitney Richardson, a creative visual strategist who uses technology, events and journalism to connect people around the world. Over the last few years, Whitney has produced live events for The New York Times across Europe to address the most pressing stories of our time: climate change, gender, tech, an…

To kick off Season 3, we are excited to welcome Anab Jain - designer, futurist and filmmaker. As co-founder of Superflux, Anab leads a seminal design practice that is responsive to the challenges and opportunities of this era. Anab and her team imagine and build future worlds for the present moment. They confront issues such as climate change and i…

#19 Josie Wells is an award-winning journalist and founder of Footnotes and Indexes, a New York-based book club that aims to initiate personal growth and foster critical thinking through works by Black writers. Making academia accessible, her accompanying online newsletter provides space for people to address social issues and dig deeper into Black…

Jaz O’Hara founded The Worldwide Tribe in 2015 after a life-changing visit to the refugee camp in Calais, known as ‘The Jungle’, and a subsequent Facebook post that went viral. The Worldwide Tribe uses creative storytelling to amplify human perspectives of displaced people within the refugee crisis, inspiring a global community and leaving a legacy…

Blaze Lightfoot Jones-Yellin is an afro-indigenous urbanist whose practice and teaching has largely focused on environmental justice and community-centric design in New York. He is also a professor at the Sustainability and Environmental Justice department at CUNY John Jay. Throughout his career, Blaze has helped create equitable communities by ble…

Dr Julia King is an architectural designer who works on sanitation and housing in the context of megacities and rapid urbanisation in the UK and India; both countries in which she was raised. She has a special interest in unpacking urban micro-cultures and her practice centres on participatory design. Julia is also a Research Fellow at LSE Cities, …

This week’s Open/Ended conversation features Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, a multidisciplinary artist who examines the relationship between humans and nature through exobiology, synthetic biology, conservation, and biodiversity. Using artificial intelligence and virtual reality as primary means of expression, much of her practice-led research has focus…

Sertaç Taşdelen is an Istanbul-based tech entrepreneur who has spent the last 10 years bringing artificial intelligence to the worlds of spirituality and fortune-telling. As co-founder and CEO of Binnaz and Faladdin, two psychic apps, and Iyilik Paylaş, an online donation platform, Sertaç was not always an entrepreneur. He was based in Singapore w…

Widharmika ‘Widhar’ Agung is founder and director of Indorelawan.org, Indonesia’s largest web-based volunteer matching network, which he founded in 2012 inspired by his own community-centric Balinese heritage. Indorelawan now has 180,000 volunteers who sign up and engage via the website and app, supporting 3000+ organisations with 6000+ activities,…

"All our secrets are revealed in the way we move." Aparna Rao, part of the Indo-Danish art duo Pors & Rao, joins us from her studio based in Bangalore, India for this Open/Ended conversation. She and her collaborator Søren Pors work with objects and installations, often incorporating lifelike physical movement and responsive behaviours. Technology …

#11 Esra'a Al Shafei on Platforming Marginalised Voices Esra'a Al Shafei is a Bahraini human rights activist and founder of Majal.org, a network of digital platforms that amplify under-reported and marginalized voices in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond; building communities that celebrate, protect and promote diversity and social justice. …

#10 Marquise Stillwell on Community through Design Marquise Stillwell's work spans art, culture, film and the problems (and solutions) of design in the world’s major cities. He speaks about life as an editor, film producer, curator, philanthropist and increasingly, a voice for social justice. In 2009 Marquise founded Openbox in New York City - brin…

/ Dr. Jessica Wade is a fantastic physicist with multiple scientific awards under the belt of her lab coat. By day she works on her post-doc on chiral organic light-emitting diodes at Imperial College London and by night she is a whizz on Wikipedia. Amongst many other professional projects, Jess is aiming to diversify the science world through her …

Leila Meroue is the founding director of the NGO Let’s Build My School and her own architectural practice LM Architecture. Focused on sustainability and humanitarian work, Leila speaks to us about her research and design methodology; and her work and interests in the natural world, sustainable materials, and community empowerment. Let’s Build My Sc…

/ Priya Khanchandani has been a bright light in the world of design for most of her career across continents. A writer, curator and commentator (and trained solicitor!), she’s just stepping into her new role as the Head of Curatorial and Interpretation at the Design Museum in London. Once a curator at the V&A in London Priya kicked off their semina…

/ Jayden Ali’s practice sits at the intersection of architecture, urban strategy, art and performance. He is the Founding Director of interdisciplinary practice JA Projects and (not your typical professor) he's a unit leader and lecturer in the incredible MA Architecture program at Central Saint Martins. At once a teacher, writer, filmmaker, design…

/ Soft-spoken and always thoughtful, tech-star Tilek Mamutov recently left Google X to found his own venture, Outtalent; a career accelerator that helps engineers from emerging markets get jobs at top tech companies abroad. Tilek grew up in in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, studied computer science and has stayed close to home throughout his career journey i…

/ What is your purpose? Our conversation with Liza kept us up at night with her words "This is actually going deep and asking yourself - what are my preferences? What are the things that drive and motivate me? Where do I find purpose?" playing over in our minds, forcing us to pause if even for a minute, to check in with ourselves.…

Divya Thakur has led the creation of a contemporary Indian design identity. Based in Mumbai with a life and home in Colaba which reflect her textured Indian worldview, she is feisty, funny, bold and always thoughtful to speak with. She is a powerhouse of design thinking, product and practice and has had exhibitions and projects spanning the world o…

Open/Ended is a platform for activist designers and thinkers around the world. Together, we will explore the spaces where creativity, culture and design intersect with technology, science, and engineering; with a lens on positive change. / Melodie Leung is a Senior Associate at Zaha Hadid Architects. Her practice has evolved over the last 15 years …

Open/Ended is a platform for activist designers and thinkers around the world. Together, we will explore the spaces where creativity, culture and design intersect with technology, science, and engineering; with a lens on positive change. / Azu Nwagbogu is a cultural force in Africa, leading for change through experimentation, intellect and intuitio…