Global issue | local solution
Panel
Chair: John Thackara
John
Thackara is a symposiarch who designs events in culturally rich situations
around the world – at airports, on high speed trains and at other
major venues. Recent locations have included the Pompidou Centre, Victoria
& Albert Museum London, Spiral Gallery in Tokyo and the Habitat Center
in Delhi. As Director of Doors of Perception, John connects together a
worldwide network of paradigm-changing designers, media artists, and technology
innovators. He was described by Wired as "a design luminary";
by the San Francisco Chronicle as a "wired era visionary";
and by the cultish weblog Rhizome as "top dog in the space of flows".
He is currently also Programme Director of Dott07.
Hugo Manassei
Hugo
graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 1995, specialising in Interaction
Design and design for the internet in his final year. He co-founded Method
Five (now Xceed Inc.), an early pioneering web-based design agency in
New York. Clients included The American Lung Association, Apple and The
National Geographic Society. A year after selling the company in 2001,
Hugo co-founded Oyster Partners (now Framfab) in London. As Chief Creative
Officer, he established new uses of information design, including early
pioneering work for the internet, interactive television, telematics and
mobile phone applications. He specialised in culture online projects and
has consulted for most major museums. His creative work has been recognised
through many award bodies. In 2003 Hugo joined NESTA to develop a new
programme specifically aimed at stimulating growth within the Creative
Industries. He developed the Creative Pioneer Programme, committed to
growing the creative industries through encouraging a new and unconventional
approach to business. Since leaving NESTA in 2005, Hugo has been developing
a new business in the alternative fuel sector.
Alan Morton
biography
to follow
Matt Prescott
Matt
is the director of a new initiative from the RSA – CarbonLimited,
a project developing the policy idea for personal carbon trading which
would involve individuals and communities in climate change mitigation.
A geographer and environmental scientist, graduating from University College
London and the University of Leeds, he was an editor at the Royal Institution
of Chartered Surveyors before turning to project management, including
on award winning sustainable construction and regeneration projects such
as Brixton's Angell Town.
Matt lives in a far-from-airtight solid-walled, single glazed Victorian building in Battersea, London, but points to a reclaimed timber floor (which was once the floor of a local gym), his surprisingly rare need for space heating, his dislike for shopping and the fact that he cycles everywhere as good trade-offs. His projected personal emissions on RSA CarbonDAQ of 1.34 tonnes of CO2 per annum aren’t, he suggests, all that easy to beat. www.theRSA.org/carbondaq.
Laura Williams
image and biography to follow