Speakers

Álvaro Mercado is an architect from PUCV (2010), with a Master in City and Territory (2017) and a PhD in Architecture and Urbanism from the Université libre de Bruxelles (2022). Since 2013, he has been a professor at the School of Architecture and Design of the PUCV, where he is currently an associate professor. His teaching and research focus on situated and speculative methods to analyse and act on the urban peripheries of Valparaíso. His PhD explored the implications of the South American geo-poetic approach of the Valparaíso School, specifically Amereida's Travesías (1964-1984), for questioning the logics of Modernity/Coloniality in the urbanisation of the hinterland, known as the Inland Sea.

Cecelia Faumuina is a lecturer in Communication Design. Before entering the academic world she worked in Audio Visual Production / Graphic Design and taught Art, Design, Visual Communication, and Technology in various Secondary Schools around Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland. She is passionate about the potential of people, particularly youth, their well-being, the quality of their education, and how they navigate the world they live in. Cecelia is conscience that people's relationships to themselves and each other are also important to the relationship of people in nature and deeply considers Hau'ofa's* (2017) assertion, "Oceania is us. We are the sea, we are the ocean."

Cherise Cheung, a postgraduate student from China, studying for a Master of Philosophy at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). She excel in integrating Eastern and Western techniques, using nostalgic art to interpret cultural belonging. Her research involves practice-led inquiries, poetic writing, bookbinding, travelogue and autoethnographic research, utilising various materials to explore and express her ideas. She is passionate about blending old and new, drawing from historical and cultural contexts to create resonance and nostalgia works.

Visual artist and academic. She is an audiovisual communicator from the Arcos Institute and holds a Master's degree in Cultural Studies from the Arcis University. She has developed a prolific body of work in video and installation, addressing themes linked to uprootedness, otherness and contemporary social imaginaries. He has received numerous awards, among others, his video 11 de septiembre won the Festival Prize at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany 2002; she received the Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn grant in 2008 and the Golden Cube Prize at the Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- und Videofest, Germany 2003; Prize at the Locarno Video Arte festival, Switzerland, 1998. Award for Best Experimental Short Film at the Santiago Short Film Festival, 1994.

David is a designer and photographer who is currently pursuing a PhD at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). His research explores how lens-based recording can communicate an embodied connection to land. As a lecturer in the Communication Design Department, David's academic focus is on the use of lens-based media in generating knowledge through practice-led research. His work seeks to understand how visual media can convey embodied, lived experiences. Artistically, David is engaged in the exploration of hybridised media, combining different forms to express and investigate the nuances of subjective experience and its connection to the environment.

Fiona Grieve is an Academic Leader and Creative Director with 20+ years’ experience in design education, research and consultancy. She is engaged in projects that utilise collaborative processes to comprehend and distill information into visual systems. Her practice positions publication design as a reflective and reflexive research platform to facilitate educational discourse and examine practice-based research and industry contexts. She has been involved in a number of collaborations which intersect educational and professional domains of practice: THREADED is an international award winning design magazine; and FREE PLAN is the Alla Prima Project which expands on approaches to design and visual arts, assessment, curricula and studio-centred education.

The driving force behind everything that Professor Hinematau McNeill does is wanting to make a difference for people who have been marginalised. In the 1980s, McNeill helped initiate Māori women’s refuges and pushed for the mandatory reporting of domestic violence. She joined Te Ara Poutama as a Senior Lecturer in 1997. Her doctorate worked with renowned tohunga (specialist/healer) Hohepa Kereopa, looking at what promotes mental wellness in Tūhoe kaumātua. Hinematau is Tapuika, Ngāti Moko, and worked on the historical record as a Treaty negotiator for her iwi, which settled with the Crown in 2014. More recently, an interest in artistic practice-led research has helped emerging scholars operate creatively in a way that values indigenous epistemologies and ways of working. Hinematau was raised in a marae-based community and she believes that when indigenous knowledge is truly valued it will invigorate and enrich the learning experience of everyone.

Herbert Spencer is an Interaction Designer and professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. In 2024, he will begin a practice-based PhD at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). A Fulbright Scholar with an MDes from Carnegie Mellon University, Herbert has over 20 years of teaching experience and has supervised more than 70 theses. His research focuses on using technology to support civic engagement and empower adults with intellectual disabilities, with significant contributions in projects like PiX and PICTOS. He also leads the Masters Program in Architecture and Design (MAD) at his home institution.

Hossein Najafi is an media, animation, visual effects and drawing Associate Professor of Practice at School of Design in Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is a practicing artist, and a researcher specializing in design, creativity, practice-led and heuristic research. After founding a production studio and working with various companies in London, Istanbul and Auckland, he brought a wealth of industry experience to his academic career.  Hossein holds a PhD in Art and Design and in his doctoral thesis, he investigated identity loss and transition through Persian illuminationist approaches that interfaced with heuristics. Hossein is recently researching on the creative heuristic processes in AI models. 

Poet. Industrial Designer and Master in History at PUCV, PhD in Design at PUC Rio de Janeiro. He participates in the subject Amereida Workshop, in the construction of the university environment in the poetry-craft relationship. He teaches subjects of Introduction to Design and Architecture. He was head of the publishing workshop at its creation. He was for four years Director of the School's Master's programme, teaching especially in the Nautical & Maritime mention. In the current postgraduate programme he is a researcher in the area of ‘Education, Space and Learning’ and holds the chair of the ‘America Seminar’. Since 2007 he is the Head of the José Vial Armstrong Historical Archive.

Iván Ivelic Yanes is a full professor at the PUCV School of Architecture and Design, where he has worked uninterruptedly from 1995 to the present day, in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, research, liaison with the environment and institutional management. Current Director of the Amereida Cultural Corporation and inhabitant of the Amereida Open City from 1970 to the present day, from where he has contributed to the discipline in the exploration of new ways of thinking and developing architecture collectively and under an artistic conception.

James Smith is a lecturer in interaction and communication design in the School of Art and Design, the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). His practice-based research focuses primarily on design for new and emerging technologies, embodied and enactive design approaches, intercultural co-design, new modes and forms of interactive storytelling, and Global South epistemologies and methodologies.

Dr Jason Kennedy is a senior lecturer of animation at Auckland University of Technology. He combines his experience as a professional animator and actor through his animation practice. His research (both academic and industry-focused) is dedicated to helping animators better see, understand, and apply character acting in performance-based animations. He is a collaborative research member of Eco Astronomy, an international research and innovation hub in multidisciplinary astronomy. In this capacity, he produces animated performances in the form of scientific visualisations of extinct animals to support palaeontological research and museum exhibits, which links with his early career direction as a palaeontologist. As an actor, Jason has starred in the multiple award-winning short film "Holding South" (2021), for which he also served as the VFX lead. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand with his wife Devanshi and their two cats, Stygi and Moloch.

Joseph is an Artist in residence at Auckland University of Technology AUT and an Edmund Hillary Fellow. Joseph Michael’s artworks embody a magical balance between fine art and forward-thinking technical knowledge. His large-scale projections of icebergs on monumental buildings bring the remoteness of the Antarctic to the core of urban centres, thus challenging a human centred worldview, by collapsing the space and time relationship between humans and the natural world and bringing into stark focus the consequences of our treatment of the planet. He is currently pursuing a Master of Philosophy with a practice-led research thesis at AUT.

Kathleen is a descendant of the tribes Whanau-ā-Apanui and Whakatōhea in Aotearoa, New Zealand. She is a young Indigenous researcher dedicated to exploring Indigenous epistemologies and traditional knowledge within Indigenous communities. Her work emphasises collaborative approaches which aim to uplift the well-being of current generations while enhancing the lived realities of future generations. Her body of work endeavours to promote holistic understanding and sustainable practices that honour and respect Indigenous perspectives and realities. Her research engages with young indigenous community members to ensure that their voices are heard, fostering resilience and empowerment within Indigenous populations.

Marcos Mortensen Steagall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Design at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). In his research and professional pursuits, Dr. Mortensen Steagall explores the intersection of visual semiotics and practice-oriented methodologies in Art, Design, Communication, and Technology. His artistic practice, primarily centred on lens-based and digital image-making, serves as a method for knowledge production. Dr. Mortensen Steagall's work is characterised by an interdisciplinary approach that merges academic research with artistic practice, highlighting the significance of embracing diverse cultural narratives and knowledge systems in Design. Additionally, he is the editor of the academic journal LINK Praxis and chairs the LINK International Conference, focusing on Practice-led Research and the Global South.

Qianyin Li is a graphic designer from China and currently living and studying in Aotearoa New Zealand. I completed bachelor’s and master’s degree at AUT, majoring in Communication Design. With a background in human-centred design, I’m interested in autoethnographic approaches in graphic design, and how the self can inform the creative process in the search for authenticity, and originality and to maintain the dignity of the story. I hope to use the communication design skills to contribute to both digital and physical communication design solutions.

Michèle Wilkomirsky Uribe is an Associate Professor, Graphic Designer, Doctor of the Rey Juan Carlos University, Secretary of the Architecture and Urbanism Faculty of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV). Professor of the design career at the PUCV School of Architecture and Design (EAD). In the Design undergraduate course, she teaches the workshop Legible City and the Digital Editions workshop. In addition, she teaches Design and Contemporary Culture and supervises undergraduate thesis. Also she in Master's thesis evaluation committee member at the EAD. Her projects are in Co Design for emergency contexts, digital editorial, and interaction Design.

Nicolás Piérola Fuentes, (1988), has a degree in Art and Education, with a specialisation in Visual Arts Pedagogy. He teaches the subject ‘Drawing and the Gaze. Seminar-Workshop’ at the Art Institute of the PUCV. He has been recognized for his work, being selected for the Guide 100 Visual Artists of Valparaíso in 2020, the XLI National Contest of Young Art in 2019, and obtaining the second prize in the Young Art Contest of the Artequín Museum that same year. In 2012, he received a grant for the workshop The Rhythm Project at the TSONAMI Festival. His publications include ‘The prehistory of drawing: a history of the hand’ and ‘Art and merchandise. Las esferas del arte y del mercado del arte’ in Revista Rizoma (2021), as well as the poetry anthology “La letra se escribe con sangre” (2020).

Sonia Mehana hails from Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kuri and Ngāti Whātua. Her PhD research explores the economic viability of green burials for whānau (family) Māori. The premise is that Urupā Tautaiao (natural burials) make a significant contribution to alleviating tangihanga (customary funerals) costs which can be financially crippling. Her research is intent on producing evidence to support this claim. She will also be focusing on opportunities for Māori in grassroots businesses to support tangihanga. Sonia manages the Undergraduate Programmes in the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Development at Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

Summer Shan is a postgraduate student from China who lives in New Zealand and works as a visual communication designer. She holds a Bachelor of Communication Design and a Master of Design from Auckland University of Technology. She specializes in utilizing her own experiences to develop design explorations. Whether expanding on real experiences or constructing fictional worlds, she builds bridges between the imaginary and the real to create meaning. She combines different phenomena with visual communication design to convey internal voices. Research interests include practice-led inquiry in graphic design, poetic inquiry, sensory design, autoethnographic research and heuristics methodologies.

Tangaroa Paul (they/them) of Muriwhenua descent, completed a PhD in practice-led research that explores gender role differentiation through the nature of performative expression. They also lecture in Te Ara Poutama - Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at Auckland University of Technology, teaching in te reo Māori, Media, Gender Studies and more. Tangaroa is passionate about Kapa Haka (Māori Performing Arts) and is finding a space for gender fluidity to exist in this art form.

Dr Tatiana Tavares is a Senior lecturer and the Programme Director for Doctoral Studies at AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand. She is a practicing artist with 15 years experience in the graphic design Industry. Her artistic doctoral thesis (completed in 2019) is concerned with the potentials of polyvocality and interactive digital narrative. Her subjects involve practice-led research methodologies, Latin American syncretism in artistic and literary form, magical realism, and emergent technology. Her design practices cross graphic design, creative writing, illustration, prop making, film, sound design, AR technology and animation.

Toiroa is a Lecturer at Te Ipukarea: National Māori Language Research Institute within the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies at Auckland University of Technology. He earned his Master's in documentary filmmaking in 2016 and has been honoured with prestigious scholarships such as the AUT INTERNZ at Sundance Institute and the AUT Vice-Chancellor's Scholarship. He completed a PhD in Art and Design, specialising in storytelling and documentary filmmaking, focusing on te reo and mātauranga Māori. Toiroa draws inspiration from his whānau and his hometown of Ōpōtiki. He is dedicated to sharing Indigenous narratives to educate future generations, helping to reconnect whānau with their culture, language, and history.

Uenukuterangihoka, raised in Ōpōtiki within Te Whakatōhea, embraces whānau and community in his journey as an indigenous storyteller. His practice-led research, He Tamaiti nā Tangaroa, He Ahuahu o Mataora, documents the reclamation of traditional Māori tattoo (puhoro), drawing on pūrākau (Māori stories). Through film, Uenuku explores pre-colonial ceremonies, honouring whakapapa, whenua (land), and moana (ocean). His work revitalises ancient rituals and investigates how indigenous narratives can guide contemporary documentary-making, connecting Māori cultural identity with universal themes of tradition and transformation.

Wiremu Tipuna (Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa, Ngāti Mākoro) is the Kaiārahi o Te Wāhanga Ture and Associate Dean Māori at the University of Auckland's School of Law. Coming from a working-class background, Wiremu spent 14 years as an electrician and four years as a personal trainer before transitioning into the tertiary education sector, where he has worked for 16 years. He holds a Master of Arts in Māori Development and provides leadership in Māori student recruitment, retention, and success, while also promoting Vision Mātauranga in research. Wiremu has been recognised for his contributions with several awards, including the AHEIA Award for Excellence in People & Culture (2022) and the AUT Vice Chancellor's Excellence Award (2018).

Welby Ings is a Professor of Design and co-director of doctoral programmes in the School of Art & Design at Auckland University of Technology. He is an elected Fellow of the British Royal Society of Arts and a multi-award winning author, illustrator and film director. Welby’s research focuses on design methodologies, practice-led research and disobedient thought. He has supervised over 40 doctoral and masters theses and is an international examiner in design. In 2001 he was awarded the Prime Minister’s inaugural, Supreme Award for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.