Bend Design 2021 announces speaker lineup
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Bend Design 2021, a program of Scalehouse, will be taking place for the seventh year as a hybrid (online and in-person) creative conference on Friday, Oct. 22.
Designers, changemakers and the curious gather for a series of talks, art exhibitions, a film at Tin Pan Theater, and more at Open Space Studios near downtown Bend. A limited number of in-person passes are available for an intimate and safe Bend Design experience, along with virtual passes to watch the event in real-time.
“Following a profoundly transformative year, how we show up for our communities matters more than ever,” says René Mitchell, Scalehouse Executive Director. “Collaboration, relentless curiosity and a daring expression of design can be used to look at how we shape our world around us,” Mitchell added.
This year, Bend Design brings together the brightest and boldest minds to talk about eco design, social justice, education, sustainable fashion and social media to explore what it means to be human in a world where the role of design is constantly shifting. Bend Design is for artists and designers, explorers, thinkers, scientists, engineers, civic and business leaders, and anyone curious about how design and creativity can shape our future.
Passes are available in three ways: In-Person, Virtual and A la carte. All-Access In-Person Passes are $175, $50 for students. All-Access Virtual Program Passes are based on a sliding scale, starting at $10. A la carte tickets are available for $25/speaker, virtual only. Passes can be purchased on the Scalehouse website: https://www.scalehouse.org/benddesign-passes
View the 2021 Agenda to learn more: https://www.scalehouse.org/benddesign-agenda
Bend Design 2021 Speakers:
Writer + Seeker + Conversation Starter
Anisa Tavangar hangs out at the intersection of art, justice and spirituality and is a writer and curator at For Freedoms, an arts organization that uses the voices of artists to further public discourse and reshape essential conversations. Her work fosters creative collaboration between museums, artist studios, galleries, publications, and justice organizations across art, culture and design to explore how beauty in all forms can foster justice.
For Freedoms reframes how art can shed light on our current reality.
Anisa holds a degree in Art History and Africana Studies from Barnard College of Columbia University and is based in New York and Philadelphia.
SESSION: Telling Visual Stories Through a Lens of Justice
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Architect + Designer + Educator
Born in Austria and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Daniel Toole knew that he wanted to be an architect at the age of twelve after being inspired by his artist/teacher Aunt and engineer grandfather, and pushed forward by highly supportive parents. He has traveled and worked extensively around the world, observing diverse, intimate and unexpected urban spaces along the way. His first book, Tight Urbanism, was published in 2010 and explores alleyway architecture in major world cities.
Daniel received a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Oregon and completed a master’s degree in Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. After over a decade of working in various offices and moonlighting, he founded Daniel Toole Architecture in 2020. He has designed private residences, commercial buildings, landscapes and master plans independently, and while working for prestigious firms such as Rick Joy Architects, Barkow Leibinger Architects, Perkins + Will, and Allied Works Architecture.
Daniel has received numerous design awards and fellowships throughout his remarkable career and currently serves as an adjunct instructor at the University of Oregon School of Architecture.
SESSION: Nature and Materials
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Global Social Media Strategist + Speaker + World Traveler
In the Mandarin language, Lung means “Dragon.” For Dot Lung, dragons are magical, fierce creatures capable of changing the world….and busting algorithms. With this spirit of belief and tenacity, she became a sought-after social media fireball with over 90,000 little dragons under her wing learning and growing together.
Dot’s social media career formally began at OFFF Festival in Barcelona, where she was in charge of the online community and audience engagement. This morphed into helping industry giants such as Facebook and Wix navigate a noisy digital world and create exceptional digital experiences via unique, relatable content. She has been featured in Vanity Fair Italy and has spoken at University of Barcelona, AdWorld, Vidcon and other creative gatherings. An active social media user since the dinosaur days of MySpace, Dot’s dream is to empower people to build social media empires through strong online identities and engaged communities.
After growing up in Los Angeles, Dot traveled the world and now calls Barcelona home. (Although she lives 24/7 on all social media platforms.)
SESSION: How to Survive a Pandemic, War and the Instagram Algorithm
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Architectural Designer + Educator + Maker
Maya Bird-Murphy believes that architecture and design should not be a privilege but a right extended to all. While working full-time and completing her Master’s degree, Maya forged her own unique path in the field of architecture and founded Chicago Mobile Makers. This award-winning non-profit organization offers design-thinking workshops to underrepresented communities in Chicago.
Chicago Mobile Makers is leading the social architecture movement and dismantling the deep structural issues found within the built environment that promote segregation and inequality. The organization teaches social justice within architectural education and empowers Chicago youth to become advocates and changemakers in their communities.
Maya is the recipient of the AIA Illinois 2020 Alan Madison Award and was recently featured in Dwell Magazine.
SESSION: Making Design Accessible, One Student at a Time
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Designer + Author + Humanitarian
Angela Luna is changing what society thinks fashion can accomplish. As the Founder and Creative Director of ADIFF, she is most recognizable for her transformable outerwear designed to assist refugees by converting a jacket into a tent.
Inspired by the phrase "make a difference," ADIFF empowers marginalized communities and fights climate change through ethical fashion that is as useful and wearable as possible. Angela's medium is fashion, but at her core she's a designer of systems and passionate about connecting global issues with design.
Angela released her latest fashion collection in an open-source "cookbook" as a way to democratize sustainable fashion and inspire responsible consumption. With detailed "recipes," including step-by-step illustrations from six contemporary fashion brands, the Cookbook empowers people to make their own clothing from items that are readily available in their own homes.
Angela is a graduate of Parsons School of Design and won the school's Womenswear Designer of the Year award. She is also a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Art + Design.
SESSION: Democratizing Sustainable Fashion
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Designer + Audio Storyteller + Collaborator
Robb Mills has over 20 years of professional audio production experience as a BAFTA-nominated sound designer, music composer and audio specialist for video games, advertising, and short films. From Sci-Fi horror blockbusters to children's educational games to mobile apps, there's little Robb hasn't done.
He recently contributed sound design to Hunger Ward, the 2021 Oscar-nominated Best Documentary Short that chronicles the efforts of healthcare workers to thwart the mass starvation of innocent children during the ongoing (yet forgotten) war in Yemen. As a craft, Robb believes sound and music are an ever-fluctuating source of creativity and service.
Robb has a music degree from Ball State University and calls Bend, Oregon home. He is also a Certified Yoga Therapist and an active member of local restorative justice and equity groups.
SESSION: Documentary Sound Design: Where Subtlety Meets Significance
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Data Enthusiast + Collaborative Designer + Scientist
Skye Morét is a data-driven designer and marine scientist. Her diverse exploration of the ocean—having sailed 100,000 miles around the globe—fuels her belief in the power of art and design to critically engage people with the ecological complexities and dependencies of our planet. Skye's work uses data visualization, collaboration, and visual storytelling to investigate the relationship between empathy, nature and technology--specifically in the contexts of climate and social justice.
She is the Chair of the Collaborative Design and Design Systems MFA/MA program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art at Willamette University and consults for clients ranging from the United Nations Environment Programme to The Nature Conservancy and Nike. Her installations have been exhibited at Science Gallery Dublin, the European Parliament in Brussels, the shores of Bali, and at Palmer Station, Antarctica.
When she's not eagerly anticipating her upcoming data art installation at the University of Toronto Art Centre (or dashing off a scientific paper or essay), you can find Skye exploring exotic coastlines around the globe.
SESSION: Engaging Design for an Unstable World
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Maker + Researcher + Lover
When Rob Lewis is not honing his craft as a designer and artist, he serves as an Art Director at Kamp Grizzly, a PDX creative agency with a focus on human interaction and connection. He works on “lots of different things” and is constantly exploring new ways of thinking and making.
As an artist, Rob remains receptive and connected to all that is happening around him in the world. His distinctive point of view showcases the keen eye of an observer. By making art and communing with brave artists, he has cultivated an appetite for difference, knowledge and free expression.
Rob is a native of Cincinnati and lives in Portland, Oregon. He hates meetings and likes buying records just to look at the covers.
SESSION: Know Yourself
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2021 Conference Partners Include: The Clabough Foundation, Caldera Arts, The Old Mill District, The Source Weekly, Crahmanti, KTVZ, Open Space Studios, Martha Murray Design, Hey Charlie Creative, Ghost Village Films, BBT Architects, The Fixture Gallery, The Starview Foundation, Statehood Media, Bend Magazine, Buzztag, Cascade Business News, Oregonian, OPB, Pacific Northwest College of the Arts, Bend Furniture and Design, OSU-Cascades, Terris Draheim, DEI Creative, Project 4, and Tin Pan Theatre
About Scalehouse: Scalehouse is a multidisciplinary contemporary arts center convening diverse thinkers for in-depth discussions, artistic collaborations, exhibitions and events, including Bend Design Week and Scalehouse Gallery. Scalehouse believes our shared future presents complex challenges and opportunities, not just benefiting from creativity but requiring it. We are committed to programming that’s accessible, provocative, extraordinary and inclusive — always with an eye toward a better future.
