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Creative Tech 2024

Come to Creative Tech 2024 to expand your perspective on the horizon of art, design, and technology.

Continuing our exploration at the intersection of emerging tech and creative practice, this year’s focus is on the role of artificial intelligence, the challenges of sustainable design, and new approaches to career building and entrepreneurship. Through three days of dynamic sessions, Creative Tech 2024 will showcase ArtCenter’s legacy and significance as a vanguard institution that is leading conversations across creativity and technology.

Why are these speakers and topics relevant for you?

As the complexities surrounding AI, digital infrastructure, and communication technologies continue to multiply, insights from change-makers outside of design are increasingly vital to be able to interpret and address the viability and effects of creative work. In keeping with ArtCenter’s mission to empower creatives as informed and impactful contributors in their fields, participants can expect to gain a broader understanding of how policy and practice shape the tools, platforms, and environments to which they contribute.

Public Programming

Wednesday, October 23rd

Regulating Innovation: Policy, Privacy and Creator’s Rights

5:00 to 7:30PM

The widespread adoption and growing influence of generative AI technologies raise critical questions best addressed by cross-disciplinary expertise. Join us to hear from three distinct and influential voices and expand your perspective. Sanford Williams of the FCC brings a legal lens to the possibilities of future AI implementation and regulation; Bill Gross, Founder & CEO of ProRata.ai, represents AI's expanding entrepreneurial and economic potential; Founder of AI LA Todd Terrazas will contribute an intimate view of the community’s role, and to the social implications and innovation felt across Southern California.

Moderated by Maggie Hendrie, ArtCenter’s Dean of Media & Technology, this panel promises a dynamic examination—weaving through policy, profit, and people—each angle distinct, but interconnected, offering a multilayered look at AI’s impact as it continues to unfold.

Light Refreshments

Panelists: Sanford Williams, Bill Gross, Todd Terrazas
Moderated by: Maggie Hendrie

Presented in partnership with Innovate Pasadena

Sanford Williams

Sanford Williams is a Lecturer of Law at UCLA Law School, and Deputy Chief of Staff to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel at the FCC.

Bill Gross

Bill Gross is Co-founder and CEO of ProRata.ai. He’s also Founder and Chairman of Idealab Studio, a leading technology incubator. Over the last 28 years, Idealab has created and operated more than 150 companies and had more than 50 successful IPOs and acquisitions. In addition to serving as Idealab’s board chairman and the CEO of ProRata.ai, Bill is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology and of ArtCenter College of Design.

Todd Terrazas

Todd Terrazas is a social entrepreneur and collaboration catalyst, driven by a passion for connecting leaders, ideas, and capital to create innovative solutions that benefit humanity. His latest venture, FBRC.ai, unites academia, technology, and the entertainment industry to shape the future of content production through AI-driven tools, workflows, and content creation. Since 2016, his non-profit, AI LA, has championed the research, development, ethical use, and public education of artificial intelligence and frontier technologies across the Los Angeles region through media and events. Todd is also an alumnus of USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Maggie Hendrie

User experience pioneer Maggie Hendrie is the dean of the Division of Media and Technology and former chair of the undergraduate Interaction Design Department at ArtCenter, the first Southern California school to offer such a degree.

Tuesday, October 29th

Purpose Driven Creative Tech

5:00 to 7:30PM

The fabric of our world is shifting. Across industries, businesses are confronted with new materials, processes, and strategies. Increasingly, demands are being leveraged at companies of all sizes with a clear mandate: to reduce the continuous harm to the earth and its ecosystems. In this session, ArtCenter president Karen Hofmann will invite alumni Vicki von Holzhausen and Jessie Kawata to the stage for an urgent conversation.

von Holzhausen, a trailblazer in material innovation, and Kawata, recently Director of Sustainability at Microsoft, put forth invaluable insights into how creativity and technology are transforming possibilities for sustainability at scale. These shifts have already begun to open new vocational pathways, from the entrepreneurs accelerating futures from the ground up to the intrapreneurs pioneering change from within. Together with Karen Hofmann, these leaders will address the tools and methods that students need to succeed in a world where sustainability is no longer optional or negotiable, but essential for survival.

Light Refreshments

Panelists: Vicki von Holzhausen, Jessie Kawata
Moderated by: Karen Hofmann

Vicki von Holzhausen

von Holzhausen began when former car designer Vicki von Holzhausen decided to make a vegan leather that could rival animal leather.

Jessie Kawata

Jessie Kawata is a design director, co-founder, environmental advocate, part-time educator, TEDx speaker, and space exploration design pioneer whose work spans across our solar system.

Karen Hofmann

Karen Hofmann is the sixth president of ArtCenter College of Design, an international leader of art and design education.

Student Programming

ArtCenter’s Careers in Creative Tech sessions are designed to present our students with opportunities to hear from and interact with professionals who are fearlessly building new possibilities and resiliently prioritizing impact and sustainability in their work. These presentations will give you a view behind the scenes into how creative careers can be thoughtfully designed and how you too can channel what you learn here at ArtCenter to make meaningful difference in the world.

Tuesday, October 29th

Careers in Creative Tech: Jessie Kawata

12:00 to 2:00PM

Speaker: Jessie Kawata, User Experience Design Director, educator, co-founder, speaker, and Design x Space Exploration pioneer

Student Registration

Wednesday, October 30th

Careers in Creative Tech: Iain Finch

12:00 to 2:00PM

Speaker: Iain Finch, Senior Manager of 3D & 2D Digital Visualization & Product Creation at Patagonia
other

Student Registration

Iain Finch

Iain Finch is a highly motivated product specialist with 21 years’ experience in the retail industry (4 within patagonia); Iain has a broad range of experience working in a multitude of roles including Business Consulting, Product Development, Innovation, Technical Management and Product Testing.

Monique Martinez

Monique Martinez has worked in various roles at Patagonia for the past 9 years. She started out in the Marketing Department, focused on production work for printed media ranging from packaging to retail banners and books. She then moved to the Product Department, where she applied her technical skills to creating 2D merchandising tools for developing product. She now manages that team and works as a Senior Visualization Developer, focused on utilizing 3D garments to help Patagonia make better and earlier decisions, creating less waste in materials, protos, etc., which ultimately contributes to our greater mission: to save our home planet.

Allyson Heinemeyer

Allyson Heinemeyer has worked at Patagonia for almost 2 years on the 2D & 3D Product Visualization team. Prior to working at Patagonia, Allyson spent her prior years working as a Graphic Designer for Vissla, Sisstrevolution and Amuse Society, designing graphics and prints for clothing, as well assisting with the creation of marketing assets. At Patagonia, Allyson balances 2D work, creating seasonal merchandising tools, with the 3D work. She helps manage the digitization of our material library for 3D garment application, and creates 3D Visualization tools to help the business make better decisions on product colors and styles they have not yet seen.