Creative Tech 2024
Creative Tech 2024 brought together artists, designers, and technologists to examine the evolving intersection of emerging technology and creative practice.
This year’s focus explored the role of artificial intelligence, the challenges of sustainable design, and new approaches to career-building and entrepreneurship. Over three days of dynamic sessions, the event reinforced ArtCenter’s legacy as a vanguard institution, leading critical conversations at the crossroads of creativity and technology.
As AI, digital infrastructure, and communication technologies continue to evolve, insights from change-makers beyond the design field are essential for understanding the viability and impact of creative work. In alignment with ArtCenter’s mission to empower creatives as informed and impactful contributors, Creative Tech 2024 provided attendees with a broader perspective on how policy and practice shape the tools, platforms, and environments they engage with.
Public Programming
Regulating Innovation: Policy, Privacy and Creator’s Rights
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.
Purpose Driven Creative Tech
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.
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.
Careers in Creative Tech: Jessie Kawata
Speaker: Jessie Kawata, User Experience Design Director, educator, co-founder, speaker, and Design x Space Exploration pioneer
Careers in Creative Tech: Iain Finch
Speaker: Iain Finch, Senior Manager of 3D & 2D Digital Visualization & Product Creation at Patagonia
other
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.
