Stuart Candy

Keynote
Carnegie Mellon University, Situation Lab 

Ani Liu

Keynote
MIT Media Lab, Liu Studios

Nick Foster

Head of Design at Google X. Partner at the Near Future Laboratory

Julian Bleecker

Co-Founder and CTO of Omata. Co-Founder of the Near Future Laboratory

Michael Burton

BurtonNitta.co.uk

Radha Mistry & Darren Brooker

Story Strategists, Autodesk

Elliott P. Montgomery & Tamara Alvarez

Extrapolation Factory/Parsons

Melissa Hui

Director, Customer Experience, IDEAN

Ksenia Benifand

Government of Alberta, OCAD University

Deepa Butoliya

Carnegie Mellon University

Michael Mogensen

NIUN Saudi Futures

Sands Fish

Artist/Designer, MIT Media Lab

Denis Maksimov

Co-Founder/Co-Director, Avenir Institute

Marcel Schouwenaar

The Incredible Machine

Bruce Tharp

Designer and Professor, University of Michigan’s Stamps School of Art and Design

David Schwartz

NY Studio Lead, argodesign

WORKSHOP FACILITATORS

Sami Niemelä

Designer, co-founder, Nordkapp

Alana Aquilino

UX Researcher at CircleCI

Matthew Wizinsky

Assistant Professor, College of DAAP / School of Design at University of Cincinnati

Shar Shahfari & Ville Vanhala

 Futures Platform

SPECIAL EXHIBITS

Emerging Designer Exhibition

Celebrate the diversity and excellence of the speculative design community and aims to recongize emerging designers without borders.

Food Futures

Yunwen “Tutu” Tu – Tutu Food Design

Raquel “Rocky” Kalil, Benner Boswell – California College of the Arts

Symbiosis Carbon Future

 Shihan Zhang – GRAY AREA Art & Technology

 2018 Theme: Transformation & Possibilities

Humans have evolved from a relatively insignificant species to one that has dramatically reshaped our planet in a mere 70,000 years. Our capacity to imagine the future has always been fundamental to our ability to reinvent ourselves as a species. Our collective visions about what the future could be offer us tools to think with, as we anticipate threats, envision new worlds, and adapt to change. But the unprecedented challenges now facing our species call for expanding this capacity to imagine alternative futures into being. The Primer 18 conference seeks submissions for talks that explore the theme of transformations and possibilities. What new trajectories of transformation might be forged? How do adjacent possibilities reshape our relationship to the future or to alternative presents? What new frameworks or methods are needed to overcome the significant hurdles facing us today? We encourage participation from a diverse array of fields.