Gal and Leslie are longtime collaborators, combining their unique backgrounds and shared interest in ecology, biology, and animals to create interactive works that use art and technology to explore scientific questions and themes. Their creative process explores the lives of non-human creatures in search of parallels that can illuminate aspects of our human experience and underscore the importance of biodiversity. Gal and Leslie’s work has been exhibited internationally at Made in NY Media Center, Science Gallery (Detroit), Print Screen Festival (Israel), and NYCxDesign Festival at Times Square. They are recipients of fellowships and grants from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), Culture & Animals Foundation, and Microsoft Design Expo Challenge.

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Grouphug

Grouphug is a sustainable technology company based in New York City. Founded by industrial designer Krystal Persaud, Grouphug demonstrates how creativity and design can push renewable energy to be more accessible. Grouphug’s flagship product is the Window Solar Charger, a window-mounted solar panel for apartment dwellers to effortlessly charge their devices off-the-grid. The company creates easy-to-install, stunning solar panels of any shape or size. Grouphug’s “Solar Cat” is a giant 140-watt cat-shaped solar panel installed at the historic New York Hall of Science.

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Sue Huang is an artist working at the intersection of new media, installation, and social practice. Her current work investigates our complex techno-cultural relationships to nature, exploring the ways that tactile, sensorial experiences of nature are mediated through emerging technologies. These explorations interrogate the socio-political power structures that shape our environment, suggesting a way forward through collective imagination and action. Her current project uses clouds, poetry, ice cream, and extraterrestrial communications to explore grief for the nonhuman. Other work includes a collaborative project investigating the temporalities of waste through environmental data and sound. Her past works have been presented at national and international venues, including the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles; the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati; Ars Electronica in Linz; and Kulturhuset in Stockholm, among others. Huang is currently an assistant professor of Digital Media and Design at the University of Connecticut.

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alterR.studio

Co-founded by Shihan Zhang and Qinqin Yang, alterR.studio is a multi-disciplinary research-based studio working on the intersection of art, design and technology. It focuses on speculating possible futures to address unseen issues and opportunities. Through designed artifacts, scenario-building and interactive experiences, alterR.studio aims to bring inspiration and reflection to drive better decisions. It takes design and imagination to nudge changes and collectively make impacts in larger systems. Its works have been selected as 100 designs of the year 2019 by Award 360° (Asian), FastCo.Company’s World Changing Ideas 2019 (US), and featured by Domus. It has also been exhibited worldwide including Dutch Design Week, IFTF 10 Year Forecast Summit, Gray Area in San Francisco and Toronto Design Week.

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