Meet the 2024 Mentors
Melanie Huang
Mel Huang is an interactive designer and developer for the arts and culture sectors collaborating with institutions such as Powerhouse Museum, NGV, Art Gallery NSW, Science Gallery, Dark Mofo and The Australian Ballet. She is currently an Academic Fellow, Art and Computer Science and Lecturer at The University of Melbourne. Spanning works across data visualisation, interactive design and live performance, Mel is passionate about the creative applications of technology in the arts and an advocate for multidisciplinary projects and practices. She is the co-organiser of Creative Technology Melbourne and proud board member of Chamber Made.
Mark Meeuwenoord & Marcel van Brakel Polymorf
Interdisciplinary Dutch experience design collective Polymorf designs by any media necessary to create speculative design and multi sensory experiences using cutting-edge technologies. As such, Polymorf acts as an innovative pipeline across industries by creating strategies for prototyping the future. Their groundbreaking work engages audiences by creating fully embodied immersive experiences. This is reflected in their body of work, which consists of VR experiences, theatrical performances and installation pieces. Their research project Sense of Smell and installation piece, Famous Deaths explores the possibilities of scent for storytelling, strategic communication and media design. Famous Deaths won the 2015 Art & Olfaction Award for experimental scent and was selected for the MIT Canon Moments of Innovation and the IDFA Doclab Interactive Documentary Canon. In its currents projects Polymorf explores the possibilities for scent and touch to create multi-sensory strategies for story and experience design working closely with various industries and universities all over the world. By directly influencing the affective response, Polymorf incorporates visceral meaning in their designs to reflect on the now, the (post-)human condition and the relationships between humans and technology.
Yasaman Sheri
Yasaman Sheri is a Designer, Writer and Researcher. She investigates and explores the interaction ecology, technology and society with focus on sensing, synthetic biology, aesthetics of simulation, perception systems and augmentation of body, objects and ecologies. She is a leader in Design with more decade of experience building Core Interface Design & Operating Systems for Spatial Computing and AR, leading the first consumer Augmented Reality Head-Mounted Display Microsoft Hololens & Windows Holographic, Designing Human-Computer-Spatial Interface for Google (X) Autonomous Driving, Curating AR & Spatial Interaction at IKEA’s research & design studio SPACE10, working with Synthetic Biology company Ginkgo Bioworks Investigating Biological Sensing and acting as Senior Director of Design leading Core Platform OS teams for Magic Leap 2. Currently Yasaman is leading Novel Inputs & AI at Oculus Hardware AR teams and acts as the Principal Investigator and founder of Synthetic Ecologies Lab at Serpentine Galleries R&D creating platforms, tools & spaces that support critical & artistic inquiry in to Life Sciences.