Semi Permanent Aotearoa 2022 – First speakers announced
This press release was written and shared by our friends at Semi Permanent. Tickets for this year’s event can be purchased here.
Creativity and design festival, Semi Permanent, will be hosted in the New Zealand capital of Wellington this October 19-21st 2022, celebrating two decades since its launch. Taking place at the recently restored St James Theatre, Semi Permanent Aotearoa will a dynamic program of local and international creative innovators, coupled with an enhanced visitor experience of workshops, panel discussions, performances and installations.
The initial talent lineup for the Semi Permanent Aotearoa 2022 event brings together a diverse mix of visionary talent in creativity, technology, and design.
The line-up includes:
• Yah-leng Yu & Arthur Chin — co-founders, Foreign Policy Design Group, Singapore
• Leta Sobierajski & Wade Jeffree — creative directors and co-founders, Wade and Leta, New York
• Johnson Witehira — artist, design and academic, and co-founder of Indigenous Design and Innovation Aotearoa (IDIA) and Waahi Wairua, Wellington
• Ethan Eismann — SVP of design, Slack, California
• Hector Ouilhet — head of human centred innovation & strategy, Google, California
• Todd Yellin — vice president of product, Netflix, California
• Jess Johnson — artist, New York
• Kris Sowersby — type designer, Klim Type Foundry, Wellington
• Karen Walker — co-founder & creative director, Karen Walker, Auckland
• Millie Parekh Arora — managing partner, ReD Associates, New York
• Roman Jewell — CEO & founder, Fixx & Fogg, Wellington
• Ben Crotty & Sonya Williams — co-founders, Sharesies, Wellington
• Liz Ham — photographer and author, Sydney
• Danny Coster — industrial designer, New Plymouth
• Mikaela Jade — CEO & founder, Indigital, Canberra
• Tony Holzner — chief creative officer & co-founder, Art Processors, Melbourne
• James Ford — creative director, Silverstripe, Wellington
• Steve Dunstan — founder & brand director, Huffer, Auckland
• Rik Campbell — founder, Resn, Wellington
• Ben Forman — CEO & co-founder, Wrestler, Wellington
• Shantel Wetherall — DE&I leader, writer, and host of Hey Aunty! podcast, Melbourne
Each year, Semi Permanent takes the opportunity to explore a universal idea that we feel is most relevant to the challenges and opportunities of the time. For 2022, we introduce the platform ‘PERSPECTIVE’. After two years in which our lives were disrupted by the pandemic, so too has our perspective on the future completely shifted. The way we look at the world has changed, and with this foresight comes a different approach to engaging with the world around us.
Fittingly, the year marks the 50th anniversary of art critic John Berger’s seminal television series and essay, Ways of Seeing, which exposed the hidden ideologies that exist in visual images, arming generations since with the tools to understand and dissect imagery. At a time when traditional binaries are being dismantled — whether sexual, political, cultural or creative — the year ahead seems a timely moment to reassess the lens that we place on our past, present and future, and to make room for new and varied perspectives. Semi Permanent is the biggest and longest-running creativity and design festival in the southern hemisphere. Over the past 20 years it has hosted more than 50 events in 13 cities, featuring over 800 speakers and attracting more than 300,000 attendees.
