The 2013 Balance-Unbalance Keynotes will be presented as panels on Friday May 31st with each presenter responding to a series of provocations and questions revolving around the conference themes.
Tony Fry

Tony Fry is Professor of Design Futures at Griffith University, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane Australia. He is also an award-winning designer, a theorist, a farmer, and director of a project developing an academy of indigenous-based creative practices in East Timor.
The author of nine books, Tony is regarded as one of the most progressive thinkers on design in the world today.
On his acclaimed book, Design as Politics, a reviewer commented:
“To say it’s ‘timely’ is an understatement. Fry offers us one of the most prescient theses for the design of a different possible future.”
Tony Fry’s keynote will focus around the ‘Future of the Human’ and how in the face of the largest creative challenge we moderns have ever faced the central question will be: what will change us and how will ‘we’ create it?
The author of nine books, Tony is regarded as one of the most progressive thinkers on design in the world today.
On his acclaimed book, Design as Politics, a reviewer commented:
“To say it’s ‘timely’ is an understatement. Fry offers us one of the most prescient theses for the design of a different possible future.”
Tony Fry’s keynote will focus around the ‘Future of the Human’ and how in the face of the largest creative challenge we moderns have ever faced the central question will be: what will change us and how will ‘we’ create it?
Michael Tuffery

A New Zealand based artist of Samoan, Rarotongan and Tahitian heritage, Michel Tuffery on paper and by reputation is one of the seminal role players for visibility of Contemporary Pacific Island art locally and beyond the wider Pacific. His creative output is expansive as he is adept at all arts media, printing, painting and sculpting, and works collaboratively with technicians and other art practitioners to realise his performance and installation projects, requiring moving image, light and sound.
His concerns are measured and politicised around the conservation of the environment and shaped by his Pacific Island ancestry.
His concerns are measured and politicised around the conservation of the environment and shaped by his Pacific Island ancestry.
Andrea Polli

Andrea Polli is a digital media artist living in New Mexico. Her work with science, technology and media has been presented widely in over 100 presentations, exhibitions and performances internationally, has been recognized by numerous grants, residencies and awards including a NYFA Artist's Fellowship, the Fulbright Specialist Award and the UNESCO Digital Arts Award. Her work has been reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, Art in America, Art News, NY Arts and others.
She has published several book chapters, audio CDs, DVDs and papers in print including MIT Press and Cambridge University Press journals. She currently works in collaboration with atmospheric scientists to develop systems for understanding storm and climate through sound (called sonification). Recent projects include: a spatialized sonification of highly detailed models of storms that devastated the New York area; a series of sonifications of climate in Central Park; and a real-time multi-channel sonification and visualization of weather in the Arctic. In 2007/2008 she spent seven weeks in Antarctica on a National Science Foundation funded project. http://www.90degreessouth.org. As a member of the steering committee for New York 2050, a wide-reaching project envisioning the future of the New York City region, she worked with city planners, environmental scientists, historians and other experts to look at the impact of climate on the future of human life both locally and globally. Andrea will explore the conference theme through the presentation of her practice and key projects.
She has published several book chapters, audio CDs, DVDs and papers in print including MIT Press and Cambridge University Press journals. She currently works in collaboration with atmospheric scientists to develop systems for understanding storm and climate through sound (called sonification). Recent projects include: a spatialized sonification of highly detailed models of storms that devastated the New York area; a series of sonifications of climate in Central Park; and a real-time multi-channel sonification and visualization of weather in the Arctic. In 2007/2008 she spent seven weeks in Antarctica on a National Science Foundation funded project. http://www.90degreessouth.org. As a member of the steering committee for New York 2050, a wide-reaching project envisioning the future of the New York City region, she worked with city planners, environmental scientists, historians and other experts to look at the impact of climate on the future of human life both locally and globally. Andrea will explore the conference theme through the presentation of her practice and key projects.
Fee Plumley

Fee Plumley is an artist, creative producer, consultant, speaker, blogger and self confessed technoevangelist. Her experience in Theatre Design and Technology (BA, 1995) somehow got distracted by the (then) quite new phenomenon known as the Internet.
Seduced by this new digital culture, she went on to obtain a Masters in Interactive Multimedia Production. This kick-started a (trans)media arts practice as a creative producer, combining technology, performance and literature.
As co-founder of UK based company the-phone-book Limited (2000-2008), she was best known for encouraging people to be creative with their mobile phones at a time when most people didn’t realise the power they carried in their pockets.
Fee has chaired a media arts network and advised boards of company development relating to digital strategies. She has been involved in international exhibitions (Huddersfield Media Centre, UK; Media Miniatures, Manhattan; Platform Animation Festival, Portland) and had work published as a creative writer, reviewer, in journals and for other people’s exhibitions.
Until recently Fee was found promoting a culture of digital literacy and strategic innovation as the Digital Program Officer at the Australia Council for the Arts.
Now undertaking a reallybigroadtrip, she eagerly awaits the arrival of the National Broadband Network and the chance to endorse its wealth of creative opportunity across Australia.
Seduced by this new digital culture, she went on to obtain a Masters in Interactive Multimedia Production. This kick-started a (trans)media arts practice as a creative producer, combining technology, performance and literature.
As co-founder of UK based company the-phone-book Limited (2000-2008), she was best known for encouraging people to be creative with their mobile phones at a time when most people didn’t realise the power they carried in their pockets.
Fee has chaired a media arts network and advised boards of company development relating to digital strategies. She has been involved in international exhibitions (Huddersfield Media Centre, UK; Media Miniatures, Manhattan; Platform Animation Festival, Portland) and had work published as a creative writer, reviewer, in journals and for other people’s exhibitions.
Until recently Fee was found promoting a culture of digital literacy and strategic innovation as the Digital Program Officer at the Australia Council for the Arts.
Now undertaking a reallybigroadtrip, she eagerly awaits the arrival of the National Broadband Network and the chance to endorse its wealth of creative opportunity across Australia.
Ramon Guardans

Artist and scientist Ramon Guardans traces pollutants and their effect on local and global populations, health and environments and examines the relevance of different ways of life in understanding exposure. He has been involved for 20 years in international action on atmospheric and marine pollution including the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP). Ramon’s keynote will provoke new ways of understanding Atmospheric and Marine Pollution through art and transdisciplinary thinking.
Nina Czegledy

Nina Czegledy is an award winning media artist, curator and educator who works internationally on collaborative art and science/technology projects, as well as in education. She is has led, or been a key contributor to, an extraordinary number of workshops, forums and festivals around the world. Czegledy has published widely in books and journals and has presented at several international conferences and academic institutions. Recent and upcoming curatorial projects include: Gyorgy Kepes and Frank Malina at the intersection of art, science and technology (Ludwig Museum Budapest 2010) co-curator 3rd Quadrilateral Biennial (Rijeka Croatia 2009) Device Art in Budapest (Hungary 2009) co-curator e-mobile Art, the European Mobile Lab 2007-2009 (an EU project) and organizing team member for Eco Sapiens (New Plymouth, New Zealand 2011). She is Senior Fellow at KMDI (Knowledge Media Design Institute) at the University of Toronto, Adjunct Associate Professor Concordia University, Montreal, and an Honorary Fellow, Moholy Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest. She is also actively involved in key international organizations including Leonardo, where she is a member of the governing board, contributing editor of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac and member of the Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et des Techno-Sciences OLATS scientific committee. Nina’s keynote will explore the role of community in transdiciplinary action and provide a series of case studies (including SCANZ in New Zealand)