ECHO Dubai Art, Design and Technology Festival Launches in Dubai
ECHO - the Middle East’s first art, design and technology festival - will launch in Dubai this year as ‘ECHO Dubai’. The Festival will take place at Dubai Design District (d3) under the theme ‘Interacting with the Future’, and will provide a multi-sensory platform for people, businesses and brands to engage and collaborate through: a curated conference; an immersive exposition; interactive workshops; and an audio-visual sound festival. Taking place from the 14th to the 16th December 2017, ECHO Dubai offers an already impressive line-up of speakers, artists, designers, technologists, brands and sponsors.
ECHO Dubai was conceptualised by MICE International, an integrated, UAE-grown events management company. Lana Hawilo, Managing Director of MICE International, explains: “Brands are looking to connect with businesses and consumers in more engaging, innovative ways that use all five of the senses, rather than limiting their reach to mobile devices and social feeds. We wanted to create a platform in the region to enable this, whilst also providing opportunities for local talent to be exposed to current and new trends, in a bid to launch innovators from the region. Our vision is to grow an ECHO community that creates dialogue, disrupts the status quo, and brings best practice to the region.
She added: “We are thrilled at the calibre of speakers who have joined us, including Dr Koert Van Mensvoort, Annouk Wipprecht, Chris Kesley, and Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz from CuteCircuit, who, amongst others, will all showcase some of their internationally famous innovations, as well as conduct workshops to help share their knowledge with the UAE community.”
Anouk Wipprecht is an artist, designer and technologist who last week launched her latest project – a collaboration with multi-media performance artist and amputee Viktoria Modesta – called ‘Sonifica’. With Sonifica, Modesta and Wipprecht merged art, technology and architecture to create 3D printed interactive sonic wearables, including a sonic bustier and sonified prosthetic leg.
Dr. Koert van Mensvoort is best known for his work on the philosophical concept of Next Nature, which revolves around the idea that our technological environment has become so complex, omnipresent and autonomous that it is best perceived as a nature of its own. Among his works are the NANO Supermarket - a traveling exhibition disguised as a supermarket that presents speculative future technologies - and his Letter to Humanity, which took a year to develop and is addressed to all 7 billion people on Earth. It tells the story of the evolution of the world, of ourselves, and how we can use technology to enhance humanity. It is available in 27 languages, including English and Arabic.
The Festival will welcome a mix of local, regional and international visitors who will be given the opportunity to discover the latest international trends in technology; experience immersive sound and art installations; explore d3’s range of lifestyle boutiques, art galleries and culinary concepts; and grow their knowledge and skills through interactive workshops and talks hosted by some of the world’s leading subject matter experts.
Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi, COO of d3, said: “We are delighted that the Design Quarter at d3 will this year be the host venue for ECHO festival, the futuristic exhibition that demonstrates how art, design and technology integrate and help shape future trends. As a design district, we play a central part in promoting and supporting innovative technology across many aspects of the design world thereby leveraging Dubai’s position as a global creative centre”
The wider ECHO Dubai Festival will be free to the public. Register online for early bird tickets to the Conference, Workshops and the Sound Festival at: http://echodubai.com/register/
CURATED CONFERENCE
The ECHO Conference will provide a platform for world class speakers and future thinkers to share their work and ideas through curated panel sessions.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Dutch based Hi-Tech Fashion Designer and Innovator Anouk Wipprecht.
- Dr. Van Mensvoort, who shows how technology becomes nature in seven steps and what engineers, inventors, designers and entrepreneurs can learn from that. Read his ‘Letter to Humanity’ here: https://www.nextnature.net/2017/04/letter-to-humanity/
- Chris Kesley is the CEO of Cazza, a startup developing construction automation technologies. At 19 he sold an app development company called Appsitude, which he founded after leaving high school. Cazza is currently developing large-scale 3D printing construction technologies to automatically 3D print houses on-site.
- Cedric Kiefer, co-founder of onformative. Cedric’s fascination with science, technology and art fuels the development of new projects at onformative. He has taught generative design at workshops and universities including the University for Applied Arts and Sciences in Hildesheim and the Rheinmain University of Applied Sciences.
Conference themes include:
- FASHION TECH
- INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES
- LIVING TECH
- GENERATIVE DESIGN
- FUTURES THINKING
- CREATIVE EDUCATION
- SUSTAINABLE AUTOMOTIVE
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