Creating Technologies Conference

Creating teChnologies ConferenCe
Friday 5th June 2009
AUT University Conference Centre, Auckland City
CoLab is proud to present ‘Creating Technologies’ 
– a one day conference exploring empowerment 
and engagement through technology.
Overview
Our keynote speaker is Dr Leah Buechley director of the 
High-Low Tech research group at the MIT (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology) Media Lab. The High-Low Tech
group explores the integration of technology from cultural,
material, and practical perspectives, with the goal of 
engaging diverse groups of people in developing their own
technologies. Leah is a well-known expert in the field of
electronic textiles (e-textiles) and she developed a method
for creating cloth printed circuit boards (fabric PCBs) and
designing the commercially available LilyPad Arduino 
toolkit. Her research has been featured in The New York
Times, Boston Globe, Popular Science, CRAFT Magazine 
and academic publications.
The conference program also include some of New Zealand’s
top industry experts, creative artists, technologists and
foremost thinkers. They will explore issues and themes of
technology and empowerment, including the democratization
of technology, new models for participation, creativity and
business, technology and gender and e-textiles.
Please see the attached speaker bios and the CoLab website
http://www.colab.org.nz.
Programme
09.00 Welcome and introduction: 
 Associate Professor Frances Joseph
09.10 Key Note Speaker: Dr Leah Buechley 
 ‘Democratisation and empowerment’
09.40 Julien Priest ‘Terra Firmware’
10.00 Associate Professor Charles Walker  
 ‘Cloudcuckooland: The Institutionalisation 
 of Creativity’
10.30     Morning    tea
10.50 Derek Elley – Ponoko ‘Reinventing how goods 
 are designed, made and distributed’
11.10 Evren Uzer and Otto Von Busch – Roomservices 
 ‘New Cartographies for Transversal Ecologies’
11.30 Dr Dave Parry ‘Intersecting the digital and  
 physical - Cheap and ubiquitous digital  
 awareness via RFID’
11.50  Tim Carr – Mindkits and Robotics
12.10     Lunch
12.45 Dr Leah Buechley - ‘Making Technologies’
13.15 Lyle Riley ‘Project development for City  
 Centered Cycling Jacket’
 13.35 Kim Newall – ‘Pixels and Pencils’
    14.00     Afternoon    tea
14.20 Dr Roy Davies ‘Participatory Design using 
 Mixed  Reality, Pedagogical Drama and  
 Democratic Meetings’
14.50 Zephyr Technology
15.10 Dr Aukje Thomassen ‘Play - as a means for social 
 innovation through design actualization’
15.30 Dr John Collins ‘Democratisation of Engineering 
 – a personal perspective’
15.50 Panel discussion and summary chaired by  
 Associate Professor Mark Jackson