The January seminar ‘Sleep With Me’ brought together the makers and designers of thoughts and manufacturers of nighttime knowledge. We have unravelled oneiric creative potentials as we explored hypnosis as a means to define new economic models and labour systems and even question what machines and dinosaurs dream of. The audience have learnt how our subconscious is used in films, while questioning oneiric aesthetics and other fantastical natural and technological whims.
Douglas Trumbull
Director and Special Effects Expert
As a true pioneer in the field of Special Effects, Trumbull has given his magic touch to films like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), and Blade Runner (1982).
Alexandra Janelli
Hypnotherapist
Alexandra Janelli is considered one of New York City’s premier hypnotherapists and life coaches who has worked with Academy Award Nominee Actors, world-renowned photographers, singers, top-level executives, and professionals across many sectors of business.As featured on MTV, Elle Magazine, Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, NY Post, Men's Fitness, Well + Good, New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Out Chicago, and various other publications for her hypnotherapy and creativity, Alexandra helps clients push through and past their blocks to achieve their goals with the power of her hypnotherapeutic-based approach.
Rachel Katz
Lead Instructor at David Lynch Foundation
Rachel is a lead instructor for David Lynch Foundation's Women's Initiative. Additionally she has developed special projects for outreach and awareness including the launch of Meditation Creativity Peace screenings and a filmed interview series with students from the Family Justice Center. Before serving as a teacher for DLF, she was director of special events, following five years of event management and non-profit work in New York City.
Dr. Graciela Chichilinski
Economist and Specialist in Global Warming
Dr. Chichilnisky is a world-renowned economist and mathematician, the creator of the Carbon Market of the UN Kyoto Protocol, the concept of Basic Needs and the formal theory of Sustainable Development. She was the Lead US Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which received the Nobel Prize in 2007. Chichilnisky was selected by Fast Magazine as 2016 CEO of the Year, and in July 4 2017 was selected by the Carnegie Corporation as a Great Immigrant Great American in the New York Times
This yearlong ‘Homo Sapiens I Hear You’ series of non-linear, non-conventional, and non-passive seminars will question and re-think humanity’s essential needs; and consider whether the modern practice of design addresses them.
The curriculum conceived by Nelly Ben Hayoun is framed around American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”, which offers a model that defines the needs of human beings – from the most basic functions (eating, sleeping, etc.) to the more fulfilling (self-improvement, practicing sports, etc.). Our seminars will unravel how human needs have developed through history and how they might continue to develop over time.
Occurring on the 12th of the month, each seminar will showcase pioneering critical thinkers and present eclectic reference material from around the world. Dr. Ben Hayoun, along with a rotating cast of visiting faculty will facilitate a series of activities, workshops and debates. The series of seminars will be accompanied with: podcasts by Elle Clay, editorial pieces by Cabinet Magazine and Our Machine’s graphic
Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun is a designer of extreme experiences that aims to bring the sublime to life. Dubbed the “Willy Wonka of Design,” Ben Hayoun is an award-winning French designer and filmmaker who creates multi-dimensional experiential projects at the intersection of science, theatre, politics and Design. Wired awarded her their inaugural Innovation Fellowship in 2014, and Icon magazine, Dezeen and Creative Review recognized Dr. Ben Hayoun as one of the top 50 designers 'shaping the future' for her pioneering “total bombardment” design philosophy.
Her laboratory, NBH Studios, is on a mission to bring chaos to the world; she is the founder and director of the International Space Orchestra the world’s first orchestra of NASA space scientists and astronauts; and most recently she founded the University of the Underground, a subversive tuition-free educative and cultural programme that is on course to modify the status quo in public institutions and academia.
