Every year when the leaves are turning those beautiful autumn colors, hundreds of people gather on the New England coast of Camden, ME for the annual Poptech Conference . With three full days (over 9 hours a day!) of intellectual packed lecture series from talented artists, scientists, inventors and change agents from around the world, this conference saturates the participants with new ways of thinking, motivated inspiration and current who's who list of people that are making a global difference. Static Photography had the opportunity to go again this year, to capture the entire event. With camera in hand Kris Krüg was front and center to capture all of the dynamic speakers and talented musicians.
The PopTech conference is organized by dedicated staff who work year round to curate the best possible schedule that corresponds to the year's selected theme. This year's theme was Re-Imagining America and was chosen with the specific intention to not find concrete answers for all of America's current problems. It was chosen as a guideline to get people to think globally within their local systems, structures, organizations and governments. This conference drove the fact that a change was needed in many of these areas and notes could be taken from people who were already making initiatives towards those changes.
In combination with the annual conference PopTech also has a program which fosters the growth and development of initiatives that are already making a positive disruptive change in their local environments. Titled the Social Innovation Fellows Program , this four day intensive gives concrete skills to these innovators, scientists and designers with collected mentors from similiar areas of study.
Charged with the fuel of giving back to the people that are already giving back, the class of 2009 Fellows bonded over their inspirations and difficulties with the support of the PopTech family. Each Fellow is given presentation time during the main conference. Such Fellows that presented this year were Hayat Sindi from Diagnostics for All who designed a simple paper diagnostic tool for third world countries, Eben Bayer from Ecovative Design who designed a sustainable alternative to packaging materials, Derek Lomas from Playpower Foundation which designs educational games for the $12 dollar computer and Josh Nesbit from FrontlineSMS:Medic which utilizes mobile phone to coordinate medical care in third world countries. PopTech also announced a Sciene Fellows Program that will begin next year.
There were many highlights from the week in Maine and most of them were completely unexpected. A noted uplifting of the amateur spirit was present in many of the presentations which spoke to citizen journalism, grassroots government campaigns and design responses to lack of electricity like the FLAP bag .
Many of the speakers sourced their information from cross-disciplinary studies. Whether it was Will Allen discussing agriculture within the platform of urban economics or Neri Oxman challenging her intention of design with simple ecological studies or Marije Vogelzang presenting her food design which is a combination of psychology and cooking, everyone had something to offer to the benefits of expanding our understanding through multiple areas of knowledge.
Another trend that was present in some of the sessions was the drive of human compassion in being a catalyst of resolution through some of America's tougher present issues. Mayor John Fetterman won the audience over with his brutal honesty in his description of his town Braddock, PA where over 90% of the buildings have been lost to desertion after the loss of economy. In Braddock the community has risen together to find local, compassionate ways to invigorate the town past poverty, violence and the loss of human integrity. Such change is only driven by the compassionate effort of humanity.
Paul van Zyl discussed human compassion at the level of government based reconciliation for torture practices. Having helped facilitate the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, van Zyl had his principles of change set in truthful conflict resolution. When forces are driven to provide the support to truthful confessions of crimes in a government setting, then compassionate change can be an active force of resolution in crimes, violence, judicial systems and specifically in the American stance with military torture practices.
Even present in Kacie Kinzer 's Tweenbots , which are robots dependent on human interaction for successful productivity, compassion for the change that can be available in humanity was definitely heard.
Amazing artists that are challenging the central focus of how art is created were able to showcase their work within their session's lectures. Gideon Obarzanek is an choreographer that founded the Chunky Move dance troupe in Australia. He was able present footage of his troupe's performances which curates abstract technological visuals that respond to intuitive human movement. Reanimating the performance art with design, Obarzanek is the future of dance.
Kinetic sculptor Reuben Margolin had the opportunity to hang one of his wave sculptures in the center of the Camden Opera House for the duration of the conference. Comprised of artistic design with basic materials infused with the kinetic understanding of waves and change in movement, Margolin's sculptures contain their own intuitive movement that is paramount to witness.
A beautiful element of this conference's schedule is that it is peppered with mindful creative elements. Small videos play in between sessions that instigate a well deserved break of laughter from the audience. Yet the most intentional and wonderful creative moments were carried out by the musicians that were showcased during this event.
Each morning and afternoon was kicked off by a musical interlude from an American artist. Celloist Zoe Keating, Saxphonist Logan Richardson , Singer/songwriter John Forte , Fiddlers Mark O'Connor and Ruby Jane Smith and Singer/songwriter Zee Avi all won our hearts with their inspiring and musically challenging array of talent. Kris had the opportunity to shoot some behind the scene footage of John Forte and Zoe Keating!
Parallel to the main conference schedule was two additional programs: the National Geographic Photo Camp and the Creative Reuse Workshop . The National Geographic Photo Camp sponsors four kids that have completed Photo Camps in their local communities, to come and participate in the PopTech Conference for development of their creative photography skills. The Photo Camp participants had a final show of their art at the closing conference gala.
The Creative Reuse Workshop was sponsored by Ebay Green Team and Maker Media , which provided the tools to create robots with different functions. Both of these programs really promoted the amateur spirit of design!
We at Static Photography are constantly challenged with photographic images from around the world that are depicting all types of disasters of pollution and devastation of climate change. Photographer Chris Jordan presented some of the most powerful and intense images of plastic pollution from his recent trip to Midway Island which is located by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
With multiple images of large albatross birds who died from eating nothing but plastic, Jordan graphically presents the direct impact of our consumption on innocent creatures halfway around the world. Silence beheld the audience during his presentation and Jordan specifically asked people not to clap after his images for there was nothing to celebrate. Backed behind the powerhouse music of Christen Lien , Jordan's presentation was perhaps the greatest call to action of the entire conference.
All in all the 2009 PopTech Conference was a success in overall completion and productive inspiration. Videos of all the sessions will be available online thru PopTech in the near future, if you happened to miss the live broadcast. Static Photography was very thankful to be present at this year's conference and are hopeful to go back next year!
Links to check out:
PopTech 2008 Photos by Kris Krüg
PopTech 2007 Photos by Kris Krüg
PopTech 2009 America Re-Imagined -- Day 1 Photographic Recap
PopTech 2009 America Re-Imagined -- Day 2 Photographic Recap
PopTech 2009 America Re-Imagined -- Day 3 Photographic Recap
Amazon List of Books by PopTech 2009 Speakers
Oh! PopTech - post by Linda Raftree
PopTech 2009 Take Aways by J.A. Ginsburg
Nextbillion Interview with 2009 PopTech Social Innvation Fellow Emily Pilloton
Post new comment