Nassia Inglessis
Founder and Lead Designer of Studio Ini Ltd.
Nassia is a design engineer, whose interest lies in matter that can "compute", and the cognition that is mediated through such matter. In that context she focuses on designing symbiotic systems that can augment human activity and promote new prototypes of behaviour.
Nassia trained as an engineer at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, graduating with a first class honours . She continued her research in the cross-section of control engineering & synthetic biology as a Research Associate at Oxford University.
In 2015 she established her own design engineering practice in London, Studio Ini, through which she has delivered large - scale interactive installations to engage, provoke and inspire her audience in the real-time visceral feedback of the designed experiences that she presents.
She is currently working in close collaboration with the Prof. Neri Oxman and the Mediated Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab across the intersection of computational design, digital fabrication, materials science and synthetic biology and applying that knowledge to design across scales from the micro to the building scale.
Nassia's current aim is to intervene in the boundaries of human interactions by designing systems that achieve symbiosis and augment activity in harmony within their environments. Her goal is to create alternative portals into both our natural and digital realm, going beyond digital augmentations, into purely material augmentations that create new patterns of cognition & behaviour ultimately culminating into novel models of existence.
Edward Brial
I’m interested in using art & design to communicate ideas about sustainability. My work so far spans technology-inspired research and experimentation, wearable tech, interaction design, textile design, video art and educational innovation.
I’ve just graduated from Global Innovation Design at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College. I also have a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and a Foundation in Fine Art.
Alongside my work, I take photos, from the projects you can see I love adventures and I skate, snowboard and try to surf. At home I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking, trying to avoid reddit, and spilling ingredients on my laptop or record collection.
John Bertolaso
John is a mechanical engineer and designer working between arts and sciences to tackle complex challenges that will shape our future. Design has the duty to be provoking, critical and inspiring in order to make us question our reality and what could be. Over the past years, he has worked on a variety of projects that aimed to confront important issues and challenge the status quo. John has a particular interest in material design and manufacturing processes as well as multi-sensorial experiences and human interactions across physical and digital platforms.
As an adventurer, an optimist and a futurist, John uses his work to explore different cultures and technologies with the ideal to make this world a better and fairer place.