Bringing together leading international practitioners and researchers Feral Experimental aims to test the limits of possibility by exploring the boundaries and intersections of experimental practice in design thinking, speculative design, participatory and co-design.

Feral Experimental sets out to explore state-of-the-art strategies for negotiating significant contemporary challenges from preparations for extreme wildfire, to energy conservation to the preservation of cultural heritage. Feral Experimental incorporates an exhibition, a symposium, workshops and a series of public lectures. The program will highlight real world applications and the impact of design methods that are currently being developed in universities and research centres.

Experimental approaches to design thinking are engaged with user experiences via cultural probes and tangible interactions that are informed by design ethnography, design anthropology, and new combinations of technology. These approaches extend data collection methods that combine sensors, cameras, and GPS tracking to measure the affect of cycling, and technologies that emulate seeing through another's eyes.

The exhibition includes; Emotiv (San Francisco), Design Anthropology Innovation Model (Copenhagen), The Machine to be Another (Barcelona), Energy and Co-designing Communities (London), Indoor Climate Provotypes (Sønderborg), Community Centred Innovation (Melbourne), Flamp (Barcelona), Avena+ Test Bed (Stuttgart), Kindred Spirits (Amsterdam) and If We Never Meet Again (London). Discussion panels will be led by prominent design thinkers such as Cameron Tonkinwise, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.

EXHIBITION
18 July - 30 August 2014: UNSW Galleries
18 July: Exhibition Opening, UNSW Galleries

PUBLIC LECTURES
24 July:  Recent Studio Research with Dr William Gaver (Goldsmiths), 6pm, EGO2 Lecture Theatre       
5 August: Public lecture-Curators Talk with Dr. Katherine Moline: EGO2 Lecture Theatre                                                                                          

Symposium and Workshops: An accompanying symposium and workshop program will include panel discussions on design thinking, experimental methods, environmental sustainability and interaction design. Workshops include: John McGhee, The Role of the Designer in Scientific Data; Karina Clarke and Rod Bamford, Digital Bamboo; George Khut, Tangible and Embodied Interaction; Laura Fisher, Veloscape; Lindsay Kelley, The Bioart Kitchen; DJ Spooky, The DJ App.

For further information contact susan.thompson@unsw.edu.au