Artist Forum Panels

MARGARITA BENITEZ is the Fashion Technologist, TechStyleLAB Faculty Director and an Associate Professor at The Fashion School at Kent State University. MARKUS VOGL is the Faculty Director of the M-Lab Makerspace and a Professor in Art at The University of Akron. Their collaboration as //benitez_vogl began in the year 2000. Their current research explores 3D printing and transformation of the human form through concepts of biomimicry, 3D printed animal habitats, interactive sound and visual installations and material explorations in digital fabrication.

Their work has been showcased on 6 continents with exhibitions in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania and is held in national and international collections. They have presented their research and work at Shapeshifting in Auckland, New Zealand, the BIFT/ITAA Symposium in Beijing, Digital Fashion, London, South by SouthWest, ISEA, Open Hardware Summit, Nanyang Tech University, SIGGRAPH, the New Media Art Caucus and at the Design Principles and Practices Conference, Barcelona.

DOMINIC MOORE-DUNSON is an award-winning choreographer, professional dancer, teaching artist, speaker, and creative entrepreneur. He is the founder of MooreDunson Co, an arts, media, and entertainment company committed to “Urban Midwest Storytelling.” Recognized as one of Dance Magazine‘s “25 to Watch” in 2023, Dominic has received numerous recognitions including a 2021 Top 40 finalist for the National Dance Project Production Grant. Moore-Dunson is a Creative Research Residency Artist and named a Creative Administration Research Fellow with the National Choreography Center at The University of Akron. Dominic serves as a co-founder of the Akron Black Artist Guild and a graduate of National Arts Strategies’ Executive Program for Arts & Culture Strategies at the University of Pennsylvania.

EBRAHIM POUSTINCHI an award-winning designer, artist, curator, and inventor, is a tenured Associate Professor of Architecture and founder/director of the Robotically Augmented Design (RAD) Lab at Kent State University and the founding principal of the STUDIO EP L.L.C. Poustinchi’s research is focused on the intersection of design, worldbuilding, space, media, and robotics, with an emphasis on an alternative reading of human/non-human relationships through AI, UI/UX, Human-Machine Interaction (HMI), and physical computation and tangible interfaces.

Ebrahim has widely lectured, taught workshops, and exhibited his work nationally and internationally. His research and creative work have been disseminated worldwide in various Journals, conferences, galleries, and museums, including the International Journal of Architectural Computing (IJAC), Journal of Engineering Technology (JET), ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SIGraDi, ASCAAD, ASCA, the Museum of Moscow and the Meyerhold Theatre Center in Russia, the Arab American National Museum in Michigan, Jan Koniarek Gallery in Slovakia, Fully Booked Art Fair in Dubai, and Levantine Cultural Center, Perloff Gallery, Architecture and Design (A+D) Museum in Los Angles, and over ten different galleries, and museums in Iran. In 2021, he served as the guest curator and designer at the Architecture and Design (A+D) Museum in Los Angeles.

Ebrahim is the inventor of two international patents in the field of creative robotics. His creative/scholarly work has been funded by grants from the Knight Foundation, Alpha Micron Inc., UCI’s Jordan Center for Persian Studies, ESDRI, Tehran MOCA, Kent State University, and Architecture and Design (A+D) Museum in Los Angles, among others.

Poustinchi is the author/editor and art-director for multiple books. His recent book, A Purple Architecture: Design in the Age of Physical-Virtual Continuum (Kerestes, Poustinchi, Vahdat 2024) published by Carnegie Mellon University ETC Press, is an exploration of architecture/design/art in the hyper-mediated era of AI and technological mediation.