CONTRIBUTORS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS + n CONTRIBUTORS JONATHAN AITKEN is the Director of the Health Design Lab, Assistant Dean of Design, and Communication Design faculty at Emily Carr Uni- versity of Art + Design. The Health Design Lab is an emergent research centre that applies design thinking to Health Care, bringing human-cen- tred design research methodologies to complex problems. Aitken’s education in Communication and Industrial Design help him bring an interdisciplinary focus to his work. Aitken is particularly interested in how participatory design methodologies can facilitate design research into large, complex problems. KATE ARMSTRONG is the Director of the Social and Interactive Media (SIM) Centre at Emily Carr. Armstrong has over 10 years experience in the culture sector with a focus on intersections between art and tech- nology. As an artist, writer and independent curator she has produced or participated in exhibitions, events, performances and publications in contemporary and media art for local and international festivals and galleries in cities including Istanbul, Vilnius, Grande Prairie, Skopje, Vancouver, and New York. She is a co-founder of the Goethe Satellite Vancouver, chairs the Board of Directors of the Western Front, and is the author of 8 books and works of electronic literature. RON BURNETT, RCA has been the President of Emily Carr University of Art + Design for 16 years. In 2010 he received the “Chevalier de l'ordre des Art et des Lettres” a knighthood from the French Government in recognition of 40 years of work in culture. In 2005, he published How Images Think, MIT Press. Former Director of the Graduate Program in Communications at McGill University, Designer in Residence at the New Media Innovation Centre, Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Film Program at York University, author of 150 published articles and book chapters, Educator of the Year in Canada and recipient of the Queen's Jubilee Diamond Medal for service to Canada in 2012. Dr. Burnett was Chair of Knowledge Network for four years. Dr. Burnett is one of the founders of Film Studies in Canada. Previous books published by Dr. Burnett, include, Cultures of Vision and Explorations in Film Theory. GRANT GREGSON is the Coordinator of Emily Carr's Teaching and Learning Centre providing research and training initiatives supporting faculty and staff with learning and incorporating new technologies for use in the classroom, online environments, research projects and web publishing. The TLC facilitates the learning, development and delivery of education curriculum through online technology-enhanced methods with faculty input supporting scholarly approaches to pedagogy. MARIA LANTIN is the Director of Research at Emily Carr and the Director of the Stereoscopic 3D Centre. For many years she has been joining her love of Computing Science with her belief in the innovative potential of the arts. A circuitous route led her from obtaining her PhD in Computing Science at Simon Fraser University to leading the Visualization Lab at the Banff New Media Institute, to developing the Intersections Digital Studios (IDS) at Emily Carr. She has had the joy of bringing to life many artist projects involving digital technology, and continues this practice at Emily Carr with collaborative and indus- try-partnered research. GLEN Lowry hasa PhD in Literary Studies and has published widely on contemporary Canadian Literature and Culture — literature, photogra- phy, film, and television. Recent work investigates new forms of cultural expression and social contexts, particularly around questions of global- ization and urbanization. Lowry's work focuses on new media platforms that link scholars, artists, and audiences across cultural and geographical distances: e.g, Maraya project, connecting urban waterfronts in Vancou- ver and Dubai. From 2002-11, Lowry edited cultural journal West Coast Line. Pacific Avenue (2009), his collection of poems, looks at image- based memory and geography. Lowry regularly shares ideas, images, lectures, and commentary on his blog: www.glenlowry.com. EZIO MANZINI has been working for more than two decades in the field of design for sustainability, with a special focus on social inno- vation. On this topic he started, and currently coordinates, DESIS: an international network promoting, world wide, design schools as agents of social change towards sustainability. Throughout his professional life Ezio Manzini has been professor of design at the Politecnico di Milano. Parallel to this, he collaborated with several international universities. Currently, he is Honorary Guest Professor at the Tongji University, in Shanghai, at the Jiangnan University, in Wuxi, at the COPPE-UFRJ, in Rio de Janeiro. The most recent awards granted to Manzini are the Sir Misha Black Medal, in UH and the Honorary Doctorate at the Aalto University, in Finland, the both in 2012. CELESTE MARTIN is an Assistant Professor at Emily Carr. She has a back ground in communication design and specializes in typography. She has a B.F.A. and M.FA. from the University of lowa. Her creative work examines the forms of written language, the shapes of letters and their relationship to space. She is the editor of Current, the university’s design research journal, and a member of Emily Carr’s Research Ethics Board. Asa researcher at Emily Carr’s Social and Interactive Media Centre her current design research focuses on the development of enhanced interactive ebooks. MARI NURMINEN is Manager of Strategy and Operations at Powertech Labs, a subsidiary of BC Hydro. Her professional experience includes strategic planning and technology management in the private sector, and research and consulting for government think tanks. She holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in economics and business administration from Aalto University and MBA in technology management from Simon Fraser University. She has also completed the International Design Business Management (IDBM) program at Aalto University.