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FW:B/FEST/2026/SCHEDULE

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Fri, Jul 31

  • 12–6 PMRaven's NestGuest Check In
  • 1–1:30 PMBlack Mountain CoffeeWhat Do You Mean by Design?Nu Gotehideas

    Design is everywhere; it is in the tools we reach for, the systems we move through, the stories we tell, and the experiences that quietly shape our days. We think we know what design is, until we try to define it. In a moment of climate crisis, inequality, and technological disruption, it’s no longer enough to treat design as surface or style but to examine it as a practice that can both fuel harm and seed repair. If design both mirrors and shapes the world we live in, what role does it play in a time defined by change? In this talk, designer, artist, and cultural strategist, Nu Goteh, will open up the question at the heart of his practice: What do you mean by design? Drawing from work spanning community-centered research, branding, publishing, and social practice, Nu will explore design as cultural authorship, meaning-making, and a tool for intervening in the systems that organize our lives.

    Bio

    Nu Goteh is a designer, strategist, and educator who envisions conditions for communities to thrive. A 2025 National Design Award recipient for Emerging Designer, he is Co-Founder, Managing Partner, and Creative Director of Deem Journal and Founder and Principal of ROOM FOR MAGIC. His practice integrates design, culture, art, community, and social practice; he has worked with organizations including the Art for Justice Fund, Ford Foundation, World Peace Foundation, National Memorial for the Underground Railroad, Nike, and Google.

  • 1:45–2:15 PMBlack Mountain CoffeeAlgorithmic Machines Have No SoulSaarim Zamanideas

    Using a cartographic approach, this talk surveys the existing landscape of creative tools for audio, and addresses the shortcomings and possible open spaces for audio-based artists and creatives exploring and building with AI.

    Bio

    Saarim Zaman is an artist and creative technologist exploring audio in the browser and AI, and is also the cofounder of itm.studio. His work has been presented at Rhizome 7x7 at The New Museum, NYU Tandon's Integrated Design and Media program, vibecon, Perrotin Gallery, and featured in publications like Dazed, CULTURED, FAD Magazine and Artnews.

  • 2:30–3:30 PMSpeakeasyOffice Clown: Making Failure WorkTufan Nadjafiideas

    A peek behind the curtain at the misunderstood art form of Clown and how it is reshaping modern theatre and the workplace. In this part-presentation, part-interactive workshop, we will explore the clown within through a series of clown exercises — short, high-stakes scenarios that emphasize presence and human fallibility, as opposed to cleverness, for problem solving, connection, and discovery. You’ll be coached through safe yet exposing moments to familiarize yourself with the feeling of failure/looking foolish/embarrassment to ultimately let go of those fears and take bigger risks on stage, in the studio, at work, while backpacking iceland, and beyond.

    Bio

    Tufan Nadjafi is a writer and performer who moved to the U.S. as a child to fulfill every immigrant parent’s dream of having their son become a clown.

    After working in the writers’ room at The Late Late Show with James Corden, Tufan attended the world-renowned clown school École Philippe Gaulier in France where he studied the art of clown and play.

    Since discovering how clown can revolutionize work, creativity, and everyday life, Tufan has worked with leading organizations (Google, Pixar, The Moonshot Factory) helping teams unlock creativity by encouraging failure, risk-taking, and vulnerability.

    Tufan's favorite part of teaching clown is watching people let go of self-consciousness, embrace silliness, and rediscover the joy of playing like a child.

  • 2:30–3 PMBlack Mountain CoffeeReady for the WorldVicki Tanideas

    Ready for the World is about the restlessness that comes with a project waiting to be made, something we may dismiss as too personal, or not yet clear enough to work on. I'll talk about the years I spent exploring mine, and the illustrated book about decision-making that came out of it. My hope is that it moves something in you toward sensing you're already ready for yours.

    Bio

    Vicki Tan is a Taiwanese-American designer and author based in San Francisco. Her work explores how people make meaning through choice. Her illustrated book Ask This Book a Question reframes cognitive bias as a way to better understand how decisions unfold.

  • 3:15–3:45 PMBlack Mountain CoffeeCreative R&D: The Art of Early BeliefJohn Robsonideas

    A great story looks inevitable in hindsight, but at the start there is only the darkness. This is a talk about that fragile beginning, the unseen phase where the work is actually made, and about a deceptively simple question: how do you back a story before there is one to tell?

    Bio

    House of Paper is building new structures for music patronage; cultivating an ecosystem of artists, creative partners, and patrons to forge music and experiences that otherwise would not exist. We’re working to empower that which can’t be measured, and build a future where music serves meaning, not metrics.

  • 3:30–5:30 PMSpeakeasyEntrepreneurs' Tarot: Readings for FoundersGreg Bresnitzexperience

    Private card readings for founders, C-suite executives, and investors. Greg pulls from the 22 Major Arcana and reads them as a strategic mirror: pattern recognition for the decisions spreadsheets can't answer. Cofounder friction, the pivot question, the round you closed against your gut, the identity underneath the role. Three cards, fifteen minutes, and the conversation you've been having with yourself finally out loud.

    Bio

    Greg Bresnitz is the creator of Entrepreneurs' Tarot, a strategic mirror for founders. A multiple-time founder and former FWB CEO, he pulls cards for founders, C-suite executives, and investors, using the Major Arcana as a framework for the decisions data can't settle. His weekly readings publish every Tuesday at entrepreneurstarot.com.

  • 4–4:30 PMBlack Mountain CoffeeSceneTechMacy Gettles & quasimattideas

    • MACY GETTLES

    • QUASIMATT

    Social scenes are amorphous. Technology is exact. How can technology allow us to form, proliferate, and analyze scenes, and ultimately emerge within them? Macy Gettles and quasimatt propose that SceneTech is the next wave of tech, and is rooted in a rapid feedback loop between a particular form of socializing and technological development.

    Bio

    quasimatt is an artist and intellectual. Macy Gettles says message me asap.

  • 4:45–5:15 PMBlack Mountain CoffeeQuantification is DeathRuby J Thelotideas

    This talk examines how the cult of data is transforming bodies, objects, and experiences into measurable digital information. Moving from eighteenth-century calculation projects to wearables, AI companions, and the quantified self, the talk argues that technologies marketed as tools of care often replace embodied knowledge with dashboards, optimization, and control. It ultimately proposes a happier cyborgian future organized around rhythm, play, presence, and exploration rather than relentless measurement.

    Bio

    Ruby Justice Thelot is a designer, cyberethnographer, and artist based in New York. He is an adjunct professor of Design and Media Theory at New York University and founder of the award-winning creative research and design studio 13101401 inc.

  • 5:30–6 PMBlack Mountain CoffeeWelcome to Gummy WorldClub Chessideas

    • A. L. BAHTA

    • CORRINE CIANI

    Identifying a new ontological and aesthetic phenomenon that has risen in the last few years that can only be described as “gummy”.

    Bio

    A. L. Bahta is an artist and technologist. He has released two studio albums under his one-man-band alias, Quiet Luke, and is currently working on a body of bronze sculpture work. He is the co-founder of Club Chess, the party that inspired a thousand chess clubs. He is also the creative director of the financial technology company, Whop. He hopes that in this pivotal moment, humanity can focus on its relationship with itself and not only its relationship with AI.

    Corrine Ciani is a writer and event producer. Her writing explores the human condition and has been featured in Rolling Stone and Flaunt Magazine. She is also the co-founder of Club Chess, the nightlife event series that started an international trend of drinking martinis while playing the forever game. She currently lives in New York City but is trying to spend more time in her hometown of Los Angeles for peace of mind. She is most interested in seeing what she can get away with.

  • 7:15–7:30 PMButterfield AmphitheaterCLIP ARTmusic
  • 8–9 PMButterfield AmphitheaterKim Gordonmusic
  • 9 PM–12 AMFerroDead Internet SeancePaizley Leeexperience

    For this presentation, Lee and friends at Restless Egg will use a network of vintage iMac G3s to summon the spirit of the early web. Together, they transform rare internet-era computers into a playable arcade featuring original games and interactive artworks by Frenshouse, John Threat, Benjamin Palmer, Dan Ruth, and other contemporary artists inspired by the internet’s earliest days.

    Bio

    Paizley Lee is a Los Angeles-based game designer and creator of Dead Internet Theory, a participatory exhibition series exploring internet culture through vintage technology. Her work combines web revivalism, game design, and social experimentation to create spaces where audiences participate rather than observe.
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