Dr Rewa Wright is a media arts and computational design researcher with a collaborative and transdisciplinary practice, encompassing exhibition, performance, publication, presentation, and community engagement. Working with various modes of analogue and digital art since 1998, Rewa has over 20 years of experience in various aspects of motion-based and sonic media, including live performance, music, digital design, and virtual image creation. As an intra-active media designer, experimental media artist and inverse technologist, research is both traditional and practice-based. Rewa’s projects weave together emerging technologies, Indigenous justice, clean blockchains and digital healthcare. An ecologically conscious researcher, she commits to ensuring her techniques and methods are sustainable, create positive social impact in both local and global communities, and respect Indigenous knowledge systems. Her Māori heritage (Ngāi Tawake/Te Kaimaroke/Te Uri o Hau hapu of Aotearoa/New Zealand) is a strength, and affords the capacity to draw on ancient non-Western knowledge from an embodied as well as a scholarly perspective. Rewa’s extended reality installations have been included in the SIGGRAPH Asia Art Gallery (2019), Ars Electronica: In Kepler’s Gardens (2020), the Aotearoa Digital Arts Symposium (2022), the Queensland Extended Reality Festival (2022), and several iterations of the International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA). She is Senior Lecturer in Creative Practice (Film, Screen & Animation) at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

A professor and researcher at Guanajuato University, Mexico since August 2002, she is the author of nine books, several book chapters, and articles about Electronic and Digital Art, Creativity, and Design. In addition, she has made several trips Spain, United States, Latin America, among others, in connection with the research she has been developing. She is a Graphic Designer, with a master’s degree in Creativity for Design from the School of The National Institute of Fine Arts and a Ph.D. in Visual Arts and Intermedia from Polytechnic University of Valencia (UVP), Spain. Her Ph.D. thesis on Processes of Production in Mexican Digital Art received UVP’s "Extraordinary Award for Doctoral Theses" in 2016. She is a former Member of The Mexican National Research System, Level II of Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology, CONACYT. She is currently pursuing a second doctorate in aesthetic theories at the University of Guanajuato.

Iwi (Tribal affiliations): Rongomaiwahine, Kahungunu, Pāhauwera, Ngāi Tahu Matawhaiti. Residing within her ancestral territories in Aotearoa, NZ, Desna has played a unique and pivotal role as an Indigenous Design Activator, providing leadership for Indigenous creativity and sovereignty. Her work is a testament to the deep relationships between Indigenous peoples and (sentient)-Place, guiding cross-disciplinary initiatives that are foundational to the global design landscape. Under Desna's transformative stewardship, Ngā Aho, Māori Design Professionals Inc. have emerged as a beacon of collective indigenous empowerment. Ngā Aho's steadfast commitment to communal wisdom and Place-based methodologies, over individualistic pursuits, has reshaped the built environment and infused the broader realm of creative practices with transformative indigenous perspectives. This has inspired a global recalibration of design ethos, ensuring the vitality of Indigenous perspectives for future generations. Linked-in: www.linkedin.com/in/desna-whaanga-schollum/ Instagram: whaanga_schollum

Iwi (tribal affiliations): Te Arawa, Tainui and Mātaatua waka He uri tēnei whakaheke nō Te Arawa waka. Proud to be from the Te Arawa canoe and am currently based in Rotorua. I'm a global citizen embracing every opportunity to grow personally and professionally. Interested in cultural and environmental well-being and sustainable processes but not limited by any preferred industries. My mission is dedicated to applying my skills to initiatives that have a positive influence on my whānau and hapū through promoting environmental, social, cultural and human well-being. Corey is an emerging researcher with a background in engineering, focused on the intersections of whānau, hapū and marae with environmental sciences, most recently in the contexts of freshwater and geothermal. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-ruha-ab2ba8152/