16 Feb 2023
Semi Permanent returns to Sydney in 2023
Semi Permanent today announces the return of its festival of creativity and design to its homeplace of Sydney, set to take place at arts precinct Carriageworks as part of Vivid Sydney 2023, from 31st May through 2nd June 2023. Now in its 21st year, Semi Permanent will again bring together the creative industries across Asia Pacific for three days of inspiring keynote talks, panel discussions, workshops, exhibitions, demonstrations, installations, and more. In 2023, Semi Permanent is supported by the continuing partnership with the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency Destination NSW.
As the biggest and longest-running event of its kind in the southern hemisphere, Semi Permanent shares insight into the processes of the world’s leading visionaries and ignites connection, conversation, collaboration, and creativity. Equal parts education and inspiration, the event provides an opportunity for attendees to level up their skillset whilst expanding their understanding of an ever-evolving creative landscape.
PROGRAM
The breadth of this year’s program is reflective of creative practice in 2023, including graphic, product, spatial and motion design, filmmaking, photography, illustration, publishing, writing, advertising, animation, Web3, and visual data. Many of the talks and programs delve into important and timely cultural subject matter, including futurism, feminism, First Nations culture, accessibility, sustainability, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Irish writer, academic and disability activist Sinéad Burke is the founder of Tilting The Lens, a consultancy that asks: ‘Is this accessible?’ Burke supports clients – including Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Netflix, and Pinterest – in moving from awareness to action, accelerating systemic and cultural changes for a world that is more accessible and equitable for everyone. Her work has been featured and recognised by Vogue, The Financial Times, and Vanity Fair.
Liam Young is a film director and architect, and founder of the urban futures think tank Tomorrows Thoughts Today and the nomadic research studio Unknown Fields. Young's practice is situated within the fields of design fiction and critical design. His work explores the increasingly blurred boundaries among film, fiction, design, and storytelling, with the goal of prototyping and imagining the future of the city.
Using words, colour, and sound, data journalist, writer, artist, and producer Mona Chalabi rehumanises data to better help us understand our world and the way we live in it. Her writing and illustrations have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian, where she is currently the data editor, and have earned her a fellowship at the British Science Association, an Emmy nomination, and recognition from the Royal Statistical Society.
Bijan Berahimi is an Iranian-American designer and founder of FISK, a studio and gallery in Portland, Oregon. FISK has become an ongoing project based around culture, community, and commerce through the lens of art and design, the studio championing a wide range of ethnicities, voices, and backgrounds. Berahimi has collaborated with Nike, Toro y Moi, Harvard, Boiler Room, and was the first designer-in-residence at Facebook HQ.
The full program includes:
- Mona Chalabi — visual data journalist, New York
- Bijan Berahimi — designer and founder, FISK, Portland
- Sinead Burke — founder, Tilting The Lens, Dublin
- Liam Young — speculative architect and filmmaker, Los Angeles
- Megha Kapoor — head of editorial content, Vogue India, Mumbai
- Filipe Carvalho — film and TV designer and director, Lisbon
- Mikaela Jade — founder, Indigital, Canberra
- Seb Chan — director, Australian Centre for Moving Image, Melbourne
- Chris Yee — artist, illustrator and animator, Sydney
- Jazz Money — Indigenous artist and poet, Sydney
- Samuel Leighton-Dore — artist, illustrator and screenwriter, Gold Coast
- Jordy van den Nieuwendijk — artist and illustrator, Melbourne
- Mikaela Stafford — motion graphics artist, Melbourne
- Wani Toaishara — artist, photographer and performer, Melbourne
- Evi. O — designer and artist, Sydney
- The event will be hosted by TV presenter, radio broadcaster and producer, Namila Benson
2023 THEME
Each year, Semi Permanent takes the opportunity to explore a universal idea that most aligns to the challenges and opportunities of the time. For 2023, it introduces the platform ‘REFORMATION’. “We thought the world would seek to build itself back as it was, but it’s increasingly clear that our collective future cannot—nor should not—look anything like its past,” says Mitchell Oakley Smith, Semi Permanent’s global creative director. “We live amidst a once-in-a-generation chance to write past wrongs, reform seemingly immutable practices, and redesign the world in a shape we’d like to see.”
“One look around will tell you the seeds have already been sown: the promise of a borderless Web3 world; the reclaiming of time via remote work capabilities; the dismantling of industrial hierarchies and traditions that prioritised some consistently over others. And in its place, something new is beginning to emerge: new creative languages, new ways to communicate, to create, organise, disrupt, rebuild. New ways to speak, hear, interpret, understand, and connect. Less barriers to entry, and more possibility for brilliance. With all the chips seemingly thrown in the air—which of these do we catch, and which do we let go?”
ABOUT SEMI PERMANENT
Semi Permanent is the biggest and longest-running creativity and design festival in the southern hemisphere. Over the past 20 years it has hosted more than 50 events in 13 cities, featuring over 800 speakers and attracting more than 300,000 attendees. Previous talent has included Aries Moross, Daniel Arsham, Gia Coppola, Jessica Walsh, Karen Elson, Michel Gondry, Nabil Elderkin, Oliver Stone, Sabine Marcelis, Ta-ku, Taika Waititi, Tom Sachs, and Tony Hawk.
ABOUT VIVID SYDNEY
Vivid Sydney is Australia’s largest festival celebrating creativity, innovation and technology, and transforms Sydney into a kaleidoscope of colour and events for 23 nights. Staged for its 13th year in 2023, Vivid Sydney will bring together mesmerising displays from the world’s brightest light artists, exhilarating live music performances, deep-dive discussions with thought leaders, and innovative experiences from food creatives. Vivid Sydney is owned, managed and produced by Destination NSW, the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency.