KaleidoLA Speaker Series

Lenard Smith is a first generation Ghanaian-American interdisciplinary artist living and working in Los Angeles, California. Smith’s Master of Fine Arts in Advanced Photographic Studies from Bard College grounds his work in traditional practices and experimental methodologies.

Lauren Thorson is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University. She was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Minnesota and worked as a Researcher at the Interactive Visualization Lab. She holds an M.F.A in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, a B.A. in Communication Studies, and a B.F.A in Graphic Design from the University of Iowa.

Yara is a French-Lebanese architectural designer working at the intersection of architecture pedagogy, transmedia, and immersive technologies. She is the creative director of Folly Feast Lab co-founded with Viviane El Kmati and based in Santa Monica. Through worldbuilding and storytelling they design immersive and interactive experiences, applications, software, design tools and games around queer identity, sustainability, and technology.