Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul) is an internationally renowned media artist and a pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence. Based in Los Angeles, he is Director and co-founder of Refik Anadol Studio and teaches in UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts, where he earned his MFA. His studio brings together a globally diverse team of designers, architects, data scientists, and researchers committed to inclusion, equity, and cross-cultural collaboration. Anadol is also the co-founder of Dataland, the world’s first Museum of AI Arts, opening at The Grand LA in 2026. Across immersive installations, AI data paintings, and public artworks, his practice reimagines data as a poetic material—making visible new narratives of memory, place, and perception.
Instagram | @refikanadol
LinkedIn | Refik Anadol
Website | refikanadol.com
Twitter | @refikanadol
Vimeo | vimeo.com/refo
YouTube | youtube.com/user/refikanadol
NFT | nft.refikanadol.com
Michael Balot-Garza is Head of Education at the Wende Museum. He leads educational initiatives and public programs for learners of all ages. His work uses art and history to spark curiosity, dialogue, and critical thinking. Michael is passionate about making history accessible, engaging, and participatory.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1963, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater is a beloved LA institution and the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States. A cornerstone of family entertainment in the city, the theater has introduced generations of children—and adults—to the magic of puppetry, creativity, and live performance, celebrating wonder, community, and joy for over six decades.
Instagram | @bobbakermarionettes
Tiktok | @bobbakermarionettes
Facebook | BobBakerMarionetteTheater
Silent Cinema with Live Music and a Mini “Leçon de cinéma” is presented by cinema teachers Mathieu Bonin, Laurence Leroy, and Laure Rosay from the International School of Los Angeles (LILA). A bilingual French–English preschool through 12th-grade school, LILA fosters open-minded, globally engaged students through academic rigor, cultural exchange, and creative expression. Grounded in both the French national curriculum and the International Baccalaureate, LILA emphasizes critical thinking and storytelling across disciplines—including cinema and media studies—as tools for understanding the world.
Julie Bour is a choreographer and performer trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. She performed internationally with Ballet Preljocaj (Bessie Award for Best Performance of the Year), the Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak Dance Company, and in opera and stage productions across Europe, Israel, and the United States. After co-founding The Flying Mammoth in New York, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she expanded her work into film and music videos, including choreography for La Danseuse (Cannes, 2016). Since 2014, she has been a full-time faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts and is currently Director of the MFA in Choreography Program.
Louis-Paul Caron is a French digital artist and animation film director whose work bridges ecology, art, and technology. Trained at the École Boulle, the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and the Design Academy Eindhoven, he creates immersive digital paintings and cinematic landscapes that explore climate change, human–machine relations, and possible futures. Drawing on art history, his practice blends classical aesthetics with generative and AI-assisted processes to craft evocative visual narratives that hover between realism and speculation. A recipient of the 2026 Villa Albertine Art in the Age of AI award, he will be in Los Angeles developing a new body of work focused on the Altadena and Pacific fires, examining memory, loss, and environmental transformation. His work has been shown internationally, including at Art Basel and in exhibitions in New York, Milan, and Seoul.
Instagram | @louispaulcaron
Website | www.louispaulcaron.com
Alex Cohen is an Emmy-winning American journalist with more than two decades of experience in radio and television. She began her career at NPR and has held key reporting and hosting roles on programs including Day to Day, All Things Considered, Take Two, and Weekend America. A veteran anchor and political reporter, Cohen has worked for KCRW, LAist/KPCC and Spectrum News where she serves currently as National Anchor and launched the local public affairs program Inside the Issues with Alex Cohen. Known for her thoughtful moderation and ability to navigate complex debates, she brings clarity and nuance to conversations spanning local, national, and global issues.
Instagram | @alexcoheninla
LinkedIn | Alex Cohen
Annick Cojean is one of France’s most respected journalists and a senior reporter at Le Monde, where she has worked since 1981. Her career spans major interviews and portraits of public figures, as well as internationally recognized investigative reporting, especially on violence against women in conflict zones. She is also known for Le Monde’s long-running interview series “I Would Not Have Made It If…” which have been adapted for the theater. Cojean also directed TV documentaries and is the author of fifteen books like Gaddafi’s Harem, and two books co-written with Simone Veil and Gisèle Halimi. She is the recipient of a number of prizes including the Prix Albert Londres in 1996 for The Memories of the Holocaust and chaired this prize’s jury from 2020 to 2020.
Instagram | @annickcojean
LinkedIn | Annick Cojean
Facebook | Annick Cojean
The Eisner Intergenerational Big Band (EIBB) is a flagship ensemble of Heart of Los Angeles (Heart of LA), bringing together exceptional jazz musicians ranging from teenagers to seniors. Launched in 2022 as part of the Eisner Intergenerational Music Program, the Big Band celebrates jazz as a living, collaborative art form that connects generations through shared practice and performance. Under the direction of Kevin Robb, EIBB performs a stylistically diverse repertoire spanning classic jazz standards to contemporary arrangements, highlighting improvisation, musicianship, and the power of intergenerational exchange. The ensemble performs throughout Los Angeles, fostering community, creativity, and meaningful relationships through music.
Website | heartofla.org/eibb
The EPFC Collective is a multi-generational, multicultural group of filmmakers, educators, and activists united by a shared belief in the power of collaborative creative practice to strengthen community. Emerging from the work of Echo Park Film Center, a nonprofit media arts organization founded in 2001, the collective draws on EPFC’s long-standing commitment to making experimental and documentary film accessible through education, screenings, mobile cinemas, and community-based projects in Los Angeles and beyond.
Instagram | @epfcfilmmobile
Website | https://www.epfccollective.org/
Constance Debré is a French writer and former criminal lawyer whose work explores norms, violence and personal aesthetic. After leaving her legal career, she developed a radical literary practice rooted in contemporary conflictual situations and ethical reinvention. Her books—including Playboy, Love Me Tender, Name and Offenses—are known for their spare, uncompromising prose and philosophical intensity. In the United States, her work is published by Semiotext(e), the influential Los Angeles–based press founded in 1974, celebrated for its editorial independence and long-standing commitment to experimental and critical writing.
https://www.the-tls.com/literature/fiction/offenses-constance-debre-book-review-alice-blackhurst
Katayoun Dibamehr and Avi Amar are producers at Floréal, a Paris, Montréal and Los Angeles-based production company known for developing innovative projects at the intersection of cinema, immersive media, and new technologies. Their work supports bold, artist-driven storytelling across film, documentary, and mixed-reality experiences, with a strong commitment to international collaboration and experimentation. Recent productions include Minimum Mass (Cristal, Annecy 2020), The Hangman at Home (Grand Jury Prize, Venice 2020), Goliath (Grand Jury Prize, Venice 2021; Emmy Award nomination 2022), Conann (Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes 2023), Maya (Cannes Immersive Competition 2024), and Impulse (Achievement Prize, Venice Immersive 2024, Emmy Award nomination 2025).
Instagram | @florealfilms
LinkedIn | Avi Amar
Website | https://floreal.io
Adrien Frier is a French diplomat with extensive experience in International Relations, Strategic Affairs, and Security. He currently serves as Consul General of France in Los Angeles, overseeing France’s diplomatic, consular, cultural, and economic presence in Southern California and the U.S. Southwest. Previously, he held key senior positions at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, including as an Advisor on Strategic Affairs during the Russia-Ukraine war, and as Deputy Director for Counterterrorism and Organized Crime. Throughout his career, Adrien Frier has held positions at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., and at the U.S. State Department through the Transatlantic Diplomatic Fellowship Program, during which he focused on European and Transatlantic security matters.
Celia Hodent holds a PhD in cognitive psychology and specializes in cognitive psychology and user experience (UX). She is known for applying cognitive science to game design and interactive systems, including serving as UX Director on Fortnite. She has spoken widely on how cognitive biases shape human behavior, decision-making, and ethical design. Hodent is the author of several critically acclaimed books on psychology and video games, including The Gamer’s Brain, The Psychology of Video Games, What UX is Really About
Victor Le Masne is a GRAMMY®-winning French composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist whose work moves fluidly across classical music, jazz, electronic, metal, and pop. A leading figure of French Touch, he reached a global audience as Composer and Musical Director of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In 2025, he released a critically acclaimed tribute to Maurice Ravel for Deutsche Grammophon’s Recomposed series. Deeply interested in musical genealogy and cultural transmission, Le Masne’s work explores how sound travels across time, geography, and social history.
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/victor_le_masne/
Tonya Mosley is an award-winning journalist and co-host of NPR’s Fresh Air, where she brings curiosity and depth to conversations that illuminate the human experience. She previously co-hosted NPR’s Here & Now, guiding listeners through some of the most consequential events of our time – from special NPR coverage of Donald Trump’s first presidency and the pandemic to the racial reckoning of 2021 and live coverage of the January 6th insurrection as it was happening. She is also the founder of TMI Productions, which created the award-winning series Truth Be Told and She Has A Name.
Instagram | @tonyatalks
LinkedIn | Tonya Mosley
Website | tonyamosley.com
Newsletter | coming soon
Aurélia Mouzet is an Associate Professor in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Arizona. She is the founding director of Talk-it-OUT!, a forum theatre initiative that uses interactive performance to foster dialogue, community engagement, and collective reflection on contemporary social issues. Her work brings audiences into active conversation through participatory theatre.
Dr. Joanna Piotrowska is an astrophysicist and researcher at the California Institute of Technology, where her work focuses on the physics of black holes, astrophysical plasmas, and galaxy evolution. With expertise in both observational data and numerical modeling, her research bridges cutting-edge theory with real cosmic phenomena, advancing our understanding of how black holes form, evolve, and influence their environments. Passionate about science communication, Joanna is dedicated to making complex ideas accessible and inspiring the next generation of explorers.
Amandine Richard is a sustainability strategist and founder of recurvence, focused on making circular economy implementation actionable through systemic literacy and real-world application. She is a certified facilitator and trainer for Climate Fresk, a French-born, award-winning workshop based on IPCC science with over 2 million participants worldwide. Her work turns complex topics into accessible, collaborative learning that supports meaningful and sustainable action.
LinkedIn (personal) | Amandine Richard
LinkedIn (Recurvence) | Recurvence
Website | https://www.recurvence.com/
Dr. Joes Segal is Chief Curator and Director of Programming at the Wende Museum in Culver City, where he has organized more than 30 exhibitions. He has published widely on German cultural history, Cold War culture, and art and politics in a global perspective. At the Wende, he oversees exhibitions and public programs that engage with both historical and contemporary issues.
Justin Torres is the author of Blackouts, which won the National Book Award for Fiction and the California Book Award, and was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. A 2025 Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy, he has also received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. His debut novel, We the Animals, was a national bestseller and adapted into a feature film. He lives in Los Angeles and is a professor of English at UCLA.
Website | https://justin-torres.com/about/