ACKBARABBAS...is a world renowned Professor of Comparative Literature in Hong Kong and will be the keynote speaker at the "East Asia: Experiments in Architecture and Urbanism, a special symposium co-sponsored by the University of Kentucky Asia Center and College of Design and being held as part of the ideaFestival.

Session: East Asia: Experiments in Architecture and Urbanism (Friday)

HELENEANDERSSON...Business Manager for Life Science at Silex Microsystems AB in Stockholm, Sweden and a 2003/2004 member of the “TR 100”. A group selected by MIT’s magazine Technology Review as one of the 100 leading young scientists and innovators worldwide.

Session: PANEL Innovation and Transformation: Big New Ideas at the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville(Wednesday)

BABA...New York based hip-hop performing and recording artist and member of ResonantVoices

Session: Celebrating Diversity Thru Music and Poetry (Saturday)

JEFF"SKUNK"BAXTER...top advisor to Congress and the Pentagon on defense issues and former member of the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan

Session: Thinking Out-of-the-Box in a Conventional World (Wednesday)

PAULBERGER...co-founder of the photography program at the University of Washington's School of Art, has been primarily involved in digital manipulation of electronic images for the past twenty years.

Session: The Persistence of Vision, Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series sponsored by the UK Art Museum (Friday)

ALEXBRETON...is a serial international entrepreneur, designer, inventor and author to over twenty patent applications. He is the CEO of Xpandium AB a Swedish Hi-Tech start-up company that develops a new type of printing technology called RMPT^TM originally developed by PrintDreams Europe AB where Mr. Breton was the founder, CTO and board member.

Session: Emerging Products, Discoveries and Trends Transforming Business (Friday)

JAMESBRUBAKER...President of Physical Production at Universal Studios, Universal City, CA

Session: Filmmakers Lab (Thursday-Saturday)
Session: In the Producer's Chair (Saturday)

LANCEBRUNNER...leads a variety of workshops and retreats for personal development and group process, focusing on creativity and leadership, teaching widely in North and South America as well as Europe.

Session: Re-Minding the Body - Embodying the Mind (Saturday)

KEVINBURKHART...New York based poet and member of ResonantVoices

Session: Celebrating Diversity Thru Music and Poetry (Saturday)

DANNBYCK...Hollywood film and Broadway stage producer

Session: Filmmakers Lab (Thursday-Saturday)

REGIECABICO...New York based slam poet and member of ResonantVoices

Session: Celebrating Diversity Thru Music and Poetry (Saturday)

BENCARSON....president and co-founder of the Carson Scholars Fund, which recognizes young people of all backgrounds for exceptional academic and humanitarian accomplishments

Session: Think Big at the NKU METS Center for Corporate Learning in Northern Kentucky (Tuesday)

IAINCOUZIN...a professor of Biology with a joint appointment at Princeton and Oxford Universities studying large-scale biological patterns, self-organizing pattern formation and their implications for larger systems (i.e., cities, etc.)

Session: Swarm Theory (Friday)

MICHAELDOUGAN...A U.S.C. graduate and George Cukor scholarship winner, Michael Feit Dougan's screenwriting credits began with, Public Access, which earned the Grand Jury Prize for "Best Picture" at Sundance.  He has since consulted industry-wide on script and story development.  His client list includes Jeff Allard (Texas Chainsaw Massacre - 2003), Brian Chandler (Universal Studios), Colin Hodges (Stan Winston Studios) and Iain McCaig (Concept Designer - Peter Pan (2003) and Harry Potter IV).

Session: Flimmakers Lab (Thursday-Saturday)

TIMDUNCAN...investigating where body/mind systems, philosophy and art intersect; Cogswell Polytechnical College

Session: Artistic Action and Mindfulness (Saturday)

MICHAELFITZPATRICK...is an award winning cellist and musical composer. He has worked in close collaboration with the Dali Lama. He will be performing before several events at the Festival.

NEILGERSHENFELD... Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, an interdisciplinary initiative that is broadly exploring how the content of information relates to its physical representation, from atomic nuclei to global networks.

Session: Personal Fabrication (Friday)

SANFORDGOLDBERG...area of specialization concerns topics at the intersection of Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind and Epistemology.

Session: The "Mind" of God (Thursday)

ADAMGORDON...co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Next American City, brings together a new generation of voices to strategize on how cities and suburbs can prosper and grow economically while addressing social and environmental concerns.

Session: The Next City (Wednesday)

AYANNAHOWARD...an engineer at NASA, focusing on robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine vision and a 2003/2004 member of the “TR 100”. A group selected by MIT’s magazine Technology Review as one of the 100 leading young scientists and innovators worldwide

Session: PANEL Innovation and Transformation: Big New Ideas at the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville (Wednesday)

REBECCAHUTTON...President of Theatre of Inclusion along with founding director Dante Ventresca will lead participants through an interactive performance experience that explores and examines the intersection of learning and expression.

Session: The Inclusive Learning Construct (Friday)

CHRISJEAN-BAPTISTE (Lyphe)...New York based poet and free-lance writer and member of ResonantVoices

Session: Celebrating Diversity Thru Music and Poetry (Saturday)

JOHNSONBROTHERSBAND...Kentucky's original  "rock 'n roll repertory orchestra", The Johnson Brothers Band specializes in performing meticulously reproduced renditions of challenging large-band material rarely heard in area clubs.

Session: Closing Celebration: Featuring the Music of the Beatles (Saturday)

ELIASKATZ...Dr. Katz has produced, authored and co authored a number of books, articles and documentaries on art and disabilities, and has lectured widely on the astoundingly positive effect that consistent art making opportunities and an enriched daily environment has on people who are typically devalued and forgotten within the "disability" caste.  

Session: Illuminating the obvious, Creative Growth art center and the discovery of artists with disabilities Sponsored by Latitude (Friday)

MARGARETKING...director the Center for Cultural Studies and Analysis, Philadelphia PA

Session: Unconscious Drivers of Consumer Choice (Friday)

RICHARDKOGAN...New York-based psychiatrist and world class concert pianist whose work includes studying the relationship between mental illness and creativity

Session: Music, Mental Illness and Creativity (Thursday)

MERIAHKRUSE...is founder of Gentle Adventures (www.gentleadventure.net) and her own great adventure is the exploration of inner space through the movement, healing and transformative arts...to live, teach, learn, dance, have fun and evolve

Session:   Re-Minding the Body - Embodying the Mind (Saturday)

KINNYLANDRUM...Emmy-nominated composer and arranger primarily for film and TV. He has composed the music for a number of feature films

Session: Filmmakers Lab (Thursday-Saturday)

ERINLAVIK...assistant professor in Biomedical Engineering at Yale, who uses polymers and neural cells to help repair spinal cord injuries and a 2003/2004 member of the “TR 100”. A group selected by MIT’s magazine Technology Review as one of the 100 leading young scientists and innovators worldwide.

Session: PANEL Innovation and Transformation: Big New Ideas at the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville (Wednesday)

SYLVIALOVELY...is president of the NewCities Foundation, a national nonprofit organization that encourages citizens to get involved in helping their communities thrive in the rapid technological change and global challenges of the 21st Century.

Session: The Next City (Wednesday)

RONLUCKEY...is the Pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Lexington Kentucky and holds a doctorate from the Lexington Theological Seminary. He has written for a variety of religious and secular publications and has made frequent presentations to medical students and faculty on issues surrounding spirituality, healing and medicine.

Session: The "Mind" of God (Thursday)

SRIDEVENDRAKEERTY BHATTARAKAMAHASWAMIJI ... resides in Hombuja, India and is an international authority on Jain philosophy and religion

Session: The "Mind" of God (Thursday)

DOREENMALONEY ... videographer whose work has been featured throughout the world and is currently assistant professor of Digital Media at the University of Kentucky

Session: Flimmakers Lab (Thursday-Saturday)

SIRGEORGEMARTIN...producer and composer of the Beatles

Session: Making the Greatest Album of All Times: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (Saturday)

ELIZABETHMAYER...widely known for her innovative work in psychology, she has published and lectured widely on intuition, consciousness, anomalous phenomena, healing and current reorientation of scientific worldviews.

Session: The Unconscious, the Uncanny and Coincidence (Saturday)

JIMMCMURTRAY...is the author of Barbarian Science, a humorous book on science literacy in America; creator of Starlight, a planetarium show on the physics of stars. He currently heads the National Alliance of State Science and Mathematics Coalitions.

Session: Systems Thinking for Social Change (Thursday)

EVANMEHLENBACHER...is a graduate of Stanford University in economics and a Christian Science practitioner and teacher of spiritual health.

Session: The "Mind" of God (Thursday)

MUBEENMOHIUDDIN...is a South Asian American (Indian origin) Muslim. She has worked as a volunteer for human relations and civil rights for several years and is very active in the Lexington community. She has been a frequent speaker at Fayette County Schools and libraries on subjects of Islamic faith and practices as well as social and religious customs of India.

Session: The "Mind" of God (Thursday)

DAVIDMOHNEY...is Dean of the College of Design at the University of Kentucky. Educated at Cranbrook School, Harvard College, and Princeton University's School of Architecture, Mohney was a Lecturer and Fellow of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York from 1981-1985. He has also taught at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. He is co-author of Seaside: Making a Town in America, which received a Citation for Excellence in International Book Publishing from the AIA in 1992. 

Session: The Next City (Wednesday)

MYSTICRHYTHMS...the Soka Gakkai International (SGI-USA) has a strong commitment to the realization of world peace through individual happiness.  The goal of a group of diverse women who belong to SGI is to form bridges into communities to share our passion for cultivating dialogues of understanding, promote tolerance, and a sharing of cultures.  As a drumming group they share mystical African beats of life with the audience and invite their involvement.  

Session:  Mystic Rhythms (drumming group) (Saturday - two performances)

JAMIEO'BOYLE...senior analyst, The Center for Cultural Studies and Analysis, Philadelphia, PA

Session: Unconscious Drivers of Consumer Choice (Friday)

WILLPEARSON...president and co-founder of mental_floss magazine, the first magazine to blur the lines between education and entertainment. He is a weekly guest on CNN Headline News and the co-editor of mental_floss's first book, Condensed Knowledge

Session:Have You Flossed? (Thursday)

STEVENPINKER... Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and author of a number of best-selling books on the mind and consciousness including most recently The Blank Slate

Session: The Blank Slate (Wednesday)

DITHPRAN...anti-genocide advocate and subject of the movie The Killing Fields

Session: The Killing Fields (Wednesday)

MARKREEVES...is a Commercialization Manager in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Office of Technology Transfer, responsible for market positioning and licensing of technologies emerging from the laboratory's R&D efforts into the commercial market. 

Session: Emerging Products, Discoveries and Trends Transforming Business (Friday)

RESONANTVOICES...a non-profit organization with the mission of Promoting Diversity Celebration through Music and Poetry.

Session: Resonant Voices (Saturday)

BRADRIDDELL...screenwriter, Los Angeles and graduate of the internationally recognized University of Southern California School of Film

Session: Flimmakers Lab (Thursday-Saturday)

ARTHURROUSE...…a documentary filmmaker, entrepreneur and musician who has produced a range on innovative films for regional and national markets

Session: Flimmakers Lab (Thursday-Saturday)

JERZYROZENBERG...a versatile innovator who has taught architecture, design and filmmaking. He graduated from the renowned NYU Film School where he studied under Martin Scorsese. He currently is an Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky's College of Design

Session: Filmmakers Lab (Thursday-Saturday)

OLIVERSACKS ... best-selling author (Awakenings, etc.) and internationally known neurologist

Session: A Conversation With Oliver Sacks (Thursday)

B-SALT (Brian Salter)...New York based emcee and poet and member of ResonantVoices

Session: Celebrating Diversity Thru Music and Poetry (Saturday)

TERRYSAMUEL...is the Vice President of OEM and alliances for the Consumer Printer Division.  He is responsible for CPD's relationships with third-party companies. Samuel holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts and a master's in business administration from Xavier University.

Session: Emerging Products, Discoveries and Trends Transforming Business (Friday)

GREGSCHMIDT... a leader in space exploration and astrobiology with NASA

Session: Consciousness and the Cosmos (Wednesday)

MARKSHEPHERD…is a senior lecturer at the renowned University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television and has also written a number of feature-length scripts for major studios and independent producers

Session: Flimmakers Lab (Thursday-Saturday)

LEONARDSHLAIN...an eclectic thinker, inventor and Chief of laparoscopic surgery at California-Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco is the author of several best-selling books including Art and Physics and The Alphabet Versus the Goddess.

Session: The Alphabet Versus the Goddess (Friday)

JOHNSIBERT...is a successful venture capitalist and technology commercialization professional. Previously he was the Chief Operating Officer for the California State University Institute overseeing technology and commercialization activities for the 23 CSU campuses, the Director at the Corporate Research Lab for Atlantic Richfield Company and president of the Alaska Science and technology Foundation. Sibert is currently a managing Partner GFG China Holdings a venture capital fund investing in China.

Session: Emerging Products, Discoveries and Trends Transforming Business (Friday)

SUBSTANTIAL...New York based emcee and poet and member of ResonantVoices

Session: Celebrating Diversity Thru Music and Poetry (Saturday)

TWYLATHARP... Emmy award winning and internationally famous choreographer

Session: The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life (Friday)

Theater at Natasha's Cafe...The Death and The Maiden: A powerful political drama and psychological thriller by the noted Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman and directed by Alkioni Valsari (photo at the left) a promising young director from Greece.

Session: Death and The Maiden (Wednesday)

DANTEVENTRESCA...founding director of the Theatre of Inclusion (TOI), along with Rebecca Hutton, President of TOI will lead participants through an interactive performance experience that explores and examines the intersection of learning and expression.

Session: The Inclusive Learning Construct (Friday)

JERRYWALLS...is a Professor of Philosophy at Asbury Seminary and Senior Speaking Fellow in the Morris Institute for Human Values.  He has degrees from Houghton College, Princeton Seminary, Yale University and a PhD in philosophy from Notre Dame.

Session: The "Mind" of God (Thursday)

PAMELAYENAWINE...has practiced Nichiren Buddhism with the Soka Gakkai International-USA since 1987 and is half-time Executive Director of Interfaith Paths to Peace, whose mission is to educate, facilitate, advocate and empower the greater community toward peace, justice and human rights by creating opportunities for individuals of different faiths to come together and dialogue about how their faith guides them in life.

Session: The "Mind" of God (Thursday)

LISAZUNSHINE...whose interesting work has focused on the relationship between cognitive science and fiction is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Kentucky

Session: Why We Read Fiction (Thursday)

If You Were Here, presented by the Lexington Arts & Cultural Council, is on exhibit at ArtsPlace Gallery September 16 - October 30, 2004.  This is an innovative and scholarly exhibition bringing together the work of nine, seemingly disparate artists from New York and Kentucky. These artists share a common thread in the treatment of an internal landscape in their work; an obsessive preoccupation with rendering a world constructed of enigmatic images that are amazing and, at times, unsettling. Artwork to the left by David Humphrey, Sad Clown, 2004, acrylic on canvas, 54.44 inches. 

Opening the Gates of Consciousness: Art Nouveau Glass & Pottery will be on display at the University of Kentucky Art Museum from September 5 through November 7, 2004. Glass and ceramic pieces from the turn of the 24th century will explore the fin-de-siecle interest in the theories of Freud, hallucinations, dreams, and the subconscious mind. Photo Credit: Emile Galle (French, 1946 - 1904); Bowl / Cameo glass, 1 13/16 x 7 5/16 x 5 9/16 / University of Kentucky Art Museum / Bequest of George and Susan Proskauer / 92.17.101