THANK YOU, SXSW 2022!
Wonder House was in full swing at
Fogo de Chao, 309 E 3rd St, Austin, TX 78701
11:00 am–Midnight, March 11-13, 2022
We had an amazing time at SXSW22, and we were bowled over by Texas hospitality. Tucson loves Austin, and we will be back with bigger and better in 2023. Thank you again to everyone who attended, and if you missed us, check below for highlights and full talks.
2022 Wonder House Recap
Links to full talks and highlights below.
Stay in the know about plans for the SXSW®2023 Wonder House!
| LOCATION | DISCUSSION / EXPERIENCE |
| Front Door | Seeds of Wonder. Jessica Gonzales, voted Tucson's Best Muralist and UArizona BFA graduate, will be painting a 30-foot tall mural in front of Fogo de Chao all weekend long when the light is good. |
| Podcast Studio |
Lifetimes of Listening. Come in, sign up, and share your most important memories of how music has shaped your life. |
| Surround Stage | Surrounded by WONDER
Between speakers, overwhelm your senses through a series of immersive short films: |
| VR Bar | 360 Virtual Microcinema. Imagine you are at the center of the action. With these 360 VR film shorts, young filmmakers surround you with horror, insanity, and daily life dramas. The action is all around you. Frontiers of Space in 3D. Walk into and through some of the largest telescopes on and above Earth. |
| Digital Oasis |
Ripple Effect. Artist Dorsey Kaufmann makes water contamination beautiful and easy to comprehend. |
| Rooftop | SHAPE of Tucson. Gather round a column to experience sights and sound of the Sonoran Desert. See it change as the ambient light and sound change, adapting to its environment. |
| LOCATION | DISCUSSION / EXPERIENCE |
| Meet at the Wonder House | Awe Walk With Us Take a moment during the hustle of SXSW to creatively explore and document the awe-inspiring heart of Austin. Awe walks are affordable, accessible, and uplifting, and have been shown to reduce stress and promote emotions like empathy and compassion. Join Jennie Gubner and Sydney Streightiff who will teach you how to use creative prompts to enhance awe walking as they send you out to help them document awe in Austin. Stay tuned for details! |
| Rooftop Stage |
Naturally Adaptive Building Tech: Aletheia Ida |
| Surround Stage | Building Machines That Understand Humans: A Hybrid Conversation between Adarsh Pyarelal and Winslow Burleson “ToMCAT,” the Theory of Mind-Based Cognitive Architecture for Teams, is a DARPA-funded project aimed at developing artificial intelligence with a ‘theory of mind,’ and creating AI that is a good teammate to humans. |
Moved to Surround Scape |
Solar Decathlon as Catalyst for Innovation: Jonathan Bean Leader of a successful Solar Decathlon Build Challenge team, Jonathan will help us understand the quiet design revolution that could change the way we live by how we design climate-responsive housing. |
| Rooftop | Friday Night Movie Podcast Walk Up. Walk-up and join the Podcast! Tell us about your latest work, sound-off on your favorite films and shows, play the pod’s signature games, and walk away with official swag. |
Moved to Surround Scape |
Be. Here. Now. Inside a Social Media & Ourselves Podcast, Pt 1: Diana Daly, Gabe Stultz, and Jacquie Kuru
Even when we’re live in person, we’re surrounded by streams of online checkins and selfies. What sounds, sights, and feels mean being here together, what are we willing to do to experience them, and how do their digital echoes transform them? Join the iVoices Student Media Lab as we learn, listen and produce a story-driven episode about the thrill and desperation of being “at” an event like SXSW. Part 2, 3p.m., Sunday. |
| Surround Stage | Reimagining Opera for the Future: The Andrée Expedition: Cynthia Stokes & Peter Torpey. A conversation with the producers of this 360° VR Opera prototype where an audience of one experiences the tragedy unfold from virtual pack ice. |
| Surround Stage | When Touch Is Out of Reach: Kory Floyd & Mary-Frances O'Connor. Social interaction and interpersonal affection are important human needs that have gone unfulfilled for many during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, we need to be intentional about how we meet our needs for connection and touch. |
| Surround Stage | Days of Drought and Flood: Jessica Tierney
Human emissions have driven the CO2 levels in our atmosphere higher than any time in the last two million years. We see the effects of climate change in our own backyards: drought, floods, more intense storms, and sea level rise. To get an idea of what the future holds, we can look to past climates on Earth to help us prepare for the future. |
Moved to Surround Scape |
Gourmet Insects: Goggy Davidowitz and Chef Janos Wilder By 2050, humans will experience a giant food gap, while nearly 30% of food produced in the US ends up in landfills. Two opportunities: demand for alternative protein sources and the need for a viable solution to food waste. Two solutions: protein-based ingredients like insect flour powered by food waste, and a new public perception of gourmet insects. Experiential culinary adventures can help! |
| Surround Stage |
Gathering Asteroid Dust: Dani DellaGiustina |
| Music Stage | Opening Band: Touchy. A two-piece pop group inspired by late 70s and early 80s electronic, disco, and pop – a one-way ticket to a transdimensional synth-based dreamworld of their own ongoing design. |
| Music Stage | Headliner: XIXA Experience the dark, psychedelic rock-cumbia groove of this quintessentially Sonoran Desert band – a blend of Tom Waits-style vocals and irresistible dance beats. |
| LOCATION | DISCUSSION / EXPERIENCE |
| Rooftop Stage | Authentic Voices Pt 1: A Conversation on Owning Your Voice and Claiming Space: Kendra Hyson & Kenneth J. Kokroko Join a participatory discussion to investigate how being your most authentic self can help to shift power dynamics, bring voice to the voiceless, and foster more inclusive approaches to community-based planning, design, and social justice. |
| Surround Stage | Creative Encounters in Awe Walking: Jennie Gubner & Sydney Streightiff Join us for an interactive deep dive into the awe walk mapping project. Recent research shows the affordable, accessible health benefits of awe walking. Learn about it, and how creative prompts, documentation, and sharing platforms can help you develop an awe-walking practice throughout your lifespan to promote healthy aging. If you came on a Friday awe walk with us, you just might find your photos here! |
| Rooftop Stage | Friday Night Movie Podcast Walk Up. Walk-up and join the Podcast! Tell us about your latest work, sound-off on your favorite films and shows, play the pod’s signature games, and walk away with official swag. |
| Rooftop Stage | Snap. Share. Save. How you and your smartphone can save plants and animals from extinction: Katy Prudic & Theresa Crimmins From casual backyard observers to serious outdoor adventurers, citizen or community scientists are shaping our understanding of the natural world and the regional impacts of climate change. Brought to you by the UArizona School of Natural Resources and the Environment. |
| Rooftop Stage | Personalized Nutrition and Wellness: Transforming Sick-Care to Well-Care: Floyd “Ski” Chilton
One-size-fits-all illness treatment is on the brink of being replaced by individualized prevention. Our genetic makeup can affect everything from our resistance to viral infections to our risk of developing chronic disease. Using targeted metabolic and data science methods, precision nutrition can help individuals across diverse communities achieve optimal health. |
| Surround Stage | Authentic Voices Pt 2: A Guided Challenge to Own Your Voice and Claim Space: Kendra Hyson & Kenneth J. Kokroko Through a guided design challenge, we investigate together how being your most authentic self can help to shift power dynamics, bring voice to the voiceless, and foster more inclusive approaches to community-based planning, design, and social justice. Session builds on the morning session, but is otherwise independent. We encourage attendance at both. |
| Surround Stage |
The Power of Representation in Preventing LGBTQ+ Youth Suicide: Chelsea Farrar & Russ Toomey Mapping Q is an arts-based suicide prevention program for LGBTQ+ youth in Arizona. Find insight and inspiration into how Mapping Q provides youth with the language, tools, and voice to overcome societal discrimination and stigma. The MQ research collaboration suggests the key ingredients to LGBTQ+ youth survival and thriving are access, being seen, representation, and having a voice. |
| Rooftop | Entrepreneurs Lounge sponsored by Hyliion. It's back! And it's by invitation only. Questions? Email MeatUp@RedVelvetEvents.com |
| Surround Stage | Thief Collector director, Allison Otto, and producer Caryn Capotosto, chat with Texas Tribune Editor-in-Chief Sewell Chan about the making of The Thief Collector. A behind-the-scenes look at this much anticipated documentary, premiering the next day at SXSW. |
| Music Stage | Opening Band: Touchy. A two-piece pop group inspired by late 70s and early 80s electronic, disco, and pop – a one-way ticket to a transdimensional synth-based dreamworld of their own ongoing design. |
| Music Stage | Headliner: XIXA Experience the dark, psychedelic rock-cumbia groove of this quintessentially Sonoran Desert band – a blend of Tom Waits-style vocals and irresistible dance beats. |
| LOCATION | DISCUSSION / EXPERIENCE |
| Rooftop Stage | The Futuristic Farms and Resilient Rooftops that are Saving Tomorrow: Kai Lepley & Kirk Dimond A conversation on southwestern resilience and the cutting edge of feeding and energizing our cities with only drops of water. Utilizing vertical, stackable functions and learning from the intelligent patterns of nature, humans can thrive in increasingly challenging environments. |
| Surround Stage | JEDI Aquanautics: Winslow Burleson How can we combine a lightweight, inexpensive underwater habitat with the sensing and processing power of a holodeck to bring Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion into the exploration of the oceans: the great unknown? |
|
Bar Lounge |
Friday Night Movie Podcast Walk Up. Walk-up and join the Podcast! Tell us about your latest work, sound-off on your favorite films and shows, play the pod’s signature games, and walk away with official swag. |
| Rooftop Stage | Touching the Stars Sensor Demonstration: Yuanyuan (Kay) He, Devin Bayly, Hayley Meier See and try motion sensors paired with thermal cameras through a series of interactive art modules as was used in StellarScape. |
|
Surround Stage |
StellarScape Premiere (2 p.m.) and Producer Q&A (3 p.m.): Kay He, Winslow Burleson and Chris Impey |
| Rooftop Stage | Be. Here. Now. Inside a Social Media & Ourselves Podcast, Pt 2: Diana Daly, Gabe Stultz, and Jacquie Kuru
Even when we’re live in person, we’re surrounded by streams of online checkins and selfies. What sounds, sights, and feels mean being here together, what are we willing to do to experience them, and how do their digital echoes transform them? Join the iVoices Student Media Lab as we learn, listen and produce a story-driven episode about the thrill and desperation of being “at” an event like SXSW. Part 1, 3p.m., Friday. |
| Rooftop Stage |
De-Stress Your Environment and Your Life: Esther Sternberg & Rocky Crocker |
| Rooftop Stage | Community-based Science for Justice and Action: Mónica Ramírez-Andreotta Participatory approaches to research can challenge and change inequity and mistrust in science, particularly when the effort reflects the diversity of publics and does not reinforce existing inequities in science, environmental decision-making, and society. These efforts are transforming investigations, and can make sustainable structural change. |
| Surround Stage | Worldbuilding: Christian Carl, 160over90 The best brands in the world aren’t brands at all. The best brands in the world are places. Join the brand team from 160over90 and learn how they approach building worlds through creative. |
| Rooftop | Entrepreneurs Lounge sponsored by Hyliion. It's back! And it's by invitation only. Questions? Email MeatUp@RedVelvetEvents.com |
| Surround Stage | The Changing Media Landscape: Brad Slater, Talent Agent/WME Join Brad Slater, Senior Talent Partner at WME and Arizona alumnus (Media Studies, ‘96), for an insider’s take on the unprecedented transformations reshaping the media and entertainment landscape. |
| Surround Stage | StellarScape ENCORE! It’s a story of a massive star, from its birth to its death, echoing the theme of darkness and light. It’s a story about us. We are stardust brought to life. StellarScape is an immersive multimedia piece synthesizing music, dance, science, visual art, and technology. The film is an interpretation of the live performance which fused kinesthetic and acoustic sensing with cosmic simulation, in real time. 48 min. |
| Music Stage | Opening Band: Touchy. A two-piece pop group inspired by late 70s and early 80s electronic, disco, and pop – a one-way ticket to a transdimensional synth-based dreamworld of their own ongoing design. |
| Music Stage | Headliner: XIXA Experience the dark, psychedelic rock-cumbia groove of this quintessentially Sonoran Desert band – a blend of Tom Waits-style vocals and irresistible dance beats. |
| DATE | DISCUSSION |
| March 12, 2022 | I Quit My Job to Save Local Journalism Panel discussion with Irene McKisson, former University of Arizona adjunct professor of editing and co-founder of #ThisIsTucson |
| March 12, 2022 | Forget Mascots. The Native Representation TV Needs Panel discussion with University of Arizona alumna Sierra Teller Ornelas, Showrunner, Exec Producer, Co-Creator Rutherford Falls at Peacock |
| March 13, 2022 | Smashing Into Asteroids: NASA's DART Mission Panel discussion with University of Arizona PhD alumnus and Research Astronomer/DART Investigation Team Lead at Johns Hopkins APL, Andy Rivkin |
| March 14, 2022 | Ecocide Law: How 200 Words Might Save the Planet Panel discussion with Rebecca Tsosie, Regents Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Chair, Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona |
