David J. Staley

Incanter and Senior Magus

Neal Stephenson is an author of historical and science fiction, a technology consultant, a video game designer and the principal provocateur behind Hieroglyph. Answering Arizona State University president Michael Crow’s challenge to create alternatives to the dystopian visions that pervade our stories about the future, Neal is helping us pioneer new methods of radical collaboration between the storytellers who dream our future and the scientists and engineers that build it.

What is an Incanter, you ask? Learn more here.  

 David J. Staley is an Associate Professor of History, with courtesy appointments in the Department of Design and the Department of Educational Studies at The Ohio State University.  He is the author of Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education,

Aleks Romano is a human-centered designer, eternal reimaginer, and incurable bookworm. Embodying the literary tradition of Octavia E. Butler and Ursula K. LeGuin, Aleks creates experiential learning workshops that challenge

“If you want to double your success rate, triple your failure rate.”

Vandana Singh was born and raised in India and currently lives in the Boston area, where she is a professor of physics at Framingham State University, and a science fiction writer. Although her Ph.D. is in particle physics, in recent years she has […]

“Very few people ever bother to find out what other people really think. They are willing to accept whatever they are told about anyone sufficiently distant.”

Daniel is an assistant professor of Digital Media in Performance at The University of Iowa. He has a co-appointment in Dance and is a core faculty member of the Public Digital Arts Cluster.

Boyd Branch, MFA is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Film, Dance and Theatre in ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, where he teaches in the Interdisciplinary

Jonathon Keats is a San Francisco-based experimental philosopher who has, over the years, sold real estate in the extra dimensions of space-time proposed by string theory (he sold a hundred and

Megan Halpern is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University in the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science at Lyman Briggs and in the Residential College of Arts and Humanities.

Hannah Star Rogers is an Art and Science Studies scholar, curator, and poet. She received her Ph.D. at Cornell University in Science & Technology Studies, where her research concerned the

Erin Walker is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems at Arizona State University. Her research uses interdisciplinary methods to improve the design and implementation

Gregg Pascal Zachary tries to understand, document and represent technological change and imaginations about the future through a multi-dimensional lens. The first dimension involves reportage and storytelling about technoscientific complexity,

Phil Weaver-Stoesz is the Director of Catalyst Creative, a development company that specializes in science communication and impact. Phil works as a creator and facilitator: crafting immersive experiences, designing alternate

Dehlia Hannah, Ph.D. is a a curator and Visiting Assistant Professor of Art-Science Collaboration in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University and a

Manjana Milkoreit is as an Assistant Professor at Purdue University in the Department of Political Science. Dr. Milkoreit’s research integrates international relations scholarship and cognitive theory to study actor motivations and policy design

A word after a word after a word is power.

Fiction is optimistic or unrealistic enough to demand that there should be a meaningful narrative.

“Don’t become a well-rounded person. Well-rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a pufferfish.”

“Trick suffering into becoming creativity – that’s magic.” &nbsp &nbsp

“The truth is a stranger…Not always welcome by daylight.”

“See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places.”

Journalism Disruptor

Gregg Pascal Zachary tries to understand, document and represent technological change and imaginations about the future through a multi-dimensional lens. The first dimension involves reportage and storytelling about technoscientific complexity, presented in vernacular language.

Digital Textbook Whisperer

Erin Walker is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems at Arizona State University. Her research uses interdisciplinary methods to improve the design and implementation of educational technology, and then to understand when and why it is effective. She is particularly interested in the intersection between personalized learning environments, cutting-edge interaction methods, and large-scale deployments of technology.

Daniel Fine tells stories by manipulating moving images, puppets, text, actors, inanimate objects, and interactive technology. By combining his life-long passion and more than two decades of experience in the art and business of making video, theatre, music, and fine art installation, Dan aspires to create original works that are multidisciplinary and technologically inventive.

Boyd Branch is Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Film, Dance, and Theatre. He has an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Digital Media from Arizona State University and an M.A. in Theatre Studies from the University of Utrecht, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

Visionary in Residence, Spring 2013

Bruce Sterling, author, journalist, editor, and critic, was born in 1954. Best known for his ten science fiction novels, he also writes short stories, book reviews, design criticism, opinion columns, and introductions for books ranging from Ernst Juenger to Jules Verne.

Brainstorm Chaser

Corey is an anthropologist, strategist, magical thinker, and founder of Exprima Media. Exprima is a strategy and design company based in Portland, Oregon that partners with clients to envision, design, and strategize compelling and effective experiences. Corey regularly writes about and delivers presentations on a variety of topics including emerging digital media and interaction design.

Edutainment Wizard and Creative Conjurer

Don Marinelli, Ph.D., is the co-founder of the Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), together with the late Randy Pausch of “The Last Lecture ” fame. Dr. Marinelli’s book, “The Comet and the Tornado” recounts the coming together of a drama professor and a computer scientist to create the unique educational vision that is the ETC.

Editor Extraordinaire

Kathryn Cramer lives in Westport, NY. She is an editor of the Hieroglyph project, inspired by Neal Stephenson and sponsored by the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. Her story, “Am I Free to Go?” was published by Tor.com in December 2012.