Videorecording

Cuban-born artist María Elena González, is an internationally recognized sculptor based in San Francisco, CA and New York City. González interweaves the conceptual with a strong dedication to craft in her complex installations and poetic arrangements, exploring themes like identity, memory, and dislocation. Over a career spanning thirty years she has received numerous awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2006), the Prix de Rome from The American Academy in Rome (2003), and more recently, Grand Prize at the 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts at Ljubljana, Slovenia (2013). Her work is found in numerous public collections including the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland; Museum voor Modern Kunst, Arnhem, The Netherlands; Museum of Art, The Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; The Museum of Arts and Design, New York; and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. She received widespread acclaim for her site-specific sculpture "Magic Carpet/Home," commissioned by the Public Art Fund in 1999, and another site specific work titled "You and Me" (2010), commissioned by Storm King Art Center.

As the world increasingly seeks environmentally friendly solutions to more complex problems, Jay Harman's biomimetic message gains more and more attention. Described as a "visionary" and "futurist" by the Science Channel, Harman's expertise couldn't be more timely. An award-winning entrepreneur and biomimetic inventor, Harman has taken a hands-on approach to his lifelong fascination with the deep patterns found in nature. In the process, he has founded and grown multi-million dollar research and manufacturing companies that develop, patent, and license innovative products, ranging from prize-winning watercraft to interlocking building bricks, afterburners for aircraft engines, and non-invasive technology for measuring blood glucose and other electrolytes. He is credited with being among the first pioneering scientists to make biomimicry—the science of employing nature in advancing sustainable technology—a cornerstone of modern and future engineering. His latest ventures design more efficient industrial equipment including refrigeration, turbines, fans, mixers, and pumps based on Harman's revolutionary concepts. To say he can't sit for very long in one place is putting it mildly. Aside from his entrepreneurial exploits, Harman started a boarding school to teach kids about the environment in Australia, became a champion skin diver, sailed his own yacht 27,000 miles on the Indian Ocean, restored the sister ship to Jacques Cousteau's Calypso—and made it his mission to bring the subject of biomimicry to the public. Born and raised in Australia, Harman started his career as a naturalist with the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, but quickly demonstrated talents as an inventor. In 1982, he founded ERG, Ltd, which grew into one of Australia's largest technology firms with a capital value as high as $3 billion. Since then, he has been at the helm of numerous companies recognized as global leaders in their respective fields. The culmination of his work is the development of "Nature's Streamlining Principle," a guideline for translating nature's extraordinary efficiencies into industrial applications. His goal—both as an author and an entrepreneur—is to show industry that improving the efficiency of industrial equipment is beneficial for both the bottom line and the planet.