Semi Permanent, the biggest and longest-running festival of creativity and design in the southern hemisphere, is set to return to Sydney in 2023.
The 21st edition of the festival will bring together the creative industries across APAC for three days of invigorating keynote talks, panel discussions, workshops, exhibitions, demonstrations, installations, and more. Semi Permanent provides an opportunity for attendees to level up their skillset whilst expanding their understanding of an ever-evolving creative landscape.
Semi Permanent’s theme for 2023 is ‘Reformation’, which explores the idea of reforming the seemingly immutable practices of the past and redesigning the world to create a shape we would like to see. Mitchell Oakley Smith, Semi Permanent’s global creative director, said: “We thought the world would seek to build itself back as it was, but it’s increasingly clear that our collective future cannot…look anything like its past.”
Semi Permanent 2023 boasts a dynamic lineup of leading creative innovators from around the world. With them comes swathes of experience across a wide range of disciplines including graphic, product, spatial and motion design. The programme also covers filmmaking, photography, illustration, publishing, writing, advertising, animation, Web3, and visual data. Not afraid to shy away from the most pressing issues facing creatives today, the programme will explore futurism, feminism, First Nations culture, diversity, and more.
The festival’s speaker lineup includes Irish writer, academic and disability activist Sinéad Burke, who founded Tilting The Lens, a consultancy specialising in accessible design solutions. Burke supports clients – including Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Netflix, and Pinterest – in moving from awareness to action, designing for a world that is more accessible and equitable for everyone.
Also speaking at Semi Permanent 2023 is Liam Young, a film director, architect, and founder of the urban futures think tank Tomorrows Thoughts Today. His work explores the increasingly blurred boundaries among film, design, and world-building, with the goal of prototyping and imagining the future of the city.
Mona Chalabi, a data journalist, writer, artist, and producer, will also take the stage. She rehumanizes data to better help us understand our world and the way we live in it, using words, colour, and sound. Her writing and illustrations have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian, where she is currently the data editor.
Bijan Berahimi, an Iranian-American designer and founder of FISK, a studio and gallery in Portland, Oregon, will also be a speaker. FISK has become an ongoing project based around culture, community, and commerce through the lens of art and design, championing a wide range of ethnicities, voices, and backgrounds. Berahimi has collaborated with Nike, Toro y Moi, Harvard, Boiler Room, and was the first designer-in-residence at Facebook HQ.
Other speakers include Megha Kapoor, Head of Editorial Content at Vogue India; Filipe Carvalho, film and TV designer and director from Lisbon; Mikaela Jade, founder of Indigital, a Canberra-based company which uses technology
Semi Permanent will take place at the arts precinct Carriageworks from 31st May through 2nd June 2023.
