Design Drinks + Talks 

With presentations by

Sarah Brownsberger + Rhys Faler + Nathan Matsushima

Design Drinks + Talks takes place every other month at Localgroup Studio with short presentations by local designers, artists, architects, cartographers, programmers, writers, curators, and others engaged with and interested in design questions and problems. Presenters may share past work, explore design as a conceptual or practical concern, or pose a speculative question or idea. With each event, drinks and food will be served.

Bios

Poised for an academic literary career, Sarah Brownsberger took a sharp turn by crossing the Atlantic to Iceland where she studied its literary culture under rapid modernization, specifically looking at the transition from oral-poetic traditions to print. After living and studying in Iceland, she began graduate work at Harvard to learn more about her own socio-economic context. She has since pursued a life of art that mirrors small-farming: labor-intensive, community-oriented, laced with plenty of nourishing shift-work, less aimed at high-yield than at maximally-flavorful, sustainable produce. Sarah’s poems have appeared in The Hudson Review, Field, OnEarth, Poetry East, Alaska Quarterly, Salamander, and other publications. Her research has been published in The Cambridge Quarterly and her essays have been published in Morgunblaðið, Iceland’s largest daily, and other venues. She has also been active as a translator of Icelandic and English, translating many books, art-critical essays, and excerpts by distinguished Icelandic authors for the UNESCO Reykjavik Literary City. She has recently completed her second novel and hopes to publish both novels “soon.”

The world’s urban population is growing quickly and unfortunately the way that we currently build cities is unhealthy for both the people that live in them as well as our planet. To address this problem, Rhys Faler founded the Arcology Institute in 2016 and has been steadily growing the firm ever since. He draws on years of experience as an entrepreneur, urban planner, and systems thinker to bring a fresh perspective to the built environment. In addition to his work with the Arcology Institute, Rhys is the driving force behind Bellingham Entrepreneurs, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering and growing the early-stage entrepreneurial community in the Bellingham area.

Nathan Matsushima was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii as a "Hapa". He left the Hawaiian islands in 2002 to attend the University of California, Davis where he graduated with a B.S. in Community and Regional Development. He has since worked as a consultant for tech companies in Silicon Valley, and currently works for an Australia-based tech company that creates project management, collaboration, and team focused solutions. Nathan has made many discoveries through his travels and taking photographs. This past summer he embarked on a 3-month road trip camping out of his vehicle with his wife and dog, visiting National Parks and documenting their experiences. To him, photography is an intimate experience in documenting and interpreting moments, experiences, places, people, and things. It brings together community, has its own creative process, and can vividly color the human condition.