George Bairaktaris

Partner, Tubatomic, LLC

George Bairaktaris specializes in business development and strategy at Tubatomic, an interactive creative agency that focuses on innovational ideas. His background studies in technology and psychology play a key role in the success of Tubatomic.  He also served as a partner in the cre824 group, which organized a 24-hour International Webdesign Festival featuring a series of seminars presented by cutting-edge interactive designers. His other interests include the psychology of art, specifically in relation to the work of Lev Vygotsky, the study of form versus function, and the concept of new media as art rather than communication.

Heather Palmer, PhD

Heather Palmer specializes in Ancient and Modern Rhetorical History and Theory, gender studies, and critical theory, specifically in popular culture. Her most recent work has been published in Pedagogy and Modern Language Studies. She teaches classes on rhetorics of postmodernism, embodiment, queer theory, and propaganda. Currently, she is working on a project about the function of parrhesia, or free speech, in the history of women’s rhetorics from the Delphic Oracles to the Second Sophistic. Her other interests include the arts of improvisation as a model for global ethical communication, and she has been invited to speak on this topic at several high profile music festivals, most recently the “Big Ears” festival, featuring Phillip Glass.

Mark Wood, MFA

Mark Wood received his Master of Fine Art Degree from Yale University in 1987. He has previously been an instructor at Western Carolina University and the University of Tennessee and is currently an associate professor of art at Chattanooga State Technical Community College. His current body of work is a topographical investigation of Southeast Tennessee, in which he examines the connection between symbol and narrative in an attempt to connect the viewer with interior and exterior worlds.