Pushkin House presents a new edition of Seven of Clubs – an interdisciplinary event series on the cross-section of arts, sciences, society and entrepreneurship.
The unique format of this info-tainment salon will allow guests to hear speakers candidly share insights into their area of passion and expertise within the intimate setting of Pushkin House.
The event series aims to ignite curiosity, forge collaborations and celebrate strangeness. Bringing people together over in-depth stories of hard work, artistic expression and intellectual curiosity will provide a friendly forum for inspiration, discovery and human connection.
Seven of Clubs has been hosted quarterly by Zima Bar in Soho. Since its launch in 2015, it has brought together over 80 speakers including poets, cyborgs, sperm scientists, digital artists, archaeological choreographers, speculative designers, copyright lawyers, librarians and many more.
Kate Nikitina is a former journalist and editor who is shifting her career towards sustainability. Working full-time in the non-profit climate organisation, in her free time she has created a community for sustainability professionals and enthusiasts called 1.5ºC DAO. A Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) is an emerging form of an organisation with no central governing body, where the key decisions must be approved through voting. 1.5ºC DAO is a selected form of DAO which allows all the members to jointly control a cryptocurrency wallet to pursue common goals. At this talk, Kate will briefly describe the landscape of existing climate-related DAOs and focus on the opportunities and challenges such organisational structures bring.
Connecting and enabling cross-disciplinary collaborations and insight, Katherine Templar-Lewis is an interdisciplinary mind, an experienced knowledge broker and reality hacker. With an extensive academic background in genetics, experimental psychology and neuroscience, she now sits at the intersection of technology, science and culture. Her passion is translating cutting-edge science insight into creative intelligence, accelerating it out of labs and into the real world through artistic and creative collaborations that help us better understand ourselves and our world, drive connection and inspire change.
Kira Zhigalina is an award-winning artist turned entrepreneur. Her artistic intention has been to create expanding and emotionally connecting experiences which are also aesthetically pleasing, through participation and interactivity. Inspired by a personal experience with breathwork, this intention manifested in her project Symbiosis, an interactive art installation that visualises breathing in light, using custom-developed sensors and software. Since 2015 the project has travelled to many UK light and music festivals and exhibitions and European Burning Man events. Seeing the positive calming effect of the experience on the audience and its potential to have a wider impact, a compact version of the experience was developed as a unique wellbeing product offering, Sym, due to launch this year (www.deepsym.com).
Wenmiao Yu is the co-founder and Director of Business Development at Quantum Dice, where she focuses on translating scientific innovation into marketable products and start-up fundraising. She strongly believes in the power of communities, crucial to growing nascent industries such as quantum technologies. Wenmiao brought Quantum Dice into the Royal Academy of Engineering’s network of high-growth technology companies after being selected for the Shott Scale Up Accelerator in 2022. She is currently the Secretary for the Institute of Physics Quantum-Business Innovation and Growth group. There Wenmiao also leads the sub-group to deliver on qBIG’s “voice into government” objective. As a proactive EDI advocate, Wenmiao regularly mentors students through the Oxford Women in Business Society. As part of her New Voices in Space, Space Scotland committee work, she leads the initiative to bring AmbaSat satellite courses to schools in underprivileged areas of the UK. In 2023, the UK Young Academy selected Wenmiao for its first cohort of members to shape its strategy in order to target some of society’s biggest challenges.