2023 KDI Burst: Empathy at Scale | Opening Dialogue

Eames Institute Chief Curator Llisa Demetrios, Eames Institute Executive Director John Cary, and National Humanities Medalist and bestselling author Krista Tippett were featured speakers for the opening dialogue of the 2023 KDI Burst: “Empathy at Scale” on March 23.
Each spring, the KDI Burst encourages radically participatory engagement with diverse creative perspectives, through a colloquium and workshop featuring guest designers. In 2023, drawing inspiration from the methodologies of Charles and Ray Eames and the ongoing work of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, KDI Burst focused on the theme “Empathy at Scale” to explore relating, connecting, and mutual understanding as essential capabilities of designers and designing.
In this series-opening dialogue, journalist Krista Tippett and Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity principals Llisa Demetrios and John Cary considered empathic principles at every scale of human experience and beyond.
About the Kusske Design Initiative
A generous commitment from Manitou Fund to the University of Minnesota’s College of Design honors the memory of distinguished alumnus Christopher Arthur Kusske (BLA ’78). The Kusske Design Initiative (KDI) reflects his legacy through widely inclusive events and collaborations among a growing design community. Chris’s emphases on interdisciplinary dialogue, co-creativity, and celebration of the natural world inspire timely solutions. KDI programs and inquiries have transformative potential for the products we use, the environments we inhabit, and the systems we tend.