On January 5th, the Rhode Island School of Design will be kicking off their inaugural Presidential Speaker Series "Shared Voices" with a presentation from Juan Enriquez, who researches the impact of genomics on society. His talk "Decoding with Life Code" will explore the newest innovations in digital fabrication: building with genes.

Some principles of design are timeless, but a new language, that of digital code, has fundamentally changed how we make, spread, use drawings, paintings, sculpture, music, photos, video, and film. Now a vast new programming language is becoming increasingly available and widespread, that of life. We can now read, copy and re code life, and this too will fundamentally change how we think of, and how we execute, design...

The rest of the "Shared Voices" line-up currently includes Lisa Randall, a particle physicist at Harvard and an advocate for the "art-science connection in our lives," and Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired magazine. Each of the speakers are "a master of his or her domain but is also ready to transcend it." Group discussions will take place after the lectures.

Juan Enriquez's talk is at 7:30pm on Thursday, January 5th in the RISD auditorium, so be sure to reserve your seats here!