Jon McKenzie

Jon McKenzie is Professor of Practice and Director of StudioLab, a critical design and media lab at Cornell University that connects researchers, designers, and organizations working in human rights, public health, and social and environmental justice. StudioLab teams collaborate on strategic storytelling through transmedia knowledge, using performance design thinking as a human-centered, iterative process of stakeholder alignment and shared dreaming. Jon is the author of Transmedia Knowledge for Liberal Arts and Community Engagement: A StudioLab Manifesto (2019) and Perform or Else: From Discipline to Performance (2001), and he holds degrees in Fine Arts, English, and Performance Studies and has also worked as a writer and UX designer in NYC. He is founder and former director of DesignLab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and co-founder of the performance group McKenzie Stojnić. In addition to workshops and consulting, Jon produces experimental videos, lecture performances, and other media. His work and that of StudioLab can be found at labster8.net.