Lawrence Lek is an artist, filmmaker, and musician working in the fields of virtual reality and simulation. Over the last decade, employing architecture, game technology, cinema and electronic music, Lek has built the iconic Sinofuturist universe, a series of CGI films, video games, and soundtracks exploring an alternative world set in the future, advanced by virtual reality and Artificial Intelligence.

Lek lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include NOX, LAS Art Foundation, Berlin 2023 and Black Cloud Highway, Sadie Coles HQ, London 2023. Recent screenings include the film Theta, St Moritz Art Film Festival. St Moritz, Switzerland for which Lek was awarded Best Film for 2023 and Geomancer and AIDOL, Cantopop Icons, Metrograph, New York. Lek earned his Master of Architecture, Cooper Union, New York in 2012 and his PhD, Royal College of Art, London in 2022.

Chris Choa is an architect and urban strategist. Founder and Director of OUTCOMIST, Choa describes himself as a “psychotherapist for cities.” His prize-winning master plans anticipate future social and economic trends to create comparative advantages for cities worldwide. Choa’s strategies are based on ‘Theory of Change’; they define long term virtues and then work backwards to identify measurable outcomes and actions.

Choa is an active board member and committee member for organisations related to real-estate, urban mobility, energy, digital arts and education. Previously, he led AECOM’s Cities Consulting practice and was an appointed advisor to the Mayor of London.

Established in 2014 by patron and collector, Sarah Elson, Launch Pad is a privately funded non-profit art platform based in London. Initially focused on commissioning site specific works for Elson’s private residence, the programme has since expanded to host commissions in New York and Shanghai. In addition to Launch Pad, Elson has established an International Artist Residency at Princeton University where she serves on the Advisory Council of the museum, and a fellowship for UK-based craft artists at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, where she served on the board.

In 2017, Launch Pad LaB, an artists’ residency program, was established in Charente, France, with fellow patron and collector, Veronique Parke. In 2020, Launch Pad initiated a Conversation series bringing together artists and practitioners from different disciplines with mutual interests and intersecting lines of enquiry.