The MAC, in partnership with Design Society, will host a panel discussion as part of the current exhibition, "On the Surface." Panelists include Saba Besier, artist and interactive media designer; Sara Cardona, artist and theater administrator; Isaac Cohen, landscape architect and urban space planner; and Lesli Robertson, interdisciplinary textile artist; and is co-moderated by Kate Aoki, architect and Consuelo Gutierrez, curator, arts administrator, and UX design consultant.

The panel will discuss how artists and designers focus on materials and process, particularly when working on cultural mapping projects. According to exhibition curator Consuelo Gutierrez, On the Surface focuses on the ways the featured artists' works survey various cultural artifacts, creating pieces of a cultural map that ranges across different identities and spaces. Although the artists come from different backgrounds, they share common themes and approaches to their work, reacting to the world around them to dig deeper into their own sense of self and place.