Jessica Helfand

Jessica Helfand|The Icarus Diaries

01: Facing Icarus

I am working on a series of paintings about Icarus, beginning, as I always do, by making sketches and combining them in AI with specific texts—in this case, from Ovid—who famously wrote about Icarus in book eight of his fifteen-volume …

Jessica Helfand|The Icarus Diaries

02: The Backstory

Classically, Icarus is shown as a fallen angel, muscled body in freefall. The focus is on his flight, not his face. But who was he, really? 

Jessica Helfand|The Icarus Diaries

03: Born to Fly

I imagine Icarus as a child, dreaming of adventure. A double portrait of a boy and a bird. A moment of stillness, calm before storm.

Jessica Helfand|The Icarus Diaries

04: Shadow Box

Flare up like a flame, wrote Rilke,and make big shadows I can move in.

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Véronique Vienne : A Remembrance

Ellen McGirt|Audio

S11E10: Activism in AI with Google’s Ovetta Sampson

Jessica Helfand|Audio

S11E9: What’s Love Got to do with Business with Jorge Fontanez

Ellen McGirt|Audio

S11E8: Poetry is Anti Capitalist with Tracy K. Smith

In this episode of DB|BD, hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt sit down with Smith to talk through the writing process of two of her most recent works.

Jessica Helfand|Audio

S11E7: Using Design to Show the World Your Truth with Dionna Dorsey and Production Designer Olivia Peebles

This episode of DB|BD features two extraordinary women from two seemingly different corners of the design world, Dionna Dorsey and Olivia Peebles.

Ellen McGirt|Audio

S11E6: Why an Inclusive Global Economy is a Redesign Project with Mastercard’s Shamina Singh

In this episode of DB|BD, Shamina Singh, the co-founder and president of Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth, explains why extreme poverty is the ultimate redesign challenge.

Ellen McGirt|Audio

S11E5: WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on Talent, Activism, and the Business of Basketball

In this episode of DB|BD, Cathy Engelbert talks about the meteoric ascension of the WNBA and the unusual mix of talent, activism, fans, and business that make it a league like no other.

Ellen McGirt|Audio

S11E4: Richard Buery and Robin Hood Are Building a Coalition to Tackle Poverty in NYC

In this episode of DB|BD, Robin Hood CEO Richard Beury explains what is driving the uptick in poverty in New York City, how effective partnerships are built, and why he’s betting that AI will become an unexpectedly powerful …