An undefined organism
Yuning Chen is a practice-based PhD researcher and a biodesigner working at the intersection of multispecies ethics and biotechnology. Her research primarily focuses on the notion of care-fullness in the context of biodesign through the lens of multispecies epistemology, ethics and sociality. She mainly uses sci-art, design fiction and critical design as creative methods to provoke discourse on more-than-human labour, co-authorships and welfare.
Education
PhD Researcher (Multispecies care in biodesign)
Design Informatics
University of Edinburgh
Innovation Design Engineering
Royal College of Art, MA
Imperial College London, MSc
Environmental Science
South China University of Technology, BSc
Industrial Design/Minor
South China University of Technology
Conference/Workshop
Co-organiser/Workshop presenter, The Third International Symposium of Design for Temporal Ecologies
Temporal Origami
Speaker/Panel Moderator, BIOCENE 2022, Ohio Aerospace Institute
Materials of the future and the Future of biomimetic materials
Speaker/Panellist, Ecological Commons, Waag Society, Dutch Design Week 2022
Speaker/Panellist, WEVE 2022, London Design Festival 2022
Workshop presenter, DRS (Design Research Society) 2022, Bilbao, Spain
Consequence scanning for responsible research in biodesign
Panelist, Green 2021, Biomimicry Weekend, Granada, Spain
Workshop presenter, Global Biosummit 5.0, 2021, MIT, USA
Multispecies worlding workshop
Workshop presenter, IASDR 2021 (International Association of Societies of Design Research)
Design and Science Cards for biodesign
Publication
Chen and Pschetz. 2024. Microbial Revolt: Redefining biolab tools and practices for more-than-human care ecologies. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 707, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641981
Gizem Oktay, Yuta Ikeya, Minha Lee, Bahareh Barati, Youngsil Lee, Yuning Chen, Larissa Pschetz, and Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa. 2023. Designing with the more-than-human: Temporalities of thinking with care. In Companion Publication of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '23 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 104–106. https://doi.org/10.1145/3563703.3591462
Valk S, Chen Y, Nguyen M, et al., Ideation and Consequence Scanning Beyond Human Perspectives in Biodesign, Design Research Society 2022
MacCowan, R., Chen, Y., Nadathur, S. (2021) The state of Nature Inspired Innovation in the UK, 2021, Biomimicry Innovation Lab
Awards/Recognition
Finalist, Scientific Breakthrough of the Year, Science and Art Category, The Falling Walls Science Festival, 2022, Berlin, Germany
Honourary Mentions, ST+ARTS Prize, 2021, European Commission
Futures Award Long List, Lumen Prize, 2021
Runner Up, KI Award, 2020
Bronze Prize Winner, China Internet+ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition 2020
First Place Team Winner, ClimaTH.0n 2020
Selected Exhibition
Sustainable China, London Design Festival 2022, London, UK
ST+ARTS Festival 2021, Bozar Lab, Centre For Fine Arts, Brussels
York Design Week 2021, York, UK
We Will Design, Milan Design Week 2021
Design in an Age of Crisis - London Design Biennale 2021
Elastic Arctic
Dutch Design Week, 2020
Project Habitate
Elastic Arctic
Imperial College London/Royal College of Art
Work in Progress Show/Feb 2019
Project Habitate
Imperial College Summer Show /Jul 2019
Mobius