Lorenzo Andolfatto
Lorenzo Andolfatto received his PhD in Asian and Transcultural Studies from a joint-degree program between the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the Jean Moulin Lyon-3 University of Lyon, in 2015. After one year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and three more at the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” at Heidelberg University, he joined the Human Geography Research Unit at the University of Fribourg’s Department of Geosciences as a senior researcher, within the framework of the research project “The Cultural Logistics of Chinese SF”. His research interests include early-modern and contemporary Chinese literature, comparative literature, and translation, with a focus on utopian writing, science fiction, and speculative/literary geographies. He is the author of Hundred Days' Literature: Chinese Utopian Fiction at the End of Empire, 1902-1910 (Leiden: Brill, 2019). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Lorenzo Andolfatto received his PhD in Asian and Transcultural Studies from a joint-degree program between the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the Jean Moulin Lyon-3 University of Lyon, in 2015. After one year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and three more at the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” at Heidelberg University, he joined the Human Geography Research Unit at the University of Fribourg’s Department of Geosciences as a senior researcher, within the framework of the research project “The Cultural Logistics of Chinese SF”. His research interests include early-modern and contemporary Chinese literature, comparative literature, and translation, with a focus on utopian writing, science fiction, and speculative/literary geographies. He is the author of Hundred Days' Literature: Chinese Utopian Fiction at the End of Empire, 1902-1910 (Leiden: Brill, 2019). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Nitin Bathla
Nitin Bathla is a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich, where he works as part of the transdisciplinary project on agri-urbanisms, at the Chair of Sociology. He also coordinates the Doctoral Programme at the Institute of Landscape and Urban Studies at the Department. In his research practice, he actively combines academic research with artistic practices of filmmaking, and socially-engaged art. Bathlas 2020 film Not Just Roads with Klearjos E. Papanicolaou premiered at several important film festivals across the world and was the recipient of the Society of Architecture Historians Award for Film and Video, 2022. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal - Becoming a Tiger: Entangled Migrations, Surveillance, and Performing the Zoonosis of the Asian Tiger Mosquito
Nitin Bathla is a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich, where he works as part of the transdisciplinary project on agri-urbanisms, at the Chair of Sociology. He also coordinates the Doctoral Programme at the Institute of Landscape and Urban Studies at the Department. In his research practice, he actively combines academic research with artistic practices of filmmaking, and socially-engaged art. Bathlas 2020 film Not Just Roads with Klearjos E. Papanicolaou premiered at several important film festivals across the world and was the recipient of the Society of Architecture Historians Award for Film and Video, 2022. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal - Becoming a Tiger: Entangled Migrations, Surveillance, and Performing the Zoonosis of the Asian Tiger Mosquito
Joost de Bloois
Joost de Bloois is a philosopher and assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam, departments of Cultural Analysis and Comparative Literature. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Unruly Grüningen
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Joost de Bloois is a philosopher and assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam, departments of Cultural Analysis and Comparative Literature. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Unruly Grüningen
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Anna Elsner
Anna Elsner is Associate Professor of French Studies and Medical Humanities at the University of St. Gallen and an Associate Member of the Centre for Humanities and Health at King’s College London. She currently leads an ERC-project on the ethics, laws and aesthetics of assisted dying. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
Anna Elsner is Associate Professor of French Studies and Medical Humanities at the University of St. Gallen and an Associate Member of the Centre for Humanities and Health at King’s College London. She currently leads an ERC-project on the ethics, laws and aesthetics of assisted dying. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
Rony Emmenegger
Rony Emmenegger is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Department of Geoscience, University of Fribourg; and a research collaborator at the School of Social Science and Humanities, University of St. Gallen. Trained as a political geographer, he has a vivid interest in the governance of human-environment relations, landscapes and infrastructures above and below ground. In his ongoing research, he works on the politics of nuclear waste disposal in Switzerland and leads the SNF Project titled Nuclear Strata: The Political Geology of Nuclear Waste Governance (2024-2028). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Journal – The Miner and the Neon Fish: Decolonizing Alpine Ecologies
︎︎︎ Event – The Nuclear Spike
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Ordered Hybrid Ecologies: Unearthing Sedimented Histories in the Arboretum
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Rony Emmenegger is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Department of Geoscience, University of Fribourg; and a research collaborator at the School of Social Science and Humanities, University of St. Gallen. Trained as a political geographer, he has a vivid interest in the governance of human-environment relations, landscapes and infrastructures above and below ground. In his ongoing research, he works on the politics of nuclear waste disposal in Switzerland and leads the SNF Project titled Nuclear Strata: The Political Geology of Nuclear Waste Governance (2024-2028). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Journal – The Miner and the Neon Fish: Decolonizing Alpine Ecologies
︎︎︎ Event – The Nuclear Spike
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Ordered Hybrid Ecologies: Unearthing Sedimented Histories in the Arboretum
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Chiara Famegno
Chiara Famengo is a curator and researcher, based in Venice and London, working at the intersection of art and ecology. Chiara is the curator of the 2023 Venice Design Biennial public programme; creative producer at the Art Council England Programme, Three Rivers; ecology researcher at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, Phytology; and collaborator with the artist Sonia Levy. Chiara holds an MA at the Royal College of Art. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Chiara Famengo is a curator and researcher, based in Venice and London, working at the intersection of art and ecology. Chiara is the curator of the 2023 Venice Design Biennial public programme; creative producer at the Art Council England Programme, Three Rivers; ecology researcher at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, Phytology; and collaborator with the artist Sonia Levy. Chiara holds an MA at the Royal College of Art. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Daniel Finch-Race
Daniel Finch-Race works on French and Italian representations of environmental change since the mid-1800s. Most recently, he has been focussing on physical and emotional geographies of air pollution to do with the Industrial Revolution. Daniels solo publications include journal issues on ‘Poetics of Place’ and ‘Environmental Humanities’. He got to co-edit French Ecocriticism, as well as journal issues on ‘Ecopoetics’ and ‘Ecoregions’ and co-conceived a Knowledge Frontiers project on ‘Grounding Value in the Anthropocene’ under the auspices of the British Academy and the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
Daniel Finch-Race works on French and Italian representations of environmental change since the mid-1800s. Most recently, he has been focussing on physical and emotional geographies of air pollution to do with the Industrial Revolution. Daniels solo publications include journal issues on ‘Poetics of Place’ and ‘Environmental Humanities’. He got to co-edit French Ecocriticism, as well as journal issues on ‘Ecopoetics’ and ‘Ecoregions’ and co-conceived a Knowledge Frontiers project on ‘Grounding Value in the Anthropocene’ under the auspices of the British Academy and the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
Dario Gentili
Dario Gentili is an associate professor in Moral Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Communication and Performing Arts, University of Roma Tre. He has a PhD in Ethics and Political-Legal Philosophy from the University of Salerno. He did his postdoctoral research in Philosophy and the History of Ideas at the Sum (Italian Institute of Human Sciences), Florence, and received a DAAD post doctorate grant to work at the Walter Benjamin Archive in Berlin. He became a Research Fellow at the Sum (Italian Institute of Human Sciences) and in Autumn 2014 he was Visiting Researcher at Heinrich-Heine-University of Düsseldorf. He is Co-Director of the Master “Environmental Humanities – Studi dell’Ambiente e del Territorio”; he is co-coordinator of the Laboratory “CoPhIt: Contemporary Philosophy in Italy” (Roma Tre University). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal - Becoming Wild:
Processes of Renaturalization
Dario Gentili is an associate professor in Moral Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Communication and Performing Arts, University of Roma Tre. He has a PhD in Ethics and Political-Legal Philosophy from the University of Salerno. He did his postdoctoral research in Philosophy and the History of Ideas at the Sum (Italian Institute of Human Sciences), Florence, and received a DAAD post doctorate grant to work at the Walter Benjamin Archive in Berlin. He became a Research Fellow at the Sum (Italian Institute of Human Sciences) and in Autumn 2014 he was Visiting Researcher at Heinrich-Heine-University of Düsseldorf. He is Co-Director of the Master “Environmental Humanities – Studi dell’Ambiente e del Territorio”; he is co-coordinator of the Laboratory “CoPhIt: Contemporary Philosophy in Italy” (Roma Tre University). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal - Becoming Wild:
Processes of Renaturalization
Flurina Gradin
Flurina Gradin is a designer and ecologist working as a researcher and as a lecturer in design theory and ecology at ETH Zurich and the University of St. Gallen. In academia and with her company Wild Spots, she is committed to engage for regenerative ecosystems and biodiversity in the built environment. Flurinas work bridges expert discourses, place-based experiences and applied research projects. Her practice is characterized by a strong transdisciplinary approach including a network of collaborators from architecture, the natural sciences, the environmental humanities and the arts. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Event – A Terrible Goddess. Vegetal Agency and Radioactivity in Caltiki, The Immortal Monster (1959)
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Toad Calls from the Track Field
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Flurina Gradin is a designer and ecologist working as a researcher and as a lecturer in design theory and ecology at ETH Zurich and the University of St. Gallen. In academia and with her company Wild Spots, she is committed to engage for regenerative ecosystems and biodiversity in the built environment. Flurinas work bridges expert discourses, place-based experiences and applied research projects. Her practice is characterized by a strong transdisciplinary approach including a network of collaborators from architecture, the natural sciences, the environmental humanities and the arts. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Event – A Terrible Goddess. Vegetal Agency and Radioactivity in Caltiki, The Immortal Monster (1959)
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Toad Calls from the Track Field
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Sophie Gosselin
Sophie Gosselin is a doctor of philosophy. She teaches in the Master of Environmental Studies at the EHESS (Paris). Her research work addresses the philosophical consequences of the ecological crisis and of the ontological turn in anthropology. Gosselin is a member of the editorial board of the journal online Terrestres.org. In the book published in 2019 entitled Le toucher du monde, techniques du naturer (Dehors editions), co-written with David gé Bartoli, they approach the issue of technique in a non anthropocentric perspective and propose a new philosophy of nature. In the book published in october 2022, entitled La condition terrestre, habiter la Terre en communs (Seuil editions), co-written with David gé Bartoli, they approach the cosmopolitical turn at stake in different current political situations throughout the world and the transformations of political institutions in relation to the ecological crisis. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
Sophie Gosselin is a doctor of philosophy. She teaches in the Master of Environmental Studies at the EHESS (Paris). Her research work addresses the philosophical consequences of the ecological crisis and of the ontological turn in anthropology. Gosselin is a member of the editorial board of the journal online Terrestres.org. In the book published in 2019 entitled Le toucher du monde, techniques du naturer (Dehors editions), co-written with David gé Bartoli, they approach the issue of technique in a non anthropocentric perspective and propose a new philosophy of nature. In the book published in october 2022, entitled La condition terrestre, habiter la Terre en communs (Seuil editions), co-written with David gé Bartoli, they approach the cosmopolitical turn at stake in different current political situations throughout the world and the transformations of political institutions in relation to the ecological crisis. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
Emiliano Guaraldo
Emiliano Guaraldo is a researcher in the environmental humanities. In his work, he studies the visual and literary cultures of the Anthropocene, with an emphasis on extinction narratives, critiques of extractivist capitalism, and environmental justice. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Learning about Urban Agroecological Futures
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Emiliano Guaraldo is a researcher in the environmental humanities. In his work, he studies the visual and literary cultures of the Anthropocene, with an emphasis on extinction narratives, critiques of extractivist capitalism, and environmental justice. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Learning about Urban Agroecological Futures
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Irène Hediger
Irène Hediger is head of the artists-in-labs program (AIL) at the Department of Cultural Analysis, Zurich University of the Arts. She curates and promotes inter- and transdisciplinary exchange and practices at the interface of art, science and technology. She has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions and accompanying programs on contemporary art, science and technology such as: “Displacements – Art, Science and the DNA of the Ibex” and “Propositions for A Poetic Ecosystem” in Jeddah and “Interfacing New Heavens” in Pretoria. She holds a degree in Business Administration, Group Dynamics and Organizational development (DAGG) and a MAS in Cultural Management from the University of Basel. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
Irène Hediger is head of the artists-in-labs program (AIL) at the Department of Cultural Analysis, Zurich University of the Arts. She curates and promotes inter- and transdisciplinary exchange and practices at the interface of art, science and technology. She has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions and accompanying programs on contemporary art, science and technology such as: “Displacements – Art, Science and the DNA of the Ibex” and “Propositions for A Poetic Ecosystem” in Jeddah and “Interfacing New Heavens” in Pretoria. She holds a degree in Business Administration, Group Dynamics and Organizational development (DAGG) and a MAS in Cultural Management from the University of Basel. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
Stephan Hochleithner
Stephan Hochleithner is a geographer trying to understand political dynamics related to questions of access. Socialnatural encounters and spaces that are often described as rural lay at the center of his focus. Stephan’s scientific work builds on in-depth, qualitative empirical inquiries and follows a strong interest in working with and on theory. Drawing from the vast and wealthy, yet hardly graspable space between empirics and analysis, he also creates texts and visuals using associative methods. Stephan Hochleithner works and lives in Zürich and the north-east of Austria. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Journal – The Miner and the Neon Fish: Decolonizing Alpine Ecologies
Stephan Hochleithner is a geographer trying to understand political dynamics related to questions of access. Socialnatural encounters and spaces that are often described as rural lay at the center of his focus. Stephan’s scientific work builds on in-depth, qualitative empirical inquiries and follows a strong interest in working with and on theory. Drawing from the vast and wealthy, yet hardly graspable space between empirics and analysis, he also creates texts and visuals using associative methods. Stephan Hochleithner works and lives in Zürich and the north-east of Austria. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Journal – The Miner and the Neon Fish: Decolonizing Alpine Ecologies
Christoph Kueffer
Christoph Kueffer is professor of Urban Ecology at the Landscape Architecture School in Rapperswil (OST - Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences), senior scientist (Privatdozent) at ETH Zurich, an affiliated professor at the Division of Arts and Cultures at Franklin University Switzerland in Lugano, and a researcher at the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel. He studied Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich, and completed his PhD in plant ecology and habilitation in plant and global change ecology at the same university. Christoph’s current research focuses on urban ecology, biodiversity conservation in novel and human-dominated ecosystems, global change impacts on island and mountain ecosystems, and environmental humanities. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
Christoph Kueffer is professor of Urban Ecology at the Landscape Architecture School in Rapperswil (OST - Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences), senior scientist (Privatdozent) at ETH Zurich, an affiliated professor at the Division of Arts and Cultures at Franklin University Switzerland in Lugano, and a researcher at the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel. He studied Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich, and completed his PhD in plant ecology and habilitation in plant and global change ecology at the same university. Christoph’s current research focuses on urban ecology, biodiversity conservation in novel and human-dominated ecosystems, global change impacts on island and mountain ecosystems, and environmental humanities. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
Sonia Levy
Sonia Levy is an artist whose research-led practice utilises filmmaking as a tool for site-based inquiries and interdisciplinary collaborations. This approach fosters multiple perspectives to consider new worlds. Her work questions Western expansionist and extractivist logics tending to critical forms of engagement with more-than-human worlds.
She is the 2023-24 European Marine Board artist-in-residence, an activity contributing to the UN Ocean Decade. In 2022, Levy was the selected artist for the S+T+ARTS4Water residency hosted by TBA21-Academy in Venice. Additionally, she was the commissioned artist in 2021 at Radar Loughborough and Aarhus University's "Ecological Globalization Research Group." Levy's work has been screened and exhibited internationally, including, amongst others, Museo Thyssen, Museo CA2M, ICA London, Showroom London, Baltic Gateshead, ZKM Karlsruhe, Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Her work has been published by MIT Press and Thames & Hudson. She is an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, School of Architecture. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎Venice 2024
Sonia Levy is an artist whose research-led practice utilises filmmaking as a tool for site-based inquiries and interdisciplinary collaborations. This approach fosters multiple perspectives to consider new worlds. Her work questions Western expansionist and extractivist logics tending to critical forms of engagement with more-than-human worlds.
She is the 2023-24 European Marine Board artist-in-residence, an activity contributing to the UN Ocean Decade. In 2022, Levy was the selected artist for the S+T+ARTS4Water residency hosted by TBA21-Academy in Venice. Additionally, she was the commissioned artist in 2021 at Radar Loughborough and Aarhus University's "Ecological Globalization Research Group." Levy's work has been screened and exhibited internationally, including, amongst others, Museo Thyssen, Museo CA2M, ICA London, Showroom London, Baltic Gateshead, ZKM Karlsruhe, Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Her work has been published by MIT Press and Thames & Hudson. She is an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, School of Architecture. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎Venice 2024
Federico Luisetti
Federico Luisetti is a philosopher and professor at the University of St. Gallen. His monograph “Non-human Subjects. Earth Beings and Decolonial Natures” is forthcoming for Cambridge UP (Cambridge Elements). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Journal – Earth Beings
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Federico Luisetti is a philosopher and professor at the University of St. Gallen. His monograph “Non-human Subjects. Earth Beings and Decolonial Natures” is forthcoming for Cambridge UP (Cambridge Elements). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Journal – Earth Beings
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Marco Malvestio
Marco Malvestio is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Padua. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto and an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the University of Padua. His publications include The Conflict Revisited: The Second World War in Post-Postmodern Fiction (Peter Lang, 2021) and Raccontare la fine del mondo: Fantascienza e Antropocene (nottetempo, 2021) and the forthcoming The Ecology of Italian Science Fiction (University of Toronto Press, 2025), as well as the edited volumes Italian Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion (Edinburgh University Press, 2023; with Stefano Serafini), and Italian Science Fiction and the Environmental Humanities (Liverpool University Press, 2023; with Emiliano Guaraldo and Daniel A. Finch-Race). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Event – A Terrible Goddess. Vegetal Agency and Radioactivity in Caltiki, The Immortal Monster (1959)
︎︎︎ Journal – From Plant Blindeness to Plant Horror
︎︎︎ Journal – A Terrible Goddess: Vegetal and Radioactive Agency in Mario Bava’s Caltiki
Marco Malvestio is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Padua. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto and an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the University of Padua. His publications include The Conflict Revisited: The Second World War in Post-Postmodern Fiction (Peter Lang, 2021) and Raccontare la fine del mondo: Fantascienza e Antropocene (nottetempo, 2021) and the forthcoming The Ecology of Italian Science Fiction (University of Toronto Press, 2025), as well as the edited volumes Italian Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion (Edinburgh University Press, 2023; with Stefano Serafini), and Italian Science Fiction and the Environmental Humanities (Liverpool University Press, 2023; with Emiliano Guaraldo and Daniel A. Finch-Race). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Event – A Terrible Goddess. Vegetal Agency and Radioactivity in Caltiki, The Immortal Monster (1959)
︎︎︎ Journal – From Plant Blindeness to Plant Horror
︎︎︎ Journal – A Terrible Goddess: Vegetal and Radioactive Agency in Mario Bava’s Caltiki
Elena Longhin
Elena Longhin is an architect (OAPCC Venezia, ARB London) and researcher based between Venice and Rotterdam, working at the intersection of architecture, urbanism and political ecology. Elena develops projects at the intersection of architecture, landscape and urbanism in diverse contexts , exploring the idea of a spatial practice that recognises the inherently conflicting dynamics that drive human occupation, whether urban or remote. Since 2016, she is Programme Head of the AA VS Terrain Lab, a research platform investigating the spatial palimpsests of the Anthropocene. She is an executive member of the Habitat Research Centre at EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland, and a post-doc researcher at TUDelft, the Netherlands. Next to commissions and self-initiated design projects, her current academic research focuses on extractivism, conditions of scarcity and extremes, focusing on materiality, fluidity and critical raw resources to draw out latent relationships across scales, addressing the intensifying social injustice and ecological crisis. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎Venice 2024
Elena Longhin is an architect (OAPCC Venezia, ARB London) and researcher based between Venice and Rotterdam, working at the intersection of architecture, urbanism and political ecology. Elena develops projects at the intersection of architecture, landscape and urbanism in diverse contexts , exploring the idea of a spatial practice that recognises the inherently conflicting dynamics that drive human occupation, whether urban or remote. Since 2016, she is Programme Head of the AA VS Terrain Lab, a research platform investigating the spatial palimpsests of the Anthropocene. She is an executive member of the Habitat Research Centre at EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland, and a post-doc researcher at TUDelft, the Netherlands. Next to commissions and self-initiated design projects, her current academic research focuses on extractivism, conditions of scarcity and extremes, focusing on materiality, fluidity and critical raw resources to draw out latent relationships across scales, addressing the intensifying social injustice and ecological crisis. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎Venice 2024
Christoph Miler
Christoph Miler is an author and designer based between Vienna and Zurich. Together with Isabel Seiffert he forms Offshore, a design studio with a strong focus on editorial design, image-making, research and visual narratives. Next to commissions and collaborations, they engage in design education and investigate critical issues within the fields of design, media, ecology and globalisation in self-initiated projects. The work of Offshore has been published, exhibited and awarded internationally. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Journal – Animal Big Brother
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Botox: Blow-ups for Biological Warfare
︎︎︎ Journal – Walking Tour
Zurich North
︎︎︎Journal – Stray Shots
Christoph Miler is an author and designer based between Vienna and Zurich. Together with Isabel Seiffert he forms Offshore, a design studio with a strong focus on editorial design, image-making, research and visual narratives. Next to commissions and collaborations, they engage in design education and investigate critical issues within the fields of design, media, ecology and globalisation in self-initiated projects. The work of Offshore has been published, exhibited and awarded internationally. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Journal – Animal Big Brother
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Botox: Blow-ups for Biological Warfare
︎︎︎ Journal – Walking Tour
Zurich North
︎︎︎Journal – Stray Shots
Beat Müller
Beat Müller is a student with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations who currently works for the Embassy of Switzerland in Albania. Previously he gained some valuable working experience at swisspeace before he joined the team of Professor Federico Luisetti as a student assistant at the University of St. Gallen. His research has been focused on the impact of development finance, especially from rising powers such as China or India. He is interested in exploring the intricate links between sustainable development finance, environmental conservation, as well as the political implications and how these areas can be integrated to create a more equitable and sustainable future. ︎︎︎
Beat Müller is a student with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations who currently works for the Embassy of Switzerland in Albania. Previously he gained some valuable working experience at swisspeace before he joined the team of Professor Federico Luisetti as a student assistant at the University of St. Gallen. His research has been focused on the impact of development finance, especially from rising powers such as China or India. He is interested in exploring the intricate links between sustainable development finance, environmental conservation, as well as the political implications and how these areas can be integrated to create a more equitable and sustainable future. ︎︎︎
Sophia Prinz
Prof. Dr. Sophia Prinz is Professor of Design Theory and History at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). From 2018 to 2020, she was Visiting Professor of Design Theory and Gender Studies at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). She was coordinator of the long-term research and exhibition project Mobile Worlds (2015–2018), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Parallel to her university activities, she was researcher at the Johann Jacobs Museum (2012–2021), where she was involved in several exhibition projects. Her academic interests are practice theory and perception, design and society, exhibition theory and aesthetics, as well as global modernity and transculturality. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
Prof. Dr. Sophia Prinz is Professor of Design Theory and History at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). From 2018 to 2020, she was Visiting Professor of Design Theory and Gender Studies at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). She was coordinator of the long-term research and exhibition project Mobile Worlds (2015–2018), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Parallel to her university activities, she was researcher at the Johann Jacobs Museum (2012–2021), where she was involved in several exhibition projects. Her academic interests are practice theory and perception, design and society, exhibition theory and aesthetics, as well as global modernity and transculturality. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
Christopher Robinson
Christopher Robinson is a broadly trained stream ecologist, with studies ranging from population dynamics to ecosystem processes. He focuses on alpine streams in glaciated landscapes and has a personal interest in the eco-evolutionary dynamics of aquatic insects. In his current work he examines the role of environmental change on the intermittency of alpine streams and how that influences the distributions and abundance of aquatic insects as well as the functioning of alpine stream networks. Christopher Robinson has participated in the artists-in-labs program since 2005, hosting a number of resident artists over that time. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
Christopher Robinson is a broadly trained stream ecologist, with studies ranging from population dynamics to ecosystem processes. He focuses on alpine streams in glaciated landscapes and has a personal interest in the eco-evolutionary dynamics of aquatic insects. In his current work he examines the role of environmental change on the intermittency of alpine streams and how that influences the distributions and abundance of aquatic insects as well as the functioning of alpine stream networks. Christopher Robinson has participated in the artists-in-labs program since 2005, hosting a number of resident artists over that time. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
Antje Scharenberg
Antje Scharenberg is a social movement scholar and International Postdoctoral Fellow at the Chair of Media and Culture, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Her current research project "Because The Sea is Rising We Will Rise: Transnational Agency and Mediated Resistance in Sea-bound Civil Society Organisations“ investigates what it means to act politically at sea, with a particular focus on civil sea rescue in the Mediterranean and environmental activism in the European Atlantic. Before coming to Switzerland, Antje completed her PhD in the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her thesis – titled Transeuropa: Agency Beyond Borders in Alter-European Activist Networks – was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, UK) and is based on a 4-year long ethnographic research project with alter-European movements. One of the questions driving her research interests ever since is how we can enact agency in times of border-crossing challenges arising, for instance, in the context of migration, climate change or digital capitalism. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Hydro Ecologies
Antje Scharenberg is a social movement scholar and International Postdoctoral Fellow at the Chair of Media and Culture, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Her current research project "Because The Sea is Rising We Will Rise: Transnational Agency and Mediated Resistance in Sea-bound Civil Society Organisations“ investigates what it means to act politically at sea, with a particular focus on civil sea rescue in the Mediterranean and environmental activism in the European Atlantic. Before coming to Switzerland, Antje completed her PhD in the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her thesis – titled Transeuropa: Agency Beyond Borders in Alter-European Activist Networks – was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, UK) and is based on a 4-year long ethnographic research project with alter-European movements. One of the questions driving her research interests ever since is how we can enact agency in times of border-crossing challenges arising, for instance, in the context of migration, climate change or digital capitalism. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Hydro Ecologies
Sigrid Schmeisser
Sigrid Schmeisser is a designer from Austria who is based in the Netherlands. Schmeisser works in both the cultural and the academic sector. In 2016, she founded Peak15 design studio to work with researchers and academics, resulting in publications, exhibitions and multi-media projects. Her practice is built on the methods of visual journalism, which considers design as a narrative praxis with a site-specific approach. Her research focuses on post-natural landscapes and discard studies presented within the long-term project From Centre to Periphery as well as thinking design relationally by considering entanglements of more-than-human relationships (Solidago, RaccogliereMagazine). She holds two Masters, one in GEO-Design (Design Academy Eindhoven). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Sigrid Schmeisser is a designer from Austria who is based in the Netherlands. Schmeisser works in both the cultural and the academic sector. In 2016, she founded Peak15 design studio to work with researchers and academics, resulting in publications, exhibitions and multi-media projects. Her practice is built on the methods of visual journalism, which considers design as a narrative praxis with a site-specific approach. Her research focuses on post-natural landscapes and discard studies presented within the long-term project From Centre to Periphery as well as thinking design relationally by considering entanglements of more-than-human relationships (Solidago, RaccogliereMagazine). She holds two Masters, one in GEO-Design (Design Academy Eindhoven). ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Isabel Seiffert
Isabel Seiffert is a Zurich-based art director, graphic designer and design educator specializing in visual narratives and research-driven design using a repertoire of carefully crafted typography and vivid imagery. Together with Christoph Miler she runs the collaborative design practice under the name of Offshore Studio. Their work has been published and exhibited internationally. Isa has been awarded by TDC Tokyo, Type Directors Club New York, 100 beste Plakate and was nominated for the INFORM Preis as well as shortlisted for the Swiss Design Awards. Offshore Studio were recipients of the 2020/21 fellowship at the Jan van Eyck Academie and received a research and production fellowship by Les Rencontres d’Arles for the realisation of the exhibition ‘Visible upon breakdown’ (in collaboration with Justinien Tribillon). In 2022, Christoph and Isabel will be residents at La Becque where they will continue their research project Managing the Wild. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Journal – Animal Big Brother
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Walking Tour
Zurich North
Isabel Seiffert is a Zurich-based art director, graphic designer and design educator specializing in visual narratives and research-driven design using a repertoire of carefully crafted typography and vivid imagery. Together with Christoph Miler she runs the collaborative design practice under the name of Offshore Studio. Their work has been published and exhibited internationally. Isa has been awarded by TDC Tokyo, Type Directors Club New York, 100 beste Plakate and was nominated for the INFORM Preis as well as shortlisted for the Swiss Design Awards. Offshore Studio were recipients of the 2020/21 fellowship at the Jan van Eyck Academie and received a research and production fellowship by Les Rencontres d’Arles for the realisation of the exhibition ‘Visible upon breakdown’ (in collaboration with Justinien Tribillon). In 2022, Christoph and Isabel will be residents at La Becque where they will continue their research project Managing the Wild. ︎︎︎
︎︎︎ Obergoms 2021
︎︎︎ Journal – Animal Big Brother
︎︎︎ Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Walking Tour
Zurich North
Katinka Versendaal
Katinka Versendaal is a food designer and founder of the Food Design Studio "The Eatelier" in the Netherlands. She holds a MA Food Design & Innovation from Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan and a BA Product Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven. She works on “speculative gastronomy" with a curiosity for the ecological, historical and cultural forces shaping the way people eat now and what this could look like in the future.︎︎︎
︎︎︎Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Learning about Urban Agroecological Futures
︎︎︎ Venice 2024
Katinka Versendaal is a food designer and founder of the Food Design Studio "The Eatelier" in the Netherlands. She holds a MA Food Design & Innovation from Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan and a BA Product Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven. She works on “speculative gastronomy" with a curiosity for the ecological, historical and cultural forces shaping the way people eat now and what this could look like in the future.︎︎︎
︎︎︎Zurich 2022
︎︎︎ Journal – Learning about Urban Agroecological Futures
︎︎︎ Venice 2024