陈昱凝
Yuning Chen

Biodesign
Feminist STS
More-Than-Human

Ciao! I am Yuning Chen, a PhD candidate between Design Informatics (Edinburgh College of Art) and STIS (Science, Technology and Innovation Studies) at University of Edinburgh. 

With a background in environmental science and design engineering, I am fascinated by the practice of designing with living organisms. And more importantly, how working with more-than-human life could challenge anthropocentric perspectives entrenched in our capitalist ecologies. 

My practice-based research looks into more-than-human ethics in biodesign and the broader biotechnological practices, with a particular focus on labour justice and practice of resistance. 

CV

Project:
Morality Calculus
Morality Calculus Food Theatre
Labour Provenance
Bevergising Spirits of Asilomar
Scents of Asilomar
Microbial Revolt
Carbon Alchemy
Plant Reality Set
Project Habitate
Mobius


Email
Google Scholar
Instagram




Feel free to contact me for collaborations or brainstorming ideas!

CV


Full CV can be downloaded here.

Education

University of Edinburgh
- PhD candidate in Design Informatics

Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, London
- MSc and MA, Innovation Design Engineering

South China University of Technology
- BSc in Environmental Science


Work Experience

University of Helsinki
- Visiting fellow, Centre for Social Studies of Microbes

University of Edinburgh
- Research Assistant, School of Informatics
- Research Assistant, STIS, School of Political and Social Sciences
- Tutor, Edinburgh College of Art
- Guest Lecturer, Social Dimensions of Systems and Synthetic Biology, School of Biological Sciences

Central Academy of Fine Arts & Mechanical Industry Press
- Academic translator on biodesign literature

Planet IX
- Design researcher

Biomimicry Innovation Lab
- Design researcher


Publication

Chen. Y., Cachat. E., and Pschetz, L., 2025. Labour provenance as a lens to reveal more-than-human ecologies in biological design and HCI. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI‘25), April 26-May 1, 2025, Yokohama, Japan. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 23 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713272  *Best Paper Honorary Mention

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). https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641981

Oktay, G., Ikeya, Y., Lee, M., Barati, B., Lee, Y., Chen, Y., Pschetz, L. and Ramirez-Figueroa, C., 2023, July. Designing with the more-thanhuman: Temporalities of thinking with care. In Companion Publication of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 104-106).

Billy Dixon, Yuning Chen, Esteban Serrano, and Larissa Pschetz. 2023. Exploring Critical Scenarios of Algorithmic Energy Distribution with the Karma Kettle Game. In Companion Publication of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '23 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 266–269. https://doi.org/10.1145/3563703.3596655

Välk S, Chen Y, Dieckmann E, et al., 2022, Supporting collaborative biodesign ideation with contextualised knowledge from bioscience, Codesign, ISSN:1571-0882

Välk S, Chen Y, Nguyen M, et al., Ideation and Consequence Scanning Beyond Human Perspectives in Biodesign, Design Research Society 2022

Välk, S., Chen, Y., Kalossaka, L., Kim, R., Mougenot, C., Pschetz, L., Ramirez-Figueroa, C., Sayuti, N.A.A., & Sommer, B. (2022). Narratives in Biodesign☆Bridging Methods, Processes and Tools. In Congress of the International Association of Societies of Design Research (pp. 3623-3623). Springer, Singapore.

Välk, S., Chen, Y., Mougenot, C. (2022). Towards a Designerly Way of Thinking for Bioengineers with ‘Design and Science’ Cards. In: Bruyns, G., Wei, H. (eds) [ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes. IASDR 2021. Springer, Singapore.

MacCowan, R., Chen, Y., Nadathur, S. (2021) The State of Nature-Inspired-Innovation in the UK

Chen, Y., Soto, J. (2021) Homo Vegecus, Biodesigned Community Issue 2021

Ji Z, Zou D, Gong J, Liu C, Ye C, Chen Y. The different responses of growth and photosynthesis to NH4+ enrichments between Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis and its epiphytic alga Ulva lactuca grown at elevated atmospheric CO2. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 2019 Jul 1;144:173-80.


Recognition

ACM CHI Best paper honorary mention 2025

3 Package Deal Bioart and Design category 2025 Awarded (Declined due to logistic incompatibilities), Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and Bureau Broedplaatsen

Bioart Art and Design (BAD) Award 1 of 12 Finalists (2023 and 2024)

The Scientific Breakthrough of the Year Nominee, Science and Art Category, Falling Walls Science Festival (2022 and 2024)

Lumen Prize, Futures Award Longlist 2021

ST+ARTS Prize, Honorary Mention, 2021

KI Award, Runner up, 2020


Exhibition

Future Proof, Edinburgh Science Festival 2024

Sustainable China, London Design Festival, 2022

China-UK technology Summit, Imperial College London, 2022

Meta Curation 2/N Biodesign, Digital Curation, Venice Biennale 2022

ST+ARTS Festival 2022, Centre for Fine Arts, Bozar Brussels

York Design Week 2022

We Will Design, Milan Design Week, 2021

London Design Biennale 2021

Dutch Design Week 2021

Graduation show, Royal College of Art, 2021

WIP show, Royal Collge of Art, 2020

Imperial College London Summer Show 2019

Go Global, Nairobi Design Institute, 2019