Dr Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is an artist working across disciplines and media to explore the human values that shape material culture, science, technology, and nature. Through installations, fictions, writing and curatorial projects, Daisy examines why we make things, what those things are, and their relationship with us and the world.

Daisy has spent over ten years researching synthetic biology and the design of living matter, pushing the boundaries of design and science with scientists, engineers, artists, designers, historians, social scientists, and museums around the world. Daisy is lead author of Synthetic Aesthetics: Investigating Synthetic Biology’s Designs on Nature (MIT Press, 2014), and in 2017 completed Better, her PhD by practice at London's Royal College of Art, interrogating how powerful dreams of “better” futures shape the things that get designed (supervised by Professors Sarah Teasley and Anthony Dunne). Daisy received the World Technology Award for design in 2011, and the London Design Medal for Emerging Talent in 2012. Her work has twice been nominated for Designs of the Year (2011, 2015), with Designing for the Sixth Extinction described as “romantic, dangerous… and everything else that inspires us to change and question the world”. Daisy exhibits internationally, including at MoMA New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, the National Museum of China, and her work is in museum and private collections. Talks include TEDGlobal, PopTech, Design Indaba, and the New Yorker Tech Fest. Post-PhD, Daisy is back to practice with a residency at Somerset House Studios, London, developing new projects including wilding the planet Mars, and resurrecting the smell of flowers made extinct by humans, in search of the sublime. 

EDUCATION

PhD (RCA) Design Interactions
Royal College of Art, London, UK
2013–2017
Graduating 2018

MA (RCA) Design Interactions
Dissertation: Design Evolution: Microbes and the Everyday
Royal College of Art, London, UK
2007–2009

Visiting Student

Graduate School of Arts/Sciences & Graduate School of Design

Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
2005–2006


MA (Cantab) Architecture, First Class

First in graduating year

Nomination, RIBA President's Medals Awards 

Dissertation: Consuming Architecture: Exploring the Ethics of a Sustainable Brandscape
University of Cambridge, UK
2001–2004


ADVISORY ROLES

Advisory Committee
Broken Nature: XXII Triennale Milano 2019
Milan, Italy
2018-19

Editorial Board
Journal of Design and Science
MIT Press/MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, USA
2017-

Leonardo Group
Science Gallery London, UK
2016- 

MIT Press European Academic Advisory Council
London, UK
2016- 

Advisor
Make Your Own Masters
London, UK
2018

Curatorial Advisor
The Future Starts Here
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
2016-17

RESIDENCIES, FELLOWSHIPS, COMMISSIONS, PROJECTS

Guest Co-editor
Journal of Design and Science
MIT Press/MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, USA
2018

Commission
Engineering Life
University of Edinburgh, UK 
2017

Commission
Dezeen and MINI Frontiers
London, UK
2014

Commission
SynbiCITE, Imperial College London, UK
2014

Programme Curator

V&A Late: Synthetic Aesthetics
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
2014

Lead Curator

Grow Your Own... Life After Nature

Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland

2013-2014

Commission
Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2013

Commission
EDF Foundation, Paris, France
2013

Design Fellow

Synthetic Aesthetics

Stanford University, USA & University of Edinburgh, UK
2010–2013

EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Award
University of Southampton, UK
2011

Visiting Fellow

ESRC Genomics Forum

University of Edinburgh, UK
February 2010 

Workshop Curator & Co-leader

Synthesis

Arts Catalyst, University College London, University of Edinburgh
Wellcome Trust Arts Award, London, UK
2010–2011

Residency

SymbioticA, School of Anatomy and Human Biology

University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
2009 

Co-founder

AlterFutures

London, UK
2009

Co-organiser

The Long Now London

London, UK
2009 


Project Coordinator

General Public Agency
London, UK
2007 

Co-founder
Green Design, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
2005–2006

Architectural Assistant

Architecture + Urbanism Unit
Greater London Authority, London, UK
2005

TEACHING

Visiting Lecturer talks/workshops/tutorials/crits 2015–18: 

Royal College of Art
MA Communication Design, Information Experience Design, Innovation Design Engineering, Fashion, Service Design, & MRes Design Pathway
London, UK 

Department of Architecture
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK 

Diploma 12
Architectural Association
London, UK 

BA Design
Iceland University of the Arts
Reykjavík, Iceland

MA Material Futures
Central St Martins
London, UK

Design Realities Lab
The New School
NYC, USA 

Micro Environment Innovation Lab
New York University
NYC, USA 

University of the Underground
Amsterdam, Netherlands 

University of the Applied Arts
Vienna, Austria 

Strelka Institute
Moscow, Russia 

Iowa State University
Ames, USA

Design Factory Higher Education Brief Setting
Design Museum
London, UK
2015

Visiting Tutor
ArtScience Bangalore iGEM Team
Srishti College of Art & Design
Bangalore, India
2010

Design Advisor
University of Cambridge iGEM Team
Cambridge, UK
2009 & 2010

JURIES

Core77 Design Awards Speculative Concepts Jury Captain
London, UK
2015

Design Indaba Innovation Award Jury
Cape Town, South Africa
2015

Dutch Design Award International Jury
Eindhoven, Holland
2014