Weijing Xu
Assistant Professor of Media and Arts at Duke Kunshan University

Vivian Xu is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and researcher. Her work investigates issues at the intersection of biology, technology, material fabrication, and design. These works often take the form of objects, installations, wearables, and toolkits that traverse the boundaries of biological and digital media. Her creative practice is deeply informed by emerging practices between the arts and sciences merges approaches from the studio and the laboratory. Her process is research driven and grounded in design methodology.

Xu’s work has been exhibited, performed, and presented at various institutions in China, the US, Europe and Australia, including the National Art Museum of China (Beijing), the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (Shanghai), Between Art Lab (Shanghai), Shenzhen Media Art Festival (Shenzhen), China Design Museum (Hangzhou), Power Station of Art (Shanghai), NTU Center for Contemporary Art (Singapore), the New York Science Museum (New York), SymbioticA at the University of Western Australia (Perth), the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), Art Laboratory Berlin (Berlin), Humboldt University (Berlin), and Kapelica Gallery (Ljubljana). In 2022, her work The Silkworm Project was included in the Lumen Prize for Art and Technology Hua Awards Shortlist.

She is an Assistant Professor of Media and Art and the Major Coordinator of the Computation and Design major Digital Media track at Duke Kunshan University. Prior to joining DKU, she has held teaching and research positions at Parsons the New School for Design, New York University Shanghai, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen Campus), and the Roy Ascott Technoetic Art Program (Shanghai). 

She is Co-Founder of the Design, Technology, and Radical Media Labs (DTRM) with Prof. Benjamin Bacon, a member of the XResearch Cluster at V2_Lab for the Unstable Media (Netherlands), and research affiliate at the Data Science Research Center, which is part of the Institute of Applied Physical Science and Engineering (IAPSE) at Duke Kunshan University. In 2015, Vivian co-founded Shanghai-based trans-disciplinary design lab Dogma Lab with Benjamin Bacon. 

Her work has been featured in press and media such as Vice China Creators Project, China Global Television, LEAP Magazine (China), The Art Newspaper (China), TANC (China), IDEAT Magazine (China), Anomoly Media (China), Elle Magazine (US), Position Politics (US), Neural Magazine (Itally), Berlin Art Link (Berlin), Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin), and CLOT Magazine (EU).

For full portfolio and CV, please visit: https://www.vivianxu.studio

Current Research Interests

Bio Art and Design
Eco Art and Design
Digital Craft
Wearable Technology
Textile Design
Extended Reality
Data-Driven Art
Artist Books

Current Appointments & Affiliations

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