Michaela Büsse
© Konstantin Mitrokhov
Postdoctoral fellow
NameDr. Michaela Büsse
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Dr. Michaela Büsse is postdoctoral researcher at Technische Universität Dresden in the Chair of Digital Cultures and Societal Change and as Interdisciplinary Navigator at the Department for Speculative Transformation responsible for the development of interdisciplinary research projects in the humanities and social science. In her research she focuses on sociomaterial transformations in the context of speculative urbanism, climate change mitigation, and energy transition. Drawing on elemental anthropology and feminist science and technology studies, she investigates how design practices and technologies govern environments and define who and what is being rendered inhuman.
Michaela received her PhD from University of Art and Design Linz. In the dissertation she analyses land reclamation projects in Southeast Asia and the Netherlands and develops a performative reading of design based on sand’s granular physics. Next to the monograph, the project consists of two film works (Building with Nature, Prime Model) and one video installation (White Elephant) that address the recursive relationship between simulation practices and their sites of application, exploring the disjunction between future promises, their material premises and repercussions. She is currently preparing two new research projects that investigate the role of anticipatory politics in 1) the material transformation of former mining and military sites in German Democratic Republic and 2) the development of energy hubs in the North Sea in the course of the European Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy.
Michaela has lectured and taught internationally and held fellowships with TU Delft Department of Architecture and the Built Environment (2020/21), NTU CCA Singapore and MCAD Manila (“Acts of Life”—On Nature and Urbanity, 2018) as well as Strelka Institute for Media, Design and Architecture (“The New Normal” 2017). She is co-founder of Zurich-based OTHERWISE—a collaborative platform that explores the potential of artistic research to contribute to societal and ecological transformations—and was previously part of the editorial board of the award-winning Migrant Journal—a six-issue publication exploring the circulation of people, goods, information, fauna and flora around the world and the transformative impact they have on space. In collaboration with Johannes Bruder (Critical Media Lab Basel) and the Dutch collective Hackers & Designers, Michaela developed Cosmogrammatics.xyz, an online repository and experimental publishing platform for notes, documents and visual material collected in studying infrastructural aspects of environmental and energy politics (launch summer 2023).
- PhD, Art and Design (distinction) 2017-2023
Title: Reclamations. On the Making and Remaking of Sand as a Medium for Design
Supervision: Prof. Dr. Claudia Mareis, Prof. Dr. Karin Harrasser, Prof. Dr. Adam Nocek
MAKE/SENSE PhD Programme
Basel Academy of Art and Design/ University of Art and Design Linz
- MA, Design Research (distinction) 2013-2014
Title: Applied Fiction. An Object-Based Exploration of Possible Futures
Zurich University of the Arts
- BSc, Media and Communications, 2007-2010
University of Europe for Applied Sciences
London Metropolitan University (exchange)
| 2023-25 | Research fellowship, Research Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Centre Potsdam |
| 2024 | Research and art residency, Villa Kamogawa Goethe Institute Kyoto, Japan |
| 2020/2 | 1 Mobility Grant (TU Delft), Swiss National Science Foundation |
| 2020 | Swiss Design Network Grant for early-career researchers |
| 2020 | Society for Social Studies of Science conference grant |
| 2020 | with Migrant Journal, nomination Swiss Design Awards/Mediation (deferred because of Covid-19) |
| 2018 | Research fellowship, “Acts of Life” - On Nature & Urbanity, an interdisciplinary collaboration between NTU CCA Singapore, MCAD Manila, Goethe Institute |
| 2018-2022 | PhD grant, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNFS No. 175913) |
| 2017 | Research fellowship, Strelka Institute for Media, Design and Architecture (The New Normal) |
| 2015 | Nomination Design Prize Switzerland – Rado Star Prize Young Talent Design Research |
| 2014 | Best Master Thesis, Zurich University of the Arts |
- Postnatural Landscapes
- Design and Material Cultures
- Critical Infrastructure Studies
- Anthropology of the Built Environment
- Human Geography
- Political Ecology
- Energy Anthropology
- Experimental Documentary Film
- DGTF – German Society for Design Theory and Research, Member of the board
- 4S – Society for Social Studies of Science
- Stsing – Science and Technology Studies in and through Germany
- SIEF – International Society for Ethnology and Folklore
- SARN – Swiss Artistic Research Network
2023 – ongoing Visiting Researcher Research Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Centre Potsdam
2021 – ongoing Associated Investigator Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material” Humboldt University of Berlin
2017-2023 PhD, Environmental Humanities (distinction) Title: Reclamations. On the Making and Remaking of Sand as a Medium for Design
Supervision: Claudia Mareis (Humboldt University of Berlin), Karin Harrasser (University of Art and Design Linz), Adam Nocek (Arizona State University)
MAKE/SENSE PhD Programme (FHNW Academy of Art and Design Basel/ University of Art and Design Linz)
2022 – 2023 Lecturer – adjunct Master Transformation Design, Braunschweig University of Art
2021 – 2023 Research Associate, Institute of Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt University of Berlin
2020 – 2021 Visiting Researcher, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Department of Urbanism/Section Urban Design, TU Delft
2017- 2021 Junior Researcher, Critical Media Lab/ Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures, FHNW Basel
2014-2021 Lecturer – adjunct, Master Design, Zurich University of the Arts
2017-2019 Lecturer, Master Futures Design, Prague College
2017 Research Fellow Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow
2015-2016 Research Associate, Institute for Design Research, Zurich University of the Arts
2013-2014 MA, Design Research (distinction) Title: Applied Fiction - An Object-Based Exploration of Possible Futures, Zurich University of the Arts
Peer-reviewed journal publications
Built on Sand: Situating Extractive Economies in the Mekong Delta. Postmodern Cultures. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/pmc.2022.a915390
“Critical Standpoints that are Careful”: Anthropological Relocations for a Performative Study of Design. In: Perraudin, Léa, Clemens Winkler, Claudia Mareis, and Matthias Held, eds. 2023. Material Trajectories: Designing With Care? Lüneburg: Meson. open access
Büsse, Michaela (2020). “(Re)thinking Design with New Materialism - Towards a Critical Anthropology of Design.” Somatechnics: Journal of Bodies – Technologies – Power, 10(3), pp. 355-373
Savic, Selena/ Bedö, Viktor/ Büsse, Michaela/ Martins, Yann/ Miyazaki, Shintaro (2020). “Toys for Conviviality. Situating Commoning, Computation and Modelling”, Open Cultural Studies 4(1):143-153. DOI: 10.1515/culture-2020-0015
Büsse, Michaela/ Mitrokhov, Konstantin (2018). “Interface Creep”. Antennae, Issue 45, pp. 72-78.
Aikens, Nick/ Bertschi, Denise/ Büsse, Michaela/ Cantori , Lucas/ Alvarez, Paola/ Mende, Doreen / Paolino, Camilla/ Soumaré, Hélène/ Tun, Melissa/ Yaichnikova, Elena (2018. “Situating our Experiences. A proposal for Doctoral Research as a Network of Practices.” #Re-visiones, 8, (http://www.re-visiones.net/index.php/RE-VISIONES/article/view/303/589)
Contributions to books
Büsse, Michaela (forthcoming). “Castles Made of Sand” In: Turpin, Etienne and Springer, Anna-Sophie, Intercalations 5: Decapitated Economies. K Verlag: Berlin
Büsse, Michaela (forthcoming). “Critical Standpoints that are Careful” In: Mareis, Claudia/ Perraudin, Léa/ Winkler, Clemens. Material Trajectories. Designing with Care? Lüneburg: meson press.
Büsse, Michaela/ Mitrokhov, Konstantin (forthcoming). “Designed to Disappear: Dynamic Coastal Engineering as an Intra-Active Event” In: Majaca, Antonia. Incomputable Earth—Digital Technologies and the Anthropocene. London: Bloomsbury.
Büsse, Michaela (2022). “What are the politics of ontological design? A critical reflection on the mutual becoming of ‘the human’ and ‘the world’” In: Mareis, Claudia/ Greiner-Petter, Moritz/ Renner, Michael (eds.). Critical By Design? Cultures, Epistemologies, Practices, Bielefeld: Transcript, pp- 80-92.
Allen, Jamie/Bedö, Viktor/Büsse, Michaela/Ibach, Merle/ Gerloff, Felix/Miyazaki, Shintaro (2019). “Unmaking – Against General Applicability” In: Bogers, Loes and Chiappini, Letizia, Critical Makers Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Networked Cultures, pp. 47-60.
Edited Publications
Büsse, Michaela/Tribillon, Justinien/Randulfe, Dámaso. Flowing Grounds, Migrant Journal 3, 2017, London: Migrant Journal Press.
Büsse, Michaela/Tribillon, Justinien/Randulfe, Dámaso. Dark Matters, Migrant Journal 4, 2018, London: Migrant Journal Press.
Büsse, Michaela/Tribillon, Justinien/Randulfe, Dámaso. Micro Odysseys, Migrant Journal 5, 2018, London: Migrant Journal Press.
Büsse, Michaela/Tribillon, Justinien/Randulfe, Dámaso. Foreign Agents, Migrant Journal 6, 2019, London: Migrant Journal Press.
Building (with) Nature. Field Explorations on Markerwadden, Interdisciplinary Workshop, Studio for Immediate Spaces, Sandberg Instituut, 2023.
Introduction to Environmental Humanities. BA Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2022/23.
Politics and Poetics of Sand. Project seminar. BA Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2022/23.
Contemporary Discourses in Design & Anthropology, MA Transformation Design, Braunschweig University of Arts, 2022/23.
Introduction to Design Research, MA Transformation Design, Braunschweig University of Arts, 2022/23.
With Claudia Mareis, Léa Perraudin and Anke Gründel, Dis/Entangling Material Futures, lecture series, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2022.
Ecological Design: (Re)making Environments, BA Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2022.
Material Legacies. On the Geo-Bio-Politics of Material Transformation, MA Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2022.
Lines of Flight #3, interdisciplinary PhD seminar, TU Delft, 2021.
With Claudia Mareis, Léa Perraudin and Anke Gründel, Dis/Entangling Perspectives in Material Research, lecture series, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2021/22.
Boundary Objects: On Experimental Ethnography, BA Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2021/22.
Lines of Flight #1 and #2. Interdisciplinary PhD seminar, TU Delft, 2021.
Introduction to Speculative Design, MA Design, Zurich University of the Arts, 2015-2021.
With Isabel Seiffert, The Creative Potential of Borders and Bordering”, MA Design, Academy of Art and Design Basel, 2020.
With Jamie Allen, Migration, Media and Ecology: Advanced Practices as part of the COST Action European Forum for Advanced Practices (CA18136), 2020.
Unsettling Design, MA Media Design, Haute École d’Art et de Design Genève, 2019.
Design and Futuring, MA Future Design. Prague College, 2017-2019.
With Jamie Allen and Lucie Kolb, Soft Encounters. Infrastructures of Care, interdisciplinary BA seminar, Institute for Experimental Design and Media Culture, 2018.
Büsse, Michaela. “From Military Base to Solar Park. The Role of Conversion Sites for Germany’s Energy Transition”, An Unwell World? Anthropology in a Speculative Mode, Association of Social Anthropologists Annual Conference, SOAS London, 2023.
Büsse, Michaela. “Design as Infrastructuring Practice: Speculative Urbanism and Material Transformation in Southeast Asia”, Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, 2023.
Büsse, Michaela. “From Military Site to Solar Park. The Role of Conversion Sites for Renewable Energy Futures”, Reunion, Recuperation, Reconfiguration. Knowledges and Technosciences for Living Together. Annual Conference Society of the Social Studies of the Science, Cholula, Mexico. 2022.
Büsse, Michaela; Bruder, Johannes; Bazdyrieva, Asia; Kubrack, Anastasia. “Zones of Sustainability. A Conversation on Situating the Politics of Global Energy Transitions”, Situiert im Globalen: Konflikte, Kosten, Atmosphären, International Research Center for Cultural Studies & Academy of Art and Design Linz, 2022.
Büsse, Michaela. “Building with Nature”, Lecture Performance during Shifting Sands, Sonic Acts Night Air Series, Amsterdam, 2022.
Büsse, Michaela. „Autonomous Design Autonomy”, Attending (to) Futures: Matters of Politics in Design Education, Research and Practice, KISD Cologne, 2021.
Büsse, Michaela; Keshavarz, Mahmoud; Musleh, Ali. “Designing in Real Worlds - Weaving Shared Histories through Design Anthropology”. Memory Full? Reimagining the Relations Between Design and History, Design History Society, FHNW, 2021.
Büsse, Michaela. “Granular Grammar”, Toward an Elemental Anthropology: Working through Sand, Breaking the Rules? Power, Participation and Transgression, International Society for Ethnology and Folklore, University of Helsinki, 2021.
Büsse, Michaela. “Gestaltete Umwelt als Gegenstand von Designforschung”, Lecture Series BA Design, Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK, 2021.
Büsse, Michaela. “Analysing Design Through the Lens of Human-Material Entanglements”, COOP Design Research, Bauhaus Dessau/Hochschule Anhalt, 2021.
Büsse, Michaela. “Speculating on the Nation-State Scale”, Logistical Power Infrastructures and State Formation Beyond the Nation State, Munich Center for Technology in Society, 2020.
Büsse, Michaela. “From Design on the Planetary Scale to Planetary Design”, Co-Working Materials, International Research Center for Cultural Studies and University of Art and Design Linz, 2020.
Büsse, Michaela. “Cheap, Precious, Risky. Singapore’s Nation-Building and its Relation to Sand”, Transdisciplinary Lecture Series, TU Delft, 2020.
Büsse, Michaela. “Land Reclamation as a Speculative Material Practice”, Radical Flows. FIBER Festival/Instability. Amsterdam/online, 2020.
Büsse, Michaela. “Speculation on the Nation-State Scale”, EASST/4S conference, 2020.
Büsse, Michaela. “Granular Grounds”, Architectures of Nature, VI PER Gallery Prague, 2020.
Büsse, Michaela. “Sand Stories.” After Agency, HAT Research Centre, Poznan, Poland 2019.
Büsse, Michaela. “Alternative Cartographies.” Cartographies of the Vanishing Now, New Narratives for Earth, FIBER Festival, Amsterdam, 2019.
Büsse, Michaela. “Questioning the Foundations. Anti-hylomorphism and the Politics of Design.” DilemmaDilemma, Bern, 2019.
Büsse, Michaela. “Unsettling Design. Material Encounters and Relational Practices.” Leverage Points, Leuphana University Lüneburg, 2019.
“Energiø” Hole of Fame, Dresden, 12 June 2025.
“Building with Nature”, Data Detours: Or What Happens When You Follow Instructions, FH Potsdam, 2 April 2025.
“Building with Nature”, STSHub Berlin–Diffracting the Critical, March 11-14, 2025.
“Building with Nature”, Berlin Science Week Campus, November 3 2023.
“Building with Nature”, Maritime Frictions, Sonic Acts and FieldARTS. Ruigoord Amsterdam, May 19 2023.
“Whilte Elephant”, Deep Material Futures. Silent Green, Berlin, 2022.
“Assembling the Coast”, Material Legacies. Design Lab #13. Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Oct 2022 - Feb 2023.
with Konstantin Mitrokhov, “Common Task”, Plotka TV, Amsterdam, 2021.
“In the middle of it”, MAKE/SENSE FHNW Academy of Art and Design Basel, 2019. with Sarah Hermanutz and Andreas Rau, “Give and Take.” Critical Media Lab, FHNW Basel, 2019.
with Konstantin Mitrokhov, “Common Task”, Modern Body Festival, The Hague, 2018. with Tena Kelemen and Yann Martins, “Planetary Investigations”, Oslo Night, Haus der Elektronischen Künste, Basel, 2018.
“Designing as Becoming.” The Politics of Design, Act 1, Z33, Hasselt, 2018.
with Konstantin Mitrokhov, “Common Task”, Festival de Film Invisible, Geneva, 2017.
with Konstantin Mitrokhov, “Common Task”, On and Off the Grid, Hackers & Designers, Amsterdam, 2017.
with Konstantin Mitrokhov, “Common Task” The New Normal Showcase, Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow, 2017.
“Applied Fiction”, Design Prize Switzerland, Connecting Spaces, Hong Kong, 2016.
“Applied Fiction”, Swiss Pavilion, Design Week London, 2016. “Applied Fiction”, Design Prize Switzerland, Langenthal, 2015.
“Applied Fiction”, Design denkt Zukunft, Zurich University of the Arts in collaboration with the W.I.R.E., Museum Bärengasse, Zurich, 2014. “Applied Fiction”,
Workshop organisation “Poetics and Politics of Sand”, Cluster of Excellence. “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material”, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2023.
Exhibition curation with Emile de Visscher “Material Legacies”, Design Lab #13, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, 2022/23.
Panel Moderation “Deep Material Futures”, Annual Conference, Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material”, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2022
Panel Moderation “Meshworks: Design Research as Reconfiguring Natureculture Constellations”, Bauhaus Study Rooms 2022: Engaging with Dirt. Thinking Design beyond Cleanliness, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, 2022.
Exhibition curation with Benjamin Burger “OTHERWISE - Polymorphic Futures”, Gessnerallee Zurich, 2022.
Panel Moderation “Material Trajectories. Designing with Care”, DGTF Annual Conference, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2021.
Panel Moderation “Times of Waste”, Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity. Image Space Material, Humboldt University of Berlin/Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, 2021;
Festival curation with Benjamin Burger, “OTHERWISE”, Gessnerallee Zurich, 2019.
Exhibition curation with Dámaso Randulfe for Migrant Journal, “Parallel Crossings”, STUK, Leuven, 2019.
Workshop organisation and panel moderation “Re-Imagining AI”, a collaboration between IXDM and House of Electronic Media Arts, Basel, 2019.
Conference organisation Strelka Institute’s Alumni Unconference, Moscow, 2019
Workshop organisation “Sandlab” in collaboration with Neuhaus, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, 2019.
Workshop organisation “Intra-Action Design”, Research Through Design Conference, TU Delft, 2019.
With Selena Savic and Shintaro Miyazaki workshop organisation “Utopia Reshuffled.” OTHERWISE festival, Zurich, 2019.
With Michael Rottmann workshop organisation “Artistic Research Workshop”, IXDM, Basel, 2018.
With Tena Kelemen workshop organisation “Exploring Alien Subjectivities”, FHNW Basel, 2018.
With Selena Savic, Viktor Bedö and Shintaro Miyazaki workshop organisation “Masquerade for Commoning”, Transmediale, Berlin, 2018.
Panel Moderation “Critical by Design. Potentials and Limitations of Materialised Critique”, Academy of Art and Design FHNW Basel, 2018.