Carolyn Kirschner - Physics of Life

Carolyn Kirschner has been nominated for the S+T+ARTS Ec(h)o Residency on the topic of Physics of Life. With the project Zebrafish: Interspecies Futures, Carolyn Kirschner focuses on one of the most common laboratory species, the zebrafish, and its socio-cultural significance. Complex entanglements between zebrafish and human worlds are explored on a micro and macro level and the possible futures of the animal are speculated upon. The project is hosted at the Office for Academic Heritage, Scientific and Art Collections (Kustodie) of TUD Dresden University of Technology and takes place in cooperation with the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life, the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics Dresden (MPI-CBG) and the Chair of Neuronal Development and Regeneration at the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD).

© Carolyn Kirschner

Carolyn Kirschner (1993) is a designer and researcher with a background in architecture. Her work explores the growing (and often strange) entanglements of ecologies and machines in the context of the climate crisis. Working with scientific tools, simulation engines, digital fabrication, and environmental data, she conjures fragments from alternate or expanded worlds—with a particular interest in realms which lie beyond the reach of human senses.

Her work has been shown at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2023), ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (2022), Museum of Modern Art Medellin (2025), Milan Design Week (2024), and Jupiter Hamburg (2023).
Research publications include Visual Ecologies of Placemaking (2025), Beyond Matter: Within Space (2023), Perspecta (2021), The Polar Silk Road (2021) and Evental Aesthetics (2021).

Carolyn Kirschner is currently a Lecturer in Design at Goldsmiths, University of London. She previously taught at Parsons School of Design in New York (2019-2023), was the recipient of a postdoctoral Sawyer Seminar Fellowship at The New School (2018-2019), and a fellow of the Designed Realities Studio led by Dunne & Raby (2018-2020). She has held residencies at ZKM Karlsruhe (2022), A/D/O Brooklyn (2019-2020), City Science Lab Hamburg (2022-2023), and Kilpisjärvi Biological Station via Ars Bioarctica (2025).