Veronica Ranner is a German Artist, designer and researcher who lives and works in Singapore and Munich

Veronica Ranner is a transdisciplinary designer and artist researching emerging (bio-)technologies, bio-design, bio-fabrication, systems design and experimental approaches between design, science, and society. Her research looks specifically at the potentiality and ethics of futuring concerning the bio-digital — a burgeoning domain and new converging knowledge space where computational thinking meets biological matter. 

Through drawing from science and technology studies (STS), critical theory, human-computer interaction (HCI), sociology and critical post-humanism, she traces the outlines of expanding bio-digital configurations, their emergence and (ethical) implications for design, society, and ecology. She proposes a ‘polyphonic’ approach of designing critically and speculatively that she calls Designing with Transience.

Veronica holds a German Diplom in Industrial Design from Pforzheim University, a Master in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art and is an AHRC-funded PhD Candidate at the latter. She worked widely on trans-disciplinary projects across various leading scientific institutions, biomedical companies, agencies, museums and universities, such as a Design Advisor at Cambridge University (UK) and a Visiting Scientist at Tufts University in Boston (MA, USA).

Her work is frequently exhibited internationally, including at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Science Gallery in Dublin, the China Technology Museum in Beijing, the Biennale du Design in Saint-Etienne (France), the National Museum in Stockholm, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Marta Herford (Germany), Design Museum Ghent (Belgium), and the Futurium in Berlin.

Veronica has taught internationally and leads workshops in different settings, such as conferences, universities, art institutions and science laboratories. Here she invites artists, technologists, writers, designers, scientists and the public to collectively speculate on the polyphonic potential of technology and living materials.

She is the founder of ‘Polyphonic Futures’, a growing design-science imagination laboratory that cross-connects experts with the public through real-world events, as well as digitally. She also founded ‘Design — Research — Making’, a participatory, interactive, open space for international and cross-institutional exchanges.

In January 2022, she joined the Nanyang Technological University School of Art Design and Media as Assistant Professor for Product Design.

Since Apr 2008
Studio Veronica Ranner
Provision of international lectures, seminars and workshops in design and science universities, museums, art institutions and industry; development, design and production of artworks, 3d-designs and films.

Academic EMPLOYMENT

Jan 2022 – present
Assistant Professor of Product Design
Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media
Tenure-track research faculty, teaching product design core modules and electives (PD3 and PD4, UXD, Body-Centric Design (Wearable Tech) and Design Futures & Experiences). Supervision of BA Final Year Projects, MA thesis and PhD students.

Apr 2016– Apr 2021
Visiting Lecturer
Royal College of Art, London, UK
Teaching various courses at the RCA, such as MA Textile Design, MA Fashion Womenswear & Menswear, MRes Design and the MA Innovation Design Engineering (IDE)

Sep 2014– Jul 2015       
Visiting Scientist
Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA

2012– present
Guest lecturing and teaching at various academic institutions worldwide, such as Glasgow School of Art, Central Saint Martins, London, Tufts University, Boston, Zurich University of the Arts, and Parsons New School for Design, New York. 

⟶ see LECTURES & CONFERENCES.

Sep 2016– Jan 17                
Associate Lecturer
Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK
The Expanded Designer programme

Sep 2015– Dec 15                
Visiting Lecturer
The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK
MDes Design Innovation programme

Feb & Sep 2015       
Visiting Lecturer
Zurich University of the Arts (ZhDK), Switzerland
MA Interaction Design, Department Design

Jul 2011– Oct 2011
Design Advisor
Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

AWARDS AND Grants

2023 Startup grant, NTU CoHASS and Ministry of Education, Singapore

2014-15 Material supply grant, provided for four months of laboratory work, Arts and Science program, Tufts University, MA, USA

2014 AHRC Travel grant
Design Research Conference (DRS 2014), Umeå, Sweden

2013 Honoree, Core 77 Design Awards
Category Speculative Design, New York, USA

2012–16 Full AHRC Doctoral Award
Arts and Humanities Research Council, London, UK

2011 Winner of the 1st Alfred Kärcher Award
Alfred Kärcher GmbH, Germany

2011 Nominee, Future of Ourselves Award
Helen Hamlyn Design Centre, London, London, UK

2010 Shortlisted/ Runner-up
BIO:Fiction, Science & Art Filmfestival, Vienna, Austria

2010–11 Royal College of Art Bursary
Royal College of Art, UK

2009–11 Stipend for artistic development
Claus und Brigitte Meyer Stiftung, Germany

2009–11 Stipend for artistic development
Alfred Kärcher GmbH, Germany

2009–10 Royal College of Art Bursary
Royal College of Art, UK

2009 Grant for artistic development
Vereinigte Stiftungen Pforzheim, Germany

2008 Scholarship award for outstanding degree work
Pforzheim University, Germany

2008 Scholarship award for pioneer-minded work
Heinrich Blanc Foundation, Germany