Rasa Weber     

is an experimental designer, researcher, and diver exploring practice-based research on the intersection of critical ecology and anthropogenic environmental change. Her work integrates design, materials research, biology, and anthropology, with a strong narrative approach and a critical ecological perspective. The ocean serves as a central focus in her design research, particularly in the context of queer ecological figurations.

She is a lecturer and researcher at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and is pursuing a practice-based PhD, «SymbiOcean», investigating artificial reefs and marine habitat creation as a form of sympoietic design. She is also part of the Swiss National Science Foundation project «Interfacing the Ocean» and an associated researcher at the Cluster of Excellence «Matters of Activity» at Humboldt-University of Berlin.

She co-founded They Feed Off Buildings, a design and architecture collective, and previously led the studio Blond & Bieber, known for bio-based materials and color concepts. She has taught at institutions including the Royal College of Art London, Berlin University of the Arts, OCAD University Toronto, and the University of Leeds.

She recently published her first book together with Flore de Crombrugghe »333 Saftige Papayas. Ein unvollständiges Kompendium der dicken Dinger« at März Verlag. 

Rasa is a 2nd Dan in Aikido (Tenshinkan Watanabe Sensei, Gruber).

DISSERTATION PROJECT (ongoing)
«SYMBIOCEAN. Sympoietic design practices in troubled waters.»

Reef ecologies have been transformed into ruinous spaces. Continued anthropogenic pressure on coral worlds has led to death and destruction of marine habitats. The effects of the climate crisis appear to be becoming irreversible damage not only to corals, but also to all symbiotically associated species that depend on their thriving, including the human. However, in rare cases, unlikely ecosystems have managed to establish themselves in blasted seascapes (following Tsing and Kirksey's term »blasted landscapes«1), which, as Alexis Shotwell reminds us, »can still be spaces of hope«2. They illustrate neither the fall of an »untouched paradise« nor the irreversible destructiveness of the human species alone: in their resistance to being wiped off the ecological map, despite all the devastating forces to which they were and are still exposed, they could be read as islands of hope in a largely ruinous ocean. This hope, however, is contaminated.

The »SymbiOcean« project brings together design, anthropology, and marine biology to develop a new approach to the creation of feral3, unruly, and locally situated marine habitat in collaboration with ocean dwellers, marine communities and their diverse materials, technologies, and cultural approaches. These newly emerging ecosystems, resulting from collaboration across species boundaries, could be called »queer reefs«. They act as a counter to the established norms of conservation policies that traditionally advocate for a return to a »pristine«, »prehuman« or »untouched« ecology. »Queer reefs« seek to contribute to the recently emerging field of queer ecologies4 by specifically addressing conservation practices and policies in marine environments in messy and compromised times. Through methods of ecological attunement5, co-design, and underwater fieldwork through diving, »SymbiOcean« is developing forms of submerged6 practice and thinking that consider convivial conservation7 as a new model for shaping the future of reefs and the intricately interwoven life of marine communities.
 

This PhD project is funded by the Swiss National Science Fund project »Interfacing the Ocean« led by Prof. Dr. Karmen Franinović and Dr. Roman Kirschner at Zurich University of the Arts, conducted together with PhD researchers Antoine Bertin and Anthea Oestreicher. The doctorate takes place within the practice-based PhD program cooperation between Zurich University of the Arts and University of Arts Linz, supervised by Prof. Dr. Karmen Franinović (Design) and Dr. Karin Harrasser (Cultural Theory, University of Arts Linz). As associated member, Rasa Weber has joined the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« at Humboldt University of Berlin in 2022 and is part of its PhD research cohort.

1 Anna L. Tsing (2014). »Blasted Landscapes (and the Gentle Arts of Mushroom Picking)«. In: Eben Kirksey (ed.) (2014). »The Multispecies Salon«. Duke University Press.
2 Alexis Shotwell (2016). »Against Purity. Living Ethically in Compromised Times«. University of Minnesota Press, p. 198.
3 Jack Halberstam (2020). »Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire«. Duke University Press.
4 Greta Gaard 1997, Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands & Bruce Erickson 2010, Timothy Morton 2010, Matthew Gandy 2012, Catriona Sandilands 2016.
5 Vinciane Despret 2008, Lisbeth Lipari 2014, Russell J. Duvernoy 2020, Karmen Franinović & Roman Kirschner 2021.
6 Macarena Gómez-Barris (2017). »The Extractive Zone: Social Ecologies and Decolonial Perspectives«. Duke University Press.
7 Bram Büscher & Robert Fletcher (2019). Towards Convivial Conservation. In: Conservation & Society, Vol. 17, No. 3, p. 283-296.

Supervisors:                    Prof. Dr. Karmen Franinović 

                                        (Interaction Design, ZHdK)

                                        Prof. Dr. Karin Harrasser 

                                        (Cultural Theory, Kunstuniversität Linz)
SNSF Research Project: Interfacing the Ocean.

                                        Swiss National Science Fund 2024-2027.

                                        Zurich University of the Arts.
                                        PIs: Karmen Franinović & Roman Kirschner  

                                        PhDs: A. Bertin, A. Oestreicher & R. Weber.

Affiliations:                     Zurich University of the Arts

                                        Linz University of Arts and Design
Research Associate:      Matters of Activity. Cluster of Excellence.

                                        Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. 

Membership:                  Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designforschung
                                        Deutsches Konsortium für Meeresforschung

COMMISION 

IKEA I LXSY Architekten I Bruzkus Batek Architekten I Studio David Thulstrup I Studio Werner Aisslinger I Goethe Institut Los Angeles I Goethe Institut Toronto I Los Angeles Fashion Week I Amsterdam Fashion Week I Designblok Prague I Werkstudio Axel Kufus I Kunsthalle Praha I Vollebak UK a.o.

COLLABORATION 

Atelier Marie Drouet I Polynesian Institute of Biomimicry I Jordan Lab, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior I Paraiso Dive Cartagena I Blue Apple Beach Resort I Curaçao Divers Global Coral Reef Alliance I Keracol UK I Hien Le I Michael Sontag I Schmidttakahashi I Vladimir Karaleev I Dawid Tomaszewski I Perret Schaad I Trippen I Swarovski I Jurlights I Fraunhofer Institut für Grenzflächen und Bioverfahrenstechnik I Schlaflabor der Charité Berlin I G.Tecz I Festool a.o.

TEACHING 

Zurich University of the Arts I University of the Arts Berlin I University Anhalt Dessau I Berlin International University I OCAD University Toronto I University of Leeds UK I Royal College of Arts UK KhB Weißensee DE I KEA Copenhagen School of Design and Technology DK I Cee Cee Berlin DE I Textilskole Holte DK I AKI Academy of Arts and Design NL a.o.

AWARDS 

2020  DEUTSCHER NACHHALTIGKEITSPREIS NOMINATION

Category: Aktuelle Vorreiter with TFOB Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis e.V.

2019  GERMAN DESIGN AWARD NOMINATION (finalist)

Category: Newcomer with TFOB I Rat für Formgebung

2019  AD AWARD NOMINATION Category: Best Concept I AD Magazine

2019 - 2018 KULTUR- UND KREATIVPILOTEN for «Urban Terrazzo»

Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie & U-Institut

2018  BUNDESPREIS ECODESIGN for «Urban Terrazzo»

Internationales Design Zentrum Berlin

2018  GREEN PRODUCT AWARD (finalist) for «Urban Terrazzo»

2017  CREATIVE PROTOTYPING STIPENDIUM for «Urban Terrazzo»

Europäischer Sozialfonds, ESF, Senatsverwaltung Berlin, UdK

2016  GERMAN DESIGN AWARD NOMINATION with Blond & Bieber

2015  GERMAN DESIGN AWARD NOMINATION for «Algaemy»

2015  MAKE ME! A WARD for « Algaemy»“, Łódź Design F estival (PL)

2014  BUNDESPREIS ECODESIGN for «Algaemy»

CORE 77 (honorable mention) for «Algaemy» (USA)

DMY YOUNG TALENTS NOMINATION with Blond & Bieber

DESIGN FOR DEATH designboom (shortlist) 

OUTPUT AWARD (NL)

THE PITCH Arte Creative (shortlist)

SCHOLARSHIPS & GRANTS

2027 - 2024  Interfacing the Ocean I Swiss National Science Fund

                      Project Grant, PIs: K. Franinović & R. Kirschner

                      Interaction Design I Zurich University of the Arts

2023              PROCOPE Mobility Grant I France I Government of                                    France-Embassy of France in Germany I DAAD

2023              Auslandsstipendium Kunstuniversität Linz

2019 - 2018   Kultur- und Kreativpiloten 2019 I „Urban Terrazzo“     

                      Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie I U-Institut

2018 - 2017   Creative Prototyping Stipendium I „Urban Terrazzo“ 

                      Europäischer Sozialfond, Stadt Berlin, UdK                           

2017 - 2010  STUDIENWERK VILLIGST e.V. scholarship for talented

                      and socially engaged students, Bundesministerium für

                      Bildung und Forschung

2013 - 2012  DAAD & ERASMUS

                     Design Academy Eindhoven