ABOUT
Award-winning Design Futurist | Speculative Designer
Drawing on a systematic and cultural lens, Shihan’s works explore the possibilities of emerging technologies and extrapolate world conditions, to inspire new perspectives and empower reflections through tangible artifacts and immersive storytelling.
She is the Founder & Innovation Director of the alterR. Studio, and Exhibition Chair of The Design Futures Initiative & PRIMER Conferences. She also has experiences across diverse organizations, including Creative Member at New INC, Creative Creation at SPACE10, Design Director for the San Francisco Design Week Awards Exhibits, Design Consultant at Institute for the Future, Visiting Professor Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and Certified Foresight Professional at Global Foresight Advisory Council.
Seeking a futurist who can explore and prototype possible futures for your organization or yourself?
Say Hi at: shihanzhang.design@gmail.com | CV
SELECTED AWARDS
FastCo. Innovation by Design Awards, Best Biological Design, 2023
WIRED, Creative Hack Award, Finalist, 2023
Falling Walls Science Summit Art and Science, 2022
Lumen Prize, Futures Award, 2021
Core77 Design Awards, Speculative Design Concept, Winner, 2021
100 Design of the Year, Design360 Magazine, 2019
FastCo. World Changing Ideas Awards, Honorable Mention, 2019
WIRED Japan, Creative Hack Award, Finalist, 2019
Core77 Design Awards, Design Concept, Runner Up, 2018
San Francisco Design Week Award, Bio-tech Award Winner, 2018
A.I.R Design Competition, The Center for American Architecture and Design, Second Prize, 2018
What Design Can Do, Climate Action Challenge, Nominates, 2017
IDEA Design Award, Social Impact Design Award, Finalist, 2017
JURY & MENTOR
Visiting Professor, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA). 2021
XJTLU Awards, Juror. 2021-2022
Emerging Designer Award and Exhibition, The Design Futures Initiative. 2017-2019
Zero1 American Arts Incubator, Peer Mentor. 2018
PRIMER 17 Conference, Invited Juror. 2017
AICAD Design Symposium, Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, Juror. 2015
SELECTED TALKS
Open to Public Speaking
Figma Conference 2023. “Design Tomorrow’s Products: A Journey into Speculative Design”. San Francisco
81st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). Chengdu
Amazon. Conflux Creative Conference. “[Deep Dive] into Facilitation”. Virtual. 2023
World Design Organization. PepTalks. “The Future We Want”. World Industrial Design Day 2023. Virtual
XJTLU Design School. Lecture Series. “BioEconomics: Sustainable futures”. Virtual. 2022
International Conference on Design Futures, “Futures Ideas Lab” Panel, Beijing. 2021
PRIMER21. “Speculative Design Through Cross-culture Lenses”. Speaker. Virtual. 2021
NEW INC X Science Sandbox. “Radical Evolution - Econut”. Speaker. New York. 2021
Frog Design. Feed The Beast. “BioEconomics: Speculative Futures with alterR.studio” Virtual. 2021
Global Bio Summit 4.0 by MIT. “Starting our Day with BioArt & Design.” Panel Speaker. Virtual. 2021
最毕设 Zuibishe. New Talents’ Talk. “Drive the Future of Imagination -what’s alterR?”. Speaker. Virtual. 2021
The Institute For the Future (IFTF). “BioEconomics: Speculative Future Designs with AlterReality Studio”. Palo Alto. 2019
Binary Salons. Public Works & Marpi Studio & Midway SF. San Francisco. 2019
Foodinno Conference. “Personal Carbon Economy”. Speaker. Palo Alto. May, 2019
Standford STAR/ArtX Symbioses Event. Panelist. Palo Alto. May, 2019
DesignTO Symposium. The Future of Work. “Future Carbon Work”. Speaker. Toronto. January, 2019
Gray Area Artist Salon 2018.1-2
SELECTED MEDIA & PRESS
BioDesigned Issue 6 - It’s 2071, and You’re Hungry
Domus - “The art collective Altereality dreams of a skin database.”
Unknown Quantities. #9. Central Saint Martins. UAL. “Skin Database, To Get More Out of DNA.”London
[LINK](Journal). Edition 01: States of Matter. - “Rent your Body as Data Storage by alterR.studio”. Barcelona
BRACKET [on sharing] - “Shared Responsibility: Learning from share economy models to design for climate change”
About Place Journal- Rewilding - “Skin Farming”
Alumni Interview - “MFA in Design: Alumni Q+A with Shihan Zhang, product designer at Vim “
McKinsey - Personal Carbon Economy
Gray Area - Personal Carbon Economy
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
The Animal Farm Simulator. Hyundai Motor Studio. Installation. Beijing. 2023
Museum of Design Atlanta. Full Circle: Design Without End. Installation. Atlanta. 2022
DesignTO 10 Years festival. Window Installation. Toronto. 2020
Bio Creation Station. Global Bio Summit 4.0. Virtual. 2020
10 Years Foresight Conference 2019. Institute for the Future (IFTF). Interactive Installation. 2019
Stanford FoodInno Conference. Muti-sensory Installation. Palo Alto. 2019
Gray Area Art and Technology. Interactive Installation. San Francisco. 2019
The A.I.R Symposium Exhibition. The University of Texas at Austin. Installation. Austin. 2018
PRIMER Conference. Interactive installation. May Symbiosis Carbon Future. San Francisco. 2018
San Francisco Design Week Award Exhibition. San Francisco
Chengdu Design Week. China. 2017
Dutch Design Week. Embassy of climate action. Eindhoven. 2017
Better Together Exhibition. SF Design Week. San Francisco, 2017
PRIMER 17. San Francisco. 2017
Junior’ Pick of CCA Commencement Exhibition. San Francisco. 2017
California Academy of Science. Interactive Nightlife, 2016
CURATIONS
Exhibition Director. San Francisco Design Week Award Ceremony Exhibition 2018-2019
Juror and Exhibition Chair. Emerging Designer Award and Exhibition - PRIMER Conference 2018-2019
Exhibition curator - PRIMER Conference 2017