ABOUT
Alexandra Fruhstorfer is a transdisciplinary designer with an investigative and research driven approach.
Within her creative practice she questions prevalent political and cultural paradigms, while trying to embrace phenomena of accelerated technological and ecological change.
Using design as a strategic, yet playful tool she aims to enable more equitable imaginaries for our material culture on a planet in trouble.
Experimenting with methods from industrial design, design research, social design and futuring Alexandra creates artefacts and experiences that aim to provide space for critical reflection and collaborative action.
As an advocate of a holistic and inclusive approach to her practice she works with stakeholders from science, culture, business, activism and the civil society in order to bring the transformative power of design to a broad audience.
Currently she thinks about new job profiles for a future of technological unemployment, explores ways to render toxic microfibres harmless for coming generations, creates architectural models that include the needs of pigs, birds and raccoons and tries to become better at unmaking.
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Alexandra graduated from Industrial Design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2017. She was awarded the MehrWert Social Design Prize in 2018 and 2022 and received the Startstipendium, a federal grant for emerging designers, in 2019. The same year her project Transitory Yarn was included in the MAK Design Lab at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. In 2021 she was nominated for the Ralph Saltzman Prize of the Design Museum in London.
Lately her work has been shown also at the Triennale di Milano, MOMA Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, the Porto Design Biennale and the Jerusalem Design Week.
EXHIBITIONS
2023
WUK / KUNSTHALLE EXNERGASSE, VIENNA (AT)
Open Floor
MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS, VIENNA (AT)
Critical Consumption
UNIBZ, BOLZANO (IT)
Fashion for Future
MILAN DESIGN WEEK, MILAN (IT)
Worth Partnership Program
KUNSTGEWERBEMUSEUM, DRESDEN (GE)
Plant Fever
MUSEUMSQUARTIER, VIENNA (AT)
How to Become and Island?
2022
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, VIENNA
Stadtarbeit / Dare to Share and Wear, Mariahüf!
WIENWOCHE, VIENNA
Working Class Ecologies / How Many Layers?
NOVI SAD 2022, NOVI SAD (SRB)
European Capital of Culture
JERUSALEM DESIGN WEEK, JERUSALEM (ISR)
NOW
KREISLAUFKULTUR FESTIVAL, MQ VIENNA
Remanufacturing
AULA DER WISSENSCHAFTEN, VIENNA
Circular Economy Summit
2021
Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich (CH)
Plant Fever / Menu from the New Wild
MOMA Museum of Modern Art, New York (US)
Broken Nature / Transitory Yarn
CIS Tecnoloxía e Deseño, Ferrol (ESP)
The Archive of Vibrant Matter / Transitory Yarn
Suluv Gallery, Novi Sad (SRB)
May I introduce: Alien / Making Oddkin
Museum of Science and Technology, Belgrade
Exhibition Art & Science 2021 / Woodiana Oracle
Fabrikraum, Vienna
May I introduce: Alienexpress / Making Oddkin
Casa do Design, Porto Design Biennale
Museum of Vibrant Matter / Captivating the Fibresphere
Casa do Design, Porto Design Biennale
Ma(t)eralities / Transitory Yarn
2020
Le Grand-Hornu, Belgium
Plant Fever / Menu from the New Wild
Graz Kulturjahr 2020 / Lendhafen, Graz
das Zukunftsamt der Arbeit / Wer schafft die Arbeit?!
Angewandte Innovation Lab, Vienna
May I introduce: Alien / Making Oddkin
IDS show, Toronto
Edible Futures / Menu from the New Wild
2019
IDS show, Vancouver
Edible Futures / Menu from the New Wild
Dubai Design Week, Dubai
Nature Based Generations / Transitory Yarn
ongoing! Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
MAK Design Lab Collection / Transitory Yarn
Agriculture and Food Museum, Ingenium Canada
Edible Futures / Menu from the New Wild
Triennale di Milano, Milan
Broken Nature / Transitory Yarn
Schloss Hollenegg for Design, Hollenegg
Ad Mensam / Menu from the New Wild
2018
Amerling Haus, Vienna
1070 Unseen
LAZNIA Centre for contemporary Art, Gdansk
Graphics go politics! / Chlorine Washed Chicken
Vienna Design Week, Vienna
1070 Unseen
AWARDED THE MEHRWERT DESIGNPRIZE
Maker Faire, Vienna
Transitory Yarn
MAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Vienna
Ästhetik der Veränderung / Everything is Shifting
2017
Kunstfabrik, Groß Siegharts
Transitory Yarn & Weftwarp
Dutch Design Week / Design Indaba, Eindhoven
Antenna Conference / Menu from the New Wild
Alte Post, Vienna
The Essence / Menu from the New Wild
Angewandte Innovation Lab, Vienna
How Will We Work / DeRIVE
Museum for Applied Arts, Vienna/Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein/Design Museum, Gent
Hello Robot / Uninvited Guests (Superflux)
Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
Stadtfabrik (IDRV) / Transitory Yarn
2016
Alte Post, Vienna
The Essence / Transitory Yarn, Mechanics of Holes
2015
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
All of this belongs to you / Drone Aviary (Superflux)
World Food Expo / Cumulus, Milan
Design to feed the world / Rejam
2014
Künstlerhaus, Vienna
The Essence / DeRIVE, Rejam
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, New York
How Things Don't Work: The Dreamspace of Victor Papanek / Table Manners, DeRIVE
Power Station of Arts, Shanghai
Design Shanghai / DeRIVE
2013
Künstlerhaus, Vienna
The Essence / Table Manners, Microbial Ventilation
2012
Künstlerhaus, Vienna
The Essence / Urine-Fertilizer Machine No.1
TALKS, WORKSHOPS & TEACHING
2023
UNIBZ, BOLZANO (IT)
What the Fuzz?!
KUNSTHALLE, VIENNA (AT)
Was tun nach der Arbeit?
TANGENTE ST. PÖLTEN, ST. PÖLTEN (AT)
Über Arbeit (-et)
DESIGN AUSTRIA, VIENNA (AT)
Panel / Design im Zeitalter der ökologischen Krise
FREE UNIVERSITY OF BOZEN, BOLZANO (IT)
Lecture / Design for a Planet in Trouble
UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED ARTS, VIENNA (AT)
Lecture / Design for a Planet in Trouble
2022
BERGEN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BERGEN (NO)
4-day workshop / This is not Apparel
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, VIENNA (AT)
Care and Repair
WIENWOCHE, VIENNA (AT)
Workshop Series / Working Class Ecologies, How Many Layers?
KREISLAUFKULTUR FESTIVAL, MQ VIENNA (AT)
Remanufacturing
ARTS AND SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED ARTS VIENNA (AT)
3-day workshop / Liquid Tools for River Fiction
HERBSTSTRASSE, VIENNA (AT)
Lecture / Toxic Textiles and Fibre Futures
DESIGNSKOLEN KOLDING, KOLDING (DNK)
Presentation / Design for a Planet in Trouble
WEISSRAUM, INNSBRUCK (AT)
Talk and Panel / Kreislaufdenken im Design
TAG.WERK SCHAU, GRAZ (AT)
Presentation / New Work
JERUSALEM DESIGN WEEK, JERUSALEM (ISR)
Presentation and Panel Talk / Gaon’s Salon
NEW DESIGN UNIVERSITY, ST. PÖLTEN (AT)
Presentation / Synapsentanz
MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS, VIENNA (AT)
Presentation / Transitory Häkeln
AUSTRIAN EMBASSY, MANILA (PHL)
Presentation / Women in Steam Career
2021
Human Computer Interaction, TU Vienna
Panel talk / Design Thinking
Conference Planet Matters, Vienna Biennale for Change
Talk / From Life with a Sheep and Trapping Toxic Textiles
Ars Electronica, Linz
Workshop / Diviners Wanted!
We Stand As One: Campaign Against Human Trafficking, Voice of the Free and Austrian Embassy, Manila
Workshop / Glimpses of the Future
Faculty of Design and Art, Free University of Bolzano
Talk / Unmake, for god's sake!
Casa do Design, Porto Design Biennale
Workshop / Captivating the Fibresphere
2020
Studio Design Investigations, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Panel talk / from experiential futures to more accessible futuring practices
Human Computer Interaction, TU Vienna
Talk / Creative Thinking
Plant Fever, CID Grand Hornu
Insta Live-Talk / Menu from the New Wild
Studio Design Investigations, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Talk / from experiential futures to more accessible futuring practices
Radio Helsinki, free Radio Graz
Interview / Wer schafft die Arbeit?!
postcoronal LAB, St. Pölten
Podcast Interview / Invasive Spezies - Aliens unter uns
Lendhafen, Graz
Podiumsdiskussion "Wie wollen wir arbeiten?" / Wer schafft die Arbeit?!
Angewandte Innovation Lab, Vienna
AILien Talks during Angewandte Festival
Reininghaus Gründe, Graz
3-day Workshop / Wer schafft die Arbeit?!
FH Campus 02, Graz
Kick-Off Presentation & Workshop / Wer schafft die Arbeit?!
2019
University of Applied Arts, Vienna
Student and Diploma Crit
HTL Mödling, Lower Austria
Virtual Reality Workshop
PechaKucha, Vienna
Transdisciplinary Design
2018
Vienna Design Week, Vienna
postcard workshops
Schloss Eckartsau, Lower Austria
100 years ago: Karl & Zita / opening talk
AHS Rahlgasse, Vienna
3-day film and foto workshop supported by Canon,
How to ethically kill a turtle
Maker Faire, Vienna
interactive workshop / Transitory Yarn
2017
Dutch Design Week / Design Indaba
Antenna Conference / Speaker
Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
Stadtfabrik / Talk about Transitory Yarn
Design Austria, Vienna
Graphics go politics! / Note for Chlorine Washed Chicken
EDUCATION
2011 - 2017
University of Applied Arts Vienna,
Industrial Design Mag. des.ind
Studio Fiona Raby (Dunne&Raby, UK) & Anab Jain (Superflux, UK)
2007 - 2009
Higher Technical School, Mödling
College for Interior Design and Furniture Construction
2006 - 2007
University of Vienna, Vienna
Political Science
PRESS FEATURES
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WORK EXPERIENCE
since 2012
working as independent designer and artist
2015
Superflux London
2012
ongoing WW Wohnwagon GmbH
2012 - 2015
Polka Products
2011 - 2014
University of Applied Arts Vienna, ID2, study assistant