Netta Ofer

I am a design researcher exploring more-than-human design perspectives, mostly through the material and ethical qualities of living organisms. Through autobiographic design methods, bodily and movement practices, microscopy, digital fabrication, and digital art, I aim to expose entangled relations with nonhumans, human-centered assumptions, and fabulate and enact different ones. My background is in media studies, human-computer interaction (HCI), and interaction design from the Media Innovation Lab (milab) at Reichman University. I have published and demoed my research at ACM CHI, ACM DIS, and ACM IDC; and exhibited work at The Museum of Boulder and The Arvada Center.
I earned a PhD in Creative Technology & Design from The ATLAS Institute at University of Colorado Boulder.
I am on the academic job market!

Artist Statement

I investigate the hierarchical nature of human-nonhuman relationships, specifically living organisms. I use design research, embodied practices, and visual art for exposing anthropocentric contact zones and challenging narrow perspectives. From examining the surveillance in microscopic observation to designing embodied interactions with nonhuman organisms, I explore how human exceptionalism shapes the links between bodies and how we perceive them. My practice often relies on growing and tending to nonhuman organisms for surfacing points of connection and tension between our humanism, ourselves, and other agentic forces. These practices reveal what is in-becoming, overlooked, and uncertain in a world that is polarized and forced into categories.

looking at looking

2024–2025 · exhibited at GUI/GOOEY and Matter Over Mind

looking at looking at physarum polycephalum

Timelapse video of Physarum polycephalum (slime mold) growth, with the slime mold’s electrical resistance levels mapped to sound recordings of foraging.

looking at looking was exhibited as part of the GUI/GOOEY exhibition in New York and online, curated by Laura Splan; and as part of the Matter Over Mind exhibition at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, curated by Stella Witcher.