Miranda Moss is an artist, designer, outsider engineer, eco-geek and rogue educator from Cape Town, South Africa. Her transdisciplinary practice, which focusses on the problematics and hopeful possibilities of technology from a socio-ecological and anticolonial feminist perspective, has seen her exhibit, teach and perform research across the globe in various art, science, community, academic, public and hacker spaces.
In 2017 she was the recipient of the Pro Helvetia / Artists-in-Labs residency in Zurich, where she was stationed in a phytopathology laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow, Forest and Landscape, investigating the colonial weight of “invasive alien” microorganisms. 2018 saw her first participation in the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), with a mass series of workshops-come-activist action to defend access to sustainable electricity, and in 2019 was the recipient of The NTAA (New Technological Art Awards) Audience Choice Award at Zebrastraat in Ghent. In 2020, she was awarded the konS Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art’s project production grant alongside collaborator Daniel Brownell, for a work reimagining factory farming and robotics, working alongside agri-tech scientists.
In September 2021, she completed a Masters degree in Sustainable Design at LNU in Sweden, where her thesis project “Power Harvest; explorations in regenerative energy technologies within the (post) colonial climate emergency” involved distilling cutting edge scientific experiments into poetic, artistically articulated and accessible forms of engagement. The project entailed developing a low-cost, DIY system for making electricity, fertilizer, and safely-treated water from human urine, in response to the oppressive technocoloniality inherent in post apartheid South Africa’s straining electrical, water and sanitation urban grid systems. She is wrapping up a 3 year long research project titled “Regenerative Energy Communities; artistic and collective energy experiments for resilient agriculture” funded by the Swedish Energy Agency’s Program for Energy, People and Society. She is currently the course co-ordinator for the second year of the Design+Change Masters programme at Linnaeus University.
EDUCATION
2012 Bachelor of Art in Fine Art, Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town, with a distinction in sculpture.
2021 Master’s of Art in Design + Change (Sustainable Design), Linnaeus University, Sweden.
AWARDS + RESIDENCIES
2024 Rewilding Cultures Mobility Conversations Grant
2021 Research Grant from the Swedish Energy Agency for “Regenerative Energy Communities” with Eric Snodgrass, Daniel Gustafsson and Prof. Helen V. Pritchard.
2020 Shortlisted (top 10) for the Michael Treschow Scholarship, Sweden.
2020 Recipient, along with collaborator Daniel Brownell, for the KonS Platform
for Contemporary Investigative Art’s project production grant.
2019 Winner of the New Technological Art Awards (NTAA) Audience Choice Award
2019 Nominated for the Paul Cunha e Silva Art Prize
2018 Nominated for the Cinekid Golden Lion award
2017 // 2 Weeks, Floating Reverie Online Digital Residency.
2017 Pro Helvetia Studio Residency / Artists-in-Labs Residency at the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow, Forest and Landscape (WSL) / Zürcher Hochschule der Künste ( ZHDK ), Zürich.
2012 The Michaelis Prize for top graduate exhibition
2012 Simon Gerson Award for outstanding graduate exhibition
2009 University of Cape Town Entrance Scholarship for outstanding application
2009 – 2012 Dean’s Merit List, University of Cape Town.
2007 MTN Young Artists Award
SELECTED PROJECTS AND EXHIBITIONS
2023
– ‘Hex’ Under Projects, Cape Town.
– co-curator and exhibitor at “Energy Giveaway at the Humuspunk Library”, AIA gallery, Lowenbrau Kunst, Zurich.
– Nonagon Music Festival, Svano, Sweden
– REFRESH Festival, ZHDK, Zurich
– exhibition for Elin Wagner Week, Italienska Palatset, Vaxjo, with Regenerative Energy Communities.
2022
– Kraut Source Energy Workshop at HEK (House of Electronic Arts), Basel, with Helen V. Pritchard and Maya Minder, as well as during the Earthbound exhibition organized in the frame of Esch European Cultural Capital 2022, Luxembourg, with Maya Minder and Ralf Schreiber.
– regeneration 20303 workshop. Part of Växjö Kommun’s Earth Week. Hofs Lifs, Växjö with Eric Snodgrass, Daniel Gustafsson, Helen Pritchard, Jorge Zapico and Leah Ireland.
– Gallus Gallus Roboticus alternative research space, as part of the International Festival of Computer Art (MFRU), Maribor, Slovenia.
2021
– Contributor to the project ‘Always Calling Home: Archipelago Edition’, by Vanessa Lorenzo and Sanele Ngubane, Javett-up centre / online, Johannesburg.
– ‘Digital Gardens’, TMRW Gallery, Johannesburg
2020
– ALT_CPH_2020: Patterns of Resistance. Online / Copenhagen.
– MFRU-Mednarodni festival računalniške umetnosti (International Festival of Computer Art), Maribor.
2019
–New Technological Art Awards (NTAA), Zebrastraat, Ghent
-Entanglements; Articulating the Personal Archive, Italienska Palatset, Växjö
-Silent Transformations; Traditional Chinese Medicine and it’s Subtle Effects on Contemporary Art, Sichuan Provincial Library, Chengdu.
2018
– Spier Light Art Festival, Spier Wine Farm, Stellenbosch.
– Life Hacking, as part of ISEA 2018 (the International Symposium on Electronic Art), KZNSA Gallery, Durban
– The Timid Wilderness, with artificial intelligence developed by Martin Wilson, an installation co-commissioned by La Gaîté Lyrique, Cinekid, KiKK Festival and WoeLab as part of the cooperation project ‘Les Voyages de Capitaine futur’ co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union. (Paris / Amsterdam / Namur / Lome, 2018-2019)
– The Age of Innocence, KKNK Festival, Outdshoorn
– Adjective Booth, Cape Town Art Fair
– Post Digital, an exhibition by Floating Reverie, Kalashnikov Gallery, Johannesburg
2017
–The Land of Milk and Honey Fungus, (a solo project) ZHDK, Zurich
– Afterword; The Last Show, Blank Projects, Cape Town
– Lady Garden, Cavalli Gallery, Cape Town
– Adjective Booth, Cape Town Art Fair
– The Window, Theatre Arts Admin Collective, Cape Town
2016
– If I’d Realised Paradise Was A Paddle Pool I Would’ve Left My Lifejacket At Home, Open Dialog Box, Cape Town. In collaboration with writer Marc Ricard.
– Sorry, please try again, Palms Centre, Cape Town
– Nothing Personal, SMAC gallery, Stellenbosch
– From Whence They Came, SMITH gallery, Cape Town
– Alma Martha Booth, Supermarket Art Fair, Stockholm
– Falling into One Another, Ruth Prowse School of Art, Cape Town
– Paradigm Lost, an installation at Blank Lab, Cape Town
– Barclay’s L’atelier award regional selection exhibition, Rust en Vrede Gallery, Cape Town
2015
– They made art and put it in a space…. You’ll never guess what happens next! Alma Martha Project Space, Cape Town
– Barclay’s L’atelier Award Top 100 Exhibition, ABSA Towers, Johannesburg
– Barclay’s L’atelier award regional selection exhibition, Rust en Vrede Gallery, Cape Town
– Hacke Le Pac ( in collaboration with Chris van Eeden), Asile 404, Marseille
– La Carte Postale Revisitee, curated by Caroline Hancock and Paul-Emmanuel Odin, La Compagnie, Marseille. Part of Printemps de l’Art Contemporain “Destination Mars”, Marseille.
– Motherless in Collaboration with Chris van Eeden, Geert Oliver and Francois Knoetze, Alma Martha Project Space, Cape Town.
– Proposal in Collaboration with Chris van Eeden, Jnr, Cape Town.
2014
– The Nature of Stuff and Things (solo exhibition), Brundyn +, Cape Town
– Do It in collaboration with Ed Young, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town. Curated and conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist
– Contemporary Salon on the Rocks, Rooi Els. Curated by Grizelda Hall, Chris van Eeden and Miranda Moss.
– Cubicle 2, Part of the exhibition Movement at Fairweather House, Cape Town. Curated by Rose Mudge and James King
– Cubicle, part of Infecting The City Festival, Cape Town. Curated by Rose Mudge and James King.
– Bazaar 3, Atlantic House, Cape Town. Curated by Matty Roodt.
– Bring Your Own Beamer ( BYOB), a Rafael Rozendaal project, Brundyn + , Cape Town.
2013
– Big Hole, The Kimberley Hotel, Cape Town.
– Cape Town Art Fair, Brundyn + Booth, The Lookout, Cape Town
– FNB Joburg Art Fair, Brundyn + booth, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
– This is What, Evil Son, Cape Town. Curated by Kerry Chaloner.
– in-, Brundyn + Gonsalves, Cape Town.
2012
– Mistakes, 50 Canterbury Street, Cape Town. Curated by Chris van Eeden and Kerry Chaloner.
– Ephemerology, (graduate exhibition) Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town.
2011
– Masiphumilele Sculpture Project, Cape Town
NOTABLE CONFERENCES, TALKS AND PRESENTATIONS
2024 Arts Research Africa (ARA) Podcast series.
2023 and 2024 Design Ecologies lecture series, ZHDK (Zurich University of the Arts)
2023 Regenerative Energy, talk at CoCreate week, Basel University of the Arts.
2022 Keynote presentation/workshop at Vetenskapsradet’s “Artistic Research in times of change” conference, Lulea, with Eric Snodgrass and Daniel Gustafsson.
2022 “Regenerative imaginaries: Building and supporting ties across soils”, NESS Nordic Environmental Social
Sciences Conference, Gothenburg University, with Eric Snodgrass, Daniel Gustafsson and Prof. Helen V. Pritchard.
2021 Art Meets… Podcast, Pro Helvetia, Zurich.
2021 Are we building the next world together? EMA EXPO, Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA).
2020 ‘Fostering an Art/Science Ecosystem’ at Prosto Festival, hosted by Innopollis IT and Robotics University.
2020 MFRU International Festival of Computer Arts, Slovenia
2019 ‘The Value of Interdisciplinary Collaboration’, Kodkollektivet, Videum Science Park, Växjö
2018 ISEA (The International Symposium on Electronic Art), Durban
2018 BootWoe Camp, Woelab, Lomé
NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS
Windternet: Designing grid-liberated servers for regenerative energy communities,
Eric Snodgrass, Helen Pritchard, Miranda Moss, Daniel Gustafsson, Jorge Luis Zapico, 2024. Limits conference; Computing within Limits.
“We need to rethink our relationship with energy”, A conversation with Miranda Moss and Leandra Agazzi, interviewed by Sophia Prinz, professor for Design Theory and History at the Department of Design, ZHDK. Published in ZETT, The magazine of Zurich University of the Arts, Issue 16, “Care”, 2024.
“How Does Soil Prototype? Notes from the Regenerative Energy Communities artistic research project in Växjö, Sweden”, in The Planet Laboratory n°6 • May 2024 • Planetary Peasants | Soil Assembly.
Pritchard, Helen, Eric Snodgrass, Miranda Moss and Daniel Gustafsson. 2023. “Tending to 2030m3: How to regenerate regeneration? How to unasphalt asphalt?” In ‘Plants by Numbers: Art, Computation, and Queer Feminist Technoscience’, Prophet and Pritchard (eds.). Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/plants-by-numbers-9781350343252/
2021 Power Harvest: Explorations in Regenerative Energy Technologies within the (post) Colonial Climate Emergency, Masters Thesis, Miranda Moss. diva2:1651048
2020 ‘The Traveling Plant Preparatory Logbook; The Veridical Travel Around The World of A True Imaginary Plant (Le véridique voyage autour du monde d’une plante imaginaire)’, Ars Electronica Garden Paris. A collarobarative text project seeded and facillitated by Annick Bureaud (FR); Tatiana Kourochkina (ES/RU); Marta de Menezes (PT); Claudia Schnugg (AT); Robertina Šebjanič (SI), and Michael Marder (PT/ES).
2019 ‘Riologia | Estrategias empáticas en tiempo profundo Empathic Strategies in Deep Time / Riología | Estrategias empáticas en tiempo profundo’, Realisation: L’Oréal and Instituto Mutante de Narrativas Ambientales de Matadero Madrid, in collaboration with: Fundación Ernesto Ventós, Biotopo Consultores, AGQ Labs, ZAP&BUJ, and ScenArt d.o.o. Edited by: Robertina Šebjanič, Miranda Moss, Eduardo Castillo Vinuesa, and Amanda Masha Caminals.
2019 ‘Floating Reverie; 5 Years, 2014 – 2019’. Tegan Bristow, Carly Whitaker, Daniel Rautenbach, Brooklyn J. Pakathi; Published by Galleri Kalashnikovv & NO END Contemporary Art Space.
SELECTED WORKSHOPS
2023 Are Friends Piezoelectric? Masterclass with Urs Gaudenz at REFRESH Festival, ZHDK, Switzerland.
2023 Regenerative Energy Workshop at Global Forest Festival, Black Forest, Germany.
2022 Regenerative Energy Workshop at HEK (House of Electronic Arts), Basel, with Helen V. Pritchard and Maya Minder.
2022 Regenerative Energy Workshop during the Earthbound exhibition organized in the frame of Esch European Capital 2022, Luxembourg, with Maya Minder and Ralf Schreiber.
2022 regeneration 2030³ workshop. Part of Växjö Kommun’s Earth Week. Hofs Lifs, Växjö with Eric Snodgrass, Daniel Gustafsson, Helen Pritchard, Jorge Zapico and Leah Ireland.
2021 – Feral Circuits workshop, Part of Friktion event held by Media Artes. Italienska Palatset, Växjö 2021 ČIPke – Initiative for women interested in intermedia art, science and technology, Kersnikova Gallery, Slovenia 2021 Light me Up! at Arabypark Arena, Växjö, Sweden.
2021 Regenerative Energies, Linnaeus University, Sweden.
2019 Motherfucker X-mas Party, Platform, Vaasa
2018 Free Sunshine. ISEA Durban, and Baleni
2017 Make Art Not Boring, Brooklyn, Cape Town.