Ebru Kurbak – Curriculum Vitae

Research Projects and Positions

2020 – 2024, Principal Investigator. University of Applied Arts Vienna. “The Museum of Lost Technology” funded by the Austrian Science Fund. Grant DOI: 10.55776/V795.
2019 – 2022, Affiliate Collaborator. MIT Space Exploration Initiative.
2014 – 2018, Principal Investigator. University of Applied Arts Vienna. “Stitching Worlds” funded by the Austrian Science Fund. Grant DOI: 10.55776/AR284.
2010 – 2012, Researcher. University of Art and Industrial Design Linz. Researcher in the artistic research project “Public Space 2.0” funded by the Austrian Science Fund. Grant DOI: 10.55776/AR44.

Teaching Positions

2020 – 2022, Visiting Professor. University of Applied Arts Vienna, Institute of Art Sciences and Art Education.
2022 Spring, Adjunct Lecturer. ArtCenter, Media Design Practices Graduate Program [online].
2006 – 2014, Adjunct Lecturer. University of Art and Industrial Design Linz, Institute of Space and Design, Department of Space and Design Strategies.
2003 – 2006, Lecturer. Istanbul Bilgi University, Departments of Visual Communication Design and Photography and Video.
2001 – 2003, Teaching Assistant. Istanbul Bilgi University, Department of Visual Communication Design and MA Program in Visual Communication Design.

Grants and Honors

2023    ACM Siggraph Art Gallery “Best in Show” Award.
2020    Elise-Richter-PEEK, four-year fellowship (Excellence Program), Austrian Science Fund.
2019    LACMA Art + Technology Fellowship, Los Angeles County Museum of Arts.
2018    Nominated for the Swarovski Award for Excellence in Austrian Design.
2015    The Erste Bank MoreVALUE Design Award.
2013    PEEK, four-year arts-based research project grant, Austrian Science Fund.
2013    Art Project Grant, the Arts and Culture division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria.
2009    Project grant by Ars Electronica and Linz ’09 European Capital of Culture.
2015    Nominated for the New Technological Art Award, Zebrastraat.

Artist Residencies

2024    18^th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, California, United States.
2024    NIROX Sculpture Park, Krugersdorp, South Africa.
2023    ArtCenter College, Pasadena, California, United States.
2013    Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, NYC, New York, United States.
2012    V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
2012    LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre, Gijon, Spain.
2011    La Gaîté Lyrique – City of Paris Cultural Center, Paris, France.

Exhibitions

2024    Small Things, Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture, NIROX Sculpture Park, Krugersdorp (ZA).
2024    Weaving Time: Gender, Labor, and Disrupted Chronologies, Galerie Peter Gaugy, Vienna (AT).
2024    Timeless Curiosities, Istanbul Modern – Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul (TR).
2023    Who Owns the Moon?, Neue Galerie Graz, Graz (AT).^{solo exhibition}
2023    Siggraph 2023 Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (USA).
2022    Understanding – Art and Research, UM Gallery UMPRUM, Prague (CZ).
2022    The Octopus, AIL – Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab, Vienna (AT).
2022    Photons, Frauenzentrum, WUK, Vienna (AT).
2021    Chronolace Studies: The Standstill Crochet. FABRIKRAUM. Vienna (AT).^{solo exhibition}
2019    CrossSections_notes, Exhibition Laboratory, Uniarts Helsinki, Helsinki (FI).
2019    CrossSections_perspectives, Konstfack, Stockholm (SE).
2019    A School of Schools: Design as Learning, C-Mine, Genk (BE) and LUMA Arles, Arles (FR).
2019    The Copy Room. MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (AT).^{commisioned work}
2018    4th Istanbul Design Biennial, Yapı Kredi Kültür ve Sanat, Istanbul (TR).
2018    Unleashing. Columbia University, NYC, New York (USA).
2018    Stitching Worlds. AIL – Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab, Vienna (AT).^{project exhibition}
2018    Archipelago—Insel des unvorhersehbaren Denkens, Wiener Festwochen, Vienna (AT).
2017    Unschärfen und weiße Flecken, Kunsthaus Muerz, Mürzzuschlag (AT).
2017    Perfect Bodies & Rebellious Machines, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City (MX).
2017    StadtFabrik #3 Future Production, MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (AT).
2016    Infrequently Asked Questions, Volkskundemuseum Wien, Vienna (AT).^{solo exhibition}
2016    when home won’t let you stay, Heiligenkreuzer Hof, Vienna (AT).
2016    Art.CHI 2016 Inter/Action: Digital Art That Responds, San José (CA-US).
2015    Laboro Ergo Sum: amber’15 Art and Technology Festival, SantralIstanbul, Istanbul (TR).
2015    Contemporary Code: Artistic Research, HKU, Hong Kong (HK).
2015    GLOBALE: Exo-Evolution, ZKM – Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe (DE).
2015    A Wardrobe for Resistance, VIENNA DESIGN WEEK Window Gallery, Vienna (AT).^{solo exhibition}
2015    eTEXTILE CUVÉE 2015, Paillard Centre D’Art Contemporain, Poncé-sur-le-Loir (FR).
2015    New Gifts. The Macy Art Gallery, Columbia University, NYC, New York (USA).
2015    Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2015, St. Etienne (FR).
2014    Update_5: Technology as Context, Zebrastraat, Ghent (BE).
2014    How Things Don’t Work: The Dream Space of Victor Papanek, Parsons, NYC, New York (USA).
2014    EYEBEAM 2014 Annual Showcase, EYEBEAM, NYC, New York (USA).
2013    FILE Festival, São Paulo (BR).
2013    {else = system missing} Analoge Ansichten, Universität Wien, Institut für Soziologie, Vienna (AT).
2013    Toolkit Festival, Venice (IT).
2012    Test_Lab: eTextile Sweatshop, 2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam (NL)
2012    Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong (HK).
2012    Feather Tales, LABoral, Gijon (SP).*
2012    Amber’12 Art and Technology Festival, Istanbul (TR).
2012    Commons Tense – New Media Arts from Turkey, TodaysArt Festival, Den Haag (NL).
2011    Sensing Place / Placing Sense, Ars Electronica Festival 2011, Linz (AT).
2010    Portable Art: Amber Selection, Istanbul (TR).
2010    Speculum Artium 10, Delavski Dom Trbovlje, Trbovlje (SI).
2009    Wearable Information, CIANT Int. Centre for Art and New Technologies, Prague (CZ).
2009    Piksel 09 Festival, Bergen (NO).
2009    FILE Festival, São Paulo (BR).
2009    Siggraph Art Gallery: Information Aesthetics. New Orleans (LA, USA).
2009    Linz 09 / 80+1: A Journey Around the World, Linz (AT) – Mexico City (MX).
2009    Speculum Artium 09, Delavski Dom Trbovlje, Trbovlje (SI).
2009    Ich-Maschine, Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg (DE).
2008    CStem: Breeding Objects, Torino (IT).
2008    Art on the Move, Ars Electronica Festival 2008, Linz (AT).
2008    Test_Lab: Happiness, V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam (NL).
2008    Fashionable Technology Book Launch, EYEBEAM, New York (NY-US).
2008    ecoAesthetics, <>TAG Gallery, Amsterdam (NL).
2008    Social Fabrics: Art + Media + Interconnectivity, Dallas (TX-USA).
2008    Seamless: Computational Couture MIT Fashion Show, Museum of Science, Boston (MA-USA).
2008    Campus 2.0: Neo-Analog, Ars Electronica Festival 2007, Linz (AT).

Publications

Edited volume

2018. Stitching Worlds: Exploring Textiles and Electronics. Berlin, Germany: Revolver Publishing. 158 pp. Open Access PDF.

Monograph, solo exhibition catalogue

2016. Infrequently Asked Questions. Ed. Matthias K. Heschl, Published by Erste Group Bank AG Community Affairs and Sponsoring. 54 pp.

Peer-Reviewed

Kurbak, Ebru. Forthcoming (accepted). “Textiles and Data.” In Politics and Power, ed. by Venka Purushothaman, Julia Skelly, Sue Jones, Vol. 8 of the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of World Textiles, ed. by Janis Jefferies and Vivienne Richmond. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Kurbak, Ebru. Forthcoming (accepted). “The String: Rewiring Women and Electronics.” In Homo Textor: Weaving as (Technical) Mode of Existence, ed. by Ellen Harlizius-Klück, Annapurna Mamidipudi, Giovanni Fanfani, and Alex McLean. Manchester: Mattering.
Kurbak, Ebru. 2024. “Handcrafting in Zero Gravity: Reinventing the Spindle as An Artistic Intervention in Space Research.” Proceedings of the ACM on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques 7 (4): 1–11. Los Angeles, CA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3664216.
Kurbak, Ebru. 2024. “Knitted Threads of Silence: Anatolian Stockings as Techno-Aesthetic Tacit Media.” Artnodes, April, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.7238/artnodes.v0i34.424682.
Kurbak, Ebru. 2023. “Reclaiming Women’s Work: Tracing Fiber Art Precedents to Pioneering Computer Art (abstract).” In Proceedings of RE:SOURCE 2023, edited by Francesca Franco and Andrés Burbano, 583. Venice: Resource Press.
Kurbak, Ebru. 2023. “Reinventing the Spindle: Politics of Craft in Space.” In ACM SIGGRAPH 2023 Art Gallery, 1–2. Los Angeles, CA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3588428.3593828.
Heinzel, Tincuta, Hillevi Munthe, Teresa Almeida, Corina Andor, Anca Badut, Camille Baker, Anna Biro, Shih Wei Chieh, Renata Gaui, Maria Paulina Gutierrez Arango, Shary Kock, Ebru Kurbak, et al. 2019. “Attempts, Failures, Trials and Errors. Notes on an Exhibition of Failed Prototypes and Rejected Projects.” The Design Journal 22 (sup1): 1941–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2019.1594951.
Posch, Irene, and Ebru Kurbak. 2016. “CRAFTED LOGIC Towards Hand-Crafting a Computer.” Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, May 7, 3881–84. https://doi.org/10.1145/2851581.2891101.
Hertenberger, Anja, Barbro Scholz, Beam Contrechoc, Becky Stewart, Ebru Kurbak, et al. 2014. “2013 E-Textile Swatchbook Exchange: The Importance of Sharing Physical Work.” Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers: Adjunct Program, September 13, 77–81. https://doi.org/10.1145/2641248.2641276.
Klot, Sandrine, Ebru Kurbak, Isabella Hinterleitner, and Mathias Mitteregger. 2011. “Evolving Spaces Along Network Technologies.” Proceedings of ISEA2011 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art, 2515-20.
Kurbak, Ebru, and Mahir M. Yavuz. 2009. “News Knitter.” ACM SIGGRAPH 2009 Art Gallery, August 3, 1–1. https://doi.org/10.1145/1667265.1667298.
Kurbak, Ebru, Ricardo Nascimento, and Fabiana Shizue. 2009. “Taiknam Hat.” Leonardo 42, no. 2: 119-119. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/259930.

Artworks Published in Books and Journals (Selected)

“Reinventing the Spindle.” In Into the Anthropocosmos: A Whole Space Catalog from the MIT Space Exploration Initiative, ed. by Ariel Ekblaw, 40–41. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2021.
“Chronolace Studies.” In CrossSections: Processing Artistic and Curatorial Research, ed. by B. Senova, 94-95. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.
“The Knitted Radio.” In Disobedient Electronics, ed. G. Hertz, Vancouver: Protest, 2017.
“The Knitted Radio.” In New Gifts, ed. R. Jochum, 38-39. New Jersey: Ragged Sky Press, 2016.
“The Knitted Radio.” In Designing with Smart Textiles, ed. S. Kettley, 160-161. London: Fairchild Books, 2016.
“The Knitted Radio.” Neural Issue 50 (Winter 2015): 26-27.
“The Knitted Radio.” In UPDATE_5 Technology as Context. Ed. M. Boven. Ghent: Graphius, 2014. 36-37.
“Tuneable Touch.” Inscribing a Square: Urban Data As Public Space. Eds. D. Offenhuber and K. Schechtner. Vienna – New York: Springer, 2012. 30-31.
“News Knitter.” In Data Flow: Visualising Information in Graphic Design, ed. R. Klanten. Berlin: Gestalten, 2008.
“Taiknam Hat.” In Fashionable Technology: The Intersection of Design, Fashion, Science, and Technology, ed. S. Seymour. Vienna – New York: Springer 2008.
“News Knitter.” In Fashionable Technology: The Intersection of Design, Fashion, Science, and Technology, ed. S. Seymour. Vienna – New York: Springer 2008.
“News Knitter.” TagMag 05 (2008).
“News Knitter.” Craft: Transforming Traditional Crafts 06 (February 2008): 20.
“Taiknam Hat.” Intelligent Agent 8.1 (January 2008): 19.

Reviews and Interviews by Others (Selected)

R. DuVall. “Reinventing the Spindle: Ebru Kurbak’s Zero‑Gravity Fiber Experiments.” LACMA Unframed, February 1, 2024.
R. DuVall. “Flax Into the Beyond With ‘Reinventing the Spindle’: SIGGRAPH chatted with Ebru Kurbak to discuss her Best in Show art installation.” SIGGRAPH Blog, November 21, 2023.
C. Grobner. “Spinnen, knüpfen und klöppeln im Weltall.” Die Presse, July 12, 2022.
B. Senova. “Intersecting Dimensions: Chronolace Studies.” In CrossSections: Processing Artistic and Curatorial Research, ed. by B. Senova, 92. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.
R. Debatty. “How to milk a camel and craft an embroidered computer. An interview with Ebru Kurbak.” We Make Money Not Art (blog), November 19, 2018.
N. Botha. “Fibrepunking the Past.” DAMNº70 (Sep/Oct 2018): 116-20.
G. Kennedy. “Interview: Ebru Kurbak.” In Design as Learning: A School of Schools Reader, ed. V. Sacchetti, 180-83. Amsterdam: Valiz, book and cultural projects, 2018.
K. Kropshofer. “Ein roter Faden zwischen Textil und Technik,” Der Standart, August 19, 2018.
C. Grobner. “Stickerei Bringt Rechner zum Laufen,” Die Presse, April 21, 2018.
J. Hürner. “Taiknam Hat,” Chapeau! Eine Sozialgeschichte des Bedeckten Kopfes, eds. M. Feurstein-Prasser and B. Staudinger, 166-177. Vienna: Christian Brandstätter Verlag, 2016.
E. Postl. “Zurück in die Zukunft: Vier Gesichter, vier Geschichten, zehn Jahre Vienna Design Week,” Schaufenster / Die Presse, 32 (30 September 2016): 14-20.
“Macro-electronics and The String Revolution.” Fabrica.Weave: The Ignition Issue. Summer 2016: 18.
S. Bahar. “Interview with Ebru Kurbak,” Sabah Cumartesi (TR), April 30, 2016: 14.

Presentations (Recent)

Invited Talks, Lectures, Panels

“Textile Interventions in Media Arts Cultures.” Donau-University, Krems, Dec 14, 2023.
“Threads of Wisdom: Textiles, Data and Power.” INFORMATION+, Edinburgh, Nov 23, 2023.^{Keynote Lecture}
“Art as Time Capsules – Exploring the Future of Digital Art in Time, Space, and Interaction.” Panel. ACM Siggraph Conference, Los Angeles, Aug 8, 2023.
“Ways of Doing Art/Research.” The Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria, May 25 2023.
“Art, Technology and Women’s Work.” Weißensee Kunsthochschule, Berlin, Apr 12, 2022.^online
Lecture. “The Politics of Making.” Department of Visual Arts, UC San Diego, San Diego, CA, Apr 6, 2022.^online
“Art, Technology and Women’s Work.” Textiles, Chelsea College of Art, London, Jul 6, 2021.^online
“Reinventing the Spindle.” MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, Nov 6, 2019.
“Politics of Research.” Vienna Design Week, Vienna, Oct 5, 2019.
“Textiles as Radical Tech-Art.” HOMO TEXTOR Conference, Deutsches Museum, Munich, Sep 18, 2019.
“Fiberpunk and Other Other Worlds.” Material Cultures, New Design University, St. Pölten, Jan 17, 2019.
“Lab of Labs.” Panel. Istanbul Design Biennial, Istanbul, Oct 20, 2018.
“Immaterial Architectures.” La Biennale di Venezia, Pavilion of Turkey, Venice, Oct 17, 2018.^Online
“Design Riot – Tools for Protest.” Panel discussion. Rrriot Festival, Vienna, Mar 5, 2018.
“Dünyalar Örmek.” TEDx Istanbul. Volkswagen Arena, Istanbul, Jun 11, 2016.
“Digi.logue: Discovery and Innovations in New Media & Art.” Panel. Zorlu PSM, Istanbul, May 6, 2016.
“Stitching Worlds.” Threads and Codes Symposium. Goldsmiths Univ. of London, London, Mar 6, 2015.

Conference Papers

“Handcrafting in Zero Gravity.” SIGGRAPH 2025: Art Papers, Los Angeles, Jul 30, 2024.
“Stringing Time: Exploring Microbial Aesthetics at the Intersections of Art, Technology, and
Marginalized Craft Practices.” With Lisa Kappel. PoM (Politics of the Machines) Conference: Lifelikeness & Beyond, Aachen, Apr 25, 2024.
“Reclaiming Women’s Work: Fiber Art Precedents to Pioneering Computer Art.” RE:SOURCE – 10^th Int. Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, Venice, Sep 14, 2023.
“From Spindle to Reel: Gender Assumptions and Alternative Media Histories.” RE:SOUND – 8^th Int. Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, Aalborg, Aug 21, 2019.