Sophie Falkeis is a multidisciplinary designer from Vienna, Austria, and Alumna from the University of Applied Arts Vienna. At the intersection of design, art and science her work investigates evolutionary mechanisms under anthropogenic influence by envisioning future scenarios of multi-species cohabitation.

Her work is part of the permanent collection at MAK Museum for Applied Arts Vienna (AT) and has been exhibited at various venues, including the London Design Biennale (UK), Vienna Design Biennale (AT), Dutch Design Week (NL), Floriade Expo 2022 (NL), Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (CN), and Kornhausforum Bern (CH), and has been featured in the New York Times. She has previously worked at Iris van Herpen Couture in Amsterdam and was a research fellow at Terreform One in New York City. Sophie gave a keynote at the 2023 Species on the Move Conference in Florida, spoke at the Centre for Marine Socioecology Tasmania, PRIMER21 Global San Francisco, DDW Talks Eco Pioneers, as well as other international conferences. For her work, she has been awarded a START-Stipendium by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts & Culture and the Planet Love Prize by the Vienna Business Agency. 

Grants & Awards

2023/24 Project Grant. Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service &Sport. Vienna, AT

2023 Project Grant. Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service &Sport. Vienna, AT

2023 Falling Walls. Science Breakthrough of the Year, Art & Science, Finalist. Berlin, DE

2022 Project Grant. Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science & Research. Vienna, AT.

2021 Content Vienna, Planet Love Prize. Vienna Business Agency. Vienna, AT

2021 Start-Stipendium for Architecture & Design. Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service&Sport. Vienna, AT

Exhibitions (selected)

2024 Coding. Design in Gesellschaft Gallery, Vienna Design Week, AT

2024 Design & Science. Berlin Design Week. Berlin, DE

2023-24 Turning the Ecological Gears. Solo Show. VISTA/ISTA Institute of Science & Technology Austria, AT

2023 First Encounters. Film Screening. Species on the Move Conference, University of Florida, Bonita Springs, USA

2023 UnDing. Group Exhibition. Vienna Design Week, Vienna, AT

2023 DateDing. Group Exhibition. Design in Gesellschaft Gallery, Vienna, AT

2022-23 Synthetic Ecology. Beijing Art and Technology Biennale. 789 CUBE, Beijing, CN

2022 Turning the Ecological Gears. Solo Show. Design in Gesellschaft Gallery, Vienna, AT

2022 Ding Dong. Group Exhibition. Vienna Design Week, Vienna, AT

2022 MAK MENU. MAK Design Night. Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, AT

2022 Alpen Traum & Wandlung. Kornhausforum Bern, Bern, CH

2022 MAK Permanent Collection. Design Labor, Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, AT

2022 Nature loves Technology. Floriade Expo, Dutch Innovation Pavilion, Almere, NL

2021 Dutch Design Week. Bibliotheek Eindhoven, Eindhoven, NL

2021 Offene Gesellschaft. Vienna Design Week. Design in Gesellschaft Gallery, Vienna, AT

2021 Climate Care. Vienna Design Biennale. Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, AT

2021 Angewandte Festival. University of Applied Arts Vienna, AT

2020 Angewandte Festival. University of Applied Arts Vienna, AT

2018 After Abundance. London Design Biennale, Austrian Pavilion. Somerset House, London, UK

2017 Design for Agency. Vienna Design Biennale. MAK Design Forum, Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, AT

2017 Vibrations. The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK), Copenhagen, DK

2017 Possible Sustainable Futures. Guldminen, Copenhagen, DK

2016 The Essence. University of Applied Arts Vienna, AT

Talks & Conference Presentations

2024 Invited Speaker: Cumulus Conference. P/References of Design. Moholy-Nagy University of Art&Design,

Budapest, HUN

2024 EUNIC Panel Discussion: Women Designing the Future. Statens Værksteder for Kunst, Copenhagen, DK

2023 Artist Lecture: ISTA Institute of Science & Technology Austria. Turning the Ecological Gears, Ecological

Speculations - Narratives for the Futures. Klosterneuburg, AT

2023 Invited Discussant: 4s Conference; Panel 87 Environmental Futures - progressing human-nature

relationships towards creative reflections and interventions. Honolulu, USA (virtual)

2023 Invited Speaker: World Futures Studies Federation. Ecological Speculations - Narratives for the Futures.

École des Ponts, Business School, Paris, FR

2023 Invited Keynote Speaker: Species on the Move Conference. Anticipatory Ecology meets Speculative Design - Cross-disciplinary approach of communicating scientific data through visual storytelling. University

of Florida, Bonita Springs, USA

2023 Invited Speaker: Lunchtime Lecture. Facts with Fiction - Ecological Speculations and Immersive

Installations. New Design University, St. Pölten, AT

2022 Artist Talk: Im Gehen begriffen, Exhibition Alpen Traum & Wandlung. Kornhausforum Bern, Bern, CH

2022 Artist Talk together with DDr. Christoph Thun Hohenstein. Austrian Cultural Forum Beijing & Office of

Science and Technology, Vienna/Beijing, AT/CN

2022 Invited Speaker: Webinar. Anticipatory Ecology meets Speculative Design. Centre for Marine Socioecology,

University of Tasmania, Hobart, AUS (virtual)

2021 Invited Speaker: DDW Talks. Eco Pioneers - Next Biodiversity. Talks organized by Next Nature during Dutch

Design Week, Eindhoven, NL

2021 Invited Speaker: Primer21 Global Conference. Now What? San Francisco, USA (virtual)

2021 Invited Speaker: Human Animal Relations Conference. Challenges and Opportunities in Changing Realities.

Tel Aviv, ISR (virtual)

Projects