Natalie Jeremijenko

Natalie Jeremijenko – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Discover the life and work of Natalie Jeremijenko — Australian-born environmental artist, “thingker,” engineer, and pioneer of experimental design. Explore her projects, philosophy, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

Natalie Jeremijenko (born 1966) is an Australian environmental artist, engineer, and researcher whose art sits at the intersection of ecology, technology, and society. She defines her practice as X Design (experimental design) and calls herself a “thingker” — a blend of thing-maker and thinker. Her work frequently takes the form of public experiments, interactive installations, ecological interventions, citizen-science projects, and techno-activist strategies that provoke, inform, and engage communities around issues of environment, biodiversity, health, and infrastructure.

Through combining art, engineering, ecology, and activism, Jeremijenko’s career invites us to rethink how we live with nonhuman species — how cities, infrastructures, policies, and public imagination might shift to respect mutualism, biodiversity, and environmental justice.

Early Life and Family

Natalie Jeremijenko was born in Mackay, Queensland, Australia in 1966 and grew up in Brisbane. She was the second of ten children in her family. Her parents were a physician and a schoolteacher, and from her accounts, they embraced “domestic technology” early on — for instance, her mother was, by her telling, the first Australian woman to own a microwave.

Her upbringing in a large family, combined with exposure to science, health, and daily technology in the home, likely shaped her orientation toward systems, infrastructure, and relational thinking across domains.

Education and Formative Learning

Natalie Jeremijenko’s academic and technical background is wide and eclectic, spanning the sciences, engineering, art, and design.

• She earned a B.S. in Neuroscience and Biochemistry from Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.

• She obtained a B.F.A. (with Honors) in Digital Information / Sculpture from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

• She pursued graduate coursework in Mechanical Engineering (at Stanford) and the History & Philosophy of Science (University of Melbourne), though not all degrees were completed.

• In 2008, she completed a Ph.D. in Information Environments / Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Queensland.

Her multidisciplinary training—spanning biochemistry, neuroscience, engineering, information systems, and art—prepared her to operate fluidly across domains, especially in projects that demand hybrid thinking.

Career and Achievements

Philosophy & Approach: X Design, Thingker & Socio-ecological Systems

Jeremijenko frames her work as X Design (experimental design) — not pure art, not pure science, but design as a method of probing and constructing alternative socio-ecological systems. She uses public experiments and installations to highlight hidden ecosystems, non-human agencies, infrastructure blindspots, and ecological entanglements.

She often works under the framing of Environmental Health Clinic (xClinic / xCLINIC), which she directs — a conceptual and operational platform for designing, prescribing, and deploying techno-ecological experiments with measurable outcomes.

Academic & Institutional Positions

• Jeremijenko holds a faculty (or associate) appointment in the Visual Art Department at New York University (NYU), with affiliations to the Computer Science and Environmental Studies programs.

• She has served on the art faculty at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and held roles in engineering and design programs (e.g. at Yale).

• She has been artist-in-residence at institutions (e.g. Dartmouth) and held visiting professorships at the Royal College of Art in London, among others.

Major Projects & Public Experiments

Jeremijenko’s oeuvre is vast; here are some signature works and themes:

• Suicide Box (1997): Motion-sensor cameras installed at the Golden Gate Bridge to record vertical movements (interpreted as suicides) and compare with economic indices, provoking reflection on data, life, risk, and infrastructure.

• BIT Plane (1998): Under the collective Bureau of Inverse Technology (BIT), she flew a micro-video–equipped model aircraft over Silicon Valley restricted zones to challenge surveillance, access, and information sovereignty.

• TreeLogic / OneTrees / Urban Ecosystem Interventions: Interventions planting upside-down trees, cloned tree pairs in urban microclimates, or rewilding infrastructures.

• TreexOFFICE: A project in London, Berlin, etc., combining urban infrastructure and living tree modules to question land use, green offices, and ecological connectivity. (Image above)

• Civic Action / Salamander Superhighway / Butterfly Bridge / Moth Cinema: Works using micro-infrastructure (e.g. tunnels, bump patterns, plant bridges) to re-enable animal movement across urban barriers.

• Model Urban Development (MUD): On the roof of her gallery, she constructed speculative small-scale habitats, powered by human food waste, that mash up domestic, urban, and ecological systems.

• Cross-Species Adventure Club: A community-facing project exploring edible biodiversity, participatory ecological knowledge, and food systems that include nonhuman intelligences.

Her works are often site-specific, participatory, and measurable in ecological or informational outcomes, not merely aesthetic.

Recognition & Honors

• She was named one of the inaugural “top young innovators” by MIT Technology Review.

• She was included among the 40 Most Influential Designers by I.D. Magazine.

• Her work has been exhibited widely: Whitney Biennial, Documenta, Ars Electronica, Guggenheim, and major museum platforms.

• She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2018 for “distinguished service to the arts, and to higher education, through pioneering contributions to architecture, technology, the sciences, and engineering, and to rural and urban design.”

Historical & Cultural Context

Natalie Jeremijenko’s work is embedded in the broader shifts of late-20th and early-21st century art + technology + ecology. Her practice resonates with:

• New media art / net.art movements, which explore how digital technology, networks, sensors, and data reshape perception and social space.

• The rise of eco-art, bio-art, public-species design, and relational aesthetics — art that intervenes in social-ecological systems rather than remaining symbolic.

• Growing anxieties about urban biodiversity, habitat fragmentation, climate change, and infrastructure’s blind spots — Jeremijenko’s work probes these challenges through micro- and meso-scale design.

• The democratization of sensing, data, and citizen science — her projects frequently involve public participation, hacking everyday objects, and re-appropriating infrastructure.

• The notion that nonhumans (insects, trees, microbes, amphibians) are legitimate interlocutors in design, not merely background. Her work challenges human exceptionalism in infrastructure.

Legacy and Influence

Natalie Jeremijenko’s influence spans multiple domains:

1. Expanding what art can do — Her work pushes art beyond gallery walls toward ecological infrastructure, public experiment, activism, and design.

2. Crossing disciplines — She models a hybrid identity: artist, engineer, ecologist, provocateur — inspiring emergent practices in art + environment + tech.

3. Re-centering nonhuman agency — Her projects foreground the movement, intelligence, and presence of plants, animals, microbes in urban systems.

4. Participatory ecologies — Her public experiments, often playful and democratic, invite communities to co-design healthier ecosystems.

5. Critical infrastructure design — She reveals the blind spots in urban systems and proposes “ecological vias” for reconnecting fragmented systems.

6. Mentorship and academic innovation — Through her labs, teaching, residencies, and public programs, she shapes new generations of eco-design thinkers.

Her work helps shift the question from “How can humans dominate nature?” to “How can we co-habitate, sense, and design with nature?”

Personality and Intellectual Traits

• Curious and boundary-crossing — Her work embodies curiosity across biology, engineering, art, and policy.

• Provocative yet generous — She provokes civic reflection, but often invites public collaboration and intervention.

• Systems-minded — She sees infrastructure, ecology, data, and species relations as layered systems to be tuned, not purely aesthetic.

• Empathetic to nonhumans — Her designs often center nonhuman perspectives (e.g. salamanders, insects, microbial networks).

• Humorous and poetic — Many of her projects carry a lightness (puns, participatory games, witty commentary) while delivering serious insight.

• Ethical and grounded — She addresses pollution, access, health, habitat, and equity — her art is anchored in social/ecological justice.

Famous Quotes of Natalie Jeremijenko

Here are some memorable remarks that reflect her philosophy:

• “I see my role as designing environments and infrastructures so that nonhumans can do more.”

• “We need art that doesn’t just reflect our selves, but refracts us through others — insects, plants, infrastructures.”

• “Design is not neutral — our cities, landscapes, and policies are built designs; they either exclude or invite life.”

• “Urban agriculture is the space race for the 21st century.”

• “I call myself a ‘thingker’ — a maker and thinker — because creativity should be inseparable from doing.”

Because many of her statements appear in lectures, interviews, or project texts, their exact phrasing can vary.

Lessons from Natalie Jeremijenko

1. Design with the nonhuman in mind — Let our infrastructures welcome insects, amphibians, plants — not just humans.

2. Art + science + action = possibility — Don’t silo fields; experiment across boundaries.

3. Use small interventions to reveal larger systems — Tiny tunnels, tree bridges, sensor-installations can make visible deep ecologies.

4. Invite participation, not spectatorship — Public experiments democratize ecological knowledge.

5. Critique infrastructures by reframing them — Her work shows how roads, lighting, fences can be reimagined to heal rather than harm.

6. Think long-term, but start microscale — Her projects often begin small, measurable, then scale conceptually.

Conclusion

Natalie Jeremijenko’s journey — from Australian science student to global eco-artist and “thingker” — is a testament to curiosity, responsibility, and imagination. Her art is a call to reimagine the human–nonhuman boundary, to turn infrastructure into habitat, and to catalyze ecological futures through design and participation.