We are delighted to announce that Yin Aiwen is the 2024 recipient of the Asymmetry PhD Scholarship for the ‘Advanced Practices’ programme, in collaboration with the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. Joining an existing cohort of three other PhD Scholars supported by us, Aiwen was selected from an international Open Call earlier this year, and will begin her four-year academic undertaking in the autumn term of 2024.

ABOUT YIN AIWEN

Yin Aiwen is an artist, designer, researcher, and occasional institutional strategist. Departing from the idea that ‘the technological is institutional, the institutional is technological’, Aiwen reconsiders and reimagines the socio-economic, cultural, emotional, and bodily conditions by designing the new techno-institutional around care ethics.

Her work often begins with ambitious speculative questions and uses critical theory as a design brief to create new systems of value through different forms of demonstrations, such as a performance, a game, a digital platform, or an exhibition. Her recent major projects include 'ReUnion Network', 'Liquid Dependencies' (with Yiren Zhao and Zoe Zhao), and 'Alchemy of Commons' (with Yiren Zhao). Notable writings include 'On Post-Temporariness' (Making&Breaking, 2020), 'On Platform Design' (so-far, 2021), 'Utopia in Progress: on the Social Relevances of the Arts in the 21st Century' (LEAP, 2023).

Aiwen is the Pathway Leader of Situated Design in the Master Institute of Visual Cultures, the Netherlands. She has previously received research fellowships from Framer Framed (2024), Creative Impact Research Centre Europe (2024&2023), ZK/U & Mondriaan Fonds (2019), Art Center South Florida (US, 2017) and The New Normal programme of Strelka Institute (RU, 2017). She founded and directed Stichting NextKin which researches and develops future-proof social support systems based on long-term mutual caring relationships. In 2019, Aiwen received the INFORM prize for Conceptual Design for her work.

ABOUT THE ASYMMETRY PHD SCHOLARSHIP

The Asymmetry PhD Scholarship at Goldsmiths is an academic opportunity within the field of artistic practice and cross-cultural research. Awarded to one successful candidate per academic year, the Scholarship covers the full four years of the ‘Advanced Practices’ PhD programme, including tuition fees, monthly rent, and living and research costs.

Aimed at practitioners who identify to any extent with Greater Chinese and Sinophone cultures and heritage, based in the regions or internationally, the Asymmetry PhD Scholarship at Goldsmiths is one of our core initiatives taking place across London in partnership with leading UK institutions, including Chisenhale Gallery, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, and Tate Modern.

Asymmetry’s Scholarship Programmes understand the fundamental importance of higher education and seek to develop a new generation of cultural thinkers to expand how Greater Chinese and Sinophone culture is represented globally. We work towards shaping the future of curatorial, art historical and museum studies for a more inclusive and diverse landscape.

ABOUT THE 'ADVANCED PRACTICES' PROGRAMME

AT GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

The MPhil/PhD ‘Advanced Practices’ at Goldsmiths offers practitioners the opportunity to maintain their existing work while engaging with the widening horizons of new practices. The degree is practice-driven, research-based, and can incorporate projects in progress, collaborations with organisations and platforms, or be the opportunity to rethink the circulation and meaning of how and to whom work can communicate itself. ‘Advanced Practices’ is geared towards advancing the grounds for different forms of practice, from artistic to infrastructural. Animated by concepts including 'anthropology as cultural critique', 'curatorial knowledges’, and ‘the exhibitionary matrix', the programme encourages practitioners to invent methodologies, reframe urgencies, and reimagine the contexts in which our work is circulating.

Partner:
Goldsmiths, University of London