Ph.D. Noor Stenfert Kroese

“Fungi are non-human intelligences that can teach us how communication and cooperation function beyond our anthropocentric perspective. Their potential for art, technology, and social understanding only becomes apparent when we are willing to explore their own languages and logics and recognize them as equal partners in creative and technological processes.”

This conviction shapes the work of Noor Stenfert Kroese—a media artist, scenographer, and researcher who is now regarded as one of the leading pioneers in the artistic exploration of biocomputing and non-human interactions. With her dissertation “Meeting Spaces for Humans and Non-Humans in Media Art” (selected by the Leonardo Journal of MIT Press as one of the best dissertation abstracts of 2023) and her internationally presented installations and performances, she has elevated the themes of biocomputing with fungi and non-human communication to an artistically innovative and scientifically grounded level.

Scientific Roots

From an early age, she developed a passion for understanding how artistic practice can create new forms of dialogue between people, technology, and biological systems. Her doctoral research in Creative Robotics at the University of Art and Design Linz built upon this vision, where she established herself as a visionary pioneer at the intersection of art, technology, and biology. As a university assistant in the Art & Science master’s program at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, she combines artistic sensibility with technological expertise and philosophical reflection. Her extraordinary research on data storytelling of living organisms and fungus-inspired biocomputing has led to profound insights into the possibilities of non-human communication and interaction and manifests itself in innovative artistic installations and performances that have gained international recognition.

Personal motivation

In her professional work, she focuses on the artistic exploration of fungi and their integration into technological systems, as well as on non-human interactions with industrial robots. Her work has been presented at renowned international venues, including the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Festival X in the United Arab Emirates, ISEA in France, and Theater Rotterdam in the Netherlands. She collaborates with artists, scientists, and technologists to convey knowledge about alternative forms of intelligence and communication in biological systems. In doing so, she places great emphasis on experimental, practice-based research approaches and the combination of artistic intuition with scientific precision.

Innovation, Standards, and Research

A central focus of her work is the transformation of complex scientific and philosophical concepts into accessible and moving artistic experiences. She explores the combination of robotic systems and biological organisms—particularly fungi—as well as the study of biocomputing from artistic, technical, and philosophical perspectives.

Her current research focuses on fungus-inspired biocomputing and the creation of spaces for interaction between humans and non-humans in media art. Her groundbreaking artistic research projects have created an innovative synthesis of artistic practice, technological innovation, and biological understanding, offering new perspectives on the relationship between human and non-human actors. Her methodology opens up new ways of thinking beyond the boundaries between technology, art, and nature.

Awards and Recognition

Her scholarly and artistic contributions have been recognized with major international awards that underscore her outstanding standing in the fields of media art and technological innovation: an honorable mention at the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica (Austria), the YouFab Global Creative Award (Japan), and the New Media Architecture Biennale Award (Canada). Of particular note is that the MIT Press’s Leonardo Journal selected her dissertation as one of the best dissertation abstracts of 2023—a recognition that underscores the scholarly relevance and innovative power of her theoretical work and demonstrates her ability to combine artistic practice with rigorous academic research.

A particular strength – building bridges across disciplines

She knows how to combine artistic innovation with technological research and philosophical reflection, and advocates for an integrative understanding of creativity—as an interplay of art, science, and technology. Her work makes it clear that, for her, fungi are not merely biological organisms, but partners in creative and technological processes that can teach us to understand the world from non-human perspectives. At the Mycoverse Foundation, she contributes her expertise in biocomputing, non-human interactions, and artistic knowledge transfer, helping to develop new perspectives on the relationship between humans, technology, and natural systems—while critically reflecting on the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of these relationships.

As a lecturer at the University of Art and Design Linz and a university assistant at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, she promotes interdisciplinary approaches that productively combine art and science, and trains the next generation of artists and researchers. In doing so, she makes a significant contribution to the mission of the Mycoverse Foundation: to promote the research and application of fungi for the benefit of the environment and society by combining innovative artistic and technological approaches with a deep respect for biological systems and their unique forms of existence and communication.

www.stenfertkroese.com