Kuang-Yi Ku

Kuang-Yi Ku

Kuang-Yi Ku was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, recently based in the Netherlands. He has graduated with triple master degrees with social design from Design Academy Eindhoven, dentistry from National Yang-Ming University and communication design from Shih Chien University. He is a former dentist, bio-artist and social designer. He also co-founded TW BioArt (Taiwan bioart community) to stimulate the fields of BioArt and Science+Art in Taiwan. His works often deal with human body, sexuality, interspecies interaction and medical technology, aiming to investigate the relationships among technology, individual and environment.

Kuang-Yi Ku’s “Tiger Penis Project” has been awarded Gijs Bakker Award 2018, the annual prize for the best project by a graduating master’s student in Design Academy Eindhoven. He has also won the 1st prize of Taipei Digital Art Awards in 2015 with “The Fellatio Modification Project”, where he involves body modification, gender studies, queer theories, and dentistry all together. His works were featured in international medias such as New Scientist, The Huffington Post, Elephant Magazine, DAMN° Magazine, Dezeen, Designboom, VICE, Dazed Digital, Daily Mail, New York Post and so on.

Education

2018 Master of Arts, Social Design, Design Academy Eindhoven, Netherlands
2015 Master of Design, Communications Design, Shih Chien University, Taiwan
2015 Master of Dental Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan
2009 Doctor of Dental Surgery, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan

Awards/Grants/Scholarships

2018 Gijs Bakker Award 2018, Winner, Netherlands
2018 Future Food Design Award, Nominee, Netherlands
2018 National Culture and Arts Foundation Grants, Taiwan
2016 National Culture and Arts Foundation Grants, Taiwan
2016 “The Fellatio Modification Project” selected in “MOUTHY- Into The Orifice”, Science Gallery London
2016 Scholarship of Taiwan Government Sponsorship for Overseas Study (Transdisciplinary Art)
2016 Creation Grants, Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government
2015 Taipei Digital Art Awards, The First Prize
2012 Exhibition of the Newly Emerging Artists in Taiwan 3D Creation Series, Selected
2011 Geisai Taiwan 3, Most popular award

Experiences

2015-2016 Committee (Cultural Policy Consultant), Commission on Youth, Taipei City Government
2014-now Co-founder, Ouroboros - Organic Organism of O (Artist Collective)
2012-now Co-founder, TW BioArt (Taiwan BioArt Community)
2011-2015 Dentist, Private Dental Clinic
2009-2011 Dentist, Taipei Veterans General Hospital

Residencies

2018 AirWG, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2018 Waag Society, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  Funded by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

2016 Eindhoven, Netherlands
   Funded by World Design Capital Taipei 2016 (Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government)

2016 FACT （Foundation for Art and Creative Technology）, Liverpool, UK
Funded by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

Workshops

2019/01/14 Bioart - Imagining the Laboratories of Artists
~2019/01/16 Department of New Media Art, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan
Tutor with Paul Gong, Theresa Tsao, Pei-Ying Lin

2018/10/13    Asian Futurism Dinner
  Natlab, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Artist with Pei-Ying Lin

2018/10/06    Tiger Penis: The Future of Chinese Medicine
    Mediamatic, Amsterdam, Netherlands
   Artist
2018/10/04 The body as sensor: fortune telling by pulse
  Waag Society, Amsterdam, Netherlands
       Artist

2018/06/09   Workshop derived from the Tiger Penis Project - Workshop About Traditional
  Chinese Medicine (TCM)
Baltan Laboratories, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Tutor

2017/10/13 Workshop with Kuang-Yi Ku
FACT Lab, Liverpool, UK
Tutor

2017/07/29, Workshop of Biological Fortunetelling
2017/08/05 Yiri Living Space, Taipei, Taiwan
Tutor with Pei-Ying Lin, Paul Gong, Ai Hasegawa and Yiyun Chen

2016/11/02 Fellatio Modification Project: Sex and Dentistry Skills Workshop
      London Dental Education Center, London, UK
     Tutor

2015/08/16 Bio-fiction Taiwan - Bio-Art Workshop
      National Taiwan Science Education Center, Taipei, Taiwan
   Tutor with Pei-Ying Lin

2015/05/30 The Future of Body Modification - Bio-Art Workshop
     National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
     Tutor

2014/11/14 Bio-fiction of Electrophysiology - Bioart Workshop
~2014/11/19 Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan
     Tutor, with Pei-Ying Lin, Cheng Guo and Yi-Ling Wu

2014/04/23 Dildomancy - Sexology workshop
     Kedai Kebun Forum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
     Tutor, with Pechblenda and Cindy Lin

2013/10/11 “Living, Food, and Its Extend” - Bioart Workshop
~ 2013/10/12 National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
   Tutor, with Pei-Ying Lin

Talks

2018/12/13 Gogbot Café XL
Design lab, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands

2017/11/10 Challenging medical paradigms through art and design
   TEDxEindhoven. Philips Hall, Evoluon, Eindhoven, Netherlands

2017/03/22 Expanding the Body, Exploring Desire: Queer Research in Japanese and
Taiwanese Contexts
Queer Asia, SOAS, University of London, London, UK

2016/11/02 The Fellatio Modification Project
Guy’s Campus, King’s College London, London, UK

2016/04/20   When Science Meets Art
     UCA Farnham - University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK

2016/03/28    Embrace Art and Science
      Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
     With Pei-Ying Lin

2016/03/21 The Fellatio Modification Project
      National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan

2016/02/22 Transdisciplinary Practice of Art and Medicine
    Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

2016/02/20 Art in Production Series
   No Man’s Land, Taipei, Taiwan
With Bo-Wu Chen

2014/10/26 Transdisciplinary Practice of Art and Medicine
   Changee, Taipei, Taiwan

2014/06/27 Fab Meetup - Food Fab - TW BioArt
    Fabcafe Taipei
    With Pei-Ying Lin

2014/05/20 BioArt in Asia - An Observation
   Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan.
   With Pei-Ying Lin

2013/11/29 Artists in Labcoats - BioArt
    Makerbar, Taipei, Taiwan.
    With Pei-Ying Lin

Conferences & Art Festivals

2018/08/29~ 4S Sydney - TRANSnational STS, Society for Social Studies of Science Annual
2018/09/01 Conference
Sydney International Convention Centre, Sydney, Australia
Attending presenter

2015/10/01 Neolife -The Inaugural Rest of the World Meeting of the Society for
   Literature, Science and The Arts
   The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Attending presenter

2014/10/02   Arse Elektronika - Conference of Sex and Technology
~2014/10/05   Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco, US
       Attending presenter

2014/08/04 TransHACKfeminist! - Conference of Feminism
~2014/08/11   Ca La Fou, Barcelona, Spain
       Attending presenter

2014/04/13 Hackterialab 2014
~2014/04/25 Kedai Kebun Forum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
   Attending artist

Exhibitions

2019 “Future (H)eart(H): 8 Dutch Design visions for a livable earth” Ventura Future, Base Milano, Milan, Italy
2019 “TEC ART” festival, Worm Slash Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2018 “Tiger Penis Project Exhibition”, Baltan Laboratories, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2018 “L.A.B: 2018 NCKU Bi²ennale – Technology and Art”, NCKU Art Center, Tainan, Taiwan
2018 “ReShape - Mutating Systems, Bodies and Perspectives”, MU artspace, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2018 “Embassy of Food - Edible Invisible”, De Witte Dame, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2018 “G18 - Graduation Show of Design Academy Eindhoven”, De Campina, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2018 “Embassy of Health - Chronic Health”, Innovation Powerhouse, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2017 “Designing Desire”, FACT, Liverpool, UK
2017 “Materialising the Internet”, MU, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2017 “Atypical Human”, YIRI Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
2017 “Future Lab”, Play Design Hotel, Taipei,Taiwan
2017 “Satyricon”, Yiri Arts at Kaohsiung’s Pier-2 Space, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2017 “Alien Matter - Transmediale 2017”, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
2016 “Mouthy: Into The Orifice”, Science Gallery London, London, UK
2016 “Animal and Us”, Digital Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2016 “Dutch Design Week”, Microlab, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2016 “Designer's Gaze”, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Taipei, Taiwan
2016 “Coexist Exhibition - Try me”, Nanhai Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2016 “Bio Apartment Vol.3－Succession”, Radicalsign, Taipei, Taiwan
2015 “Digital Art Festival Taipei - Digitopia”, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Taipei, Taiwan
2015 “Imaginary Body Boundary”, Digital Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2015 “Bio Apartment Vol. 2 - Colonization (Bio) ", h*ours cafe, Taipei, Taiwan
2014 “#HLab14:JOG”, Langgeng Art Foundation, Jogjakarta, Indonesia
2014 “Taxidermist’s Magical Play”, YIRI Arts, Tainan, Taiwan
2014 “Missing Words”, 182artspace, Tainan, Taiwan
2013 “ART KAOHSIUNG 2013”, Chateau de Chine Hotel Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2013 “YOUNG ART TAIPEI (YAT) Contemporary Hotel Art Fair”, Sheraton Grande Taipei Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan
2013 “The Incubator - Biology + Science + Art Interdisciplinary Exhibition ”, Freedom Men Art Apartments, Taichung, Taiwan
2013 “The League of Creators”, Taichung City Cultural Center Wen Ying Hall, Taichung, Taiwan
2013 “Worlds Apart Fair”, Conrad Hotel, Singapore
2012“The Ambiguous Pink Project – Organic Mimicry of Prosthesis / Fred Ku Solo Exhibition”, Mon Espace D'Art, Taipei, Taiwan
2012 “You Just Can’t Get What You Want”, A－7958 Gallery, Taichung, Taiwan
2012 “Both”, Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan
2012 “Exhibition of the Newly Emerging Artists in Taiwan 3D Creation Series”, Taichung City Seaport Art Center, Taichung, Taiwan
2012 “There Is No Reason”, Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan
2012 "Asia Contemporary Art Show - Hong Kong", Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
2012 “Party Is Over”, Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan
2012 “Geisai Taiwan 3 Winners Exhibition”, Hidari Zingaro Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
2012 “Cos-Cosmos”, Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan
2011 “Geisai Taiwan 3”, Huashan1914 Creative Park, Taipei, Taiwan