Post-screen media for a flourishing world.
Valerie Chua Yan Tong
Artist · Researcher · Media Systems & Interfaces
What happens to news, information and public space when media is designed to be explored and shaped by its audience, rather than optimised for engagement?
Investigation
The screen is not the endpoint of computing.
The attention economy is not the only model for digital technology.
Computing should strengthen our relationship with the world rather than replace it.
Publications
Material Attunement in Minimal Media: Designing Tactility for Information Engagement
Full paper · Sole author · Proceedings of the Design Society: DESIGN Conference 2026 · Cambridge University Press · Dubrovnik, Croatia
Published May 2026 · DOI 10.1017/pds.2026.10621
Designing Context-Aware Generative Installations: A Modular Framework for Adaptive Public Space
Demo paper · First author · MobileHCI 2026 · Wales, UK
Best Demo Award, 30% of votes across twelve demos
Accepted, presented Aug 2026 · DOI 10.1145/3821581.3833135
Textile as Ecological Index: Casting Domestic Food Waste into Wearable Biomaterial Media through a Domestic Biodesign Framework
Full paper · Sole author · DRS Textile Intersections 2026 · Design Research Society Digital Library · London, UK
Published and presented at Imperial College London, Sept 2026 · DOI 10.21606/TI-2026.168
Signal Garden: A Longitudinal EEG Installation on Affective Conference Presence
First author · ACM MM 2026 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Accepted, forthcoming presentation Nov 2026
Beyond Access: Designing for Sustained Engagement in Inclusive Design
Full paper · Sole author · Forthcoming publication by Springer in Inclusion Matters: CWUAAT 2027 · St Catharine’s College, Cambridge
Accepted, forthcoming presentation Apr 2027
More-Than-Human-Centred Design & Design for Meaningfulness
Expert panel · Led at IASDR 2025: Design Next · Taipei, Taiwan · With Cees de Bont (NUS), Tsai Lu Liu (Virginia Tech), Sheng-Hung Lee (MIT); critique from Don Norman
Dec 2025
Presentations
Conferences, museums and festivals
DUST
An #AIforHumanity pocket news device with summarised RSS news feeds exploring reduced sensationalism and cognitive triggers in everyday news consumption. Exhibited to 600+ visitors. Featured in Dezeen.
Milan Design Week 2026 · Isola Design · Dezeen · Design Paper · Design Intelligence Awards nominationPaper: Material Attunement in Minimal Media, Cambridge University Press
Affective Installations
Interactive installation with art changing in real time according to attention and meditative states. Presented to 100+ researchers in Wales.
ACM SIGCHI MobileHCI 2026, Swansea, Wales · Best Demo AwardPapers: Designing Context-Aware Generative Installations, MobileHCI 2026, Swansea
Signal Garden
A 3-metre installation of a Brazilian Amaryllis that responds to visitors’ real-time affective states.
ACM Multimedia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Four Play
A found and repaired stool (by Jessica Robinson), conceptualised for LABO Collective’s Dutch Design Week show. On permanent view at RCA Rapid Form.
Four Play, 2026 · Ceramic with printed part · 48 × 35 × 35 cmSTRIJP TX, 5th floor, A11 Building, Achtsteweg Zuid 180, Eindhoven · 17–25 October 2026
MILES
Material journey. Biomaterials cast from a household’s own food waste and displayed as a conversation piece. Exhibited twice and presented at the DRS Textile Intersections conference.
22 × 14.5 × 8 cm and 9.5 × 5 × 2 cm eachDRS Textile Intersections 2026 · Exhibited at Hangar Gallery and Great Exhibition Road Spring Show · RCA Natural Matters Lab · Across RCA
Paper: Textile as Ecological Index, Design Research Society
Reading Design
Built a kiln from scratch with brick manufacturer H.G. Matthews. Presented with architect and designer Nigel Coates.
Summer Residency in Buckinghamshire · Group exhibition at Park Royal District · London Design Festival 2026 · Grymsdyke Farm Publication · PC: George Baggaley
Internet Society
Sessions on internet governance, including digital sovereignty, stakeholder models and EU policy debates. Media training, local activations.
Internet Society Fellowship 2026, EU Parliament engagementPhoto: Internet Society
Dreaming Together
Dream, projected as participatory art by Media Lab’s Critical Matter Group at MIT Future Fest.
MIT Kendall Plaza, Boston
Tate Britain
Essay on living between cultures, projected in the Henry Moore room.
Tate Lates · Zineb Sedira Extended Programming
W*NK WONK
Edible memories. Local flavours cast as modular architecture, built for play, conversation and better eating.
Design Confectionery on display in Kensington, LondonPaper: Beyond Access: Designing for Sustained Engagement in Inclusive Design, Springer, CWUAAT 2027, forthcoming
RCA AI Lab
Built conversational interfaces with the OpenAI San Francisco design team, exploring base-3 human–AI interaction. Co-led the Lab’s first hackathon, sponsored by ElevenLabs and Lovable.
RCA AI Lab’s first hackathon · Representing the lab at Google AI innovations
Studio Exhibitions
Studio shows of prototypes, papers and ongoing research. John Maeda visited in Oct 2026.
RCA Studio, Battersea, London
Skillsharing
Conceived and led session on research-informed interfaces.
RCA Studio, Battersea, LondonArt Practice
Selected artwork
Saatchi: A View from Everywhere
Saatchi Gallery presents Stock, Great World, and Nostalgia, a trio of works from the Cast Bar series.
Forthcoming feature in Saatchi Gallery’s annual catalogue
Great World
Named after Singapore’s Great World amusement park, evoking cabaret, cinema, ghost trains and candy floss in a luminous, romantic pink.
Great World, 2026 · Cast acrylic, hand sanded frosted finish · 98 × 4.5 × 4.5 cmResonance · 67 York Street Gallery, Marylebone, London × FAYA Contemporary · London Design Festival 2026 official partner
Neighbours
Material as a carrier of traces, histories and relationships, not passive matter. Every detail rewards closer attention.
Neighbour series, 2026 · Biomaterial on birch · 40 × 60 cmThe Nearness of Things by Insights of an Eco Artist · Blank Canvas, 56 Dawes Road, London SW6 7EJ · 23–25 October 2026
Photo: Angel Rongdan
Minios
Black volcanic stoneware stool and scoops set, moulded by hand at GF artist residency, Buckinghamshire, July 2026. Primitive by instinct, it asks whether we are really so advanced.
Cave series, 2026 · Clay · 20 × 14 cmThe Archive of Small Things by Elephant Vision Lab · 15 Bury Place, Fitzrovia, WC1A 2JB · 23–25 October 2026
Research & Affiliations
Design for Flourishing
Wellbeing Technologies Lab, Imperial College London, under Chair of Design Engineering Professor Rafael A. Calvo. Positive computing technologies for wellbeing, affect and decision-making.
2026 —
Imperial College London × National University of Singapore
Visiting Researcher at the College of Design and Engineering. Supporting Professor Calvo in facilitating the cross-university collaboration; research meetings and three workshops run on site.
2026 —
IDE Course, RCA AI Lab
Design-engineering for new Physical AI interfaces, in collaboration with the OpenAI San Francisco design team.
2025
Recognition & Service
Internet Society Community Advocacy Fellow (UK)
Internet governance training, Brussels workshop and European Parliament engagement.
2026
ICANN Member
Published submissions commenting on the Transition Article and UA Adoption.
2026
Keynote Speaker, MAI Foundation
Session 4: Digital Rights, Safety & Literacy, Washington DC.
2026
Guest Lecturer
Invited by Luchen Xi to lecture on Art × Tech at HKUST, Division of Arts and Machine Creativity, to over sixty students.
Upcoming, 2026
Peer Reviewer
For ACM and Design Research Society communities, among others.
2025 —
Co-Lead, RCA AI Lab Hackathon
The lab’s first hackathon, sponsored by ElevenLabs and Lovable.
2025
Teaching, IDE Skillshare
Conceived and led a session on research-informed interfaces.
2025
Background
Education
MSc & MA Innovation Design Engineering
Imperial College London × Royal College of Art, Full Ride Scholarship.
2025 — 2027
BSc Economics and Management for Arts, Culture and Communication
Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.
with Fashion Design at Parsons New York.
2021 — 2024
Ventures
Founder & CEO, Wello Health
Digital mental health platform, Singapore. Grant-funded; accelerated through SMU IIE Greenhouse; presented to the SMU Board of Trustees. Awarded the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore Scholarship.
2022
Co-Founder, EcoView
Financial Times funded gamified app for green household technologies. London, United Kingdom.
2021
Early stage roles
San Francisco, USA and Yangon, Myanmar. Relational databases and user experience; Going Merry acquired by Fortune 500 Navient. MIT Innovation Award; GSMA Development Fund.
2019 — 2020
Skills
Making
Arduino, sensor and hardware–software integration; traditional craft in wood, metal, clay, glass and confectionery; additive manufacturing.
Coding
Python, C++, R, SQL; system architecture; ML pipelines.
Researching
Research-through-design, mixed-method inquiry, user studies, quantitative evaluation.
About
Valerie Chua Yan Tong is an artist and researcher exploring how digital technologies shape attention, memory, and wellbeing. A researcher in Imperial College London’s Wellbeing Technologies Lab, she builds installations and devices that ask how technology can be designed for wellbeing, rather than engagement. She received the Best Demo Award at ACM MobileHCI 2026 and is an Internet Society Fellow, advocating for evidence-informed internet policy and a safer, more intentional Internet. Originally from Singapore, she is pursuing an MSc and MA in Innovation Design Engineering at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art. Her work spans art, design, and research, with presentations at Milan Design Week, London Design Festival, and Tate Britain.
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