Vivian Xu is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher. Her work investigates issues at the intersection of biology, material ecology, technology, and cybernetics. Her creative practice is research-driven, process-based, and informed by practices between the arts and sciences that merge methods from the studio and the laboratory.  

Xu’s work has been exhibited at various institutions in Asia, the United States, Europe, and Australia. She has also been awarded research residencies at institutions such as SymbioticA in Perth, Australia and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, Germany. Her work has also been featured in books such as Climates. Habitats. Environments and The Annual of Contemporary Art of China: 2021 Edition and international media world-wide such as Tagesspiegel (Germany), CLOT (EU), Neural (Italy), and Global China Television (China). In 2022, her work The Silkworm Project was selected for the Lumen Prize for Art and Technology Hua Awards Shortlist hosted by the Serpentine Gallery. 

She is currently an Assistant Professor of Media and Art at Duke Kunshan University in China. Along with Benjamin Bacon, she co-directs the Design, Technology, and Radical Media Lab (DTRM), and co-lead the Art, Media, and Cybernetics Working Group under the American Society of Cybernetics.