Prof. Dr. Zane Berzina

Originally from Latvia, Prof. Dr. Zane Berzina works on projects across the fields of design, art, natural sciences and technology. Her studio practice, research and teaching evolves around soft technologies, material ecologies and processes in the field of textiles as well as sustainable and circular practices. In 2005 Zane Berzina accomplished a practice-based Ph.D. ‘Skin Stories: Charting and Mapping the Skin’ at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London using analogies of human skin in relation to her textile practice.

2000-2004 she was lecturing at the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK) and 2004-2006 at Goldsmiths, University of London, Fine Arts Department. 2007-2009 she was working as Main Researcher across the Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre in Textiles and Goldsmiths Digital Studios, University of London.

2008 Zane Berzina has been appointed Professor for Textile and Surface Design, Conceptual Design of Materials and Surfaces, at the Weißensee School of Art Berlin. As Co-Founder of eLab (Laboratory for Interactive Technologies) and Greenlab (Laboratory for Sustainable Design Strategies) within the college, she is particularly interested in the possibilities and synergies that arise from merging ecological thinking with technological developments. Consequently, she is a member of the project advisory board of the German Federal Ecodesign Award.

2014 - 2021, she was a founding member of the research consortium "smart³ I materials, solutions, growth" for the development of new products with intelligent materials, and Principal Investigator on several smart³ research projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) at the Weißensee School of Art Berlin ("start smart", "smart tools for smart design", "SoundAdapt", "smart materials satellites"). 2016 - 2022 she was also a member of another BMBF funded research consortium "futureTEX" leading the research projects "Textile Prototyping Lab" and "TheraTex" at the Weißensee School of Art Berlin. These and other research activities are conducted within the framework of DXM – Design and Experimental Material Research unit. DXM is the research facility of the Textile and Surface Design Department at the Weißensee School of Art Berlin funded by Prof. Dr. Zane Berzina and Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Christiane Sauer in 2014.
Further information on DXM can be found here: www.dxm-berlin.de

www.zaneberzina.com
https://greenlab.kh-berlin.de
https://www.textileprototypinglab.com