ABOUT

Debbie Ding is an artist-scholar working across the intersection of artistic research, technology and game studies – practicising as a contemporary artist for over 15 years, with professional experience as design educator, interaction designer, and game designer-developer; currently Assistant Professor in Digital Arts at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

She builds virtual worlds in physical and digital media and her PhD research explores ludogeography: psychogeography in virtual worlds in games as a medium for artistic practice. She is recognised for her artistic work with virtual reality, game design, data visualisation, and digital mapping as a contemporary artist and was certified as Unity Associate Game Developer.

Her work was shortlisted for the President’s Young Talents 2018 and Impart Art Awards 2020 and is collected by the Australian War Memorial and Singapore Art Museum. Notable exhibitions include Ars Electronica Features, “Radical Gaming” at HeK Basel, “Worldbuilding” at Julia Stoschek Foundation Dusseldorf, “Wikicliki” at Singapore Art Museum, “Radio Malaya” at NUS Museum, “Construction in Every Corner” at NTU Museum, Kochi Biennale, and the Singapore Biennale. Curatorial projects include "Reworlding" (an exhibition of seven female media artists from Asia) and "Making Space" (an exhibition that mapped the spaces of the independent contemporary art space The Substation, Singapore). Scholarships include the NTU Research Scholarship and NAC Postgraduate Scholarship (Visual Art), and funded residencies with Australian War Memorial (Canberra, Australia), Dena Foundation (Paris, France), and Goethe-Institut Singapore.

Debbie received a BA (Hons) in English Literature from National University of Singapore (with a Minor in Gender Studies) and MA in Design Interactions from Royal College of Art, London (as recipient of National Arts Council Singapore’s Arts Scholarship). Her ongoing PhD research at Nanyang Technological University, School of Art Design and Media (NTU ADM) is supported by the Nanyang Technological University Research Scholarship. She has previously lectured full-time in Interaction Design at Nanyang Polytechnic and has a Specialist Diploma in Teaching & Learning (Higher Education) from NIE-NYP.

Prior to her career in contemporary art, Debbie worked in a range of roles in art writing, copywriting, sound design for theatre, set design for film and theatre, and front-end development. Her skills in 2D and 3D design and development were self-taught from the internet and she's a passionate advocate for the use and distribution of free and opensource software. Her work maps emotional terrains and the stories and voices of everyday people in both physical and digital worlds.

Visit all of her public worlds on VRChat through this Portal world (PC/Quest)

Full CV available upon request
debbie_ding@sutd.edu.sg