Nelly Ben Hayoun

Born in 1985 in Valence/France.

Nelly Ben Hayoun graduated from Royal College of Art in London/Great Britain (2009) with a Master of Arts in Design Interactions. Beforehand she studied textile design at National College of Art and Design (ENSAAMA) in Paris/France.

Nelly Ben Hayoun is called the »Willy Wonka of design and science« and she has the mission to bring chaos, change and disorder to the world of design and science. She is a prize-winning intendant, performer and experimental designer and works together with leading scientist and engineers to develope subversive events and performances. Her works have been reviewed and shown all over the world.

As part of her projects she collaborated with the cosmonaut Jean Pierre Haignere regarding the Soyuz Chair, which is a modified chair that allows people – brave enough to try – to experience the three stages of a rocket take-off of a Russian Soyuz rocket. For the International Space Orchestra she assembled and directed the worlds first orchestra of space scientists from NASA Ames Research Center, Singularity University, International Space University and SETI Institute. Recently she invited scientists for her project Moondust Remix to create the sound of Neil Armstrongs boots walking on the moon.

Nelly Ben Hayoun is the director of the International Space Orchestra of NASA Ames Research Center. She is a visiting professor at Architectural Association School of Architecture and a lecturer at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, at Royal College of Art and at Goldsmiths College in London.
Her aim is to be admitted by the Astronaut Corps of the NASA. Therefore she’s studying geography at Royal Holloway University in London and is writing about social power structures in artificial surroundings (Mission Control). Besides she is learning to fly.
She is co-author of domusweb.it and designindaba.com as well as guest author for we-make-money-not-art.com, blueprintmagazine.co.uk and Bruce Sterlings blog Beyond the Beyond on wired.com.

Ben Hayoun received the Public Engagement Award of the Institute of Physics, a leading association for science in London, for her project Super K Sonic Booooum (2010) as well as the Science in Society Award of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in Swindon/Great Britain. In addition she received the Output Grand Prix (International Competition) for her project The Physics of the Impossible (2010) and was a finalist at the European Creative Innovation Award (2010). In 2012 she had a three-month fellowship at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, CA/USA.