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Shontelle
Xintong
Cai




About:

As a bio-inspired designer and interdisciplinary researcher, Shontelle Xintong Cai is currently based in Toronto and London. Her works explore the intersections of design, art, science and technology. She experiments with information visualization, experience system and multimodal interaction with audiovisual communication technologies, programmable materials, ‘moist media’ and life science data. Her art and design practices are influenced by her academic background related to visual communication, digital media studies and plant physiology. She considers Design as Discussion: a design protocol centring around the non-human and ecological approach by sensory narratives and fictional objects. She critically and parametrically engages in designing the innovative dialogues between complex scientific knowledge, social-ecological-technical system and cross-sensory experience.

Through interdisciplinary collaboration with practitioners, her demystify, critically interrogate, and transform scientific research into multisensory interactions, transmedia storytelling that engage audiences through tactile, embodied experiences of data and science systems. She opens the discussions about the inherent values of more-than-human participatory research, technoscientific interventions, synthetic bio-design, political ecology and objecthood to the potential audience. She has shared her creative practices and design paradigm through several awards, workshops, symposiums and exhibitions in China, Canada, France and the United Kingdom.

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Recent Selected Awards & Exhibitions:

2026
Fête des Caractères Chinois 2026, La Mairie du 13e Arrondissement, Paris

2025
Art Fund Dubai, Shortlist (Finalist notified in December; UAE)
PREMIO ROCA (Spain)
UK-AADA IAADC International Art & Design Competition (UK)

London Design Festival- 52HZ Echo, Gallery House, London
Art Fund Dubai, Exhibition in the Paris and Al Shindagha Museum (Dubai) (TBD)
Oriental Odyssey, Perfect World Digital Art, Outernet London, London
FaB 2025 -Fringe Art Bath(Human-Machine Co-creation), Bath

2024
The G-CROSS Creative Award (UK) 
The North American Applied Art and Design Competition  (CANADA)

2023
British Ecology Design Award (UK)
SGADC (Singapore)

2022
Royal College of Art (RCA) 2022 in Collection with Good Vibration, Robots Has Feelings Too, and Make it Last categories

Education:

Royal College of Art- MA Information Experience Design, with distinction of degree dissertation (2020-2022)

OCAD University-BDes Graphic Design, With Completion of a Minor in Digital & Media Studies (2016-2020)

*CV Request via email/DM on social media


Index 

|| 2025
Experience Design, Art therapy, Post-human Bio-aesthetics
  1. Vivre en symbiose avec la rose: L’Amour et le Soi (une expérience audio-visuelle immersive, la valeur émotionnelle et culturelle)

|| 2025
Participatory Design, Experience Design, Art therapy
  1. Trillium: Transcultural Alchemy of Healing (Cultural Amalgamates, Collective Ecological Memory)
  2. In Cyanotoxin's Wake: A Visual Poem on Toxin and Freshwater (Climate Change, Ethical Ecological Boundaries)
  3. Aquatic Respire: A Water Ode to Justice and Symbiosis


|| 2024
Visual Impairement, Machine Learning, Exhibit Design
  1. Chromosonic Scrolls- Exhibit Design (on-going)
  2. Visual Echo- Experience research & Design, Information Symbiote  (on-going)
  3. Participatory Digital v.s Natural Remedies  (on-going research)
  4. You Are Sensual in Vitro (online exhibition ver.)

|| 2023
Bio-material Visualization, Experience Design of Bio-material, Regenerative Design Research

  1. Affinitive Cellulose: Narration of bio-material with coffee ground
  2. Indigenous botanical healing in digital realm (on-going)

|| 2022 
Machine Learning in Visualization and Sonification; Morphology; Biotextile

  1. Augmenting Morphology: The Artificialis Historia- Bio-visualization, Machine Learning and Museum Narratives
  2. Augmenting Morphology: A Sonic Cabinet of Curiosity (Participated in IRCAM Forum, Paris)
  3. Augmenting Hybrid Specimen: Bacterial Communication 
  4. Affinitive Cellulose research and prototype: Bacterial Cellulose in Fashion (Textile Circulatory Centre, RCA)
  5. Imaginary Landscape/Touch The Biofilm (Projection Mapping, Improvision, Collaborated with Lewes Music Group)

|| 2021
Techno-ecology; Epistolary Narrative; Bio-Data

  1. Deep Ecology and The Sublime- Online Workshop
  2. A Digital Utopia For The Institution- Spaculative Curation Plan
  3. The Tail Market- Synthetic Anatomy
  4. Countermeasure- Forum Recorder
  5. You Are Sensual in Vitro: A Visual Letter of Microfluidic Brain-on-a-chip
  6. Reciprocal Symphony
  7. Sound Commission at Stella Papaioannou’s Project “The Sound Between Us” 
  8. The Artificial C3 Plant Project


|| 2020
Posthuman Ecologies; Bio-hacking; Biological System

  1. Launch A Dream- Data sonification of a
    Stratospheric Balloon Flight, Instrument Hacking, Autopoiesis     (Ircam Forum, Paris)
  2. Dear Queen St - Locative Ambient Soundscape
  3. Posthuman Fungi Spirituality
  4. White Noise- Conceptual Visual Design For Monthly Sound Event 


|| 2019 
Posthuman Ecologies; Bio-hacking; Design Fiction

  1. Posthuman Who-Posthuman Embodiment Research
  2. Correlate You- Interactive Experience Model Design With Quantum Physics, Mind-uploading Room
  3. “Botani”- Plant Science in Education 
  4. An Orgy of Voyeurs- Novelty Seeking Mechanism
  5. Comate- Mental Health Tracking 
  6. Synthetic Dreaming - Design For Debate
  7. AI Celebrity- Design Fictions, Installation




Shontelle Xintong Cai


She/Her
English/French/Manderin



I am a bio-inspired artist and information experience designer. My artistic style is centered on
interdisciplinary integration, forming a transmedia language of “bio-aesthetics” and
"technological poetics". I combine scientific knowledge, biological data, digital technologies, and
immersive narration to create unconventional experiences for my audiences. In creation, I prefer
to use audiovisual communication, code, bio-materials and multimodal narration to develop
cross-sensory experiences and immersive installations.
I delved into testing and prototyping the complexity and sensuality of information experience
narratives, as well as life science knowledge and cross-sensory interactive experiences. I
regarded design as a form of discussion, following a design protocol centered around a
non-human and ecological approach through sensory narratives and fictional objects. Through
interdisciplinary collaboration with various practitioners, including musicians, computer
engineers, scientists, and critics engaged in museum studies, cellulose-based biomaterials,
bio-inspired computation, computer visions, machine learning, human embryology, microbiome,
and bioinformatics research, I have learned invaluable lessons. Working with musicians taught
me the power of sound in evoking emotions and creating immersive experiences, which I
integrated into my artworks to enhance their sensory impact. Collaborating with computer
engineers equipped me with technical skills in programming and digital fabrication, enabling me
to bring my creative concepts to life with greater precision and interactivity.
The award-winning experiences, exhibitions and collaborations have not only enriched my
creative practice but also shaped my global artistic identity as a bio-inspired artist and
information experience designer, driving me to continuously push the boundaries of art and
science integration.


Art Inspiration and Creative Framework
My work generates its own unique bio-frequency through the collision of XR experiences, code, sound
synthesizers, and animations.





My creative inspiration primarily stems from the long-term exploration of cross-disciplinary
integration between art and science. I have connected with and collaborated extensively with
scientists specializing in plant science, cellulose-based biomaterials, human embryology, and
bioinformatics. These experiences have empowered me to transform scientific data into poetic
artistic expressions, effectively breaking down the barriers between biological processes and
creative endeavors. They have prompted me to reevaluate how we visually represent various
life stages and emerging biotechnologies, while also enabling the development of a creative
system that seamlessly fuses scientific data with literary narratives. Through eco-technological
art practices, I persistently explore the sensory subjectivity of technological objects and the
expansive possibilities of poetic expression.




My works are primarily grounded in posthuman ecology, aiming to reexamine the intricate
relationship among humans, technology, and nature. It Inspires me to ask: how can humans
redefine their identity and their place in a shared existence with non-humans and technology,
finding the way for a regenerative future? I delve into object-oriented ontology,
non-anthropocentrism and Jane Bennett’s "thing-power", vividly conveying the sensuality of a
fictional object through innovative Immersive art experiences. As vibrant entities, the fictional
objects exhibit the capacity to develop subjectivity, autonomy, and agency within various
narratives. I also employ bio-art practices to delve into technological ethics, such as questioning
the humanistic boundaries of invasive biotechnologies and synthetic biology. I prioritize
cross-sensory experiences, inviting audiences to engage with themes like bio-art, regenerative
design, synthetic biology, political ecology, and technoscientific ethics. I critically reimagine how
ecological systems and technological interventions can influence the present and future.
Running on Cargo