Ralph Borland

JRF | Focus: 4IR and ethics of care in Africa · Carnegie Corporation of New York + HUMA

Ralph Borland is an artist, curator and interdisciplinary knowledge worker. He has a degree in Fine Art from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University, US. His PhD from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, is a critique of first world design interventions in the developing world. His post-doctoral work at UCT focused on the African city and on North-South knowledge inequalities. He has a keen interest in the democratisation and creative use of emerging technologies; African Robots, his collaboration with street wire artists in Southern Africa introduces electronics and mechanics to their practice. His art-design piece Suited for Subversion (2002), a protective and performance suit for street protest, is in the New York Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection. He co-curated the exhibitions Design and Violence at Science Gallery Dublin in 2016 and Future Present: Design in a Time of Urgency at Science Gallery Detroit in 2020.