Lauren Alexander

Lauren Alexander (1983, Cape Town, ZA) obtained a Masters degree in design at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam(2008) and thereafter she graduated with an MFA from Dutch Art Institute/ArtEZ Arnhem (2011). Since 2012, Lauren is co-head of the Interactive Media Design in the BA programme and tutors Master students at the MA Non Linear Narrative programme at the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague (KABK) an Senior tutor MA Non Linear Narrative. Lauren has taught at the MA Design of Experiences (2017-2019) at the University of the Underground, affiliated with the Sandberg Institute and  the Cairo-Amsterdam Research Bureau programme at the University of the Underground, Amsterdam, (2019-2020). In 2020/21 she was guest tutor together with Ghalia Elsrakbi at "Disarming Design", temporary programme at the Sandberg Institute. 

In 2009 Lauren co-founded Foundland Collective with Ghalia Elsrakbi. (www.foundland.info) and since 2014 the collective is based between Amsterdam and Cairo. The duo collaboration explores under represented political and historical narratives by working with archives via art, design, writing, educational formats, video making and storytelling. Throughout their development, the duo has critically reflected upon what it means to produce politically engaged work from the position of non-Western artists working between Europe and the Middle East. 

Foundland was awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship for research in the largest Arab American archive in 2015/2016 and was shortlisted for the Dutch Prix de Rome prize in 2015 as well as the Dutch Design Awards in 2016. In 2017 their short video, “The New World, Episode One” premiered at the Centre Pompidou, Paris and in 2018 was screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. The duo have lectured and exhibited widely in Europe, the United States and the Middle East including at ISPC, New York, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Ars Electronica, Linz, Impakt Festival and BAK, Utrecht, London Art Fair, Beursschouwburg, Brussels, Fikra Biennial, Sharjah and Tashweesh Feminist Festival, Cairo and Brussels. Several of Foundland’s video works are preserved and distributed by the Dutch media art archive LIMA, Amsterdam.

Soon after her graduation Lauren Alexander returned to DAI and has been in charge (together with Hanna Rullmann) of all DAI's communication design including the house-style of this website, ever since.

Learn more about Lauren Alexander’s written MA thesis: An Elephant in the Room

Learn more about Lauren Alexander's DAI publication 2011: The White Elephant

Follow Lauren’s "Life after DAI" by means of www.foundland.info and instagram