Artist & researcher Singapore-born · Milan-homed · now in London

In the wait,
matter learns to speak.

Glass, wood, biomaterials and quiet technology — surfaces that hold the sky and wait for hands, food and company.

Selected works

2024 — 2026
L'attesa — a sheet of float glass held between two lengths of spalted birch, bearing a sourdough loaf in raking sunlight L'attesa — the glass and spalted birch surface L'attesa — the work at the residency L'attesa — the surface in preparation L'attesa in service at the finale meal — set with lemons, candlelight and food as evening falls
Collective making · float glass & spalted birch

L’attesa

A table that does nothing, beautifully — until dinner arrives and it holds the whole evening sky. Made at a finale meal in Buckinghamshire; completed by company.

Reading Design residency (nominated) · presenting at London Design Festival 2026
Three DUST media devices in translucent, sea-green and sand-coloured casings, each with a small e-ink screen showing climate news
AI news media · IoT

DUST

The news, slowed down. AI news media — an RSS Feed+ in IoT that treats headlines like paper, not push notifications. Developed at the RCA Computing Lab.

Milan Design Week 2026 · Isola Design · as seen on Dezeen
A generative particle rendering of the Gower Peninsula coastline in progress — headland and sea dissolving into drifting points, with the node-based patch visible
Adaptive public space

Cultural Interactions

Rooms that read the room. Context-aware generative installations for adaptive public space — here, the Gower Peninsula dissolving into particles, mid-study. Demo paper accepted at MobileHCI 2026.

MobileHCI 2026 · Wales, UK
A translucent biomaterial specimen with suspended bubbles and dark inclusions, photographed against a pale ground
User–material interaction

Mediated Communications

When the material is the message. Information exchange and visualisation through user–material interaction, at the RCA Natural Matters Lab. Full paper accepted at DRS Textile Intersections 2026.

Exhibited at RCA Hangar Gallery · Great Exhibition Road Spring Show

Index

Writing · record

Peer-reviewed writing

Textile as Ecological Index: Casting Domestic Food Waste Design Research Society Digital Library, London Forthcoming
Material Attunement in Minimal Media: Designing Tactility for Information Engagement Proceedings of the Design Society 2026, Cambridge University Press — Imperial Robotics Lab May 2026
More-Than-Human-Centred Design & Design for Meaningfulness IASDR 2025: Design Next, Taipei — panel with NUS, Virginia Tech & MIT; mentored by Don Norman Dec 2025

Record

MILES Bio Apron A wearable cast from the kitchen’s own waste stream — DRS Textile Intersections, London Forthcoming
W*NK WONK Health information you can eat — multisensory confectionery, Imperial Chemical Kitchen; commissioned for branded events Commission
Design for Flourishing Adaptive AI for human wellbeing — with Prof. Rafael Calvo & the National University of Singapore, Wellbeing Technologies Lab, Imperial 2026 —
24+ awards Across film, photography, video and software To date

About

The artist

Valerie Chua Yan Tong is an artist and researcher working across media design and tangible computing. Previously trained as an economist and wine professional in Milan, she is now based in London at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art.