Biography
Mi (Misha) Lin is a London-based cross-disciplinary artist and PhD researcher at the School of Design, Royal College of Art. Her practice-led research reimagines embodied engagement with Miao embroidery, a textile intangible cultural heritage from southwest China, through immersive, interactive, and generative installations. Working across textile thinking, digital art, AI, projection, gesture tracking, and sound, she explores how cultural memory and living traditions can be activated through spatial experiences of participation and transmission.
Her ongoing project, Generative Unravelling, has received international recognition, including a solo feature in Aesthetica Magazine, the International Design Awards 2025, and a shortlist for the V&A × Design Society Design Values Award 2025. The series has been presented internationally at London Craft Week 2025, the IEEE ICME AIART Gallery 2025 in Nantes, France, and the Shanghai Art Museum in 2026.
Alongside her artistic practice, she has contributed to the Tsinghua Alumni London Art Exhibition as both curator and featured artist, and has been invited to deliver talks and participate in art salons, including a guest lecture at the University of the Arts London.
She holds a BA in Fashion Design from Tsinghua University, where she received the Excellent Graduation Design Award and the Excellent Graduation Thesis Award, and an MPS in Arts and Cultural Management from Pratt Institute. Her professional experience spans artistic research, project curation, fashion design, and cross-cultural industries, with experience across China, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
CV
Generative Unravelling series
Awards
• Silver Winner, Multimedia / Interactive Media, 19th Annual International Design Awards (IDA) 2025, 11 December 2025.
• Winner of the Creative Communication Award (C2A) 2025, Student Category (Other Short Films / TV / Film / Animation), organised by Farmani Group, 12 November 2025.
• Shortlisted for the Design Values Award 2025, organised by Design Society and the Victoria and Albert Museum, 21 April 2025 (Final results pending).
Solo Press Features & Publications
Aesthetica Magazine
• Featured on a full page in Aesthetica Magazine Issue 128: Reflection (December/January 2026), Artists’ Directory (p142), ISSN 1743-2715, published on 1 December 2025. Aesthetica is internationally distributed and held in major art institutions, including the Royal College of Art Library.
• Highlighted in Aesthetica’s Independent Artists to Watch newsletter, circulated to 50,000 international subscribers.
The Royal College of Art
• RCA Official Website: Doctoral Spotlight: Celebrating Research Degrees at RCA
Exhibitions and Salons
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• Exhibition RCA AI Festival 2026: Where Intelligence Meets Imagination, Royal College of Art, Snap Visualisation Lab, Rausing Research & Innovation Building, Battersea, London. Invited researcher and artist, 18 Feb 2026. Supported by the EPSRC AI Skills Fund.
∞: Thousand Threads, Thousand Universes and Hand in Thought — Unravelling the Intangible
• Exhibition AI for Humanity Spotlight, part of GOSIM Hangzhou 2025 global open-source innovation summit, Hangzhou, China. Invited researcher and artist, 13 — 14 Sep 2025.
• Exhibition IEEE ICME AIART Gallery 2025, part of the 7th IEEE Artificial Intelligence for Art Creation Workshop (AIART 2025), a sub-event of the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo (ICME 2025), at La Cité des Congrès de Nantes, France. Invited researcher and artist, 30 Jun — 4 Jul 2025.
• Exhibition Breaking Boundaries 破域, Tinglan Art Museum 庭澜美术馆, No. 192 Zhengyang Street, Shenhe District, Shenyang, China. Invited artist, 18 Jun — 6 Jul 2025.
• Exhibition Tiangong Kaiwu 天工开物: Crafting Works of Nature, hosted by China Art and Design Magazine《艺术与设计》杂志社有限公司 and the Chinese Embassy, at the China Pavilion, part of London Craft Week 2025, Royal Mint Court, London. Invited artist, 12 — 15 May 2025.
∞: Thousand Threads, Thousand Universes
• Exhibition Between Coexistence, Panel Discussion Artistic Practice and Identity Reconstruction in a Cross-Cultural Context, presented by Chinese Arts & Crafts Society, University of the Arts London (UAL), sponsored by Bounce Fund, at Millbank Tower, London. Invited artist and panel guest, 30 Apr — 2 May 2025.
• Exhibition Ubiquitous Technology: The Science of Aesthetics, Art Salon Symbiosis of Cultural Heritage and Technology, co-hosted by the UK Tsinghua Alumni Association (UKTA) and the organisation’s advisor Nancy Zetian Zhang, made possible by JINGDONG, at 20 King Street, St. James’s, London. Exhibition co-curator and artist; Art Salon curator and speaker, 9 Oct — 18 Nov 2024.
Hand in Thought — Unravelling the Intangible
• Exhibition 4th Shanghai Art & Design Exhibition: Revealing Futures, part of the 70th Anniversary Series of the China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum), guided by the Publicity Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, at China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum), Shanghai, China. Invited exhibiting artist, 16 Jan — 25 Mar 2026.
• Event and Exhibition RCA Research Biennale 2025, organised by the Royal College of Art (RCA), Hangar Space, RCA Battersea. Biennale Exhibition Committee member; roundtable speaker of Salon Articulating Material Engagement; researcher and artist, 21 — 27 Feb 2025.
Explore More
Further visibility, recognition, and exhibition highlights:
Lectures, Panels & Public Talks
• Guest Lecture Navigating the Intangibility: How Research Takes Shape through Experience, Technology, and Active Making, Envisioning Futures unit, MDes Design Futures, School of Design, Royal College of Art. Guest Lecturer. 5 Feb 2026.
• Panel Discussion Identities in Motion: Beyond Display, graduate conference presented by the MA Curating & Collections programme, Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London (UAL), held in the Banqueting Hall. Special Lecturer and Invited Panel Guest, speaking alongside Dr Marsha Bradfield (UAL CSM/CCA) and Zheyuan Zhang (Imperial College London). 15 Nov 2025.
Other Information
Exhibitions
• Butterfly Effect, 180 Creative Gallery, New York, Team Leader and Curator, 2018
• SOFT BODY, Digital Art Installation, Aranya Gold Coast Community, Qinhuangdao, Beidaihe, Beijing Poly Art Company Limited, Business Development and Project Planning Officer, 2020
• 15/16 Fashion Show—Tsinghua University Academy of Arts & Design & NABA Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano, the D-PARK No.1 Workshop, 751 Art Zone, Beijing, The Adorkable Tiger, Fashion Designer, 2015
• Babylon Fashion Show—Tsinghua University Academy of Arts & Design & NABA Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano, Milan International Fashion Week 2015, Milan, The Adorkable Tiger, Fashion Designer, 2015
• The Start of a Long Journey—Outstanding Works by Graduates From Key Art Academies in China, The Adorkable Tiger, Fashion Designer, 2015
• Tsinghua University Academy of Arts & Design 2015 Undergraduate Cohort's Second Graduation Exhibition, Tsinghua University Art Museum and Area A Multi-Function Hall, Beijing, The Adorkable Tiger, Fashion Designer, 2015
Awards
• Most Likely to Become a Rockstar, ACM Program, Pratt Institute, 2018
• Adorkable Tiger, The Excellent Graduation Design Award, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, 2015
• The Application of Chinese Folk Tiger Patterns in Fashion Design, The Excellent Graduation Thesis Award, Tsinghua University, 2015
Fundings
• The Friend of Tsinghua Fashion Scholarship, Tsinghua University, October 2015
• The Outstanding Literary and Artistic Scholarship, Tsinghua University, 2011-2012
Degrees
• PhD Student in Textile Design Research, Royal College of Art, London, U.K., September 2023 - Present
• MPS in Arts and Cultural Management, Pratt Institute, New York, U.S., August 2016 - May 2018, GPA: 3.82/4.0
• BA in Fashion Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, September 2011 - July 2015, GPA: 3.93/4.0
Work Experiences
• Marketing and Business Development Director, UK Tsinghua Association, London, U.K., December 2023 - Present
• Founder, Brand Manager & Design Director, Misha Lin Studio, Beijing, China, November 2020 - Present
• Intern, Textile Department, Jason Wu LLC., New York, U.S., June 2018 - December 2018
• Assistant to the Director of Marketing, Wonderworld Interactive Exhibition, New York, U.S., June 2018 - December 2018
• Manager of Design & Operation Assistant, 180 Creative Gallery, New York, U.S., October 2017 - May 2018
• Business Development & Project Planning Officer, Beijing Poly Art Contemporary Limited, Beijing, China, November 2019 - November 2020
Project Experiences
• Organiser & Team Leader, Butterfly Effect, New York, U.S., June 2017 - May 2018
• Research Member, The Crop Cycle, New York, U.S., November 2017
• Researcher & Designer, Adorkable Tiger, Beijing, China, January 2015 - June 2015
Publications
• Bremner, C. et al. (2024) Whether We Design: A Weather Report. Printed Publication. Available at: https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/5670/.
