Chris Woebken Studio is a participatory futures practice based in Brooklyn, New York, on the traditional and unceded homeland of the Lenape. The studio creates installations, objects, workshops and public programs with communities and cultural organizations. Its projects often rework service requests, legal filings, hotlines and shop counters into ways for people to imagine and act on other futures.
Who gets counted? This question runs through the practice. Animal Superpowers (2007), developed with Kenichi Okada, invited children to experience other species’ senses. The Office of Non-Human Standing (2026) approaches recognition through institutional forms, creating documents modeled on legal filings that frame the ecological contributions of oysters, horseshoe crabs and bees as labor.
Participation, funding and credit are part of the work. For New Public Hydrant, participants in the Water Is… workshop with Youth Design Center received honoraria and credit as concept co-creators. MoMA commissioned and funded design development and later acquired four prototypes. Part of the acquisition proceeds was donated to the center. This is an example of reciprocal commissioning: institutional support helps develop participants’ ideas and returns resources to their community. The collaborations index records the people, groups and organizations behind the projects and teaching.
Woebken co-founded Extrapolation Factory with Elliott P. Montgomery in 2012. Selected work from that collaboration appears here alongside current studio projects. He has held residencies at Rhizome, Eyebeam, Headlands Center for the Arts, MacDowell, Pioneer Works and the Walker Art Center. His work has been exhibited at MoMA, the New Museum and the National Museum of China, and is held in the collections of MoMA and the Nevada Museum of Art. He holds an MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art.
Full CV
Who gets counted? This question runs through the practice. Animal Superpowers (2007), developed with Kenichi Okada, invited children to experience other species’ senses. The Office of Non-Human Standing (2026) approaches recognition through institutional forms, creating documents modeled on legal filings that frame the ecological contributions of oysters, horseshoe crabs and bees as labor.
Participation, funding and credit are part of the work. For New Public Hydrant, participants in the Water Is… workshop with Youth Design Center received honoraria and credit as concept co-creators. MoMA commissioned and funded design development and later acquired four prototypes. Part of the acquisition proceeds was donated to the center. This is an example of reciprocal commissioning: institutional support helps develop participants’ ideas and returns resources to their community. The collaborations index records the people, groups and organizations behind the projects and teaching.
Woebken co-founded Extrapolation Factory with Elliott P. Montgomery in 2012. Selected work from that collaboration appears here alongside current studio projects. He has held residencies at Rhizome, Eyebeam, Headlands Center for the Arts, MacDowell, Pioneer Works and the Walker Art Center. His work has been exhibited at MoMA, the New Museum and the National Museum of China, and is held in the collections of MoMA and the Nevada Museum of Art. He holds an MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art.
Full CV
Commissioned installations. Objects and environments that invite people to explore other futures through everyday actions. New Public Hydrant
Youth-led public programs. Workshops in which young people shape the concepts, followed by supported design development and public presentation. Climate Futures, with Extrapolation Factory
Research partnerships. We work with institutions and communities to investigate questions through fieldwork, scenarios and prototypes. Partnerships can take the form of decision simulations, youth-led programs or public experiments, with a shared question and a clear plan for what follows. Explore research partnerships
Projects begin with a conversation about the question, place and people involved. Together we define the format, resources and timeline, including participation, credit and compensation, then develop the work through research, workshops and prototypes.
For commissions, exhibitions, public programs and research partnerships, write with a little about your context and proposed timing:
hello@chriswoebken.com
studio location: 21 Flushing Ave, Building 212, Suite 201, Brooklyn, NY 11205
socials: Instagram, Flickr, Youtube
elsewhere: co-curating this NYC arts events gcal
Current & Upcoming:
Jan 2027: ANIMALS TURN, HART HOUSE, Hong Kong
Fall 2026: Water // Ways Cloudburst Initiative, commissioned by City as a Living Laboratory (CALL), NY, US
Fall 2026: Participatory Art For Society Engagement with Ocean and Water with partners blueOASIS and Anda&Fala, Azores, PT, EU
Fall 2026: Bard Graduate Center, Visiting Fellowship, NYC, US