Nirit Binyamini Ben-Meir
- Tutor (Research)
- Information Experience Design MA
Nirit is a Research Tutor in Information Experience Design (IED) at The Royal College of Art, pursuing a PhD within the EPSRC-funded Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence program (iGGi) at Queen Mary University of London.
Her practice combines research, workshops and participatory installations in collaboration with institutions including the South London Botanical Institute, the Horniman Museum & Gardens and the University of Tokyo’s Information Lab.
Her work has been supported by the Great British Sasakawa Foundation and received international recognition, including a YouFab Global Creative Award, a Panasonic Award nomination, and Best Paper at DIS 2025.
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Research interests
Nirit’s research explores how design and playful interactions can shape domestic cultures of plant care, fostering more meaningful engagements between people and ecosystems. She is currently developing a network of augmented moss terrariums through co-design workshops, enabling remote owners to exchange signals and cultivate shared practices of care.
Her paper Domestic Cultures of Plant Care: A Moss Terrarium Probe (DIS 2025) examined how sociocultural factors influence responsibility toward plants, highlighting the roles of intergenerational transmission, shared practices, and gift-giving in more-than-human design.
Nirit collaborates with Prof. Hill Hiroki Kobayashi’s Lab at the University of Tokyo to investigate human–computer–biosphere interactions. Their work explores how design can connect urban and domestic contexts with remote natural reserves, including the Fukushima restricted zone.
At IED, she has contributed to projects such as the British Academy–supported POD project and PADLab’s research into systems play and collaborative survival, working with both local and international partners.
Practice
Nirit’s work has been exhibited at various venues in London, including Copeland Park, London Design Week, Samsung KX King’s Cross and the Crypt Gallery. Her piece Destabilised Common Grounds (YouFab Global Creative Award, 2021) is a performative installation and workshop revealing the wisdom of moss colonies, where audiences influence their climate and observe the effects in real time through dual projections.
Her background as a visual communication and editorial designer, teacher, and mother shapes her commitment to making information accessible to diverse audiences. She has delivered workshops across communities, schools, and institutions, including Scars and Quilt at the Museum of the Home (2022) and Mutuality in the Biosphere at Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer with Collective Matter (2021).
Research funding
PhD studentship, EPSRC UK, 2022-2026
Great British Sasakawa Foundation 2025
iGGi collaboration fund 2025
Awards
Best Paper Award, SIGCHI DIS25 (Design Interactive Systems), 2025
YouFab Global Creative Award, Tokyo - Winning Finalist, 2021
Special Panasonic Award, Tokyo - Winning Finalist, 2021
a-n The Artists Information Company and Arts Council England Bursary, 2021
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
Binyamini Ben-Meir, Nirit, Patrick G. T. Healey, and Sebastian Deterding. “Domestic Cultures of Plant Care: A Moss Terrarium Probe.” Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25), 2025. Best Paper Award.
Zohar, Hadas, Nirit Binyamini Ben-Meir, Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa, Danielle Barrios-O’Neill, Michal Pauzner, Oded Kutok, Laura Dudek, and Erin Robinson. “Design Methods for Accessing the Pluriverse.” Companion Publication of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 2024, pp. 417–420. ACM.
Ramirez-Figueroa, Carolina, Gian Luca Amadei, Nirit Binyamini Ben-Meir, Cecilia Martin, and Adam Kaasa. “Experience as a Transformational Practice.” Innovative Practice in Higher Education, vol. 6, no. 2, 2024.
Ben-Meir, Nirit Binyamini, Laura Dudek, Tomica, and Arthur Wilson. “Forging New Narratives.” Visual Communication, vol. 21, no. 3, 2022, pp. 437–450
Barrios-O’Neill, Danielle, Laura Dudek, Nirit Binyamini Ben-Meir, Elena Falomo, Charlotte Jarvis, and Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa. “Navigating Wicked Futures Through More-Than-Human Perspectives: Experiments in Design Education.” Proceedings of Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD11), Brighton, 3–16 Oct. 2022.