Anna-Sophie Springer

Anna-Sophie Springer is an Acting Professor of Transformation Design at the Braunschweig University of Fine Arts (HBK), where she explores how ecological, historical, and aesthetic methodologies inform art and design practices for socio-environmental change. She serves as Administrator of the Transportation Design Professorship and is affiliated with the Institute for Design Research.

Her internationally recognized research has shaped the ecological turn in curatorial and artistic practice. Springer investigates how knowledge systems of natural history, science, and cultural institutions are embedded in colonial legacies and global resource economies through her long-term project Reassembling the Natural and pioneering work on the 'world as forest.' Drawing on Aby Warburg's concept of 'picture vehicles,' she examines how images, materials, and knowledge circulate across time and space.

At HBK, her teaching and research interrogate connections among mobility, fossil fuel economies, technological systems, and the ecological crisis. Her current focus includes fieldwork on algae and seaweed as living agents of multiscalar coevolution, tracing their roles in oceanic thinking, economies of abundance, and planetary governance beyond the human. These investigations build on previous research into plantation ecologies and land governance in Southeast Asia.

Springer's publications demonstrate a consistent trajectory toward examining the intersections of environmental humanities, cultural history, and artistic practice. Her work spans academic articles, edited volumes, and monographs that critically engage with colonial legacies, multispecies relations, and alternative knowledge systems. The recurring themes across her publications reveal a deep commitment to decolonial approaches, ecological thinking, and reimagining institutional frameworks.

• Deutscher Verlagspreis (German Publishing Prize) 2020
• Deutscher Verlagspreis (German Publishing Prize) 2023

As founder of K. Verlag, a Berlin-based experimental press, Springer develops publishing as both artistic medium and epistemic practice. Her pedagogical approach fosters inquiry-led methodologies and interdisciplinary collaboration, mentoring students in developing practices that address complex environmental and societal challenges. Springer completed her PhD at the Center for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, with her thesis 'Species of Accumulation and the Necromass of Natural History.'