Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian

Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian is a London-based designer, artist and filmmaker of Armenian and Algerian descent. She serves on the Advisory Council of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and is the designer of experiences at the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute). She is also an exhibitor and keynote speaker who has worked with museums and design centres across the world.

Ben Hayoun-Stépanian collaborated with Kid Cudi, The Avalanches, Sigur Rós, Savages, The Prodigy, Beck, Bobby Womack, Damon Albarn, Maywa Denki, Bruce Sterling and Penguin Café in a musical collaboration that took music into space. Launched from a Japanese launch pad in August 2013, she assembled the International Space Orchestra (ISO)—the worlds first orchestra of space scientists from NASA Ames Research Center, Singularity University, International Space University and the SETI Institute.

In 2013, Icon Magazine nominated Ben Hayoun-Stépanian as one of the 50 international designers “shaping the future”.

In 2014, Wired Magazine awarded her a WIRED Innovation fellowship for her work and for its potential to make a “significant impact on the world”.

In 2015, she was nominated for a Women of the Year Achievement Award. Since 1955, the award has recognized women 'who have made a significant achievement' and 'are being recognised for their strides in making the world a better place'.

Also in 2015, she released her feature film Disaster Playground, based on an investigation of emergency procedures for disasters such as earth-bound rogue asteroids.

In 2016, she began work on her next project, a feature film, digital platform and exhibition entitled “The Life, the Sea and the Space Viking”.

In 2017, Ben Hayoun launched the [http://universityoftheunderground.org/ University of the Underground], a tuition-free postgraduate university providing a Master in Design of Experiences degree, and based in underground urban spaces in London and Amsterdam. Supporting unconventional and pluralistic research practices, it is a free, pluralistic and transnational university based in the basements of nightclubs. It actively works with institutions and nightlife to modify power structures through events, engineering situations and experiences from within, whilst supporting and empowering countercultures long-term. For this, Ben Hayoun-Stépanian was appointed "Ambassador for the Underground" by the independent self-declared artist republic Užupis in 2019.

In 2019, Ben Hayoun-Stépanian released her feature film [http://iamnotamonster.world I am (not) a Monster] where, armed with puppets and dressed as Hannah Arendt, she teases great thinkers of our age whilst challenging them to an impossible pursuit: to find the origins of knowledge. For the film, and for advocating pluralistic thinking and thinking in action, she was appointed a fellow of the Hannah Arendt center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College.

In 2020, Ben Hayoun-Stépanian became a grantee of the Sundance Institute with ''Red Moon,'' her new documentary currently in production. Through role-play, magic and doppelgängers, it offers an experimental vision and template for future diasporas beyond Earth. Set in Algeria, Armenia and France, the film asks, "How will human inhabitants of the moon understand origin, borders and nations?" Ben Hayoun-Stépanian also investigates her family origins in Algeria and Armenia, which led to the start of Nelly Boum Show, her radio show on underground radio's Worldwide FM. Every month, the show explores a theme in a multiverse of possible new futures, touching on economy, politics, and other systems through music and conversation, including a focus on North African and caucasian music and experts.

In 2020, Ben Hayoun took the artist name Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian. She is now represented by former MET Museum curator Beatrice Galilee.

Ben Hayoun is a member of the International Astronautical Federation and the Space Outreach and Education committee, and is vice-chair of the Committee for the Cultural Utilisation of Space (ITACCUS) at the International Astronautical Federation. Provided by Wikipedia