Tobias Klein

Tobias Klein (簡鳴謙) is a German artist and architect. He is also an Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong. Trained as an architect, his work articulates a syncretism of contemporary CAD/CAM technologies with site and culturally specific design narratives, intuitive non-linear design processes, and historical cultural references. Through his works and writings, he established the notion of ‘digital craftsmanship’ as an operational synthesis between digital and physical materials and tools as poetic (poïesis) and technical (technê) expressions, opposing a traditional dualistic separation of digital workflows and analogue making and material understanding.  

His works have been international exhibited at venues such as the London Science Museum, the V&A, The Venice Architectural Biennale, the Science Gallery (Melbourne), the container (Tokyo), the Bellevue Arts Museum, the MoCA Taipei, The Museum of Moscow, the Museum of Vancouver and at Art Basel Hong Kong. In 2020, The University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong, opened a retrospective exhibition of his works from the past 15 years, accompanied by a publication with the same title as the exhibition, Metamorphosis or Confrontation.