Ralf Baecker is an artist, researcher, and educator working at the interface of art, science, and technology. Through installations, autonomous machines, and performances, he explores the underlying mechanisms of new media and technology. His objects perform physical realizations of thought experiments that act as subjective epistemological objects, posing fundamental questions about the digital, technology, and complex systems and their entanglements with the socio-political sphere. His practice bridges discrete machine thinking with alternative technological perspectives and a material understanding grounded in self-organizing principles.

Baecker has received numerous awards, including the Grand Prize of the Japan Media Arts Festival (2017) and honorary mentions at Prix Ars Electronica (2012, 2014, 2023). His work has been shown internationally at venues including ZKM Karlsruhe, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, MOCA Taipei, and CCCB Barcelona. Since 2016 he has been Professor for Experimental Design of New Technologies at the University of the Arts Bremen.