Rachel Foley is a writer and speculative designer exploring the impact emerging technologies might have on humanity and the planet. Through fiction, film, essays and design research, she develops provocative near-future scenarios that help us imagine how our lives might change as new technologies are designed, deployed and made ubiquitous. Much of her work centers on reproductive technologies and AI, interrogating how class, gender and power dynamics play into the creation and uses of new technologies and how we relate to each other and the ‘natural world.’

Rachel’s writing has been recognized for the Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Prize, the Bridport Prize and the Surrey New Writing Prize, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She has exhibited at the Design Museum London, Tate Exchange, Milan Design Week and Dubai Design Week. She studies Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London and has an MA in Material Futures from Central Saint Martins. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

General Enquiries:  rachelfoleystudio [at] gmail.com

PUBLICATIONS + AWARDS:

Oct 2024 | ‘The Expedition,’ shortlisted for the 2024 Bridport Short Story Prize

Oct 2024 | ‘Baby Machine,’ North American Review, Fall 2024 Issue, nominated for the Pushcart Prize

June 2024 | ‘Plant Whisperer,’ Factor Four Magazine, Issue 36

May 2024 | ‘Finding Flora,’ shortlisted for The Surrey New Writing Prize

Jan 2024 | ‘Finding Flora,’ semifinalist for North American Review’s Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Prize

Jun 2022 | ‘Designing AI,’ Material Futures catalogue, guest essay

Sep 2020 | ‘Have you spoken to everyone your technology affects?’ incl. magazine, issue 1 on inclusivity

Oct 2019 | Interview by Tina Gorjanc: ‘Insight: Rachel Foley’s ‘Technocratic Birth’ & the future of reproduction,’ CLOT Magazine

Jun 2019 | ‘Who truly makes decisions about your health?’ Material Futures catalogue, guest essay

EXHIBITIONS:

Apr 2023 | ‘Model Machines’ (producer, DeepMind x Material Futures), Lethaby Gallery, London, UK

Mar 2022 | ‘Future Robots’ (producer, DeepMind x Material Futures), Lethaby Gallery, London, UK

Nov 2019 | ‘Technocratic Birth,’ Global Grad Show at Dubai Design Week

Oct 2019 | ‘Technocratic Birth,’ Designing in Times of Uncertainty, Service Design Fringe Festival Rising Stars, The Barbican & Design Museum, London, UK

Jul 2019 | ‘Deepfake Propaganda for Social Good’ with Debunk Collective, Commune Festival, Tate Exchange at the Tate Modern Museum, London, UK

Jun 2019 | ‘Technocratic Birth,’ Central Saint Martins, London, UK

Apr 2019 | ‘WIP: Technocratic Birth,’ Milan Design Week, Ventura Futures, Milan, Italy

Dec 2018 | ‘The Future of Democracy,’ Future Factories, The Design Museum, London, UK

EDUCATION:

Jan 2025 | MA Creative Writing, Birkbeck, University of London

2019 | MA Material Futures, University of the Arts London: Central Saint Martins

2016 | Certificate in Sustainable Design Entrepreneurship, Fashion Institute of Technology

2009 | Bachelor of Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute