ZOE MIYAKO LEE
zoemiyako@gmail.comare.nainstagram
Zoe Lee is a designer, entreprenuer, researcher, and filmmaker based in the United States. After receiving a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), she co-founded BEAM, a research-led creative studio and public imagination engine for people & planet.
She is also a Research Affiliate at the MIT Media Lab’s Community Biotechnology Initiative and a member of NEW INC, the New Museum’s design, culture, and tech incubator, in the Year 12 Creative Science cohort.
Her work focuses on how climate technologies and interventions operate once they move into real places—shaped by ecological conditions, governance, culture, and lived relationships to land and water. Her practice blends research, design, and storytelling to make complex socio-ecological systems legible and negotiable.
Her work has been published and presented internationally, and has appeared in Vox, MIT Technology Review, ArtNews, The Today Show, O! Magazine, Stereo Saints, and Barley Field Magazine.
CV
TIDELANDS 2100
TIDELANDS 2100
Co-Director & Research
Co-Directors: Annie Chen & Zoe Lee [BEAM]
Producer: Ryan Lettieri
Art Director: Ellen Fritz
3D Modeling: Healey Koch, Ian Haut, Leo Roth
Architectural Research: Ram Charan
Partners: University of Rhode Island DWELL Lab, Jason Jarvis
Funders: Anonymous was a Woman (New York Foundation for the Arts), Rhode Island State Council for the Arts
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DESCRIPTION
Sea levels along the U.S. East Coast are projected to rise 9 inches by 2100, already driving flooding, insurance loss, and forced relocations. Yet for communities tied to the shore through culture and livelihood, retreat is not an option. Without new narratives of resilience, the future remains unimaginable—and unprepared for.TIDELANDS is a speculative XR project co-created with Rhode Island’s coastal residents.
Using NOAA flood models, ecological scans, soundscapes, oral histories, and site-specific architecture, it builds immersive worlds that envision adaptation and thriving in place. Rather than assuming abandonment,
TIDELANDS offers a counter-imaginary: what it could mean to live with rising seas. Currently in production, TIDELANDS will move into community workshops in 2026 with partners including the Tomaquag Museum, URI, and the Providence Resilience Project. The project is designed for both local impact and global dialogue, with plans to present from Rhode Island planning forums to the UN Climate Conference (COP) in 2028.