This project was dedicated to surface design as a haptic-functional and sensual-adeptable Interface between human and object.

The students approached the design process in three designated steps: supposedly inspiring experiments to get a touch and feel for the material were the starting point, followed and accompanied by a research and concept phase. These three methods eventually merged. Towards the end, of course, when the ideas were tangible, the students focused on parameters, proportions and practicability. The process was meant to be understood as an experimental evolution from analog through digital towards hybrid states. The aim was to develop surface structures that are known from other contexts and are transformed or sampled as such to cause irritation, so far only visually adeptable structures that reach a new quality in porcelain, structures that oscillate between grace and feature. The project is documented on this website.

We will show the results at Galerie erstererster, Pappelallee 69, 10437 Berlin

OPENING  23.04.2016  19.00

EXHIBITION 24. – 26.04.2016, Sun 12.00 – 19.00 & Mon/Tue 17.00 – 21.00

PARTICIPANTS Moriel Blau /Tomma Suki Hinrichsen /Parinaz Jabirian /Emilia Knabe /Markus Koistinen / Laureanne Kootstra /Dennis-Thong Nguyen / Clara Poeverlein / Hyein Pyo / Julius Terhedebrügge

WITH Dipl.Des. Laura Straßer / Dip.Des. Daniel Schulze

In a on week short project I collided with the Jazz musician Tilmann Dehnhard and my dear colleague form the basic laboratory in our faculty, Johanna Dehio. It was a lot of fun to support the enthusiastic students from various fields (dance, architecture, social- and business communications etc.) in building the awkward and fun sound hullabaloo machine parade. See for yourself

Starting in October I will hold a guest professorship at the University of Arts, Berlin. I am very much looking forward to this great opportunity and I am currently preparing the curriculum. This winter semester we will work at the PORCELAIN EVOLUTION LAB. For the summer semester 2016 I am  preparing a project in the area of social transformation. It is a huge coop. The students will work in interdisciplinary teams of product designers and social- and business communicaters, we work with StartNext, my friend Nadia El-Imam from Edgeryders who runs a research project on OpenCare and Ezio Manzini. The project will be accompanied by exhibitions and talks at Designtransfer. Check out the growing website around it here: HACKING UTOPIA.

Until September 15 you can still sign up for participation, it’s an innovative conference running October 15/16 at Ex-Rotaprint in Berlin: “Politics for Tomorrow” is aimed at people from politics, administration, education, municipalities, foundations and civil society organizations. We look forward to a variety of perspectives and an exciting exchange. If you wish to participate, the registration form is available via Get Involved on the website menu. The event will be held in German and English with bilingiual interpretation.

Planning to go at least one day, since it’s overlapping with the Politics for Tomorrow Conference…

“In a growing state of omnipresent connectivity, it seems that anything can be potentially connected – anytime, anywhere. We are embedded in a myriad of mundane socio-technical alliances, as humans and non-humans ceaselessly correspond and perform. Therefore, the urgency arises to raise the question: What relationships do we enter in to with our fellow agents, what new positions
do we find ourselves in?

From utopian to dystopian visions and realities: We invite perspectives on the role of design in all of this, on new forms of negotiation with and through things, and on what new analytical frameworks this calls for as we further embark in to these technically mediated futures.

The conference will take place on 16. and 17. of October at the University of Applied Sciences. Potsdam. More information on fees and accomodations will follow:

http://www.dgtf.de/tagungen/english

Sehr gespannt auf den Input im HKW am 18./19. September!

Kann Gestaltung Gesellschaft verändern? Wie können wir in die sich stets fortschreitende Modernisierung emanzipative Ideen einschreiben? Hat sich der Anspruch des Bauhauses und der klassischen Avantgarden, durch Gestaltung Gesellschaft positiv zu verändern, eingelöst? Wie können wir uns heute in neuer Weise vorstellen, Wandel und Zukunft zu gestalten? Was sind gezielte, aber doch ergebnisoffene Arbeitsformen? Welche Rolle spielt Co-Produktion? Wie kann man sein eigenes Dasein gestalten? Welche Rolle kommt dem Gestalter zu? Oder hätte heute eher die Abwesenheit von Gestaltung ein befreiendes Moment?