Just in time for the 70th anniversary of the first LSD-trip, this work presents a timeline starting from the drug’s discovery to its status as a national concern. The work focuses not only on drug consumption and the hippie movement, but also on the role that LSD played in medicine and psychotherapy.

The lexicon takes you on a journey into the subconscious – a world between the conscious and the unconscious. Who is this “self” and who dictates our actions and decisions? The answers to these questions originate in the captivating depths of this three-pound jelly-like gray marvel we call the brain. Most of us believe we see the world as it truly is, but each of us is controlled by this organ, which has a will of its own, thus subjecting us to self-delusions on a daily basis.

We experience reality plastically and stereoscopically in three-dimensional space. However, when we see objects from a bird’s eye view, we perceive them as flat. When we reproduce this view as an aerial ­photograph, the image appears two-dimensional. A completely new image is created when a two-dimensional photograph is folded along specific lines, such as rivers, roads, cracks or material borders. By creating objects by using added structures, microcosms with a new three-dimensionality are produced.

The human being has long been a central topic of philosophy and literature and a source of great fascination. A satisfactory answer to the question “What is man?” remains elusive. This project is the visualization of an illustrative experimental quest to discover man’s basic and pure essence. The result is an image of non-perfection, rudeness and silence, created by using techniques of collage and overpainting.

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The publication “Governance. Democracy. Delete.” is a 600-page attempt to capture, structure and contextualize the political, economic and social ­dimensions of the debate on the future of the Internet based on Twitter one-liners and linked material. The book, which should be considered part of the open source movement, is set exclusively with open source fonts. It brings digital aesthetics onto paper and is intended to appear as a monthly print-on-demand edition. The publication thus simultaneously functions as a political statement, an archive, a discussion platform and a news compendium.

“Dance of Molecules” is a media installation that endeavors to animate conditions of entropy and chaos. The idea was to find a visual and tactile expression of the complicated mathematical and physical actions that define how our world functions and looks. A particular focus was placed on the chaos theory. The final installation was presented at the “Museum of Perception” in Graz, Austria, in October 2013.

Those who expect more functionality from fashion are missing the point. Looking beyond convention keeps us interested, stimulates our awareness and makes us more visible. Ultimately, fashion becomes independent when it is born of experiment - as was our new magazine-catalog hybrid. Its large format invites unusual handling and provides no explicit direction for use, allowing the reader to discover imagery in an unconventional way.

An interdisciplinary experiment for the exhibition series “Rundgang 2013” at the Weissensee Academy of Art that visualizes the school’s relevant principles, “Gegenwind” (Headwind) represents the questioning of common practices, as well as the school’s emphasis on a conceptual and reflective approach.

The visual communication for the four-event series is based on a light and movement installation that creates real three-dimensional typography.

The pictures are metaphorical photographic illustrations that provide a humorous view of the social network scene. The images are visual translations of Facebook’s specific vocabulary and are as abstract as its contents. Taken out of context, the image headlines gain a strange significance.

The project is a critical statement about the ways in which social networks make every snippet of news a thing of major importance. By avoiding eye contact with the portrayed individuals, they become inhuman stage props. The characters turn into designed personas acting on a surrealistic and artificial stage. Although they appear on the same stage, the players do not really interact, as everyone is absorbed in his own little play or world. The virtual social habitat of the social network is simply replaced by a real local habitat, thereby highlighting its absurdity.

The project prompts viewers to reflect on the curious structures of our modern online parallel societies by asking how social our so called “social networks” really are.

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“One” focuses on the individual in the crowd. It mainly imitates the way the human eye observes: not viewing a crowd as a crowd, but observing micro-scenes inside it. All images were taken in very busy places in the center of London. When surrounded by large crowds, our senses are so overwhelmed by all the impressions that it is difficult for our minds to focus. Using a technical trick, the work captures the viewer’s attention and draws it to specific individuals within the bustling crowd. We are reminded that all the people we see for a brief moment in passing have their own histories, their own souls, their own minute chronicles in the ever flowing history of time. The project “One” prompts us to remember that everyone you see is just as complex as you are.

The amount of existing data is exploding. In fact, it doubles every year and shows no sign of abating. This information overload calls for a new approach in information graphics and knowledge transfer.

Using everyday objects to visualize this information overload helps to make intimidating numbers and complex topics more accessible and comprehensible. The viewer is approached in a more emotional and sustaining manner than is the case with classic diagrams.

The “Colonial Turd” series was created as a material exploration of post-consumer cardboard pulp and natural dye. The rockers were designed as functional furniture for young children. The intent was to create heirloom quality products using a common recyclable material. The project’s sustainable program is supported through the use of natural dyes and hardwoods that are indigenous to North America.

In the 16th century, Japan developed “wabi-sabi”, an aesthetic language and philosophy that aspires to impermanence, inconspicuousness and simplicity. In contrast to our European aesthetics, this vision of beauty encourages the idea of valuing objects that show traces of time and use. Entrenched in Buddhist teachings, incompleteness and imperfection are key values for the use of material and form.

Inspired by Far Eastern aesthetics, Western aesthetics were questioned by analyzing the use of objects in everyday life in order to implement these influences in Western society and design.

The project focuses on the future of books in the digital age.

It is not a book in the classical sense. While being completely analog, the book aims to convey the feel and reading flow of an e-book reader and is based on the short story “A Descent into the Maelström” by E. A. Poe. Here the story is used as a metaphor for how we deal with easily accessible and disposable information, which is primarily spread digitally.

It also demonstrates how the reading device’s features affect and transform human reading behavior.

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“Puzzle Facade” transforms Ars Electronica’s media facade into a giant Rubik’s cube, inviting passers-by to engage in an interactive experience that takes place in the city of Linz, Austria. In “Puzzle Facade” the player interacts with an interface-cube, which contains electronic components that track rotation and orientation. This data is sent to a computer that changes the lights and colors of the building in correlation to the handheld interface-cube.

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“Generating Utopia” is a real-time visualization of social location data. Its aim is to show what human habitats might look like if it were possible to transform them depending on the location-based behavior of their residents.

The pictures we draw of ourselves within today’s social media channels are not reliable representations of who we really are. We select what others get to see from us – we build an utopia, a story of what we think our lives should look like. This conclusion is even more inspiring because social networks are expanding into physical space: We do not only tell others what we are doing, but where we are doing this as well.

“Generating Utopia” makes such utopias interactively accessible by transforming existing topologies of cities based on their inhabitants’ location data retrieved from the social network Foursquare. It is an information visualization that shows how people are “using” their cities. Yet, at the same time, the created imagery allows room for interpretation and imagination.

It is not easy to answer who one is with just a pen and paper, and it is even harder if one tries to be honest when doing so. What started out as a humorous exercise eventually became work.

A close look behind the facade of the monumental landscapes of Iceland reveals a hidden world that stands in complete contrast to the touristic perception of the island. In between the impressive mountains one can discover bizarre details, structures and shapes that are anything but grand. The collection of photographic impressions of this landscape behind the landscape was used to create new visual worlds. Arranged as classical panoramas, the collages bring augustness back into the bizarre, which would be invisible were it not for this compilation.

The Hard Candy series is part of designer Jojo Chuang’s graphic object research. It represents the designer’s move from graphic design to three-dimensional design and is a result of remixes: the remix of material use and of two design categories: graphic and industrial.

An x-type unit employed to assemble components based on the characteristics of a clip that maintains its altered form for use as a media wall and message board as a communication platform. People can write something on the piece and connect it to another piece. Shape and size can be changed by altering the intersection between opened and closed space.

“Herr Fix und Fertig” is a redesign of the Munich phone book. It visualizes the name “FIX”, which represents the mass of data in the phone book and consists of 22 611 pages derived from 22 611 names. The number of names beginning with F (18 706), I (3 893) and X (112) were calculated – 22 611 in all – which translated into 22 611 pages.

The letters F, I and X also appear on the book’s fore edge, as they are printed to the edge of each page. The book is 83 cm high and weights around 40 kg.

AKF (now called FAK) is a student initiative at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. Due to a low percentage of female professors (not only in Karlsruhe), it is used to advocate gender parity in art education.

The FAK poster acts as a communication vehicle: When hung on the wall, it announces the group’s weekly meetings, inviting everyone to come and participate; when worn as a scarf, it strengthens the group’s identity and initiates discussions about motives, current activities and the aims of FAK (fak-hfg.tumblr.com).

“Illustration is just a hobby!” and “You will never get a job with that degree!” are just two allegations one might hear when one studies illustration. This work aims to educate and provide an overview of the field and the daily work of an illustrator. To present a broad spectrum of the discipline and profession, the book includes 29 interviews with illustrators. This work is intended for skeptics of illustration studies, on the one hand, and to prospective illustration students on the other hand.

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The invitation was designed for Heike Hennig’s 50th birthday. The special occasion was highlighted by the choice of the material. Porcelain is a precious, traditional, yet timeless material. All the information was die-cut into the porcelain paper and combined with an illustration of the most significant events in Henning’s life so far. The invitation was then burned in a conventional ceramic oven, transforming the material into actual porcelain.

“P.Lamp” is an easy-to-assemble modular pendant lamp; it lacks the usual exposed wires and completes circuits through the connection between individual lamps via the lamp’s aluminum body.

Liberation from wires makes it possible to vary the size of a lighting area. The length-width ratio of an individual module is 3:1. If there are two modules in a group, the lighting area will be 6:1 to 3:2; with four modules, the lighting area will be 12:1 to 4:3. The lamp also allows people to change the lighting area though different combinations.

The website “mosaik.io” contains four sections: basic principles, library, tips and forum, and the interactive implementation of the basic principles of HTML and CSS.

In the basic principles section, the basic rules of HTML and CSS are taught through short interactive lessons. The library presents the HTML and CSS vocabulary through visual examples with which users can experiment. In the tips section, interesting information about web design can be found, and the forum creates a platform for knowledge exchange between users.

This installation is based on Claude Lévi-Strauss’s theory that the “purpose of myth is to provide a logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction”. Interpreting mythical characters as personifications of human behavior, the work refers to the oppositional positions of Apollo vs. Dionysus and Kairos vs. Kronos and merges each pair into a single image. Large-scale, constantly moving and changing mirror foils reflect the viewer’s distorted image and reveals its contra-dictionary nature.

“Hangul Font Design Compatible with Italic Font Design in the Roman Alphabet” – In the Korean alphabet, there is no italic font. This work investigates the possibility of creating an italic font that is equivalent to the italic font styles of the Roman alphabet that are used to indicate emphasis and citations.

“SAMESAME” is a collection of recycled glass objects made from commercial glass bottles. The industrially produced bottles are revalued both functionally and aesthetically through traditional craftsmanship. A high-value, handmade, unique item is created out of a standardized, mass produced product.

“SAMESAME” is an attempt to show a new creative path to alternative conceptions of products and production. But first and foremost, it is a tribute to an increasingly forgotten trade.

How do we share and how can we preserve our knowledge outside the Internet? And what happens when obsolete technology meets new media? CLAUS™ is an acronym for Community Loaded Archive for URL Sharing™. By entering an URL, the participants animate the machine, which starts printing pictures and meta-data of the entered websites on three dot-matrix printers. Participants are meant to take printed copies of the continuous copy paper from the machine. By sharing the copies with others, the information is widely spread outside the digital world.

Cairo is a testimony to the evolution of mankind’s urban experience, based on the example of the city of Cairo with its historical districts and its human and social heritage.

Today the historical core is in serious decline. Besides the endangered monuments, there are extensive areas that seem frozen in a state of near abandonment. This jeopardizes the urban fabric’s unity and the traditional living practices related to it.

The project shows a case study for a rehabilitation program uniting historic conservation with the vital need for urban settlement.

“La Jetée” by Chris Marker is entirely composed of stills rather than moving images. Time constitutes the movie’s crucial topic, as well as the focus of this publication. Page numbers are replaced by a chronological index describing the position of the frames in the movie. The size of the images is adjusted according to the duration of the respective stills in the film. The result is a translation of Chris Marker’s “La Jetée”, which allows viewers to explore the story through new media.

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“Space Replay” is a floating orb that explores and manipulates transitional public spaces with particular acoustic properties. The hovering object produces a delayed echo of human activity by first recording and then replaying surrounding sounds by using programmed electronics that were installed in the space. The project was developed as a collaboration between Information Experience Design and Design Products at the Royal College of Art in London.

The book project “Where Vision Gets Built” includes more than 240 questions, aphorisms and pieces of advice – all advertising slogans from the world of finance. “Where Vision Gets Built” was - tragicomically - the advertising slogan of Lehman Brothers. The narrative page sequence, the structure of the chapters and the index of the book decontextualize and simultaneously reinterpret these slogans.

The book is thus both an ambivalent collection of wisdom and a rhetorical inventory of the financial crisis.

These illustrations were made by deconstructing the national flags of various countries into their basic geometric shapes and then rearranging the pieces to create new visions of ideal worlds. Each poster contains the same flag shapes and design components; the elements were rotated, scaled, rearranged, and re-layered to create four different compositions.

Super Designer is a visual logo of the 2014 graduation exhibition of Ming Chuan University’s Department of Commercial Design. Based on the premise that “everyone could be a super designer”, the project aims to strengthen the joy of design and tell the new generation of design students that they should enjoy design and be more passionate about it. “Power of Design” was the result of this inspiration and an effort to express the idea that design is a super power, which designers activate.

The project “Distance, Safety & Fiction” deals with the socio-architectural influence of gated communities on the American City. Based on the motif of the triptych, each of the three books provides a different insight into the topic.

“OPEN CITY” is a fusion of book, video and app. Using the QR code on the book’s cover, readers can download the app onto any iPhone. The book contains several scan areas, which are recognized by the app and open videos. The videos can be played while reading, as they are extremely abstract and simple and are not intended to diminish the image in the reader’s mind. “OPEN CITY” is an experiment that could support the contemporary book market and play into our interactive Zeitgeist.

What is possible with language? It seems to be little more than an information carrier. What impact have writing tools had on writing itself and what is writing really about? The book explores writing from a scientific vantage point and makes it physically tangible. It is a compilation of the tried and tested, the book as a medium and the new digital world. This book informs, experiments and plays.

“Imperial Auction House & Royal Pop-up Garden” is set among native British flora in the conservation area of Kew Gardens. The gardens were founded under the British Empire when botanical specimens were readily acquired from occupied countries. The remaining Commonwealth countries are invited to bid on auctioned plots located along the boundary of the conservation area. The plots will showcase their country’s flora, celebrating the exchange of botany and knowledge in which Kew continues to participate.

The series “In der Zwischenzeit” consists of 22 photographs, which were taken in three German institutes of forensic medicine: in Leipzig, Rostock and Potsdam. The work focuses on how the staff of these institutes deal with their daily confrontation with death. Cutouts are carefully selected and reflect the respect the employees have for the deceased. Dealing with death is commonplace here, but remains dignified at all times.

“Build a Safe for an Egg!” – With this task in mind, “Würfelei” was created: a cube with a variety of obstacles that protect the egg from outside influences.

The solution is based on uniting two separate security containers into one. Through their interaction, the parts can open each other. At first sight they appear to be related but each functions independently. However, in order to reveal their interiors, they need each other. The color code shows which mechanism must be applied and how to unite the two cubes.

The film “Cyan” is about a family tragedy. When the daughter of the main actress drowns in the North Sea, the mother develops a deep phobia of water. The theme is the focus of the title sequence. Water is consciously not directly shown, but rather implied through the mirroring effect. The soundtrack both intensifies and diminishes the film’s melancholic mood.

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“Type Performa” is a generative system that creates typography in realtime, with type attributes responsive to the users’ typing. The system encapsulates certain aspects of the users’ behavior and produces typefaces receptive to time. This system addresses and responds to the question of how such visual exposés of the individual hand beneath the text can be translated in our digital culture.

The area devastated by logging and fire is temporarily susceptible to landslides. The MLKL made of eco-friendly materials acts as a net-like ground cover. The biodegradable materials begin to disintegrate after a time, and the planted seeds begin to grow, creating roots, which will eventually stabilize the soil.

“Reducing the Obvious” focuses on the ordering principles that stress reduction used in design today. Reductive approaches are essential for the designer, because they help to divide space efficiently and order elements. Nevertheless the question remains: Isn’t the designer thereby disposing of the context in which objects exist? Is reduction a suitable approach in the complex world of today, and, if not, what other ordering principles might be appropriate? Are there unconscious parallels between the different designs in our environment? “Reducing the Obvious” attempts to answer these questions. This more detailed look at the ordering principles of our surroundings leads to the exploration of unknown terrain, such as chemistry, physics, biology and even sociology. The publication’s design was inspired by physical approaches, such as dealing with forces of gravitation that shift the layout’s elements. The design thus uses the content as its inspiration.

This project is the result of a visual research project about the person who headed the Republic of Korea from February 2008 to December 2012. The main research medium was ammoniac-coated paper, which is primarily used for receipt pads. The image of the person was printed on the paper. Project participants were asked to write their subjective opinions and experiences on the paper. The visual questionnaire was placed in restrooms, enabling participants to visualize their true ideas without being influenced by external authorities. Once the printed form was separated from the paper, all that remained was the visual statement of the respondent. The collected research questionnaires created an extensive overall picture of the person, which was not objectively or ideologically influenced.

“SQUARE SHARE” is a concept for creating and viewing personalized newsfeeds. A non-hierarchical grid is used to select reading preferences. The personal newsfeed is created by connecting different parameters such as reading time, content source and category. Individual combinations of parameters and connections transform the settings into visual “fingerprints”, which can be saved or shared, allowing users to take advantage of the fingerprints of friends, colleagues, and community members.

“BundesTube” is an organization system for the video recordings of the German Parliament’s plenary sessions. By activating a video, users can view highlights of parliamentary sessions and navigate directly between different politicians, parties or topics. The elements attached to the timeline show additional information for specific parts of the video (for example: blue circles = media response; large grey rectangles = politicians, parties; small grey rectangles = topics; decisions). While reading the additional information, all associated items in the video appear, thus expanding from the timeline.

This project entails the research and utilization of a modular composite typeface system.

More and more wild animals are migrating to urban areas worldwide. Berlin has by now become the prime example of a vast biological diversity. The diploma book-project “Berliner Wildtier Fibel” is based on data and information gathered by Berlin’s environmental authorities. It tells fascinating stories about raccoons - brought to Germany by American soldiers, the daily showers of dove droppings and the amazing honey production of urban bees.

These days, paper seems to be losing its significance and prominence. It therefore needs to be made more attractive – by means of new ideas and sensory experiences. Once our main means of communication, paper is now becoming a valuable resource, a luxury item.

Three-dimensional temporary paper objects exhibited throughout Wiesbaden present the material in a new light. They increase public awareness and the appreciation of the material.

This work consists of fictional posters advertising various cultural events. The particular ideas and visual interpretations for each poster were built of three-dimensional paper objects developed and designed by the project’s author. The visibility of the material allows for the expansion of the usual seamless esthetics of digital arrangements and renders design tangible beyond the binary system.

The relaxed interaction with “SHIFT” makes waiting in public spaces exciting, communicative and less anonymous. The seating arrangement combines the principle of the see-saw and that of air pressure. If one person sits down, air is pressed into the other cubes, which rise. Thus, the seats interact with each other and users have the opportunity to engage casually with others near them and to discover “SHIFT” together while they wait or linger.

The Clerkenwell district of London is a disjointed and divided area. Its transformation over time has left its mark. Although the materials there signify a hierarchy of use, their collaboration and interdependency create the unique nature of the space.

These triangular visuals are a 3D info-graphic of the percentage of materials found in Clerkenwell. The publication demonstrates research and process.

The modern cityscape of Korea is mainly characterized by a Korean aesthetic defined by recurring geometric forms. In all areas of life, there are patterns that reflect the typical nature of Korean culture.

The Korean writing system “Hangul” and the use of traditional colors clearly represent an anchoring of Korean thought and culture. “Sagak” is a book with 500 patterns that are based on the Korean writing system and traditional Korean colors.

The Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto is known for his androgynous, deconstructivist and avant-garde style. The concept of the exhibition is the partial disintegration of traditional Japanese architecture into an asymmetric form that reflects Yohji’s approach.

The accessible sculpture stretches into Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and creates six visitor areas containing information about the designer, his influences and his fashion style.

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The basic idea for the project “Take & Give” was the appropriation of graffiti in different ways from urban areas. Identical metal plates and decorative pieces were attached to walls and then collected after they have been sprayed painted by graffiti artists. An associated book serves as a reference and archive. The other part of the project turned fragments of multiple layers of graffiti into jewelry. The pieces were refined to reveal the underlying layers and create new images.

This project explores why different onomatopoeia exist for the same sound in different cultures and languages. People are accustomed to imitating sounds differently because they have studied the sounds in their own languages and cultures. In an effort to visualize sounds in a different way, various ordinary sounds were recorded. Thousands of photographs, drawings and four different books of four different sounds (automobiles, bicycles, wind, and birds) were then created.

“LeereMenge” explores compulsive hoarding and general excess and examines the question of what is essential and what is too much. Viewed as a whole, the objects form a unit; the individual objects lose their autonomy, remain unused and become devoid of any function.

The book probes deeper into the issue, examining the whole and the individual, the outside and the inside and the countless layers that pile up around a hoarder. A neutral analysis of the subject matter enabled an impartial examination of compulsive hoarding.

Algaemy investigates the potential of microalgae in a creative context. Designers Essi Johanna Glomb (textile design) and Rasa Weber (product design) reveal the aesthetic potential of a resource which is usually regarded in Europe as a weed. Algaemy is an analogue textile-printer that produces its own (surprisingly fast-growing) pigment. A wide color palette includes different shades of blue, green, brown and even red, which are derived from various species of microalgae.

This book can be understood and serve as an exhibition catalogue, a discipline guide and as a thematic reference work. Sixty artists from around the world explored the traditional East Asian leporello book format and created works which were united in a presentation at Stuttgart’s Academy of Fine Arts.

The conception and design of the quadrilingual catalogue was influenced by the leporello’s accordion structure. The images sometimes cross the front edge, which also serves as an index. The viewer is prompted to survey the book in order to discover all its contents, thus transforming the catalogue into foldable object.

Extras individualize the world and make choice exciting. The collection “EXTRA ART-XE” refers critically to the standardized extra packages offered in the car industry in order to highlight comfort and luxury classes.

The focus here, however, is the extra itself, i.e. the play with individuality. In every single piece of clothing, the creative and artistic are uniquely visible, hence the title ART-XE, “art” (an English term) and “xe” (the Swiss German word for “seen”). “EXTRA ART-XE” emphasizes that the extra is not an additive, but the basic artistic-artful other, which gives a personal expression to the whole.

“I IS AN OTHER” is inspired by Jacques Lacan’s “mirror stage”‚ and the resulting idea that our mirror image completes our identity. The presented collection follows the principles of symmetry and expresses the complementation of human egos. Clothes develop through the reflection of their own image. Missing parts are added and existing parts are reflected to create a whole. Identity does not exist without a visible surface and its reflections.

The current popularity of generative design processes in which designers use algorithms to create a variety of different outcomes rather than just one definitive result is closely linked to the use of digital design tools. This development has changed our perception of design as the creation of a single author. What happens when the approach fostered by digital generative designers is applied to an analogue world, in which obsolete machines like hand-powered alarm clocks, Walkmen and mechanical toys take center stage?

The work consists of experiments on obsolete machines that reveal their internal algorithms, which are then adopted and visualized.

The idea behind this project is to make scientists and designers partners in crime. A team of nine creative individuals from the University of Arts and Design in Karlsruhe developed extraordinary presentations and researched new ways of visualizing scientific content. Each team worked for five months and the presentation of the results was booked within minutes. This encouraging reception led to the further combination of science and design. The communication of science can not only deliver thrilling input for designers: It is also a field with great potential for their future work.

With an informative poster series, Julia Ettlich visualizes facts about the forestall ecosystem and how it is compromised by the human economy. The series consists of three posters: The first explains the different functions of the forest; the second displays how humans affect and use the forest for their own benefit; and the third poster visualizes facts about how the forest is wasted. Numerous illustrations and icons inform about the forest and permit the posters to be explored in detail.

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The “Austrian Cultural Poster Generator” allows users to design posters with Austrian references via a three-step navigation process on a website-like platform. Images, texts and designs from the fields of art, design, literature, science, sports, politics, entertainment, icons and news headlines are combined to create posters that trigger discussions, ask questions and raise public awareness.

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The project is a 150 m² pavilion built of bamboo and metallic joints located on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. Conceived as an empirical study, the structure is an on-going experiment aimed at fostering discussion about atmospheres, spaces and sensorial experiences. The structure is a frame made of bamboo pillars. The different formation of the bamboo and its interaction with wind and light addresses various senses, such as vision, touch and sense of balance by playing with density, weight, regularity, and shapes inside the structure.

Built with the help of: Bigode, Cabaco, Clemilson, Fabio, Jorge, Juquito, Luiz, Madruga, Peter, Rucao, Thiago and Tunico

Prenatal diagnostics is the measurement of a human before birth. What consequences and ethical questions unravel for society as scientists encode our DNA further and further? After inserting a blood sample into this fictional machine, it evaluates the sample and creates a projected life story that reflects the precision of the measurement. Scientific facts are mixed with highly controversial topics - such as the determinability of sexual orientation - in order to create room for discussion and speculation.

Frankenstein and his monster are among the oldest forms of the English Gothic novel, yet the book is still relevant in the 21th century. The creation of artificial life has lost none of its fascination, whether as thinking robots or cloned humans. Like Mary Shelly, today’s scientists still explore the question of how far researchers may go in their quest for knowledge. Reason enough for setting the English Gothic novel in a contemporary context and publishing it in a new form.

To what kind of alleged problems and social norms are we and our generation exposed on a daily basis? How can one disengage from social expectations and entrenched patterns? These are the questions explored in the work and elaborated on in a three-part collection of exemplary texts and interviews. These writings highlight certain states of society and alleged problems of everyday life, as well as alternatives that oppose this way of thinking and acting.

What will tomorrow’s material playground look like? Considering our interest in the properties and structures of things - based on how materials are used or everything from their spiritual connotations to their efficiency in industrial applications - this research project focuses on material energies as invisible forces that determine how materials are used as generative drivers for design.

This project presents a compilation of curious material probes that demonstrates the energy of their potential and boundaries and presents new ways of perception and physical interactions.

A series of interactive prototypes that reposition individual and collective roles: a multi-user keyboard that requires two or three users to operate; a social media platform in which your profile is crowdsourced by others; and a machine that monitors group interactions in order to algorithmically select and visualize the most dominant individual. Through these designed experiences, the project questions the centrality of the individual user in the interactions of contemporary social media and human-computer interfaces.

“Constructing Memory” is an investigation of how design can enhance a memory-intensive relationship between humans and objects.

Contemporary designs provide “perfect” objects instead of allowing users to relate to them in ways that individuals find valuable. Furnishings are imbued with the notion of redefinition through the amplification of active engagement that reflects memories, enabling users to discover the objects themselves and to give them meaning.

This project focuses on the theme of invisibility through strategies of design. Specifically, the focus is on minorities who are destitute, disabled or socially weak. These are the voices that society pretends not to hear. Through an installation using a photographic design, the voices of these minorities are revealed and the relationship between the general public and the marginalized is examined using visual metaphors.