Swiss Design Network Symposium 2008

Speakers

 

Claudia Acklin is Head of BA Design Management, International, at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne Switzerland. She is member of Faculty Design and Research Group “Design and Management”, at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne Switzerland

Acklinstudied social pedagogy and journalism and worked for more than 12 years as a journalist (Tages-Anzeiger, Swiss National Radio etc.). During that period she produced and directed two full-length documentaries revolving around “taboo” issues such as dying from AIDS (“Ich lebe gern. Ich sterbe gern”) and young suicides (“Hunger nach Leben”). She is the co-author of a dozen interviews with people involved with the Letten experience in Zurich, a place that received sad international fame as the “Needle Park”.
In the past ten years she has mainly been working in the educational field as a lecturer, school co-director and a developer of new study programmes such as the Master of Advanced Studies Digital Media or the BA Design Management at Lucerne School of Art and Design. She has been the Head of the programme since its successful start in 2006 and has been doing research in the area of accessibility, design and management. Lately, she developed a tool to support SMEs in their use of design. This year she was a founding member of the association “Swiss Design Transfer”, a regional centre for design promotion and support.

Rosan Chow is a research scientist at the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories. She holds a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Communication Design and a Ph.D in Designwissenschaft. She has studied, practised and sessionally taught design in Canada, United States and Germany. She is a research fellow at the Communication Research Institute in Australia and the project manger of the newly established Design Research Network. Her research focuses on design theory and design research methodology.

Alain Findeli is Full Professor at the School of Industrial Design of the University of Montreal where he has been teaching for about 30 years. Trained as an engineer in physics (INSA, Lyon) and researcher in materials science (IIT, Chicago and Polytechnics, Montreal), he reoriented his career and interests toward the human and social aspects of engineering, technology, and design (M.A. in Architecture, Montreal; Doct. in Aesthetics, Paris). He concluded his extensive study of the history of design education in his book 'Le Bauhaus de Chicago: l'oeuvre pédagogique de Làszlò Moholy-Nagy' (1995). His current research topics and recent publications cover more general philosophical issues of the theory and practice of design (logic, aesthetics, ethics) as well as some key pedagogical aspects of design research education. He is the founder and current scientific and pedagogical director of the Master's program in "Design & Complexity" in Montreal. As a Guest Professor at the University of Nîmes (France) in 2006, he is planning to introduce a research agenda on the most recent developments of design theory and methodology (service and social design, sustainable public projects, quality of place in urban living environments).

Karmen Franinovic is an architect and interaction designer focused on the creative, critical and active use of technology in everyday life. In her projects, she seeks to stimulate social and bodily movements, and to raise awareness of interaction with/in the urban surroundings and its diverse ecologies. Her theoretical research on play, hospitality, participation and enaction manifests in interactive artefacts, responsive environments, digital architectures and installations. Currently, she focuses on tangible interaction and sonic feedback embedded in objects and architecture. Franinovic leads sonic interaction design research projects at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) supported by European Science Foundation and European Commission Sixth Framework Programme.

Research team Léchot:
Lysianne Léchot Hirt (MA in litterature – Geneva University) is head of the Research Institute in Design of the HEAD - Geneva where she also teaches contemporary art history. She is a member of the Swiss Design Network since 2003 and president since 2006. She wrote many articles and texts of catalogs on the contemporary art, organized and moderated numerous national and international symposiums.

Magdalena Gerber, designer, ceramist, teaches in the postgraduate course REAL in the HEAD-Genève and is a member of the organization team of the CERCCO. Her creations and ceramic researches have received several prices and are internationally exhibited.

Laurent Soldini, product designer, is a project manager at the ECAL in the Research Department and also works as an independent designer. 

Florence Marguerat (MA in litterature – Geneva University) teaches at the HEAD Geneva. She was editor at the Geneva daily paper Le Courrier, of which she lead the cultural column, participated to many juries and publications among which, quite recently, a text on Pierre Huyghe for the Centre pour l’image contemporaine in Geneva.

Manon Mello, designer in visual communication, works as assistant of the Research Institute in Design of the HEAD - Geneva and as an independent graphic designer.

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Ken Hollings is a writer based in London. His work appears in a wide range of journals and publications, including The Wire, Sight and Sound, Strange Attractor, Frieze, Blast and Nude, and in the anthologies The Last Sex, Digital Delirium, Undercurrents and London Noir. He has written and presented critically acclaimed shows for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, Resonance FM, NPS in Holland and ABC Australia. His novel Destroy All Monsters was hailed as ‘a mighty slab of trippy, cult, out-there
fiction, mind-bending reading’. He has worked with a wide range of composers, producers and artists on mixed-media presentations, including collaborations with Graham Massey of 808 State at the Royal Institution in London, Rechenzentrum at Club Transmediale in Berlin, American artist Aleksandra Mir at the Zurich Kunsthaus in Switzerland, Thomas Dolby at the ICA and London Fieldworks at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. He has also taken part in events with William Burroughs, John Cage, Erik Davis and Lydia Lunch. Hollings is currently finishing work on his new book, Welcome to Mars: Science and the American Century 1947-1959, based on his 12-part radio series on Resonance FM, due for publication in June of 2008.
Since 2004 Hollings has been delivering a course of lectures to MACD students on radical media theory, urbanism and information design. He joined the Critical Context team with Rathna Ramanathan and Axel Vogelsang in 2005.

Hans Kaspar Hugentobler is a lecturer and senior researcher in Design Management at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology with a Master’s degree in Human-centered Innovation and holds Diplomas in Communication Sciences and Design. Hans Kaspar has lived and worked in Germany, USA, Taiwan and China, and has consulted with organizations such as Deutsche Telekom and the Taiwan Design Centre. He is founder of Chen Hugentobler Associates, a consulting firm that helps plan next generation product, service and customer experience solutions. Affiliations: European Academy of Design (committee member), Design Management Network, DGTF.

Gesche Joost is head of the Design Research Lab of Deutsche Telekom Laboratories in Berlin since 2005. Her research focuses on interface design, aspects of gender in design and audio-visual rhetoric. Joost studied design at the University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, and received a doctorate at the University of Tübingen in rhetoric. 1998-2003 she was active as an interface designer in Cologne, Vienna and Tokyo. Joost is member of the executive board of the DGTF (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und Forschung) and member of the Jury in the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes). Furthermore, she is a member of the circle of consultants of the minister of finance Peer Steinbrück. Joost lives and works in Berlin.

Melanie Kurz studied product design (Diplom) and communication planning (Master of Arts) at the University of Applied Sciences Schwäbisch Gmünd. She received a doctor’s degree at the University Duisburg-Essen (faculty Art and Design) and worked inter alia for Alexander Neumeister and BMW Design. Currently she holds a Creative Director position for design strategy and user interface design. Melanie Kurz gives lectures in design history and design theories at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich.

Manuela Lackus was born 1978 in Offenburg (D), since 1991 she lived in Switzerland near Zurich, where she studied media- and communication science, german literature and philosophy. In 2005 she graduated with her master thesis in the field of integrated communication.
Since April 2006 she is member of the research staff of the study course ‘design and product management’ at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences and writes her doctoral thesis at the University of Amsterdam, focussing the problem of interface communication in product development processes.
Main research works were a study among 76 big and medium sized companies (2005) for measuring integrated communication levels, a qualitative study (2007/2008) among 30 managers, marketers and designers of big and medium sized, some quantitative studies as well as the development of an innovative interdisciplinary method to control consistency of brand- and product messages.
Focus of her research activities is to use interdisciplinary method sets and theories for practical oriented problem-solving in the product development process.

Rathna Ramanathan is a graphic designer and lecturer from Chennai, India and currently based in London. She holds a PhD in the History of Graphic Communication and Typography from the University of Reading and an MA in Communication Design from Central Saint Martins, London. Ramanathan has taught design and typography in India and currently teaches at Central Saint Martins and the London College of Communication. She is the Association Typographique Internationale [ATypI] Country Delegate for India and the Secretary of the Printing Historical Society, UK. Ramanathan runs her own design studio Minus 9, which specialises in cross-cultural and editorial design. Her work has received a number of international design awards and been featured in The Sunday Times, Eye, Step and Building Letters, amongst others.

Bernhard Rothbucher is head of Research Department: Design- and Product Management DE RE SA (DEsign REsearch SAlzburg), SUAS and head of Industrial Design (Full Professor ): dpm - Design and Product Management (BA/MA studycourse), SUAS. Rothbucher is a Lecturer at the Freie Universität Bozen, ITA
He is founder and head of aka buna design consulting, Salzburg: Industrial Design, Interior Design, Design Strategy.
Rothbucher received a doctor’s degree in philosophy in 2003 at the Chiba University, (Tokyo Met.), Japan, from the Design Culture Department., Prof. Miyazaki. He holds a master degree in Industrial Design Studies form University of Art and Industrial Design Linz Austria (1997).

Claudia Mareis, Design Theorist and Design Researcher.
Graduation from Art School of Biel/Bienne in Switzerland. Several years of professional experience as communication designer, amongst others at Total Identity in Amsterdam. Postgraduate studies in Cultural Sciences at University of the Arts Zurich and Humboldt University Berlin. Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for Cultural Studies in the Arts Zurich and Art University Linz. She works as a researcher and lecturer at Bern University of the Arts. There she is responsible for the field "Research through Design".

Gavin Melles joined the Faculty of Design in mid-2006 from the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Medicine and Health. He is currently a research fellow and has a background in linguistics and education. Since arriving at Swinburne, Melles has taught into the research induction course (HDR904) for the Doctor of Design students, advised and supported doctoral students in design, and acts as associate supervisor for a number of Masters and Doctoral projects. He has published into design education and pedagogy, reviews regularly for conferences and journals in design and education, including Artifact, Ethnography in Education and also continues to publish on educational research and curriculum in general, including with a focus on methodologies. He is currently involved in and writing about several projects related to doctoral design programs, practice-based pedagogy, and the academization of design.

Kristina Niedderer, PhD, MA (RCA), is a Reader in Design and Applied Arts at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. She leads the Material Design and Applied Art Research Group, within the Centre for Art, Design, Research and Experimentation (Cadre). She is a design researcher and craft practitioner who was originally apprenticed as a gold and silversmith and worked as a journey(wo)man with Ulla and Martin Kaufman in Germany. She then trained as a designer and design researcher in the UK, with an MA (RCA) and a PhD in Design.
From 2005 to 2007, she has been a Research Fellow in the Faculty for the Creative and Cultural Industries where she was leading the Experiential Knowledge Project and the Experiential Knowledge Conference 2007. In 2005, she held a position of Artist in Residence at Middlesex University, which was supported by the Arts Council England, and in which she conducted research into the creative possibilities of Argentium™ Sterling Silver. She is currently an external PhD-supervisor at Middlesex University.
In her practice, Niedderer is working at the intersection of craft and design while specialising in silver and tableware design. With her doctoral work, she has moved beyond traditional craft practises, using research in the development of her work. Her work focused on the exploration of design as a means for mediating mindful interaction through the use of objects in social contexts. Her work is shown regularly at trade fairs and galleries in England and Germany.

Silvia Pizzocaro, is Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano. Academic experience includes appointments as Professor at Politecnico di Milano since 1996 for the Degree course in Industrial design; tutor and research supervisor within the Department of Industrial Design of Politecnico di Milano; post-doctoral research fellow; co-ordinator for research projects funded by the European Commission; scientific co-ordinator and chair of the organising committee for the Design plus Research conference held in 2000 at Politecnico di Milano. Principal areas of research interest are: theory of design, the design of research into design, doctoral education in design, research methodology.

Claudia Prescher studied Psychology at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. Since 2004, she has worked as a research associate on various projects at the university’s Chair of Methods of Psychology, where she also teaches and advises students. Her doctoral dissertation investigates the conditions that foster innovation within product development.

Margareta Tillberg, a slavist and art historian, is a research associate at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and currently visiting scholar at the Humboldt University Berlin, Helmholtz Center, »Das Technische Bild,« and at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. 

Tillberg has been a visiting lecturer for theory and history of art and color at the department for design (scientific associate), Bauhaus University, Weimar and assistant professor for history and theory of design and art, Växjö University, Sweden. 

Tillberg has participated in numerous international conferences and published widely on Russian visual culture, especially from a point of view of transdisciplinarity and transformation processes. Her present project is about design, art and cybernetics: Russia in the 1960s/1970s.

Teal Triggs is Professor of Graphic Design, co-Director of the research unit for Information Environments (IE) and Head of Research, School of Graphic Design, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.
As a graphic design historian, critic and educator her writings have appeared in numerous international design publications including Émigré, Eye, Visible Language, Blueprint, Grafik, ZED, and Journal of Design History. She is co-editor of the academic interdisciplinary journal Visual Communication (Sage Publications). She is currently working on a book about the graphic language of fanzines (Thames & Hudson) based upon her PhD thesis undertaken in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. Triggs is also co-founder of the Women’s Design + Research Unit (WD+RU).
Under the remit of Information Environments, Triggs is currently working on a two-year project that traces the life histories of the residents of the Aylesbury Estate, Elephant & Castle, London, funded by a consortia of industry partners. She is also completing a research project on responsive environments and design studios at the University of the Arts London culminating in an exhibition on the future of learning spaces (July 2008). She is Director of Studies for a number of practice-led research degree students in the areas of information environments, typography, and drawing conversations. Triggs is Course Director (designate) for MA Design Writing Criticism, LCC and is also co-organising with Dr Laurene Vaughan (RMIT, Australia) New Views 2: Conversations and Dialogues in Graphic Design, an international symposium and exhibition to be held at London College of Communication (July 2008). Triggs is a Fellow of the International Society of Typographic Designers and a signator of the First Thing First Manifesto 2000.

Christian Wölfel studied Industrial Design Engineering at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. He was a visiting student at the Burg Giebichenstein, University of Art and Design, Germany. His diploma thesis, CarCoverMachine, won the IMB Innovation Award. Since 2005, he has been a research associate at the Center for Industrial Design, Technische Universität Dresden, where he works on research projects and as a lecturer and advisor. His research interests concern design processes and methods, with a focus on knowledge in early stages of the design process.

Axel Vogelsang is an information architect, design researcher and lecturer from Germany, currently based in London. After years as an art director in advertising he turned to the development of digital media applications in 1997 and has since worked for companies and institutions such as Red Bull, Fiat, The Royal College of Art, SMARTlab. He holds an MA in Communication Design from Central Saint Martins College, London, where in 2008 he has also delivered his PhD thesis. His research centres on the relationship between text and image in digital media with a specific emphasis on the Internet and Web 2.0. The wider context of his research is interactive narrative, changing literacies and the structuring of information. In 2004 Vogelsang won an artist in residency at the GlobIS-lab at the ETH Zuerich as part of the Artists in Labs programme by the Zurich University of the Arts. He is also a constant member of the Sitemapping jury of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (BAK) which funds media art in Switzerland. Since 2002 he is teaching on the Critical Context seminar at the MA communication design at Central Saint Martins College and he has also given workshops in the UK and Switzerland. From summer 2008 Vogelsang will hold a research lectureship at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.