Winter Term 2007/2008

Studierende gesucht: Notebook University KISD
Es wird in Zukunft eine neue Arbeitsgemeinschaft zum Thema "Notebook University KISD: Blended Learning" geben. Zur Vorbereitung werden etwa 6-8 Studierende gesucht, die mindestens einen Tag Zeit pro Woche haben, am Thema "innovativer Einsatz von digitalen Medien im Studienalltag der KISD" mitzuarbeiten.

Ob Weblogs, Literaturlisten, Seminardokumentation oder intelligente Kommunikationsplattformen - es sollen innovative Aspekte des Studienalltages beleuchtet, entwickelt und integriert werden. Ziel ist die Konzeption und Entwicklung neuer Werkzeuge und Dienste in ein "Perosnal Learning Environment".

Für das Team - das in enger Abstimmung mit der W3AG arbeitet - stehen ein Arbeitsraum, einige Tutorenstellen und je ein neues Apple MacBook (für 1-2 Semester) zur Verfügung. Erwartet werden Motivation, Engagement - und Erfahrung im Bereich der Nutzung und Entwicklung solcher (oder vergleichbarer) Anwendungen.

Zudem wird es auch eine wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin geben, die sich gemeisnam mit dem Team ab Mitte November ganz diesem Thema widmet und mit Ihnen hier auch sichtbare Fortschritte entwirft und entwickelt.

Wer sich also entsprechend kompetent fühlt und motiviert ist, kann sich bei mir per Mail melden und kurz vorstellen - dann gibt es weitere Informationen. Ein erstes kurzes Meeting, zu dem auch alle Interessierten eingeladen sind, findet am Mittwoch, den 31. OKTOBER um 14.30 Uhr in meinem Büro (Raum 311) statt.

MEDes Short Term Project
(Short-term project 27.11-30.11. 2007)
A project led by Gordon Hush (GSA Glasgow). Students from all the MEDes Partner Universities are invited to participate. All coordinators will be in Cologne for a board meeting from November 29 to December 1st. So every student, every alumni, every interested student is very welcome to join us this week! But places in the project are limited...

Gesture-based Interaction in Museums: Windows to the past
(Medium-term project 16.10.-30.11.2007) Project weblog here
Museums require a specfic approach to develop exhibits based on digital, audiovisual media. Following the technological hype in experience museums it becomes more and more obvious, that interaction with exhibits cannot be an end in itself.
Based on existing content about the history of Andalusia we will develop new ways of presenting audiovisual information as well as interacting with it. The interfaces that will be developped should be gesture based interfaces designed for the specific situation in an exhibition opening in Spain in summer 2008. The goal is to develop a wide range of possibilities of interactions with a given content. The concepts will be developped and explored in a large projection-interface allowing to explore both gesture based interaction and new ways of dramturgy and narration.

This intensive project includes a series of lectures, presentations and short workshops by various specialists. Engagement and strong commitment to the project are the most important prerequisites for this international cooperation project. There will the possibility for some participants to continue the project by doing an internship at GPD in Sevilla.

Cultural Library II: Temporary urban structures / street stalls
Prof. Tadanori Nagasawa, Prof. Hiroshi Imaizumi
(Short-term project 22.10.-26.10.2007)
Street stalls are one type of temporary structures in the city. They might be serving many different kinds of goods and services in the public space, which must be understood in the cultural context of the city life.
The aim of this workshop is to explore the meanings of the relationship between "design" and "public" through the survey of tempiorary structures (e.g. street stalls) in the city. You will find a new function of "interface" as new aspects of design through this workshop.

This workshop is part of a series of workshops and activities of the Cultural Library Project, initiated by the Musashino Art University in Tokyo.

Progress Colloquium
(Colloquium for MA students 18.10.2007 - 07.02.2008)
Bi-weekly mentoring meeting for the MEDes Master students in their final year. We will talk about your study progress, about the project assistance, about the master lecture. You will suggest an outline for your research proposals and the topic of the master thesis you will develop.
Besides that, you will develop your portfolio during this course, reflecting your study results. The course will end with a presentation of your porfolio.

Master-Seminar: Design in Europe
(Seminar, 23.10.-27.11.2007)
Seminar for the Master Students of the MEDes programme about Design in Europe. Questioning, discussing, analysing and understaning different approaches, needs and articulations of design in different countries.

International Talks
(Lectures, every Tuesday 5.30 PM)
Design International: Reports form our international students, reports from our students coming back from studying abroad, current aspects of intercultural cooperation. And obviously a lot of lectures of our international visiting professors. And all this will be
embedded in discussions. The programme is avalibale as a PDF here and will be continuously upddated. Check also the intranet calendar!

Summer Term 2007

MEDes Workshop Glasgow (11.-18.3. 2007)
Workshop at GSA Glasgow with all the MEDes Students from Glasgow, Milan, Paris, Stuttgart, Helsinki and Stockholm led by professors from the participating universities. See the blog here, see some photo impressions here.

Automotive Interfaces: Assistance between help and paternalism
(Project, together with Dipl.Des Markus Ort, April 10 - May 24, 2007; meetings tuesday 10 AM and thursday 2 PM in R 303)
Cars and vehicles are more and more equipped with assistance systems to provide the drivers (as well as other inmates with trip-related informations or even take decissions.
In this project we wand to design different approaches for interfaces of assistance systems. We will focus on the development of interfaces experimenting with sensorial codings (visually, accoustically, haptically etc). We have to take into consideration that those components are embedded in the contecxt of the whole interior space and the system "car".
The project will be realized in cooperation with Johnson Controls; in the introduction workshop we will clarify the details of the briefing. A further cooperation partner will be an american university researching the cognitive effects of our systems to the users.

Information Design: Exhibition Colonia (2.6.-6.7.. 2006)
(Medium term project, together with Michael Eichhorn, April 10 - May 25, 2007; meetings tuesday, thursday R 508)
Köln im Jahre 50 n. Chr. Das oppidum Ubiorum (umwallte Siedlung der Ubier) wird römische Kolonie und etwa dreißig Jahre später Hauptstadt der Provinz Niedergermanien. Mit der 3D-Visualisierung dieses römischen Köln beschäftigt sich ein Forschungsprojekt an der KISD. Für den Herbst 2007 ist eine Ausstellung mit den Ergebnissen im Römisch Germanischen Museum geplant.
In dem Projekt “Ausstellung Colonia“ sollen Ausstellungskonzepte entwickelt werden, in denen mediale, interaktive, gestalterische und inhaltliche Aspekte zusammenfließen.
Zur Einführung des Projekts wird es einen Workshop mit dem Schwerpunkt mediale Präsentationsformen in Ausstellungen geben (Leitung: Dipl. Designer Ralf Bähren, KISD-Alumni). Außerdem gibt es einen Workshop mit den Ausstellungsdesignern Würth & Winderoll (Haus der Geschichte Bonn, Jüdisches Museum Berlin) mit dem Thema Ausstellungskonzept. Da die Ausstellung fest geplant ist, besteht die Möglichkeit bei der Umsetzung entwickelter Konzepte mitzuwirken bzw. deren Ausführung zu betreuen.

Seminar: Interface Design - Beyond beautiful surfaces
(April Wednesday 8.30 AM-12.30 AM, R 306)
Obviously interface designers are facing the challenge to design more than "beautiful surfaces". But this assaumption leads to the conclusion that "beauty" is a desirable criteria for interfaces.
In this seminar we create categories of interfaces displaying or mediating informations. We examine the perceivable qualities of interfaces and their surfaces. Considering the physiological and psychological aspects of perception as well as cognitive aspects leads beyond aesthetical dimensions. Together we develop the cornerstones of a discourse, analyse the literature, densify the insights and develop a mode or a form as a knowledge base for further seminars or interested students.

Haensel and Gretel know better
(Guest project by Lorenzo Shakespear, Diseno Shakespear, Buenos Aires )
(Short term project, April 16-20, 2007; R 125)

The request is to design a new urban sign with a clear identity and social function. Pick a spot in Cologne (or someplace else), define its strategic importance and work on it in order to make it useful and emblematic.
Achtung! This is not a sculpture. This is not art. The object will have sculptural scale and probably be beautiful but only after it is useful and relevant. The information design aspect of the job is key to its evaluation.

What is the relevance of this job?

• It requires a specific and deep analysis of the context of operation, since several external factors may affect its perception and understanding. That is to say, the urban and architectural conditions, the lighting, the complexities of circulation, the correct placement of the signs and the quality of the messages displayed,
  directed to a multisegmented public.
• Understanding people and considering that every object or visual stimuli, that I set in the public space has a physical and cultural impact that must be evaluated.
• The ability as a designer to stand on both sides of the counter (sending the message and receiving it), to brief (the information and objectives factor), to think outside your head, to research the environment you are designing for, to understand pertinency, to understand your audience (the cultural factors), to do all that quickly (the timing factor).
  

Additional material to prepare the course can be found here (Flashfile, 48 MB!).

Designing Public : The Book!
with Prof. Iris Utikal, Prof. Dr. Michael Erlhoff and Andreas Müller
(Medium term project, April 10 - May 25, 2007; meetings tuesday, thursday R 124)
In this project we will design a book about the KISD theme 2006 and the Designing Public Conference. The Book will be published by Birkhäuser Verlag.

Tuesday Lectures: Beauty /Schönheit
(Tuesday, 5.30 PM)
Lecture series by all KISD professors relating their area of expertise to the topic of Beauty / Schönheit.

Exhibition Workgroup
(Tuesday 4:30-5:30 PM, Room Z4)
Planning and supporting exhibitions in and about KISD. The Exhibition Workgroup is developping the concepts for the KISD Gallery and supports every exhibition in the KISD Gallery and any other place and space at the KISD. The workgroup is responsible for the whole topic of exhibition at KISD, in respect of the design, conception,
realisation and administration.
A further goal of the workgroup is to design the spatial situation at KISD in a way, that proccesses, projects and seminars become visible, tangible and present.