Who Designs our
(digital)(next)(uncanny)(interfacing)
Lifeworlds?
Praxis↭theory Seminars at the Hildesheim Faculty of Design Examine Current Interface Cultures and their Opaque Spheres of Production
Qualitative Design Research and Critical Design Praxistheory at the Nexus of Culture, Interfaces, and Strategy at the M.A. Gestaltung program Faculty of Design, HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Hildesheim, Germany)
This master’s thesis investigates how patriarchal structures and gender stereotypes are embedded in everyday products, spatial environments, and professional design processes. Combining feminist theory, sociological concepts such as Doing Gender, and contemporary design research, the project analyzes historical genealogies of gendered form, materiality, and usability while grounding these perspectives in an empirical user survey. The study positions design not as a neutral practice, but as a cultural force that reproduces—or can actively challenge—social power relations.
At the center of the research is an experimental cartographic instrument: the Wahrnehmungsatlas (Perception Atlas). Drawing on survey data, literature review, and qualitative observation, this large-scale visual map translates cultural patterns of gender attribution into a speculative geography. Territories of masculinity, femininity, neutrality, and queer expression are arranged as a fictional landscape, intersected by symbolic “weather systems” that trace shifts, appropriations, and historical reversals in gender coding. The atlas does not claim objectivity; instead, it functions as a reflexive research device that makes cultural assumptions visible and debatable.
Jonas Fey: Unterwasseroasen/Korallengärten
Master’s Thesis Project 2025 Supervised by: Prof. Melanie Isverding, Prof. Konstantin Haensch
This master’s thesis investigates how content strategies on TikTok can contribute to the visibility of artistic practice in jazz. Situating TikTok within the broader digital transformation of music cultures, the study examines how platform logics, algorithmic structures, and short-form video aesthetics reshape the conditions under which jazz musicians can present their work. Rather than focusing […]
This master’s thesis investigates how design can function as a research practice that makes knowledge in intercultural contexts visible and experientially accessible. Based on the project Concepts Trouvés, which examined English-language terms found in Beijing’s urban commercial landscape, the work reflects on how design ethnography and Research through Design can explicate implicit knowledge embedded in […]
This master’s thesis investigates how patriarchal structures and gender stereotypes are embedded in everyday products, spatial environments, and professional design processes. Combining feminist theory, sociological concepts such as Doing Gender, and contemporary design research, the project analyzes historical genealogies of gendered form, materiality, and usability while grounding these perspectives in an empirical user survey. The […]
