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 poster analyzes the cultural, social, and aesthetic forces behind the hype surrounding AVAVAV’s viral “finger shoes,” mapping how megatrends (such as digitalization, globalization, sustainability, and gender shifts) translate into socio-cultural currents, fashion trends, and concrete design strategies. It argues that contemporary footwear aesthetics—ranging from queering and maximalism to alien- and animal-like morphologies—are driven by a shared tension between rebellion and nostalgia, escapism and critique, and a desire for individuality in a crisis-ridden, hyper-mediated world
Focusing on creative director Beate Karlsson and the brand’s sustainable, provocative production methods, the work frames AVAVAV as a case study for “uncanny” design: products that deliberately blur attraction and repulsion to challenge beauty norms, gender conventions, and mainstream luxury logic. The central claim is that such strange, sculptural shoes are not gimmicks but crystallizations of broader cultural dynamics—using the uncanny as a strategic tool to express autonomy, satire, and resistance within contemporary fashion culture
Maya Grylla: AVAVAV – Was steckt hinter dem Hype um die Fingerschuhe?
Seminar work 2024 supervised by: 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 […]
