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)
Ina Szczepanski: „Concepts Trouvés: Design in an Intercultural Context – Making Research Through Design Tangible and Visible“ (2026)
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 visual and linguistic material.
The thesis develops two interconnected outputs: an exploratory visual Glossar des Glossars and a designed book concept. Through iterative methods—including associative mapping, card sorting, AI-supported clustering, and network analysis—the project examines processes of knowledge organization and reveals the limits of categorical ordering. Instead of imposing a fixed taxonomy, the final design embraces relationality and openness, foregrounding the networked character of concepts across culture, language, urban space, and postcolonial discourse.
By translating research material into visual, structural, and typographic form, the project positions design not merely as documentation but as an epistemic tool. The resulting publication operates as a reflective research artifact: it both documents and performs the process of making implicit intercultural knowledge explicit, thereby contributing to contemporary discussions on design ethnography, situated knowledge, and the cultural agency of design.
Ina Szczepanski: Concepts Trouvés Gestaltung im interkulturellen Kontext – Forschung durch Design erfahrbar und sichtbar machen.
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 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 […]
Tina Böse: „Mood Atlas in the Tension Field of Student Living Environments“ (2025)
[Cartography], [Design Ethnography], Material Cultures
When we think of science, we often picture test tubes, formulas, diagrams, and boxes—frames that contain, categorize, and attempt to represent the world. Yet some topics are highly complex and resist being reduced to simple visualizations. They demand effort to be made legible—and remain no less compelling for it, waiting to be explored and articulated […]
