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 research poster examines why contemporary AI image generators—especially GPT-based systems—still struggle with high-quality typography, and how these limitations might become productive for future type design. It analyzes technical causes such as unstructured training data, weak contextual understanding of letterforms, limited typographic specialization, and the difficulty of reproducing fine contrast and stylistic nuance when working primarily with pixel-based image models rather than vector logic. At the same time, the project explores emerging opportunities: AI as a collaborative design partner, as a generator of speculative or hybrid letterforms, and as a catalyst for new workflows in multilingual and complex writing systems.
The poster was also translated into a spatial experience and presented as part of a 3D / augmented-reality installation, where visitors could navigate the arguments and visual experiments immersively—turning typographic research into an embodied, exploratory encounter rather than a purely static graphic artifact.
Martin Gnadt: Uncanny Typography
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 […]