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)
Sari Dahle: “Nature, Culture, and the Uncanny: How ‚Uncanny Design‘ is Used in NGO Communication“ (2024)
This project analyzes how environmental NGOs use “uncanny” visual strategies in poster campaigns about biodiversity loss, focusing on the tense interplay between nature and culture. Drawing on concepts such as hyperobjects, the Animal Turn, speciesism, and the aesthetic of the sublime, it identifies eleven recurring design strategies—from cutification and anthropomorphism to brutalization and dystopification—and shows how they provoke both fascination and discomfort in viewers. The study argues that these affective tactics are deliberately employed to unsettle anthropocentric perspectives and mobilize action, while also raising ethical questions about manipulation, responsibility, and which species are deemed worthy of protection.
Sari Dahle: Nature, Culture, and the Uncanny – Wie „Unheimliches Design“ in der NGO-Kommunikation eingesetzt wird
Seminar work 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 […]
