Highlights Design

Potpourri of various research projects from top left to bottom right: «Heavy Mental», «3FOLD», «Expedition 2 Grad», «Digit Soil Membrane-Soil-Interface», «Project CH+», «Almer Connect».
Potpourri of various research projects from top left to bottom right: «Heavy Mental», «3FOLD», «Expedition 2 Grad», «Digit Soil Membrane-Soil-Interface», «Project CH+», «Almer Connect».
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«In 2022, our design research centred on numerous old and new projects dedicated to societally, ecologically and technologically relevant topics from a design perspective using a wide variety of methodological approaches and shared with the (inter)national specialist community and the public in diverse formats.»

Dr. Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken, Head of the Institute for Design Research (IDE)

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Scientific, Artistic and Creative Output and Impact

The results of IDE design research were published in scientific journals and presented to a professional audience and students at several conferences. Interviews with researchers, journal articles and other publication formats addressed not only the specialist community but also a wider public, which was able to experience design research interactively at various exhibitions. The different formats reflect the diverse thematic, methodological and innovative approaches of design research.

→ Overview «Scientific, Artistic and Creative Output and Impact»

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Promotion of Talents and Careers

The annual Junior Research in Design programme supported five research projects out of ten submitted applications. The projects included a PreDoc project, a hybrid publication and funding for the preparation of third-party funding applications.

The «Entangled Environments» PhD group is part of the Transdisciplinary Artistic PhD offered in cooperation with Linz University of the Arts. Projects explore interactions within ecosystems and material transformation processes, which are tested by means of experiments and prototyping.

→ Overview «Promotion of Talents and Careers»

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Cooperation and Internationality

The virtual reality installation «Expedition 2 Grad» was presented at Berlin Science Week. The educational format provides information about global warming using the example of a glacier and will subsequently be a permanent part of the exhibition at Humboldt Laboratory Berlin until June 2023.

Further project-related collaborations took place with universities and universities of applied sciences and with field partners from the medical and health sectors as well as from the field of sustainable development or environmental sciences.

→ Overview «Cooperation and Internationality»

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External Funding

Successful fundings applications include two SNSF projects: «A Design History of the SBB: Design in a Complex System» and «Confederatio Ludens: Swiss History of Games, Play and Game Design 1968–2000».

Grants were also awarded to «The Ice Age Machine» (SNSF/Agora) and to «Renovating buildings; yes! But how?», a joint project with ETH Zurich.

In the Scientainment and InnoBooster categories, the Gebert Rüf Foundation funded the projects «CH+ Link: Experiencing Democracy» and «Almer Connect»; the «Heavy Mental» project is supported by a private foundation.

→ Overview «Research Projects»

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Noteworthy

Together with partners from the UZH and ZHAW and a large network of partners, the institute’s director Dr Anna Lisa Martin-Niedecken obtained a multi-year innovation structure grant from the Digitalization Initiative of Zurich Higher Education Institutions sities (DIZH). The «Digital Health Design Living Lab» provides an interdisciplinary structure for research and development projects and the formation of excellence profiles at the interface of digitalisation, health, ethics and design.

«Digital Health Design», Photography: Left: Sharon McCutcheon / Right: Alex Kondratiev, both via Unsplash
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Networking

Titled «Exploring Design Beyond the Human», the 2022 Swiss Design Network Winter Research Summit was held at the ZHdK under the direction of Prof. Dr. Sarah Owens and Dr. phil. Björn Franke. The two-day conference addressed post-anthropocentric design practice in the face of ecological crises and advancing mass extinction. Keynote speakers included: Yoko Akama (RMIT University), Heather Davis (The New School) and Helen Pritchard (FHNW Academy of Art and Design Basel). 

«Counter Parts» Left: Poster, BA Visual Communication students: Ladina Dörig, Emma Kouassi, Nicolai Jaron Krager and Severin Weber / Right: Exhibition situation, photography by Maria Peskina
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Discover

In her DDCAST 98 podcast, Prof. Bitten Stetter discusses her work as a designer and researcher on the topic of «palliative care». In the context of the SNSF project «Sterbesettings», she investigates from a design perspective how consumables and medical instruments are used or what significance religious and biographical objects have.

Titled «Die visuelle und audiovisuelle Wende im Zeitalter der Bildschirmmedien» (The visual and audiovisual turn in the age of screen media), the annual conference of the Swiss Society for Communication and Media Studies (SGKM) was co-organised by the ZHAW Department of Media Psychology and ZHdK’s Cast / Audiovisual Media Programme. For insights, see the brief documentations of the keynote addresses given by Frank Rose and Marianne Bahl.

Left: Copyright finally. with Mina Monsef / Right: Poster SGKM annual conference 2022, by Cast / Audio Visual Media
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Experience

Co-organised by the Trends & Identity Programme and the netzwerk mode textil, the «Fashion and Gender» conference took place at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. This was followed in autumn 2022 by the Research Day «Ageing Futures. Design. Society. Technology». Co-organised by the Institute for Design Research and the Department of Industrial Design, the event illumined the different perspectives, approaches and creative spaces of design in shaping the future of ageing.

«The Mechanics of Play in Arts and Culture» was the theme of the annual «Gamez & ruleZ» conference of the Game Design Programme. The community explored various aspects of gaming and playful approaches to games, art and culture.

Left: Research Day «Ageing Futures», photography by David Jäggi / Right: Toniz – Play, a suberversive version of the Toni Areal, FR Game Design
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→ More information on the Institute for Design Research