2.2 A ‘contract’ for cultural education –the political willingness

35 See Bei der Wieden, C., 2013, in: von Amelunxen, H. + Bei der Wieden, C., HBK BS (Hrsg.), 2013, 50 Jahre HBK Braunschweig – Geschichte einer Kunsthochschule und ihrer Vorgängereinrichtung, p. 227, translated by L. Huber-Fennell, 2021.

(Art)colleges have a responsibility, in fact a ‘contract’, to educate–now more than ever! And, not just with respect to the vocational qualifications of future artists, designers, and scientists – including all the soft skills that they need to develop on a personal level. They are also responsible for providing specific cultural educational opportunities that are part of a global ‘studium generale’ all the way to a professional degree, and frames and substantiates a unique qualification within a regional, European and global network.

In the first volume of the commemorative publication ‘50 Jahre HBK Braunschweig – Geschichte einer Kunsthochschule und ihrer Vorgängereinrichtungen’, Claudia bei der Wieden outlines the efforts of selfreflection within the community of colleges – efforts which manifested themselves at the beginning of the 21st century. (In this process, she pointed to an exceptional group of alumni designers and their careers as professors at universities during that time.) She went on to say that ‘Aside from socio-cultural factors, this is not least due to legal and political aspects: In consideration of their specifics, art colleges always represent a segment of the general education policy.’ 35 Cultural heritage, which is generated through design, impacts society and simultaneously reflects that same society. Thus, we should prepare, maintain and share a broad-based analogue and digital ‘Knowledge Bank’ (Wachs, M.-E.). This serves to secure our material and immaterial cultural memory – our archives – that should be made available for many future, diverse generations to enjoy. It will encourage them to ask questions and help them find answer regarding the ‘shape’ of tomorrow’s culture – that means also questioning ‘form’ in a metaphorical sense.

Let us think of these collective thoughts, that derive from a collection of ‘similar images’, as a mind map – a chance for stronger cultural education within Europe, as well as improved competitiveness of European ‘engineered art’, combined with ‘design attitude’ and the skilful ‘creative ability’ that the discipline design reflects. This can be supported through learning and growing by means of generating your own cultural heritage –your own cultural character as compared to others and welcoming ‘otherness’. We should continue the work on design heritage, which has just begun, and expand the interdisciplinary (art) collections within the region. In addition, alumni collections, not just those alumni working in international design spheres, should be maintained to create a broad-reaching institutional profile. The task is to make the characteristics of contemporary design visible – with the help of cultural memory, among other things – and to design the future: ‘industrial’ design products, concepts, scienceand design culture, probably with a view on political support.

Looking to the industrial design (education) heritage – in history, as well as the present time – it helps us explore the questions of ‘form’, in order for us to have a ‘grasp’ of both material and immaterial design characteristics and qualities used in the creative realm of experts. This is how future design codes will be generated, which can be used to represent valuable design heritage at a later point in time. This will serve as a foundation for future cultures to ‘read’ and build upon.

As such, they serve as signs that we incorporate into the design of a product, a room, a communication concept, or graphics, as well as in workshops, architecture – even spaces in a metaphorical sense. ‘The spirit of art is created by hand’ (Lütgens, A., 2012) 36, and the same applies to design. In fact, it is precisely these design codes and media, that have been used since the 1960s to analyse and shape design theory: ‘a system of signs’ and ‘semantic meanings’ (see Barthes, R.). ‘Design insignia’ serve as representatives and showing us the design worthiness.

With regard to the question at the beginning of chapter 2, the citation by Karl Wollermann, from 1953, may well ring true again in 2022: ‘At this school, the handcrafted work is to be given the nobility of a genuine form culture, which must first assert itself in the Brunswick and Lower Saxony areas, in such a way that together with other art schools form values are created, which later transform into economic values’. The profile demanded of our society’s – and our planet’s – next ‘complex problem solver’ tells us that designers and design engineers need to maintain an open minded, holistic view and possess, a broad range of skills, to produce ‘good forms’. This refers not only to problem-solving abilities related to product silhouettes and inner/outer qualities, but also the designer’s consciousness and ability to give meaning to design solutions for the problems of the world.

Industrial Designer of HBK Braunschweig: Design success today

In the year 2013, as former industrial-design student and PhD candidate of Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, I was invited by Hannes Böhringer and Michael Schwarz, to look at the archive of the HBK Braunschweig – within the history of industrial design education to formulate a position. Recognizing so many fames designer from this fine place of creativity, it was my choice here, in this post doc thesis, to give an impulse for all universities of design disciplines and fine art: to take this beneficial cultural ‘good’ – our design heritage in form of legacy data in the archives of universities – more serious, to care about and mediate to the present and next generation. It is a contribution to ‘knowledge building management’ research in Europe’, which is my interest to support by participating at the EPDE Conferences – representing Germany’s Design Engineering community over the last years. With the help of alumni contributions, you will find a small selection in the following pages, you could follow the development and I would like to invite you to enjoy, being curious about the development in design engineering product and processes, when some of the alumni of HBK Braunschweig will give the opportunity in documenting the design process, media and products as state of art in the final year of their studies compared to creative fields in the present time – enjoy a living testimony and futures design heritage… Thank you so much to all the willingness of the designer to let us participate and to give an insight. The following documentation relates to the chronological order of the final year of study of the alumni.

Wolf Karnagel

Klaus Zyciora (*Bischoff)

Kora Kimpel

Florian Altmann

Markus Rudlof

Markus Schweitzer

Marina-Elena Wachs

Andre Franco Luis

Alice Kaiserswerth

Manuel Windmann

Stefanie Krücke

Nicole Losos

Stefanie Krücke

Diploma 2007

KITANO Kite Sailing Yacht

Dipl. Industrial Designer

Since 2013 Head of Design Bavaria Yachtbau GmbH, Giebelstadt

Winner: 2007 Concept Boat Award - London Boat Show London, GB

‘Kitano Kite Sailing Yacht’Overall winner + Pure Concept category winner

Theresa Scholl

Diploma 2018

‘a textile sense of light’

Color & Trim Designer

Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge

Theresa Scholl is a bespoken tailor and textile designer with a Masters degree from Hochschule Niederrhein. During her studies she created new textile materials such as smart textiles, textiles for lighting design and paper textiles. Additionally, she focused on the design theoretical investigation of textiles in architecture. After having had some touch points with the fashion industry, interior design and lighting design, she is currently working as a Colour & Trim designer in the automotive sector.

Contact scholl.theresa@gmail.com www.theresascholl.de

‘a textile sense of light’ – this master thesis investigates the two disciplines, textile design and lighting design in architecture.

Technical planners often limit textiles on their decorative aspects and therefore, fail to consider the high potential of textiles in their constructionprojects. However, textiles can do much more than being decorative. Together with the Ulrike Brandi Licht GmbH, Theresa Scholl proved this by developing a modular concept for textile design solutions for architectural lighting design: Textile daylight systems are able to manage impact of daylight in a building through regulation of sunrays and shading. Based on an analysis of the building’s daylight situation and a matrix for textile design engineering, unique textile systems can be created customised to the building and its intended use. This concept was applied to the building project ‘Festland’ of Hamburg Leuchtfeuer FESTLAND GmbH. Now, colourful textiles with different transparency do not only help to control the daylight impact in the building, they appear playful and underline the inviting character of this assisted living project.

A

Screenshot program Ecotect: Calculation and visualisation of the daylight impact on ‘Festland’ with its surrounding building; Image by Theresa Scholl for Ulrike Brandi GmbH (2017).

B Architectural sketch by Theresa Scholl; Image by Theresa Scholl (2018).

C

Detail: Knitted curtain catching the sunlight, Design Theresa Scholl; Image by Theresa Scholl (2018).

D — G

Project Festland: Colourful, semi-transparent curtains control the daylight impact and create a playful and inviting meeting zone in the corridor, shape a warm atmosphere in the evening inside and create a poetically light language by the view onto the fassade by night.

Design Theresa Scholl, pictures by Ulrike Brandi GmbH, 2021, with friendly authorization by Hamburg Leuchtfeuer Festland gGmbH.

Katharina Grobheiser

Diploma 2020

‘A Fuzzy Society with Fragile Freedom create a diverse Future through Design’

M.Sc. Textile Product Design

Textile Design Engineer

Contact katharina.grobheiser@gmail.com

Instagram: kaykaycreative

Textiles are made from fibers that represent their identity. In every mechanical washing and drying process some of these fibers get lost. The Master thesis ‘A Fuzzy Society with Fragile Freedom create a diverse Future through Design’ reflects the personal mindfulness and the social appreciation of the free existence. This theoretical topic is united with a practical and multiple diverse design processes. The Basis of this textile material research were fibers that have been collected by textile drying machines. An important part of this material research was a daily mindful manual sketching process. During this process Katharina Grobheiser cultivated the ‘8 Theses of a mindful creation’ which helped her change the FUZZYS (dryer lint) identity from wasteful to a valuable textile and nontextile material and products.

6.2 Virtual Interactive Design

Keywords

AI and ethics in interdisciplinary, digital teaching and learning formats; case studies in design engineering; design theory and the history of design; significance of technological history; ethics in design; interlinked collaborative learning lessons – ‘Cross-Cultural in Europe’, virtual interactive designing formats and ethical questions.