ALRIGHT, BUT MORE SPECIFICALLY?
Fiction is a powerful tool to envision and explore futures. Design lets us represent what these might look like. Speculative design uses both to lay out the path towards new possibles, confront industry-specific foresight with emergent signals, debate associated value systems, and discuss the costs of enacting change—or not.
Regardless of whether I'm working with governmental organisations, private companies, or cultural institutions, I view design as a political tool for negotiating collective imaginaries and informing strategic thinking. It informs our choices and allows us to proactively drive change rather then react to it.
To be successful, speculative design must be good design: familiar enough to be understood at first glance, and exotic enough for viewers to suspend disbelief. The activity of designing cannot fall short of the speculative process, it must carry it to new heights, where debate is useful and insights actionable.
As a partner in N O R M A L S, I have worked with various clients such as the EU Policy Lab (Brussels), LabCDMX (Mexico City), Institute for Advanced Sustainable Studies (Potsdam), Accenture Digital / Fjord (Dublin), Space10 (Copenhagen), or Kulturforum (Berlin). Projects were presented at Fundación Telefónica (Madrid), Bits&Bäume and The Sooner Now (Berlin), NODE Forum for Digital Arts (Frankfurt), DriveToZero automotive fair (Paris), Stereolux (Nantes). I also taught at various institutions, among which Stanford University, Zurich University of the Arts, Minerva University, Design School Kolding, Paris College of Art, University of Applied Sciences Europe. Last but not least, I have managed the presidential run of fictional candidate Simones de Gaulléon.
In other lives, I worked as project manage and board advisor for the TUBerlin / Weizenbaum Institute joint project The Shape of Things to Come; co-founded anticipation theatre group REPLICA; coached teams from Audi and SAP Digital at Betahaus X; taught at Betahaus Academy and maker spaces around the US; co-founded collaborative design sessions at Enable Berlin; managed collective artist studio Atelier Äuglein; co-founded product design studio A&Ré; curated sound arts festival DAT.
The rest is on le CV
Find me in 2025
October 11
Workshop on Blue Oceans
Workshop on Blue Oceans
at Atelier des Tanneurs
tbc — more information soon
tbc — more information soon
—
October 9 & 10
Talk & Workshop on Speculative Biofutures
Talk & Workshop on Speculative Biofutures
at What's Around Design — Portimão Museum
with N O R M A L S, Ezio Manzini, William Myers
with N O R M A L S, Ezio Manzini, William Myers
—
in an exhibition curated by Myriam Dreier
on display until September
on display until September
—
for the anniversary of the Aachen Treaty
at Das Liebig, Aachen
at Das Liebig, Aachen
—
March 18 — 22
Workshop class at La Martinière Diderot
Workshop class at La Martinière Diderot
with first & second year Masters in Urban Design
with N O R M A L S — Cedric Flazinski
with N O R M A L S — Cedric Flazinski
April 12, 2025 at the French-German Burgerfonds — Photo by Haike Lachmann
Who I've worked with
Accenture Digital — Fjord
Akademie der Künste Berlin
Audi
Betahaus x — Betahaus Academy
BMBF — German Federal Ministry for Education and Research
Berlin Kulturforum
Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Communication
Connected Communities Conference
Conjectural Futures Conference
Creative Bureaucracy Festival — Falling Walls Foundation
CTM Vorspiel
Design School Kolding
Deutsche Bahn Mindbox
Deutsch-Französischen Bürgerfonds
DG for Research & Innovation of the European Commission
DriveToZero
ERA Barcelona
École Supérieure d'Art et Design Le Havre-Rouen
EU Policy Lab of the European Commission
Foresight on Demand
Fundación Telefónica
Goethe Institut
Hasso Platner Institute of Design at Stanford
HOLO
Infopro Digital
Institute for Advanced Sustainable Studies Potsdam
Institutul de Prospectiva
Jovoto
Laboratorio Para La Ciudad Mexico City
Minerva University
Musée des Beaux Arts d'Agen
NODE Forum for Digital Arts
ÖFIT — Fraunhofer FOKUS
Open Source Ecology
Paris College of Art
Salone del Mobile di Milano
SAP Digital
Space 10 — IKEA
STATE Studios
Stereolux
Stiftung Preußiger Kulturbesitz — Museum 4.0
Superbien
The Sooner Now — Freunde Von Freunden — Mini
TU Berlin
University of Applied Sciences Europe
Volkswagen Stiftung
Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society
ZHdK — Zurich University of the Arts
Akademie der Künste Berlin
Audi
Betahaus x — Betahaus Academy
BMBF — German Federal Ministry for Education and Research
Berlin Kulturforum
Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Communication
Connected Communities Conference
Conjectural Futures Conference
Creative Bureaucracy Festival — Falling Walls Foundation
CTM Vorspiel
Design School Kolding
Deutsche Bahn Mindbox
Deutsch-Französischen Bürgerfonds
DG for Research & Innovation of the European Commission
DriveToZero
ERA Barcelona
École Supérieure d'Art et Design Le Havre-Rouen
EU Policy Lab of the European Commission
Foresight on Demand
Fundación Telefónica
Goethe Institut
Hasso Platner Institute of Design at Stanford
HOLO
Infopro Digital
Institute for Advanced Sustainable Studies Potsdam
Institutul de Prospectiva
Jovoto
Laboratorio Para La Ciudad Mexico City
Minerva University
Musée des Beaux Arts d'Agen
NODE Forum for Digital Arts
ÖFIT — Fraunhofer FOKUS
Open Source Ecology
Paris College of Art
Salone del Mobile di Milano
SAP Digital
Space 10 — IKEA
STATE Studios
Stereolux
Stiftung Preußiger Kulturbesitz — Museum 4.0
Superbien
The Sooner Now — Freunde Von Freunden — Mini
TU Berlin
University of Applied Sciences Europe
Volkswagen Stiftung
Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society
ZHdK — Zurich University of the Arts