Events are an integral part of the master programs: from workshops with guests professors to lectures series with relevant practitioners.
Wed, Mar 11, 2026
Masterclass
María Fabuel, Pedro Lipovetzky & Elisenda Muns, Gracias Grecia
Beyond walls: The renaissance of exhibition environments
Only for MVD students
Beyond walls: The renaissance of exhibition environments
What do a Balenciaga runway show, an MWC stand, and the latest Miró exhibition have in common? More than it might seem. Each of them tells a story through the design of an experience. Through historical and contemporary case studies and references, we will explore exhibition design as an expanding field that moves beyond the museum space. Through scenography, lighting, sound, and technology, stories are transformed into immersive experiences that are navigated, shared, and felt.
© Eva Carasol
At Gracias Grecia, we understand the exhibition environment as a space for encounter: emotional — through art, design, scenography, lighting, and participation — and intellectual, connected to content, knowledge, and debate. We are interested in that intersection between experience and thought, between collective expression and critical positioning. This is where our skills and our way of working converge.
Throughout our trajectory, we have developed projects in diverse formats: from the design of a 2,500 m² museum in Barcelona’s Port Vell to exhibitions at institutions such as CaixaForum and the Triennale di Milano, as well as experimental installations and hybrid formats that combine digital arts, theatre, and exhibition experience.
In a context of information overload, polarization, and constant technological transformation, we need environments where knowledge is not only transmitted, but collectively experienced and questioned. Exhibition design responds to this need by bringing together thought, form, critique, and emotion.
Wed, Mar 11, 2026
Bookworm
Three Contemporary Magazines, 1
Only for MED students
In the current landscape of editorial design, Emergence, Bill, and Inque represent three unique approaches to the magazine as a cultural object. Emergence Magazine, created by Studio Airport, combines narrative and photography in a slow, sensory experience. Bill, edited and designed by Julia Peeters, is a distinctive photography yearbook that proposes a “visual reading” of the articles without the distraction of text. Meanwhile, Inque, spearheaded by Matt Willey, is a literary magazine with impeccable design that invites leisurely reading. Together, these publications demonstrate how contemporary editorial design transcends its informative function to become a physical experience, an ideological stance, and a formal exploration.
In the Bookworm sessions we will explore iconic magazines and books that capture the spirit of the era in which they were created. The material comes from Elisava’s library collections, especially from its Reserve Fund, which contains publications that, due to their design, constitute a journey through the best of the past and present of modern graphics applied to the field of editorial design.
The Bookworm sessions are guided by Andreu Jansà, librarian and curator of the Enric Bricall Reserve Fund.
We will place the publications in their context and try to define what makes them relevant in the history of editorial design in the 20th and 21st centuries. The direct contact with the books and magazines that we will see in each session will allow us to experience the printed document from a material point of view: binding, paper, lay out, illustrations, typography. We will also be able to assess the adequacy between form and content.
Wed, Mar 18, 2026
Masters’ Talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Kathy Ryan
Backstories
Backstories
Kathy Ryan will choose a handful of photographs that stand out in her mind from the pages of The New York Times Magazine during the 39 years she worked there. She will share the backstory for each picture to give insight into how that image came into being. The photographs will cover a wide range of subject matter including international news, lifestyle stories, and culture coverage.
© Inez and Vinoodh
Ryan will also show and talk about some of the photographs from her Office Romance series that she made during the last decade she worked at The NYTMAG. They are a love poem to her colleagues and a celebration of the radiant light in the Renzo Piano-designed New York Times building.
The longtime director of photography at The New York Times Magazine, Kathy Ryan has been a pioneer of combining fine art photography with photojournalism. She has worked with the world’s best photographers across all genres of photography. She regularly brought new talent into The Magazine’s pages. She left The Times after 39 years to focus on her own artwork, curating exhibitions, teaching a course at Yale, and speaking engagements.
In 2011, Ryan edited The New York Times Magazine Photographs, a landmark book published by Aperture. An accompanying exhibition, curated by Ryan and Lesley Martin opened at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2012, traveled to FOAM Museum in Amsterdam, Palau Robert in Barcelona, Universidad Católica in Santiago and ended its run at the Aperture Gallery in New York City.
Ryan has contributed essays and Q&A’s to books by photographers Lee Friedlander, Christopher Payne, Seydou Keïta, Paolo Pellegrin, Lynsey Addario, Jack Davison and Brian Finke. She was the picture editor of Feeling the Spirit by Chester Higgins.
The Magazine‘s photography and videos have been recognized with numerous awards. Ryan was awarded the Dr. Erich Salomon Prize from the German Photographic Society in September 2025. Ryan was a recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Griffin Museum of Photography in 2007; the Royal Photographic Society’s annual award for Outstanding Service to Photography in 2012; the Vision Award at the Center for Photography at Woodstock in 2014; and the Outstanding Contribution to Photography recognition from Creative Review in 2016. Ryan has been recognized as Photo Editor of the Year by the Lucie Awards and Visa Pour l’Image. Ryan won two Emmy’s for videos she produced for The New York Times Magazine’s Great Performers series. Kathy was the International Center of Photography’s Spotlight honoree in 2024.
Office Romance, a book of Ryan’s photographs featuring her colleagues and the beauty and poetry to be found in the radiant light in the New York Times building was published by Aperture in 2014. This work has been exhibited in Europe and the U.S. All of Ryan’s photography is done with the iPhone.
Wed, Mar 18, 2026
Bookworm
Three Contemporary Magazines, 2
Only for MED students
From the perspective of contemporary editorial design, MacGuffin, Science of the Secondary, and Apartamento propose three ways of understanding the magazine as a narrative device and cultural artifact. MacGuffin constructs each issue around an everyday object, developing a constantly evolving visual identity. Similarly, Science of the Secondary explores the material universe of the things that surround us and often go unnoticed. For its part, Apartamento opts for a deliberately informal, approachable, and seemingly spontaneous aesthetic, breaking with the traditional neatness of interior design magazines. These three publications demonstrate how editorial design is capable of articulating an aesthetic and conceptual discourse around material culture.
In the Bookworm sessions we will explore iconic magazines and books that capture the spirit of the era in which they were created. The material comes from Elisava’s library collections, especially from its Reserve Fund, which contains publications that, due to their design, constitute a journey through the best of the past and present of modern graphics applied to the field of editorial design.
The Bookworm sessions are guided by Andreu Jansà, librarian and curator of the Enric Bricall Reserve Fund.
We will place the publications in their context and try to define what makes them relevant in the history of editorial design in the 20th and 21st centuries. The direct contact with the books and magazines that we will see in each session will allow us to experience the printed document from a material point of view: binding, paper, lay out, illustrations, typography. We will also be able to assess the adequacy between form and content.
Wed, Mar 25, 2026
Graphic — Elisava lectures
7.30 pm — Sala Aleix Carrió
Open to the public
Ann Richter, Studio Pandan
BTS: Design Twists
BTS: Design Twists
From the visual identity of the art walk Balade to Mining Photography, glitches, edited magazine covers, and typographic climate crises, we navigate Studio Pandan’s project map. We look beyond final outcomes to the many paths that lead there. Design, for us, is a collaborative practice—within the studio and in close exchange with clients from art, literature, and architecture. Sometimes the first idea holds, but more often the work unfolds through a winding, transformative journey. Together, we’ll follow the twists and turns of this process.
Ann Richter studied visual communication at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. Before co-founding Studio Pandan, she worked at international design agencies including Graphic Thought Facility in London and Project Projects in New York City. As a co-founder of the collective A.R. practice, she develops projects at the intersection of design and curatorial work. Alongside running the studio, she regularly lectures and leads workshops at art and design institutions.
© Robert Hamacher
Studio Pandan, founded by Pia Christmann and Ann Richter, is a Berlin-based design studio with a strong eye for detail and an imaginative outlook. We create visual identities across print and digital media, as well as publications and websites, shaped by careful research, playful sensitivity, and conceptual clarity. Since our beginnings in 2015, typography has been our core tool. Actively engaged in contemporary culture, we are especially interested in socially relevant and sustainable projects, seeing design as both a responsibility and a catalyst for change.
Wed, Apr 8, 2026
Graphic — Elisava lectures
7.30 pm — Sala Aleix Carrió
Open to the public
Bart de Baets
Paperclips
Paperclips
In his lecture, graphic designer Bart de Baets will show a large variety of works and elaborate more on the ways they find their form and are realized eventually. Although Bart’s practice is mostly spent working at the studio in Amsterdam, it is alternated by a parttime teaching position at the Royal Academy in The Hague, where he works with the first year students and the ones graduating. The way he teaches and cooks up his assignments is inspired by transforming everyday observations (at times obsessions) into educational exercises. The students are triggered to think of formal executions that evoke solutions close to Bart’s own practice visualizing abilities and editorial voice.
Although appearing less frequently today, Bart’s body of work’s been known to feature self initiated publications, such as Success and Uncertainty (together with Sandra Kassenaar), Dark and Stormy (together with Rustan Söderling), and Tabrat, a zine from 2022 in which de Baets confesses to be a tab hoarder (phone only, the browser tabs on his laptop are opened briefly and closed again efficiently) and shares them here with us in the charming A4-sized publication. His editorial assets have not been forlorn, and are frequently demonstrated more so in his collaborative works for artbook shop Page Not Found and exhibition space Nest (both are located in the city of The Hague). The talk at Elisava will prominently feature all of these works—and more—and provide insights into the developments of these designs by showing sketches, references and many inspirations.
Graphic designer Bart de Baets (1979, Knokke, BE) is based in Amsterdam. His design for the Sandberg Institute’s temporary master programme The Radical Cut Up was nominated for a Dutch Design Award. As a result, PostNL commissioned De Baets to design a series of stamps titled ‘Talk to the Hand’. With Sandra Kassenaar he designed the exhibition, campaign and catalogue for ‘Circulate’, an exhibition on photographic art acquisitions at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The two also design the graphic identity of Kunstmuseum Bochum. He designed ‘On the Necessity of Gardening: An ABC of Art, Botany and Cultivation’ (2021), which was published parallel to ‘The Botanical Revolution’, an exhibition at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht. That year, the Stiftung Buchkunst awarded the book with the highest prize in the category Best Book Design from all over the World. A second title in that series, Mothering Myths, an ABC of Art, Birth and Care was released in May of 2025, for which he collaborated once again with editors Laurie Cluitmans and Heske ten Cate. He holds a part-time teaching position at the Graphic Design department of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and he has taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam for fifteen years.
Being educated by notorious wild collaborator Will Holder, the radical typographic thinkers of Experimental Jetset and conceptual makers like Linda van Deursen, triggered Bart de Baets to think like an editor early in his graphic design studies, making zines with and for his peers, or whipping up catchy writings to go with his posters and projects. His design skills were fed ferociously when working with Maureen Mooren and Daniel van der Velden (now Metahaven) whose interest in art inspired him. For them, that always seemed to come first, then design. For the pages of Archis (an architecture magazine–now Volume), the layouts of existing periodical publications were used to give form to the magazine’s content, and Bart was taught to study their characteristics and so became an excellent copycat.
Over the years de Baets’ body of work has developed immensely mostly so by certain significant collaborations. A few early memorable ones have been those with Melanie Bonajo and Frank Koolen, two (then) Amsterdam-based artists not much older than himself and whose practice inspired an idea on which to work together, and which, in a way, kicked off de Baets’ career. The likes of Rustan Söderling and Sandra Kassenaar are of similar influence and remain crucial design partners; both are good friends to this day. Their influence on some self initiated works, such as Dark and Stormy and Success and Uncertainty is essential for de Baets’ current design approach and visual language. Kassenaar and de Baets nowadays share a studio and work together as designers regularly.
His designs are rooted heavily in a kind of conceptual thinking, and his abilities to think along editorially with commissioners has given Bart’s body of work an outspoken character. His work is distinctively playful and seemingly intuitive, giving the impression that the designs could be made quickly or hand-made. Yet, each one of the designs is a carefully put-together composition made according to a bunch of guidelines and often uses typography or visuals referencing things “found” on the street. For years Bart’s been a teacher in graphic design often working with the first year students, introducing them to the job. Surrounded by other designers, skilled coders, letter drawers and colour wizards, his teaching encourages to explore what it’s like to make art and design in today’s environments by demonstrating personal fascinations.
Wed, May 27, 2026
Masters’ Talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Jonas Janke, b+
Love me one time, two times … x times !
Love me one time, two times … x times !
The lecture is not a conventional showcase of selected projects from our daily practice, but rather aims to provide a broader insight into the network of actors in which b+ (bplus.xyz) operates, how we understand the contemporary way of an architectural practice and scope of work of an architect, and how we approach our projects—in short: who b+ is and how we work, what our values are, and what our understanding of our duties and responsibilities as architects is.
Jonas Janke (DE, 1991) is an architect and partner at bplus.xyz (Berlin). He has a diverse background in architecture, was trained as an architectural draughtsman before pursuing his studies in Hamburg, Stockholm, and Berlin. He gained valuable experience as a tutor and assistant in various departments including design & typologies, building construction, and structural design. He was part of the team 2038, the German Pavilion at 17th Venice Architecture Biennale 2021.
His early teaching experiences include guest studios at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and Politecnico di Milano (Italy). He is regularly invited to give lectures and guest critiques at universities, cultural institutions, and public institutions. His focus is on new ecological construction materials and methods for adaptive reuse and renovation projects, seeking pragmatic and efficient technical and mechanical solutions that use material and construction thoughtfully.
bplus.xyz (b+) is a collaborative architecture practice (led by Arno Brandlhuber, Olaf Grawert, Jonas Janke and Roberta Jurčić) that operates at the intersection of theory and practice, using different media and formats. The practice seeks to engage with the contemporary challenges of our time, particularly those related to the social-ecological transformation of existing buildings, offering economically viable solutions.
b+ understands architecture as an open process, and views buildings as part of larger systems that require a systemic approach. The practice sees the given framework of existing buildings and legislation as an active design tool with the potential for transformation. Thus, b+ celebrates the potential of the existing built environment and aims to reveal and activate the latent potentials within.
b+ emphasizes working with different actors and stakeholders in project development. The practice values their knowledge and expertise and aims to create spaces for exchange and collaboration. b+ seeks to advance a new value system in architecture, one that places greater emphasis on collective responsibility, systemic thinking, and ecologically and economically viable solutions.
The current project in the field of political activism is the European citizens’ initiative HouseEurope! – HouseEurope! wants to create incentives that make renovation the new norm. This will boost the renovation market and give new value to what is already there. The goal is to preserve homes and communities, ensure a fairer and more local building industry, save energy and resources, and preserve our memories and stories.
past events
Wed, Mar 26, 2025
graphic.elisava lectures
7.30 pm — Sala Aleix Carrió
Open to the public
Vera van de Seyp
Computational Craft
Computational Craft
Next to offering an insight into Vera’s work, this talk dives into creating motion through craft and computation. Vera shows how the tactility of weaving, knitting, and other tangible crafts can extend to the digital realm.
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Vera van de Seyp is a computational designer and educator based in NYC. Her work explores generative design tools, computational typography, and using artificial intelligence for design. Vera recently completed a Research Assistantship with the Future Sketches group at MIT Media Lab, and studied at KABK and Leiden University.
Vera van de Seyp has collaborated with clients like WIRED, Serpentine Galleries London, and Google Arts and Culture. She also teaches and gives workshops and lectures to inspire creatives to make (and code) their own design tools. She is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). Projects include playful websites, generative language installations, perpetually morphing typefaces, typographic tools, creative coding symposia, and textiles made with a hacked knitting machine.
Mar 17 — 21, 2025
workshop
Jon Uriarte
Photobook
Only for MED students
Introduction in the world of the photobook from its foundations, history and current situation.
Students will acquire knowledge about their conception and work process developing a project with an author. Narrative, rhythm and sequence when the main content is image.
Jon Uriarte studied photography at the Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya and at the International Center of Photography in New York, as well as a master’s degree in Artistic Projects and Theories from PhotoEspaña and the Universidad Europea de Madrid. He has exhibited in various art centers and galleries, both in collective and individual shows, among which are La Casa Encendida in Madrid, the Koldo Mitxelena in Donostia, Studio 304 in New York, the HBC center in Berlin and the Sala d’Art Jove in Barcelona.
He was the founder of Widephoto, an independent platform dedicated to curating and activities around contemporary photography. In addition, he conceptualized and coordinated for 3 years DONE, the project on reflection and visual creation promoted by Foto Colectania. He currently lives in San Sebastián, from where he combines the curatorship of The Photographers’ Gallery digital programs with the curatorship of the Getxophoto International Image Festival.
Mar 17 — 21, 2025
workshop
Ana Criado
Main Title Sequence for Film
Only for MVD students
Five-day workshop learning how to create a Main Title Sequence for film.
In this workshop, we will learn the art behind creating a main title sequence for a movie step by step.
We will put the weight of the workshop on the critical importance of a solid concept, the understanding of motion to tell a story, and how to use our graphic design knowledge to create a 9-frame storyboard.
Ana Criado is an Emmy-nominated Graphic Designer and Creative Director based in California and Valencia. Known for her exceptional work in developing outstanding main title sequences for film and television. With +20 years of experience in graphic design, corporate identity, communication, and motion graphic design.
Over the past 12 years, Ana has collaborated with some of the most prestigious studios in Hollywood, creating captivating title sequences for notable productions such as Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, American Horror Story, Godzilla, also created graphic works for The 89th Oscars Ceremony, Apple, Nike, T-Mobile, IBM, among others.
Wed, Mar 19, 2025
bookworm
Irma Boom books
Only for MED students
Irma Boom is one of the most influential contemporary book designers, known for her innovative and experimental approach to editorial design. Boom challenges conventions and forces the reader to interact with the book in a different way, reconsidering its function and structure. She works closely with the authors and publishers of the books she designs, influencing not only the aesthetics but also the visual narrative and content. Her work has led to a revaluation of the book as a physical object, an unbeatable experience compared to e-books. We will see some of her most important books, such as the one dedicated to the textile artist Sheila Hicks, the invisible book about Chanel or the tiny catalogues devoted to her own work.
In the Bookworm sessions we will explore iconic magazines and books that capture the spirit of the era in which they were created. The material comes from Elisava’s library collections, especially from its Reserve Fund, which contains publications that, due to their design, constitute a journey through the best of the past and present of modern graphics applied to the field of editorial design.
The Bookworm sessions are guided by Andreu Jansà, librarian and curator of the Enric Bricall Reserve Fund.
We will place the publications in their context and try to define what makes them relevant in the history of editorial design in the 20th and 21st centuries. The direct contact with the books and magazines that we will see in each session will allow us to experience the printed document from a material point of view: binding, paper, lay out, illustrations, typography. We will also be able to assess the adequacy between form and content.
We, Mar 19, 2025
masters’ talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Michael Hansmeyer
Tools of Imagination
Today, we can fabricate anything. Digital fabrication now functions at both the micro and macro scales, combining multiple materials, and using different materialization processes. Complexity and customization are no longer impediments in design.
While we can fabricate anything, design arguably appears confined by our instruments of design: we can only design what we can directly represent. If one looks at 3D-printed artifacts, there is oftentimes a discrepancy between the wonder of technology, and the conventionalism of design. We appear unable to exploit the new freedom that digital fabrication offers us. In short: we can currently fabricate more than we can design.
What is needed is a new type of design instrument. We need tools for search and exploration, rather than simply control and execution. As of yet, we have countless tools to increase our efficiency and precision. Why not also create tools that serve as our muse, that inspire us and help us to be creative? Tools to draw the undrawable, and to imagine the unimaginable.
What we stand to gain are entirely new spatial and haptic experiences. A playful design that stimulates the senses, elicits curiosity, and invites interaction. A design environment that simultaneously allows control and surprise, and that embraces and celebrates the unforeseen.
© Jacek Poremba
Michael Hansmeyer is an architect and programmer who writes algorithms to generate and fabricate architectural form. Recent work includes the design of a 3D printed concrete tower in the Swiss alps, an installation of a forest of columns at Grand Palais in Paris, and the fabrication of a muqarna for Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Michael taught architecture as visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and at Southeast University in Nanjing, and as a lecturer at the CAAD group at ETH Zurich. He previously worked for Herzog & de Meuron architects, and holds an architecture degree from Columbia University.
Wed, Mar 5, 2025
showcase
Marc Castellví, Abuela
Getting by with little
Only for MVD students
In this showcase I will review different projects and experiences that have to do with things that make us happy at the studio. Usually related with creating and thinking with as fewer ingredients as posible. Also about rethinking why are we doing what we do and regenrating the motivation about our profession.
Marc Castellví (Barcelona, 1989) is a motion designer and director. He has co-founded projects such as No Más de Mamá (2012), Outro Studio (2014), and Abuela (2020-present). At Abuela, he specializes in visual narratives, helping clients shape their stories, define a unique visual language, and explore new production languages and formats.
Abuela is a Barcelona-based studio formed by creative directors Kevin Sabariego & Marc Castellví.
Specializing in visual narratives, we help our clients write down their story, create a unique visual language and produce it by any means.
We welcome projects with a flexible, versatile and open-minded approach.
Nobody will talk about you like your Abuela.
Wed, Feb 26, 2025
graphic.elisava lectures
7.30 pm — Sala Aleix Carrió
Open to the public
Bram Broerse & Maurits Wouters, Studio Airport
Storytelling on the Intersection of Film and Graphic Design
Studio Airport works at the intersection of graphic design and film, showcasing a decade of storytelling across various formats, including print publications, feature films, and interactive documentaries. During the lecture we’ll explore what storytelling can mean to New York City’s largest public cemetery but also to the San Quentin prison on the West Coast. We’ll learn about the development of a brand for bio-based materials and the publication of a magazine featuring ecology, design, and science for the London Design Museum.
The studio gives an insight in their design approach and how the team works on larger and small scale projects with the same dedication to detail and embracing artistry, craft and innovation to all aspects of their work. Most of their projects have become in-depth mechanisms of storytelling balancing between the editorial and artistic worlds.
Gravitating around the expressions of art, culture, ecology, and science Studio Airport redefines the relationship between graphic design and film by composing moments into experiences. The studio engages in commissioned projects as well as self-initiated endeavors, always guided by an artistic sensibility.
Founded in 2011 by Bram Broerse and Maurits Wouters, Studio Airport comprises a tight-knit team of creatives supported by a network of specialists. Over the past decade, Studio Airport has garnered national and international acclaim for its work with Emergence Magazine, SeeAllThis, Normal Phenomena of Life, the Hart Island Project, Slowness, and Sapiens Magazine, earning numerous awards amongst European Agency of the year 2024. Next to the studio they’re also tutors at the master department of Information Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven.
Feb 17 — 21, 2025
interdisciplinary workshops
Luna Maurer
Manifesto for the imperfect human — Friction Circus—
Only of master students
[A tool] emphasising that what makes us human — our imperfections
As designers, entrepreneurs and architects of digital culture we feel the urge to refocus how we deal with our digital futures. Technology tries to create seamless experiences, even out all our wrinkles. AI is suggesting us a smooth and predictable future, chatGPT is writing us perfect texts, spelling mistakes getting extinct. This is an investigation in friction and human messiness – imperfection, and how we can revive it. The imperfect human manifesto is a call for resistance and thought of how we can use technology in the opposite way.
Luna Maurer is a mixed media designer, artist, lecturer and author with a focus on digital technologies’ impact on daily life. She explores human characteristics through installations, performances, web experiences, and films. She co-founded studio Moniker, known for participatory and web-based projects, and co-authored the influential manifesto Conditional Design. Currently, she’s redefining perspectives on digital technology and co-authored the Designing Friction manifesto, advocating friction in digital culture.
Feb 17 — 21, 2025
interdisciplinary workshops
Tereza Ruller, The Rodina
The Hazard Spaces
Only for master students
Designing a playful experience with critical board games
Games are a reflection of societal values, aspirations, and struggles—making them powerful tools for critical engagement. This workshop provides an opportunity to develop design skills while tackling contemporary issues through playfulness, storytelling, and interaction. Participants will gain hands-on experience in integrating game mechanics, visual communication, and narrativity into an engaging design project in the form of a board game.
By the end of the workshop, we aim to inspire participants to recognize the potential of game design as an apparatus for activism. We want them to see games not only as entertainment but as powerful tools for discussion, proposing alternatives, and encouraging collective reimagination of the world we live in.
Tereza Ruller (she/her) identifies as a mother, a communication designer, and an educator. In her practice
—The Rodina— she investigates the performative and critical approach toward communication design. Her transdisciplinary approach emphasizes the power of playfulness, active spectatorship, and relations between human and nonhuman actors. Ruller’s work thrives in the cultural context, weaving together participatory events, spatial installations, virtual environments, and visual identities.
Engaging with the ecological and social issues of our time, she seeks to foster collective reimagination and to embrace the interdependence that defines our shared world. Tereza Ruller is a professor of Communication Design and Digital Practices at HfG Karlsruhe and Critical Narratives tutor at Design Academy Eindhoven.
Feb 17 — 21, 2025
interdisciplinary workshops
Kaave Pour, 21st Europe
Shaping Societies Through Design
Only for master students
Explore how to better apply design and storytelling to shape strategy, systems, and public conversations.
The way we imagine the future shapes how it unfolds. From the worlds of film, media, and entertainment, we’ve seen how visions of the future can shift expectations and inspire action. Design plays a similar role today — not just creating functional solutions, but visualizing paths forward that feel real, relatable, and within reach.
This workshop gives students the opportunity to contribute to this process. By working within the context of a high-speed train, students will create visual narratives that transform broad societal ambitions — like connected infrastructure, collective well-being, and sustainable growth — into clear, actionable ideas. By providing clear parameters for creative exploration, the course encourages deeper thinking, sharper design concepts, and more refined outcomes.
Kaave Pour is a creative entrepreneur and the founder of several ventures focused on reimagining the future through design, policy, and collaboration. Previously, he was the co-founder, CEO, and Creative Director of SPACE10, the acclaimed R&D lab known for its pioneering design explorations in partnership with IKEA, Apple, and MIT.
Kaave also leads Sun-Sun, a venture focused on rethinking the home through thoughtful design and technology. His work spans design, culture, and innovation, with a focus on ideas that create new possibilities for how we live, work, and connect. As Chair of the Danish Design Awards, he advocates for design as a way to create thoughtful, tangible impact on how we live and interact with the world.
Wed, Feb 12, 2025
masters’ talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Sougwen 愫君 Chung, Scilicet
Seeing Double – Bridging Dualities with Relational Intelligence
Where does “AI” end and “we” begin? Artist and researcher Sougwen Chung’s ever-evolving work in human and machine collaboration builds upon a decade-long international journey. Starting with a simple line, the process has led to interdisciplinary insights, philosophical inquiry, and technological invention through pioneering artistic practice. Intertwining perspectives in art and science, Chung’s practice envisions alternative futures for the relationship of humans and machines. “Embracing contradictions in art and research can pave the way to a third path, inspired by tradition and the development of new hybridities,” Chung says.
Sougwen 愫君 Chung is a Chinese-Canadian artist and (re)searcher based in London. Chung’s work explores the mark-made-by-hand and the mark-made-by-machine as an approach to understanding the dynamics of humans and systems. Chung is a former research fellow at MIT’s Media Lab and a pioneer in the field of human-machine collaboration. Sougwen’s work MEMORY is part of the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and is the first AI model to be collected by a major institution. Recently, Chung was recognized as a Cultural Leader at the World Economic Forum, one of four recipients of the TIME100 Impact award, and named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI.
Scilicet is a studio exploring collaboration; engaging modes of sensing and mark-making between the human and machine, organic and synthetic, and improvisational and computational.
Founded by artist and researcher Sougwen Chung, Scilicet pioneers interdisciplinary collaboration between artists and robotic technologies, with a focus on experimentation, invention, and care.
By engaging technology not as a tool but as a collaborator, Scilicet develops configurations of human and machine beyond automation. We explore these ideas through installations, performances, experiences, and artefacts.
Jan 27 — 31, 2025
workshop
Daniel Wenzel, 26A1
Procedural Type Design
Only for MVD students
Five day workshop learning Procedural Thinking and how to develop systems instead of one-off solutions. This course is combining Type Design, Design Processes and Flexible Systems.It does not require any particular software knowledge or experience. The students will learn procedural workflows and develop flexible design systems.
The aim of the workshop is to introduce fundamentals of a procedural design workflow and to apply procedural thinking to develop letterforms and font systems.
Participants will be tasked to come up with processes and systems to create letters and fonts.This course is conceived as a crash course for students interested in acquiring processes and skills to incorporate Procedural Thinking into their workflows in a fun and creative way. This course should spark curiosity and open up new avenues of investigation.
Daniel Wenzel is a German designer and creative technologist based in New York. Specializing in typography and generative processes, he balances at the intersection of art, design, and technology.
He has been part of DIA Studio for seven years and currently operates independently. Throughout his career, he has contributed to projects that utilize procedural thinking for the benefit of coherent systems and technological advancement. He has worked for internationally renowned clients including Apple, Google, Louis Vuitton, MoMA, Nike and The New York Times. His work has been featured in publications and exhibitions worldwide and recognized with awards such as Young Guns 22.
In addition to his professional practice, Daniel teaches at the Pratt Institute and Cooper Union in New York. Previously, he has taught the Master Visual Design, Typography program at ELISAVA in Barcelona, given workshops at HEAD Genève and HS Mainz, and lectured at KABK, Weltformat, TDC Inscript, and the MIT Media Lab, among others.
