Critical Knowledge Design

It focuses on questions such as how data generates and legitimises knowledge, and how digital technologies can both promote and jeopardise democratic processes and sustainable transformations.

In collaboration with civil society and public organisations, the research field develops visual tools for the collection, interpretation, and communication of data. In doing so, data is always understood as the product of social contexts, the conditions of which must be critically reflected upon during ist analysis, representation and interpretation. The research field combines interdisciplinary methods from data science and open-source intelligence (OSINT) with approaches from data visualisation, generative design and hermeneutic interpretation. The aim is to open up different perspectives on data, discuss counter-narratives, and situate data within broader social contexts.

Core Competences

• Collection, processing, analysis, visualisation, and communication of quantitative and qualitative data
• Basic research into the interactions between society, data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence
• History and theory of the visualisation of data, information, and knowledge
• Practice-based research in the fields of data design, information design, and knowledge design