Lecture & Book Signing – The Big Book of Color Psychology

Colors have a greater impact than words.
Why do we trust some people immediately—and others not?
Why are we magically drawn to certain colors, while others subconsciously create distance?

In this presentation, you’ll gain a thorough yet surprisingly practical insight into evidence-based color psychology. Drawing on the latest research, I’ll show how colors influence our perception, our decisions, and the impression we make—often in a fraction of a second and usually without us even realizing it.

Among other things, you’ll learn:

• what your color preferences actually reveal about your personality,
• how colors signal friendliness, competence, or dominance,
• how to use colors strategically to create an authentic impression—in everyday life, at work, and in communication.

Following the lecture, there will be a book signing for the new book.
“The Big Book of Color Psychology” will take place – with an opportunity for personal exchange.

An evening for everyone who no longer wants to leave color choices to chance.

January 15, 2026, starting at 4:00 p.m. Book signing – 3Burgen Bookstore, Lüdinghausen

January 15, 2026, starting at 6:00 p.m. Lecture at Hotel Restaurant Mutter Althoff in Olfen – Vinnum (by invitation only from the Rotary Club of Selm)

Sustainability is not limited to technical innovations or political strategies—it must be tangible and effective in people’s everyday lives. The design of environmental factors such as space, materials, light, and color plays a central role in this: It has been proven to influence health, well-being, orientation, job satisfaction, and the lifespan of products.

In my presentation, I will demonstrate how evidence-based environmental design not only communicates sustainability but also brings it to life. Pilot projects from the healthcare sector and industry provide empirical evidence that thoughtfully designed environments have measurable effects—ranging from reduced sick days and absenteeism to increased well-being and resource-efficient product strategies.

This makes it clear: Sustainability is neither an abstract ideal nor an aesthetic end in itself. It must be guided by quality criteria that people can tangibly experience and that have a societal impact. The lecture offers a new perspective on sustainability communication, in which design serves as a bridge between scientific evidence, cultural narratives, and everyday experience.

Lecture: “Shaping Sustainability: How Environmental Factors Shape Our Well-Being, Behavior, and Resources” by Prof. Dr. Axel Buether , November 27, 2025, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Registration and link to the 2025/26 HumboldtN Lecture Series from the organizer

On March 5, 2020, the interdisciplinary conference “infinite degrees of freedom in public space” will evaluate seven years of artistic work. It explores the freedom of thought and action that artistically accompanied processes open up and examines how this creates shared public space. The conference is a contribution to the joint project 100 years of bauhaus in the west.

Project partners of the conference

NRW Chamber of Architects, Institut Moderne im Rheinland an der HHU Düsseldorf, Zentrum für Peripherie NRW, Baukultur Nordrhein-Westfalen, Landschaftsverband Rheinland

Topics / Moderators

• Social Space, Prof. Reinhold Knopp, Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences
• Utopian Space, Prof. Jesko Fezer, HbK Hamburg
• Shared space, Thorsten Nolting, Diakonie Düsseldorf
• Naturraum, Carl-Friedrich Schröer, cultural journalist
• Acoustic space, Christopher Dell, Berlin
• Color Space, Prof. Dr. Axel Buether, University of Wuppertal
• Zwischenraum, Prof. Irene Hohenbüchler, Münster Art Academy; Prof. Folke Köbberling, Braunschweig/Berlin
• Time, Peter Füssenich, master builder of Cologne Cathedral
• Gebauter Raum, Prof. Jörg Leeser, Prof. Christoph Schmidt, Franz Klein-Wiele PBSA, Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences
• Wellerlehmbau, Prof. Eike Roswag, TU Berlin
• Urban development from the inside, Christoph Schäfer Hamburg; Andrea Hofmann, Raumlabor Berlin
• Baukultur + Communication, Christoph Kremerskothen, Baukultur North Rhine-Westphalia
• Education and diversity, Prof. Dr. Ulaş Aktaş, Düsseldorf Art Academy, Birgit Planken, Montessori Comprehensive School Düsseldorf
• Digital Spaces, Dr. Jasmin Grande, Institut Moderne im Rheinland at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
• Contemporary Art, Kathrin Jentjens, New Patrons
• Political space, Klaudia Zepuntke, Mayor of the state capital Düsseldorf
• Photo/Video, Prof. Anja Vormann, Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences
• Taste/Cooking/Food, Felix Ersig
• Conference correspondence Prof. Günther Opp, University of Halle; Ute Reeh, Center for Periphery
• Moderation Prasanna Oommen

More information and registration from 1.1.2020 at www.zentrum-fuer-peripherie.org

Download program

Title of the study:

“Assessment of the psychological and medical effects of the environmental factors color and light on patients and staff in the field of intensive care medicine”

Download evaluation_Helios_study_color_light_110319

Project partners:

Prof. Dr. Axel Buether
Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Fakultät Design und Kunst
Gaußstraße 20
42119 Wuppertal

Dr. Gabriele Wöbker
Chefärztin der Klinik für Intensivmedizin
HELIOS Universitätsklinikum Wuppertal
Universität Witten/Herdecke

Location and scope of the study:

HELIOS University Hospital Wuppertal – Department of Intensive Care Medicine
A) Surgical Intensive Care Unit Building 2, 8 patient rooms, 15 beds
B) Conservative (internal/neurological) intensive care unit, building 5, 10 patient rooms, 20 beds

Period of the investigation:

24 months (2017/18)

Research questions:

1. What influence does the color and lighting design of intensive care units have on the well-being and state of health of patients?
2. What influence does the color and lighting design of intensive care units have on the work motivation, attitude and well-being of medical and nursing staff?
3. What influence does the color and lighting design of intensive care units have on medication consumption?

Summary of the results:

The effects of colour and light design found in qualitative and quantitative research are significant for patients and staff alike. The patient surveys as well as the staff interviews before and after the renovation measures carried out prove the effectiveness of the psychological environmental factors color and light on people’s well-being and satisfaction.
The perception of the design factors increased by an average of 32.3% among patients, and by as much as 40.8% among staff. The largest increase in patients was seen in the evaluation of color scheme (62.7%), closely followed by the feeling of privacy, which improved by 55.2%. In terms of personnel, the largest increase of 75.6% was also recorded in colour design, followed by a noticeable improvement in artificial light quality of 54.3%. This factor is all the more remarkable because new luminaires were dispensed with for cost reasons. The existing neon bulbs were replaced by LED bulbs with a color rendering index of 90, where the room colors appear relatively natural. The colour temperature of the light in the patient rooms and staff lounges was kept warm white (3,000 K). In the corridors and function rooms, on the other hand, with cool white or daylight white (4,000K). The contrast creates a “change of atmosphere” that makes the lounges feel noticeably more homely, warmer and more secure. In addition, perceptions such as deceleration and tranquility were described.
The effects of the spatial factors colour and light extend not only to the perception of architectural space, but also to that of care. The spatial impression of the common rooms and patient rooms, which those affected call the “feel-good atmosphere”, ensures more effective care. The rating of care measures increased by 28% among patients after the renovation. These indirect effects could also be seen in the staff, where job satisfaction increased by an average of 12%.

Occasion and objectives of the study:

This study was prompted by the current scientific debate in the field of intensive care medicine on the negative effects of prolonged delirium on patient morbidity and mortality. In addition to treatment with drugs, the search is now increasingly on for other factors that can promote the well-being and recovery of patients and prevent delirium. In this context, the focus is also shifting to the perception of architectural space, in particular the atmospheric effects of clinical environments. To date, there have only been a few studies worldwide that prove the influence of architectural space on people’s well-being and state of health. The research gap applies to the entire field of healthcare buildings. This is particularly problematic in the field of intensive care medicine, as the clinical environment can promote negative feelings such as anxiety, panic, disorientation, loneliness and depression. These effects can endanger the life and health of patients. In this context, the effects of architectural space on the well-being and job satisfaction of medical and nursing staff must also be considered.

Framework of the study:

The opportunity for this study arose on the occasion of upcoming renovation work on the B3-EGI, B5-3I and B5-3IMC wards of the Department of Intensive Care Medicine at HELIOS University Hospital Wuppertal. The renovation work was limited to repainting the walls, ceilings and doors and replacing all the light fittings. For cost reasons, it was not possible to renew the floors, furnishings and medical technology. The assessments of patients and staff were recorded both quantitatively before and after the renovation using questionnaires and qualitatively via interviews. In order to minimize distorting effects such as the impression of newness, the survey was only conducted 3 months after moving into the renovated rooms. Medication consumption was documented and evaluated in a representative comparison period of 9 months before and after the renovation. Evaluations of staff sickness levels and fluctuations in staff turnover will be carried out at a later date. The entire project was documented on film.

Delimitation:

In this study, we limited ourselves to examining the visual influencing factors of color and light. Other perceptual factors such as acoustics (speech, noises), smell (cleaning agents, disinfectants, materials) and taste (food, medication) were not taken into account in this study, but should be the subject of further research. The second focus of the study was on the effects of the architectural factors of color and light on the well-being and satisfaction of the medical and nursing staff, whose influence on the health of the patients should not be neglected. The acute shortage of skilled workers makes this question even more relevant. The two fundamental questions of this study concern not only the field of intensive care medicine, but the entire healthcare sector.

Sample room and view:

The sample room was equipped with biodynamic lighting, which enables day and night simulation and the adaptation of atmospheric conditions and counteracts the delirium state. The flooring was replaced with dissipative linoleum in a brown shade that blends harmoniously into the color concept. Feelings of safety, warmth and security were specifically strengthened. The renewed medical technology appears less threatening due to the hidden cabling. Turning the bed allows patients to look directly out of the window, which not only brings the sunlight into view, but also the colors of the sky and the treetops, which were previously limited to the ventilation elements in the ceiling. If the station is completely redesigned, significant increases in results can be expected, which should be investigated further.

Evaluation of the patient survey

Average design assessment and general satisfaction of patients on both wards in a before-and-after comparison (only some of the patients on both wards were surveyed, as only the responsive cases could be interviewed = the result is representative to a limited extent, but shows a clear trend; further studies are required)

GENERAL SATISFACTION: (Evaluation before/after)

a) Satisfaction with nursing care: improvement 28.6% (1.8/1.4 )

b) Satisfaction with medical care: Consistency 0% (1.8 /1.8)

SATISFACTION WITH THE ROOM (DESIGN): (Evaluation before/after)

c) Satisfaction with the room: improvement 32% (3.3/2.5)

d) Furnishing of the room: improvement 40% (4.2/3.0)

e) Quiet in the room: improvement 4.4% (4.7 /4.5)

f) Colorfulness of the room: improvement 62.7% (4.4/2.7)

g) Daylight in the room (atmosphere during the day): Improvement 23.1% (3.2/2.6)

h) Artificial light in the room (atmosphere with room light): Improvement 8.6% (3.8/3.5)

Privacy in the room (feeling of protection and security): Improvement 55.2% (4.5/2.9)

Average improvement in room factors: 32.3%

Evaluation of the staff survey

Average design assessment and general satisfaction of medical staff on both wards in a before-and-after comparison (almost all staff on both wards were surveyed = the result is representative)

GENERAL SATISFACTION: (Evaluation before/after)

a) Satisfaction with work (activity): Improvement 12% (3.7/3.3)

b) Satisfaction with the employer (care, appreciation): Improvement 3.7% (5.6/5.4)

SATISFACTION WITH THE WORKPLACE (DESIGN): (Evaluation before/after)

c) Workplace design: improvement 32.5% (5.3/4.0)

d) Design of the break room (recreation / regeneration): Improvement 35% (5.4/4.0)

e) Room quality of patient rooms: improvement 39% (5.7/4.1)

f) Room quality of corridors and work areas: Improvement 30.2% (5.6/4.3)

g) Daylight quality (atmosphere and lighting conditions during the day): Improvement 33.3% (4.8/3.6)

h) Artificial lighting quality (atmosphere with room lighting): Improvement 54.3% (5.4/3.5)

i) Quality of room color: improvement 75.6% (5.8/3.3)

j) Identity (visibility of the clinic’s quality standards): Improvement 26.7% (5.7/4.5)

Average improvement in room factors: 40.8%

Evaluation of medical data

Delirium in hospital:

In 2016 and 2017, the Intensive Care Medicine specialist group at HELIOS Kliniken GmbH made delirium a focus topic and established a Delirium Working Group, which is headed by Dr. Wöbker, Chief Physician at the Clinic for Intensive Care Medicine.

“Delirium is an acute disorder of cerebral function. While a third of internal medicine patients over the age of 70 develop delirium in hospital, the incidence in surgical patients is between 5.1% after minor surgery and 52.2% after major surgery, depending on the procedure performed. In intensive care patients, delirium occurs in 30-80% of cases – depending on the severity of the illness. Delirium is associated with an increase in mortality from 3.9% to 22.9%, a longer hospital stay of up to ten days and a poorer treatment outcome. In a study of intensive care patients, it was shown that the 1-year survival probability decreases by around 10 % with each day of delirium. Delirium leads to an increased need for post-inpatient care and around 25% of patients develop cognitive dysfunction after delirium, which is comparable to mild Alzheimer’s dementia.”

Question:

What effects do environmental factors such as color and light have on drug consumption in intensive care medicine?

Research setting:

The consumption of benzodiazepines and neuroleptics was measured over two time intervals of 9 months each before and after the color design.

Evaluation:

No significant changes were observed for benzodiazepines. There were significant changes in the neuroleptics. In the same period, consumption fell by an average of 30.1%. In the Intermediate Care Unit (IMC), where patients are admitted for up to 2 days, consumption fell by 51% in the same period. Consumption in the surgical intensive care unit (B3-EGI) fell by 15.9% in the same period. In the conservative (internal medicine/neurology) intensive care unit B5-3I (10 patient rooms, 20 beds), consumption fell by 23.3% in the same period.

Design expertise for the digital transformation

We live in an era of profound social transformation, characterized by global interconnectedness and technological innovation in all areas of life. The need to identify, represent, facilitate, and shape public interests amid the digital transformation of interconnected societies opens up new fields of action for designers. As a testing ground for new technologies and aesthetic practices, design is a powerful driving force behind sociocultural, economic, technological, scientific, and communicative progress. The professional profile of Public Interest Design increasingly requires social, communicative, media-educational, and transdisciplinary competencies, through which traditional strengths of design—such as problem-solving, form-giving, and information visualization—can be strategically expanded.
Design competence for the digital transformation requires that designers:

1. Understand the problems of digital change: Be able to detect public interests in ‘digital change’ using research methods and expertise, identify causes and analyze consequences
2. be able to present influencing factors of digital change in a generally understandable way: Identify problems associated with digital change, present them in an understandable way and link them to all key influencing factors
3. Being able to communicate effectively in networked societies: Initiating thematically relevant discourses, moderating participation and opinion-forming processes, developing ideas and concepts and identifying meaningful solutions
4. Be able to design solutions for digital change: Being able to search for, recognize, present, communicate and design solutions to problems in the field of digital transformation
5. be able to evaluate the consequences of digital transformations: Test the effectiveness of results using suitable methods and develop suggestions for improvement
6. Know current specialist knowledge on digitalization: Know the state of research in the knowledge field of digitalization of networked societies and be able to apply it in concrete project situations.
7. Be able to apply digital research methods: Formulate socially relevant research questions, use relevant sources of knowledge and experience, know and apply scientific methods and be able to present and evaluate results

Shaping the future of networked societies

The digital transformation of networked societies has only just begun. The consequences of this profound change in the world of work and life are just as unpredictable today as the transformative forces of mechanization and electrification were in their early days. Anyone who wants to successfully and sustainably shape public interests in the digital transformation process of modern societies must therefore first approach design from a meta-perspective. Trends that are the focus of public attention today can soon become undesirable again. According to previous design concepts, design interventions can only be successful if they are needed in the present and remain useful in the future. Digital transformation is a process in which reliable predictions are difficult and often impossible. Sustainability can hardly be achieved if technologies and application practices develop at a rapid pace. In order not to lose sight of this, complex development scenarios must be designed, which requires specialist knowledge and methodological expertise. Problems can increasingly only be solved indirectly, as they are characterized by the consequences of digital change, which creates different social, economic and cultural conditions.

Global networking, artificial intelligence and self-controlling machines are changing the framework conditions for the creation of our material and intellectual culture. Designers must therefore first perceive and analyze whether a problem can still be solved in the existing context or whether it might make more sense to redesign the framework conditions. Where ‘wicked problems’ or seemingly unsolvable problems arise, creative skills such as lateral thinking are required[1]. The strategic composition and moderation of creative workshops can mobilize unimagined human potential. Designers must learn to initiate participation processes using analogue and digital means in order to tap into knowledge and experience potential, mobilize creative forces and bring about collaborative action. Participatory projects and transdisciplinary work give rise to a new form of authorship, the value of which must be negotiated with clients and contractors alike. The price for the production of commissioned works is easier to calculate than the value of processes where the course, goal and benefits are unpredictable.

[1] cf. Protzen, Jean-Pierre and David J. Harris. The Universe of Design: Horst Rittel’s Theories of Design and Planning. Taylor & Francis Ltd 2010

Shaping the values and common benefits of digitalization

The public debate on digitalization today is marked by fears and euphoria similar to those that characterized the debate over the risks of electrification at the end of the 19th century.[1] The great technological revolutions of the modern era—such as mechanization, electrification, and digitalization—are nevertheless irreversible, as they transform the very foundations of our working and living environments. Technological progress facilitates the fulfillment of many fundamental needs of modern societies, such as work, prosperity, freedom of movement, culture, knowledge, health, and safety. Technological change has always had—and continues to have—many unintended side effects. The price of technological progress includes social consequences such as alienation, uprooting, and insecurity among people, as well as ecological consequences such as environmental destruction, air pollution, radiation exposure, and resource depletion.

Like any technology, digitalization is not an end in itself, but must serve the good of mankind. When shaping the transformation process, the focus must therefore be on the long-term benefits of digital technologies for the environment and society. The theoretical discourse on digitalization today is largely shaped by extreme positions, ranging from complete rejection to euphoric professions of faith. Many people believe in the self-actualizing powers of technological utopias and regard these processes as inevitable.[2] The new digital technologies are neither good nor bad in themselves. Their usefulness depends on the purpose for which we use them and how we design their use. What is therefore crucial for the process of digitalization is who decides on the use of digital technologies, what interests are pursued and what social benefits are associated with them

Today, the benefits of digitalization for people are largely driven by the interests of a few globally active IT companies. The virtually unprotected, comprehensive collection, linking, and use of private data provides these IT companies with a tool of power that undermines citizens’ self-determination and the sovereignty of societies. [3] The public’s fears can now be measured and objectively assessed. [4] In a 2017 survey conducted in Germany, 78% of respondents rated the handling of their personal data on the internet as somewhat or completely unsafe. [5] The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information therefore makes the following recommendation: “From a data protection perspective, one should always exercise restraint when disclosing personal information about oneself or others.”[6] If this statement is taken seriously, adults must be warned before every use of the Internet, while children and adolescents must be barred from using it altogether.

The digital transformation of modern societies must not be negotiated according to the rules of global IT corporations. This can only be achieved if the public interests are formulated, negotiated and shaped in a participatory manner in every application. The well-being of citizens must be at the forefront of democratic decision-making processes. Societies, institutions and individuals do not have to do or allow everything that is technologically possible. The use of digital technologies must be compatible with the common good. Which social structures should be preserved or renewed must be negotiated on the basis of public discourse, democratic decision-making and participatory design methods.

However, we can only seize our opportunities to participate in, moderate and shape these transformation processes if we recognize and understand the driving forces and structures of this development. The main reason why public interests are pushed into the background is that they have not yet been researched to a large extent or are not addressed at the beginning of the design intervention. The following three points are of central importance for shaping digitalization:

[1] cf. Renz, Marcel. The Electrotechnical Exhibition in Frankfurt in 1891 and its consequences. Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller 2011 and Kuhn, Johannes. Technical innovations have been the subject of debate before. Essay Süddeutsche Zeitung online 27.05.2016 (retrieved 15.12.2017: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/samstagsessay-vorsicht-zukunft-1.3008159)

[2] cf. Morozov, Evgeny. Smart new world: digital technology and human freedom. Karl Blessing Publishing House 2013

[3] cf. Han, Byung-Chul. In the swarm: views of the digital. Matthes & Seitz 2013

[4] cf. dpa report. Wave of arrests in Turkey. Thousands of proceedings against social media users. FAZ online 26.12.2016 (retrieved 19.12.2017: http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/verhaftungswelle-in-tuerkei-tausende-verfahren-gegen-nutzer-sozialer-medien-14592235.html)

[5] cf. statista survey of internet users. How secure do you think your personal data is on the Internet in general? retrieved 19.12.2017: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/217842/umfrage/sicherheit-von-persoenlichen-daten-im-internet/)

[6] Facebook, Twitter and Co.: Data protection in social networks. Website: The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. (retrieved 19.12.2017: https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Datenschutz/Themen/Telefon_Internet/InternetArtikel/DatenschutzInSozialenNetzwerken.html)

1. Ethics: The consequences of digitalization for people and the environment must be researched, investigated and discussed with those affected against the background of the application situation! The task must be developed against the background of extensive participation processes!
2. Added value: The benefits and risks of technological innovations must be researched, investigated and weighed up against each other! The design of digitalization must not become an end in itself, but must demonstrate its concrete benefits for people and the environment!
3. Security and law: The possibilities of data protection must be researched, investigated and included in the definition of the task! Digitalization may only follow market economy principles to the extent that it complies with democratic principles and the rule of law!

One of the most important physicists of the 20th century. Werner Heisenberg is credited with the sentence: “Ideas are not responsible for what people make of them.”[1] Man is the creator of all technologies. We shape the performance spectrum of computers, programs, machines and network structures according to our will and for our benefit. The production, design and use of digital technologies must therefore always be based on our personal responsibility. Designers must develop an ethical attitude towards the development and use of digital technologies and apply the resulting responsibility in their design practice. We must use the new digital technologies to further develop and strengthen democracy and use them to shape a world in which we can live freely and self-determined lives.

[1] The quote has been attributed to Werner Heisenberg since 1969, but the source is missing.

Shaping the future of work in networked societies

The driving force behind digital change is the benefit and added value that new technologies bring to the well-being of people in modern societies. The digital age began in 1941, when Konrad Zuse invented the world’s first functional computer with his Z3. This achievement is based on preliminary work such as Charles Babbage’s mechanical calculating machine, which was used a century earlier. While the further development of digital technologies was delayed after the Second World War in Europe, it was driven forward in the USA despite some skepticism. Due to the size and production costs of digital technologies in 1943, the then head of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, was quoted as saying: “I think there is a world market for maybe 5 computers.”[1]

The breakthrough of the computer came in 1981 with the IBM 5150 model, which was used by companies worldwide to set up personal workstations due to its small size, sufficient performance for office work, economical price and the IT services available. Thanks to IBM’s market power in the field of industrial computers, the Microsoft DOS operating system quickly became the global industry standard for personal computers. Technologically superior models such as the Apple PC or the Commodore PC were marginalized as a result. In 2007, Apple regained its status as technology leader with the first iPhone model, which made it the most valuable company in the world. Today, more than 250 mill. PC models sold. The peak of this development was already reached in 2011 with more than 360 million euros. PC models. [2]

The rise of smartphones continues unabated to this day, reaching nearly 1.5 billion units sold in 2017. [3] At 7.3 billion, the number of mobile subscriptions already equals the world’s population, although this figure is skewed because people, institutions, and companies in developed countries often have multiple subscriptions. Nevertheless, the number of mobile subscriptions in Africa already stands at 709 million, which illustrates the potential of the people we can reach with digital services. [4] The existence of global digital networking structures opens up new avenues for thought and action that can be harnessed to improve educational, living, and working conditions for many people from all social classes and countries of origin around the world. Public interests can be advanced through digital transformation, where the use of digital technologies helps to reduce existing inequalities and development gaps.

The digital transformation of networked industrial and service societies is shaping our present and creating fundamental structures for the future. Digitalization is a global technological transformation process, comparable to industrialization, in which major economic, cultural and social consequences are to be expected. The exact consequences of these technological upheavals cannot be reliably estimated, as the technological modernization process that has already begun will continue for many years to come. Current estimates of job losses due to the digitalization of the economy, or the world of work 4.0, vary between 47% and 9% [5]. All estimates of the local and regional effects of digitalization vary greatly because the effects of job rationalization can be reduced or offset by the growth in new jobs. The future of work in networked societies must be shaped responsibly, as all levels of the value chain and their consequences for people and the environment must always be taken into account.

[1] Electron robots in Germany. Der Spiegel. Issue 26.05.1965

[2] cf. statista. Forecast for global sales of PCs from 2009 to 2021 (retrieved 21.12.2017: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/160878/umfrage/prognose-zum-weltweiten-absatz-von-pcs/)

[3] cf. statista. Forecast for smartphone sales worldwide from 2010 to 2021 (retrieved 21.12.2017: (https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/12865/umfrage/prognose-zum-absatz-von-smartphones-weltweit/)

[4] cf. statista. Number of mobile connections worldwide by region from 2005 to 2017 (retrieved 21.12.2017: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/253072/umfrage/anzahl-der-mobilfunkanschluesse-nach-regionen-weltweit/)

[5] Studies for the US labor market: 47% (see Frey and Osborne 2013) or 6-15% (see Bonin et al. 2015; Dengler and Matthes 2015; Arntz et al. 2016), for Europe See: World of work 4.0: Prosperity growth or inequality and job loss – what will digitalization bring? Oliver Stettes, Melanie Arntz, Terry Gregory and Ulrich Zierahn, Katharina Dengler, Daniel Veit, Werner Eichhorst and Ulf Rinne (source updated 08.12.2017: http://www.zew.de/publikationen/arbeitswelt-40-wohlstandszuwachs-oder-ungleichheit-und-arbeitsplatzverlust-was-bringt-die-digitalisierung/)

Shaping forms of coexistence in networked societies

The hopes associated with the digitalization of all areas of life are particularly evident in the “smart cities” model, which is generating great euphoria among many social actors, although it also entails considerable risks. Smart cities and the ‘Internet of Things’ are no longer utopias, but are already taking shape.[1] Digital technologies are to be used to create a new urbanity that focuses on people’s needs such as health, social issues, work and leisure. Smart people are people who live in symbiosis with new digital technologies and benefit from them optimally. Smart governance makes it easier for citizens and the state to regulate necessary administrative processes. Smart mobility is based on intelligent ideas such as self-driving cars that can be used publicly on the basis of car-sharing models. The principle of the smart economy involves the more efficient use of material and energy resources. Infrastructures such as transportation and energy supply are to be made more ecological and efficient in the future. Citizens can do their shopping from home and receive their products delivered free of charge. A large part of the work can be done at home.

Where working hours are flexible and commutes are eliminated, many activities can be made more family-friendly and ecological. Communication will largely take place via instant messaging services such as e-mail, IP telephony, video conferencing, screen sharing, file transfer and social networks. Intelligent building technology systems recognize the needs of the users and adapt the living and working conditions in the building to the requirements. Use becomes more ecological, as important energy consumption sources such as heating and lighting are optimally adapted to the processes in the house. The use of surveillance technologies reduces crime and enables rapid assistance where people are in need. The elderly could particularly benefit from this, as they can manage most daily activities from home and maintain regular contact with family, friends and carers. Smart cities and citizens are highly networked both internally and externally.

Criticism of smart cities is primarily directed at the associated possibilities of misusing digital technologies for the realization of commercial interests and the total surveillance of citizens. Smart cities could develop into an instrument of power that provides state or private institutions with a tool for total surveillance and behavior control of all citizens. When designing smart cities, the public interests of democratic societies must be taken into account, which opens up new fields of action for design disciplines between architecture, urban planning and design. Social actors need good arguments and effective strategies for asserting public interests against the power of global IT and Internet companies, whose market capitalization already exceeds the gross national product of many economies. [2]

The digitalization of our living, learning and working environments is revolutionizing systemically relevant foundations of democratic societies such as security, education, the press, justice and freedom. In many cases, legal texts and social practices cannot be transferred directly from the analog to the digital space. The boundaries between privacy and the public sphere are becoming fluid and must be defined in public discourse and reassessed by democratically legitimized bodies. Since Aristotle, we have known that ethical principles and moral attitudes are based on habits, customs and practices. [ 3 ] When lifeworld practices are exposed to strong social transformation processes, ethical and moral foundations come under pressure. The pressure for change generated by digitalization and networking promotes uncertainty and fear, but also creates scope for redesigning the ways in which we live together. Digitalization not only harbours incalculable risks, but also opportunities for the renewal of society. The dynamics of change brought about by digitalization can already be felt today in key areas of social thought and action such as the environment, education, research, science, business, energy, justice, health, defence, transport, politics, work, family, social affairs and culture. As a result, questions about strategies for shaping digitalization processes are moving to the forefront of public discourse. If we want to help shape the future of urbanity, we must recognize the public interests of citizens, evaluate opportunities and risks, and discover and exploit the possibilities for successful interventions.

[1] cf. Jaekel, Michael. Smart City becomes reality: a guide to new urbanities in the digital modern age. Springer Vieweg 2015

[2] cf. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/audit-assurance/publications/global-top-100-companies-2017.html (retrieved: 16.11.2017)

[3] cf. Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Reclam 2017

Shaping user rights and user behavior in digital worlds

The concepts and relationship between the public and private spheres must be renegotiated and legally secured in networked societies. The ethical basis for our actions cannot be easily transferred from the analog to the digital space, as many value-forming factors such as influence, trust, friendship, consent, power and violence change their meaning. Someone who is liked as a friend in the virtual space of the Internet can be a stranger in physical encounters. People who write hate comments on the Internet can hold completely different views in real life. The current regulations on the personal rights of individuals, as well as on the relationship between the public and private spheres, reflect the everyday practices and democratically negotiated legal concepts of analogous societies. When we are in analog space, physically moving between places, physically interacting with people and using their services, we can trust that our personal rights will be protected. We usually know where our actions remain private or where they become public and can adjust our behavior accordingly. This applies equally to the perception and respect of other people’s privacy. Total surveillance, which goes hand in hand with the use of digital media, would be incompatible with our fundamental rights.

When we move around on the Internet or change our location with our mobile device, all our actions are recorded by various digital players. This data retention turns citizens into suspects and private actions into a commodity.[1] Global IT companies are exploiting our data in a dynamically growing business area in which our right to privacy is taking on a new meaning. Our data protection legislation shows that state institutions have not yet found a way to create legal certainty. Instead of rules, warnings are issued that further contribute to the uncertainty of citizens. [2]

Computer programs and apps make our lives easier; they save us work, serve as repositories of knowledge, monitor our health, foster our social interactions, and help us organize our daily lives. Algorithms help us search for information, provide guidance, shape social interactions, and advocate for our causes. As a result, hardly anyone today would want to do without computers and smartphones in their personal lives. The digital public sphere of the internet has become the stage for our lives and influences every aspect of our physical reality. We therefore usually post our data online carelessly and voluntarily, since the benefits offered are tangible and often free of charge, while drawbacks such as a lack of data security and increasing dependence remain abstract.[3] We often agree to licenses and terms of service with a single click, without first reading them carefully or assessing their implications. For most programs, we have no alternative because we have already become heavily interconnected through them—with other people and institutions, with our own data, with other programs, and with the hardware. Furthermore, we can assume that competitors handle our personal rights in a similar manner. Consequently, entering into license and business agreements with software providers is often characterized by feelings such as carelessness and wishful thinking, or dependence and powerlessness. As a result, we increasingly do not know—and care less and less—who stores, analyzes, uses, and shares our data. The transition from an analog to a digital society plunges us into crises that harbor enormous risks and, at the same time, open up opportunities for profound renewal.[4] The discussion, redefinition, and shaping of the personal rights of all citizens is among the most important challenges facing networked societies.

The ‘transparent citizen’, who almost completely reveals their privacy in the digital space of the internet, is one of the hallmarks of networked societies. Hardly anyone is aware that powerful algorithms can determine a person’s identity from a few indicators such as details of friends, locations, purchases or habits.[5] As soon as we use the Internet, our actions are recorded by programs in the background, evaluated and linked to existing data. Through the sum of our actions, we ourselves create a personality profile on the Internet in which our private life situation is represented. Linking our data with that of our family, friends and colleagues creates a social profile that has never been visible in this way before. By documenting all our digital communication, recording the type and frequency of our contacts, as well as the links between conversations, texts, images and films, this structure grows, deepens and refines.

Today, data protection is largely managed by the very companies that profit from the use of our data. We digitize our own data and, by connecting to the Internet and using software, actively contribute to its dissemination. Data collection does not stop at the threshold of our homes or at the boundaries of our bodies. When we use online services, we consciously or unconsciously digitize a great deal of information about our life experiences and education, our social contacts and behavior, our movement patterns and actions, as well as our attitudes, problems, preferences, and desires. The sum of this published private information constitutes the data capital of gigantic IT companies, whose economic power repeatedly and successfully thwarts government attempts at regulation.[6] The internet creates an autobiographical memory of its users over which we have no complete control. Attempts to delete this data often prove unsuccessful, as our data is duplicated countless times and stored in such a way that it remains beyond the direct reach of the government and citizens. National data protection laws do not apply at the data’s storage location if it lies outside the country’s borders. Unlike U.S. citizens, EU citizens are largely without legal recourse when using social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Xing; video portals such as YouTube and Vimeo; search engines such as Google and Bing; and online retailers such as Amazon and eBay.[7] The sovereignty of states is significantly restricted by global data transfers.[8]

Our data is not safe anywhere, as cybercrime is constantly growing due to rising values, global networking, lawless areas and a lack of law enforcement. In a cyber attack on the Playstation Network digital service portal in 2011, credit card information and personal data of 77 million subscribers were stolen, who were only informed about it 6 days later. In 2013, a cyber attack gave hackers access to the accounts of around 1 billion Yahoo users, which contained names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and encrypted passwords. Also in 2013, hackers captured the data of 38 million Adobe customers. In 2014, 145 million registered customers of the online marketplace ebay fell victim to cyber criminals. In 2015, the addresses, credit card numbers and sexual preferences of around 40 million users of the online portal Ashley Madison, which is used to contact sexual partners for flings, were published by a hacker group. These included 15,000 government and military addresses. The publication also revealed that data was not deleted following termination or customer requests.[9] This makes it clear that the security of citizens in networked societies is no longer guaranteed due to the changed framework conditions. This reveals a huge potential for shaping the future, as existing problem-solving strategies such as national laws and regulations have little impact in a global context. Even international regulations will be almost impossible to enforce, as breaches of the law can be carried out at any time from any part of the world using mobile, low-cost technologies.

A far-reaching renunciation of the use of digital technologies currently offers the only effective protection against the intrusion of state and private actors into our privacy! But is this even possible or is it perhaps enough if we change our communication behavior and use effective security programs? Perhaps we don’t need new laws, but programs that we can trust or that curb the data hunger of other programs? Perhaps we just need to behave differently in the virtual space of the Internet? The design of our living environment has a major influence on user behavior, which is why this task offers a socially highly relevant field of activity for designers. The design of user behavior on the Internet is one of the great challenges of the present and will keep us busy for a long time to come!

[1] As of July 1, 2017, we are all suspects. Independent State Center for Data Protection Schleswig-Holstein
(accessed February 6, 2018: https://www.datenschutz.de/ab-dem-1-juli-2017-sind-wir-alle-verdaechtig/)

[2] See Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) 2017 (4) This Act applies to public bodies. It applies to non-public bodies provided that (3) the controller or processor processes personal data within Germany, and although the controller or processor does not have an establishment in a Member State of the European Union or in another State party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, but falls within the scope of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament …

General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (116) If personal data is transferred to another country outside the Union, there is an increased risk that natural persons will not be able to exercise their data protection rights and, in particular, to protect themselves against the unlawful use or disclosure of this information.

Similarly, supervisory authorities may not be able to investigate complaints or conduct investigations that relate to activities taking place outside the borders of their Member State.

[3] cf. Morozov, Evgeny. Smart new world: digital technology and human freedom. Karl Blessing Publishing House 2013

[4] cf. Han, Byung-Chul. In the swarm: views of the digital. Matthes & Seitz 2013

[5] cf. Kucklick, Christoph. The granular society: How the digital is dissolving our reality. Ullstein Paperback 2016

[6] see S&P Index data. Published on the website: http://fortune.com/global500 (retrieved 08.12.2017)

[7] cf. Spehr, Michael. Fished from Facebook. FAZ-online 29.12.2016 (retrieved 08.12.2017: http://www.faz.net/aktuell/technik-motor/digital/datenkrake-abgefischt-von-facebook-14590869-p2.html)

Jannis Brühl and Thomas Kirchner. More security for EU citizens in the USA. Süddeutsche Zeitung 12.07.2016 (retrieved on 08.12.2017: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/datenschutz-mehr-sicherheit-fuer-eu-buerger-in-den-usa-1.3074903)

[8] cf. The Spy Files. wikileaks (retrieved 08.12.2017: https://wikileaks.org/the-spyfiles.html) On Thursday, December 1st, 2011 WikiLeaks began publishing The Spy Files, thousands of pages and other materials exposing the global mass surveillance industry.

[9] see The biggest cyberattacks on companies. Computerwoche. (retrieved 21.12.2017: https://www.computerwoche.de/a/die-groessten-cyberangriffe-auf-unternehmen,3214326)

Shaping education, science and research in networked societies

The digital transformation of modern societies has a particularly strong impact on education, science and research. The transformation of the way we learn and research, how we generate, disseminate and use knowledge, has only just begun. Since we cannot see into the future, we can use comparisons with historical events to imagine the effects of digitalization. At this point, comparisons are often drawn between the transformative powers of book printing and the Internet. The invention of printing in the 15th century became the driving force behind the comprehensive modernization of medieval societies.[1] However, the success of extensive literacy and enlightenment of the population cannot be attributed solely to the direct advantages of printing technology, such as low production costs, large print runs, rapid distribution and easy availability. Indirect benefits such as multilingualism, general comprehensibility and user-friendliness of the content were just as important. The printing industry no longer geared its products solely to the wishes of a tiny educated elite, but discovered the economic potential of the masses, who first had to be educated. Since then, the spread of printed matter in all languages and countries of the world has not only led to an exponential expansion and networking of the knowledge base of our species.

The economic, social, and cultural transformation of medieval societies gave rise to the modern era, which does not end with digitalization but rather reaches a new stage of development. The concept of postmodernism—which, in my view, should be understood as purely programmatic—is directed against the drive for innovation in free, globally oriented market economies. Modernity is by no means over; rather, with digitalization, it is entering a new phase characterized by ever-greater interconnectedness across all spheres of social activity. With the current volume of data on the Internet, our information stock is once again making a quantum leap. The monthly global data volume is estimated at more than 15.3 zettabytes (^10²¹ bytes), which far exceeds the data volume of all existing printed materials.[2] However, the quality of digital information is far more heterogeneous than that of print media, since anyone with a private internet connection can disseminate data online at virtually no cost. Only a tiny fraction of this data is produced by professional authors under editorial oversight. The vast majority of all publications are produced by private individuals, whose authenticity and qualifications often remain unknown. Every day, new information channels emerge on editorially managed websites, personal blogs, video platforms such as YouTube, social networks such as Facebook, or short-form messaging platforms such as Twitter.

Most people today already use the Internet as a primary source for learning activities such as research, experience acquisition and knowledge building. This applies not only to leisure activities, but now also to school learning and university studies.[3] Access to information of all kinds is provided by Internet search engines such as Google, which alone processes over 3 billion search queries from more than 1.17 billion users per day. The next search engines, such as Baidu, Yahoo and Microsoft, are each used by just under 300 million users. 4] In Germany, more than 17 million people already use the Internet today. 5] In the age group of 14- to 29-year-old Internet users in Germany, 92% already use Wikipedia, the world’s largest Internet encyclopedia[6], which today contains a knowledge base of around 45 million pages. articles, which are created, edited and constantly updated in almost 300 languages by well over a hundred thousand freelance authors. This free knowledge resource is available to every Internet user in the world, which can cause problems if Wikipedia permanently replaces your own research efforts and comprehensive information. However, if we look at this frequently cited problem from a different perspective, the benefits of public digital knowledge archives for the education of the world’s population become apparent. Most people in the world today have access to the Internet, but still no access to libraries and no money for books.

With the spread and use of the Internet as a source of information and a communication platform, digital media are increasingly being used in education, science, and research. Virtually all private and public institutions of this kind use the Internet as a digital representation of their organization for internal and external communication purposes. Their objectives, structure, and areas of activity can be derived from this, as can their offerings and contact options. In addition, many educational institutions offer numerous e-learning options, such as webinars, podcasts, chat rooms, and MOOCs, or combined formats like blended learning.[7] Other educational institutions forgo direct contact with learners entirely and rely completely on e-learning. Through initiatives such as the Free Online Courses—edX, supported by universities such as MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, the Sorbonne, TU Delft, RWTH Aachen, it is possible for people eager to learn from all over the world to study at the world’s best educational institutions, regardless of their background, financial means, or place of residence.[8] Digital learning is still far from being an equivalent substitute for attending schools and colleges, and may never be. Digital learning may make people smarter, but it will never make them part of a network based on personal connections, understanding, and trust. Face-to-face encounters with instructors and fellow learners during and after class time facilitate discourse and new insights, build relationships of trust, and foster personal development. The formation of knowledge is based on multisensory experiences, imaginations grounded in reality, and the trust of individuals who do not present themselves through projections but reveal themselves in interpersonal encounters. Digital teaching and learning methods offer a great opportunity to renew and expand analog educational offerings, but they are no substitute for them. The transmission of knowledge through print media has not led to the abolition of the spoken word, but rather has enhanced its value and sustainability.

The development and design of digital offerings for education, science and research opens up a growing and socially highly relevant field of activity for designers. Digital technologies can be used at any age and at all levels of education, from pre-school education and general education to specialist education and lifelong learning. The conception and production of educational programs requires specialist skills and responsibility in fields such as media design, media use and media communication. Participatory design research methods are particularly effective when new educational programs are based on the following points:[9]

• Understanding: Observation of teaching and learning processes in the context of real application situations and definition of the added value of new educational offers
• Inform: Thorough research of the target group, usage situation and existing offers, including the development history, present conditions and future prospects
• Development and formulation of the objective: Participatory encounters involving teachers and learners, decision-makers and technical experts in the context of the application situation
• Conception: Search for ideas, design and creative design of forms and methods for solving problems using usability strategies such as user experience design and visionary thinking
• Prototyping: exemplary implementation of a functional model on which the favored solution can be tested, analyzed, explained, criticized and further developed
• Test: Evaluation of usage characteristics, observation of user behavior and analysis of open usage potentials by applying quantitative and qualitative research methods as well as direct user feedback strategies

[1] cf. Morozov, Evgeny. Smart new world: digital technology and human freedom. Karl Blessing Publishing House 2013

[2] cf. IDC study. New approaches for a new data age. (retrieved 30.04.2018: https://www.seagate.com/de/de/our-story/data-age-2025/#)

[3] cf. Klöck, Gerd. Zeit-online. Students are at a loss without Google. (retrieved 12/11/2017 http://www.zeit.de/studium/hochschule/2011-05/lehre-google)

[4] See Statista. 1.17 Billion People Use Google Search. (retrieved 11.12.2017: https://www.statista.com/chart/899/unique-users-of-search-engines-in-december-2012/)

[5] See Statista: Number of internet users in Germany who use the internet for reference purposes, by frequency of use from 2013 to 2016 (in millions) (retrieved 11.12.2017: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/168882/umfrage/internet-fuer-die-nutzung-von-nachschlagewerken/ )https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/168882/umfrage/internet-fuer-die-nutzung-von-nachschlagewerken/

[6] see Statista: Do you use the online encyclopedia Wikipedia? (retrieved 11.12.2017: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/500757/umfrage/anteil-der-nutzer-von-wikipedia-nach-altersgruppen-in-deutschland/

[7] cf. Kerres, Michael. Media didactics: Conception and development of media-supported learning opportunities. De Gruyter 2013

[8] cf. Harvard Online Learning portal: http://online-learning.harvard.edu/ (retrieved 03.11.2017)

[9] cf. Buether, Axel. Design. in Lexikon der Kunstpädagogik. Athena publishing house Oberhausen 2017

Shaping forms of communication in networked societies

The Internet brings its users a considerable increase in freedom of information and opinion. For the most part, we are free to decide where and how we want to obtain information and what content we want to publish. Even where authoritarian governments suppress civil liberties such as the right to freedom of expression, the Internet’s diverse information channels can never be completely eliminated. Protests and revolutionary movements such as the ‘Arab Spring’ were significantly promoted by social media despite internet censorship.[1] However, the new digital freedom of information and communication is not without risks for individuals, institutions and societies. ‘Fake news’ and criminal activities such as digital hate speech, cyberbullying, cyberbullying and cyberstalking are the dark side of the new freedoms of the internet. [2]

There is also a problem with the validity of information from the Internet, which often remains as uncertain as the ethical stance and intentions of its often anonymous or unknown authors. Users of social networks are particularly affected by this, as they can rarely recognize the sources on which the information is based or the credibility of those disseminating it. The uncritical and unreflective attitude of users contributes significantly to the abuse of the new freedoms of the Internet. Criteria for professional search queries and the selection of valid information should therefore be part of everyone’s general education. As part of the necessary digital education, everyone should be empowered:

1. Research skills: Being able to search for valid information on the Internet
2. Critical faculties: being able to form criteria for the credibility of digital information
3. Evaluation skills: being able to check the truthfulness of digital information in case of doubt
4. Judgment: Being able to form one’s own judgment based on careful research
5. Responsibility: Being able to handle personal data and your own opinions responsibly
6. Empathy: being able to align your own actions with the legitimate interests of other people and society

Net policy issues such as the preservation of digital freedom rights, media policy and net culture engagement are already being addressed and promoted by many private and public initiatives. These include Internet platforms such as netzpolitik.org, which cover socially relevant topics such as data protection, surveillance, big data, scoring, data leaks, cyber-military, net neutrality, broadband expansion, free networks, freedom of expression, censorship, human rights, whistleblowing: Data protection, surveillance, big data, scoring, data leaks, cybermilitary, net neutrality, broadband expansion, free networks, freedom of speech and press, censorship, human rights, whistleblowing, transparency, public change, data journalism, open data, copyright, Creative Commons, free knowledge, education, freedom of information, consumer protection, general terms and conditions, algorithms, artificial intelligence, drones, cyborgs, robots, IT security, art, music, computer games, digital democracy, e-government, lobbying, campaigning and social movements. [3]

New digital whistleblowing platforms such as WikiLeaks are taking on particular political significance. By anonymously publishing data that the operators believe is in the public interest, they aim to promote unrestricted freedom of expression and information on the Internet.[4] The activists accept the sometimes drastic side effects that come with this. Cyberactivist forms of political engagement are also evident in globally active hacker movements such as Anonymous, which express their protests through massive public outreach and attacks on their opponents’ digital presence.[5] The right to freedom of information and freedom of expression on the internet can only be sustained if society defends itself against all forms of abuse. This requires the ongoing development of solutions, which creates a new, socially relevant field of activity for designers.

[1] cf. net publication Federal Agency for Civic Education. The role of new media in the Arab Spring. (retrieved 11.12.2017: http://www.bpb.de/internationales/afrika/arabischer-fruehling/52420/die-rolle-der-neuen-medien?p=all)

[2] cf. Ingrid Brodnig. Lies on the net – How fake news, populists and uncontrolled technology manipulate us. Brandstätter publishing house 2017

[3] cf. website netzpolitik.org. Platform for digital liberties. (retrieved 11.12.2017: https://netzpolitik.org/team/)

[4] cf. website of the WikiLeaks revelation platform (retrieved 11.12.2017: https://wikileaks.org/)

[5] vg. Herb, Ulrich (ed.). Open Initiatives: Openness in the digital world and science. universaar, Saarbrücken 2012. Open Access (retrieved 11.12.2017: http://universaar.uni-saarland.de/monographien/volltexte/2012/87/)

Designing digital knowledge networks and research methods

The linguistically described knowledge of our species was initially preserved in the memory of individuals and passed on via oral narrative forms. With the invention of writing, we have given this knowledge a material form that is independent of our memory. Printing, in turn, accelerated the production, reproduction and dissemination of our knowledge, the material form of which was always dependent on time and space. As a result of advancing digitization, our knowledge is constantly shifting to the Internet, where it is available to any user at any location for a fee or, in many cases, for free. The digitalization of our knowledge frees us from constraints such as time, space and material. Every digital source could theoretically be read simultaneously by all of humanity, as all data is available at any location at any time. Utopias of unrestricted availability of human knowledge have so far ended at solvable problems such as data provision and data use, data security and data rights. For the present, pragmatic solutions are required here, which must be designed while safeguarding public interests. Shaping the future of the Internet, on the other hand, requires visions that bring us closer to the dream of free knowledge.

The digitization of our material written culture promotes the production of new knowledge in a variety of ways. Today, an increasing number of publications are being produced directly for the Internet by a growing number of authors, as digitization leads to significant cost reductions and simplifies distribution channels. An increasing number of scholarly publications are appearing in English, thereby reaching a global audience of experts. By 2017, English already accounted for over 50% of all websites, and as this trend continues, it is increasingly becoming the global language of knowledge production on the Internet.[1] The Internet also increasingly hosts digitized print media that are accessible in the analog world only with great time and financial effort, such as manuscripts, images, and out-of-print publications of all kinds. The IT company Google estimates that 129 million different books have been printed worldwide to date. Twenty percent of these are said to be free of private usage rights. Of the remaining 80% of books, most are no longer commercially available, according to Google.[2] The Google Books division has set a goal for itself to make approximately 15 million books available to users in its database by 2015 through retro-digitization. [3] Since the company itself does not publish any figures on this due to many unresolved copyright disputes, one can only speculate about the scale achieved to date. The company is thus creating a fait accompli while simultaneously attempting to reach a comprehensive agreement with authors and authors’ representatives from around the world. The Google Books Settlement provides for the creation of a monopoly on the world’s entire body of knowledge, with authors and publishers set to receive a percentage of the proceeds from its commercialization, to be agreed upon. [4] The monopoly position held by a few global corporations is causing anxiety in society, which is why there are widespread calls for the government and the public to take responsibility for providing digital knowledge and cultural resources.[5]

Our knowledge of the world cannot be reduced solely to data that has been and is produced in the form of professionally designed, editorially supervised and systematically distributed media products for a broad public. The everyday culture of individuals, groups and societies is represented in the countless texts, voice recordings, images, pieces of music and films of private Internet users. Also known as big data, these expressions of life from broad sections of the population represent a unique resource for education, science and research. We can use texts, images and videos to get an up-to-date picture of how other people live, what moves them and what is happening in their environment. If we succeed in looking behind the staged forms of self-disclosure in social media, we can draw a picture of people and milieus that can be used to effectively expand quantitative and qualitative methods of social research. Today, data from social networks is largely used for commercial purposes such as interest-based advertising or the creation of customer loyalty. The authenticity of the data is also particularly valuable for scientific purposes, as they represent everyday expressions of people’s lives that have undergone no or only very rough editorial filters. If this wealth of knowledge is used in anonymized form for the benefit of the general public, there is a public interest in the use of this information.

Self-learning programs represent one form of artificial intelligence. With enormous computing power, storage capacity, and self-learning algorithms, these programs scan unimaginably large data streams for meaningful patterns and continually discover new, useful connections. Intelligent search programs already take into account some 200 criteria—such as popularity, credibility, connectivity, and user-friendliness—based on which they rank the information they find. Text and image information are evaluated and linked in the same way as user data, hyperlinks, references, and location and time information. The current state of research is based on the development of powerful algorithms that, much like neural networks, are not only self-learning but also use this information independently to develop new programs.[6] The digitization of our knowledge and the development of forms of artificial intelligence are opening up broad fields of activity for designers, as digital knowledge networks and research methods must be developed and designed in collaboration with experts from all fields of knowledge and research.

[1] cf. statista: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/2961/umfrage/anteil-der-verbreitetsten-sprachen-im-internet-seit-2006/ (retrieved 2.11.2017)

[2] See Jackson, Joab. Google: 129 Million Different Books Have Been Published. PCWorld. (retrieved 22.12.2017: https://www.pcworld.com/article/202803/google_129_million_different_books_have_been_published.html)

[3] cf. Reitz, Tobias. Judge puts pressure on disputing parties. Time online (retrieved 07.03.2018: http://www.zeit.de/digital/2009-10/google-book-settlement-vergleich)

[4] see Google Book Settlement. Current statements by Google on this topic. (retrieved on 07.03.2017: https://web.archive.org/web/20130210211417/http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/)

[5] Information platforms such as iRights provide information on copyright and other areas of law in the digital world. Source: https://irights.info/

[6] cf. Zoph, Barret; Quoc V. Le. Neural Architecture Search with Reinforcement Learning. Cornell University Library arXiv.org > cs > arXiv:1611.01578 (retrieved 12/13/2017: https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.01578)

Shaping the exploration and use of big data

Among the most important innovations of the Internet are large volumes of data, or “big data,” the storage, analysis, and use of which are so complex that they require specialized programs such as search engines. The potential for insights and the benefits of big data are so great that they are driving a wave of transformation, the effects of which are already being felt in many areas of life, such as education, science and research, health and nutrition, and work and leisure.[1] Through the use of big data, we no longer need to rely on majorities, averages, and standards. Stakeholders from science, culture, and business can more clearly perceive, more accurately understand, and more effectively support the desires and needs of individuals in their respective locations and specific life situations. The recording, collection, and linking of large amounts of data reveal the experiences, thoughts, behaviors, and actions of individual people, bringing us closer to many utopian and dystopian visions of the “glass” or “transparent” citizen. The phenomenon of the “transparent” citizen has both positive and negative effects on individuals and society. Big data can be used for the common good—and thus in the public interest—or exploited for private interests. The situation becomes difficult when public concerns such as research, health, or security are involved. This highlights the need to develop an ethical framework for handling data as quickly as possible—one that must be negotiated through social discourse and secured through a legal framework.

The use of big data can infringe on the personal rights of affected individuals if they are not sufficiently informed about it and do not give their explicit consent. But what does the act of giving our consent mean in the context of digitalization? Today, ownership and the right to use personally identifiable data are transferred almost automatically to the companies behind the software through the use of these programs. According to a survey, 72% of users in Germany accept the terms and conditions, licenses, and terms of use of software during installation or updates without thoroughly reading the terms beforehand. This behavior is not solely due to trust or carelessness, as respondents also indicated that they would be willing to pay for the security of their data.[2] The public’s interests are not sufficiently protected here, which is why sustainable solutions to increase security, control, and accountability in the handling of personal data must be urgently sought and developed.

However, the use of big data also promises great opportunities when it is carried out in the public interest for the benefit of society. There is great potential in the synthesis of analog and digital research methods. Quantitative research methods focus on the representative collection of individual data points, which are statistically extrapolated to average values and generalized in the results. Quantitative research is also usually based on hypotheses and research questions that are established prior to the study and are subsequently confirmed or falsified based on the collected data. Phenomena, on the other hand, are often reduced to such an extent in experimental setups and isolated from their context that they can be observed in controlled environments. This ensures the reproducibility of the experiments and the verification of the hypotheses. Although the results obtained through quantitative research methods are considered representative, they often do not do justice to individual cases, as the reality of the effects is significantly more complex.[3] The volume and interconnectivity of personal data give rise to a social space on the Internet that can be studied using methods such as netnography[4], cyberanthropology[5], or Internet sociology[6]. It remains to be investigated and clarified to what extent analog and digital representations of our existence are similar or different.

The collection and analysis of big data provide us with a new scientific method that enables us to obtain targeted information about people, places, and events. Professional big data analyses, such as search engine algorithms, are hardly limited by obstacles such as time, data volume, processing capacity, location, or language skills.[7] Analog methods, moreover, are limited to the terminology of our language. Thus, diseases are typically characterized by terms, described by symptoms, and treated according to standardized procedures, while individual characteristics and treatment options are neglected.[8] Through big data, we obtain information about people’s micro-actions—such as eye movements, gestures, and details of their actions—which allow us to perceive, observe, and influence their lived reality with high spatial and temporal resolution. Big data enables us to gain a deeper understanding of complex processes in nature and society, which, in the best-case scenario, can lead us to more accurate explanatory models and more effective solutions to problems. The research and use of big data are becoming increasingly important in the humanities and cultural studies, which can benefit from collaboration with designers in shaping these processes.

[1] cf. Stalder, Felix. Culture of digitality. Suhrkamp 2016

[2] cf. data protection. The view of consumers in Germany. TNS Emnid results report survey commissioned by the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations and Consumer Associations October 2015 (Retrieved 14.12.2017: https://www.vzbv.de/pressemitteilung/verbraucher-wuerden-fuer-mehr-datenschutz-zahlen)

[3] cf. Kucklick, Christoph. The Granular Society. Ullstein 2016

[4] cf. Kozinets, Robert V.. Netnography. Sage Publications 2015

[5] cf. Knorr, Alexander. Cyberanthropology. Hammer 2011

[6] cf. Bartsch, Simone. … would you tell me your e-mail address? Nomos Universitätsschriften 2012

[7] cf. Reichert, Ramón (ed.). Big Data: Analyses of the digital transformation of knowledge, power and economy. transcript 2014

[8] cf. Ming, Vivienne. Tracking my Son’s Diabetes. Lecture Global Conference Quantified Self 2013. Weblink: https://vimeo.com/81272562 (retrieved 02.11.2017)

Shaping democracy and freedom in networked societies

The success story of the Internet began with the global launch of the first World Wide Web server, “httpd,” the development of the first client programs (browser and editor), and the creation of “Hypertext Markup Language” (HTML) by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990.[1] Berners-Lee laid the groundwork for the Internet’s success by standardizing digital structures and founding the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), whose 431 member organizations ensure the free flow of data.[2] All standards developed by the W3C are published as open-source software and made available to the community of users for improvement and further development. The waiver of patent fees and free access to all source code continue to form the foundation for the openness, accessibility, cost-free nature, and neutrality of the global network to this day.

This idea of freedom is at the heart of the Internet, which is why it is still available to every user in the world today, despite many restrictions:

1. to inform themselves independently of the enormous power of commercial and institutional applications as far as possible
2. to form their own opinion against the background of their efforts and abilities
3. publish almost any message

Irrespective of the criticism, which in many cases is entirely justified, it is important to note that the power of the Internet to promote democracy internally and externally must be preserved. It is equally important to note that undemocratic and antisocial behavior on the Internet calls into question the liberal structures of society as a whole. What democracy means must therefore be negotiated and defended in the analog and digital space of networked societies, as both worlds have long since merged into a new entity. The Internet is already the most important communication medium in modern societies. Every day, more than 3 billion people worldwide are connected online, a huge number of users that continues to grow and has a significant impact on our lives[3].

The transformative potential of digitalization will open up completely new opportunities for future generations to help shape networked societies. Millions of digital spaces already exist worldwide in which young people shape their lives independently of the rules and conventions of mainstream society. These digital freedoms are not limited to the internet, but have an indirect influence on opinion-forming processes and action dynamics in society, as can be seen in many reform movements around the world. The digital transformation is shaking up social power centers and established institutions, which is spreading strong fears and uncertainty, but also offers opportunities and potential for progressive forces. Established networks from politics[4], business[5], science[6], media[7 ] and culture[8] are losing influence, disappearing or being forced to modernize and innovate by powerful new competitors. Digital information can reach global dimensions of impact in fractions of a second and bring about social change dynamics that can neither be controlled nor contained. The positive and negative effects of digital transformation processes are already becoming apparent. However, the consequences of technological and social change are not yet foreseeable. We therefore need a new educational project for networked societies so that all citizens can form their own opinions. We need a global digital literacy project that is operated in our educational institutions under state responsibility so that all people can use their knowledge, reason and responsibility to shape networked societies. The educational project can only be successful if it takes shape in practice. Designers can make an important contribution to this.

Digital education and literacy require:

1. Responsibility to act: Everyone is aware of the social, cultural and societal responsibility associated with the opportunities for free publication and unrestricted communication of information in the public space of the Internet.
2. Promotion of democracy: Everyone promotes the basic democratic structure of the Internet through their behavior and respects human dignity, civil and human rights, free development of the personality, freedom of information and opinion, truth, equality, freedom of belief and data protection.
3. Knowledge acquisition: Anyone can research relevant information on the Internet, check its meaning and truthfulness, place it in context and evaluate it.
4. Critical faculties: Everyone develops a critical attitude towards information from the Internet and is able to assess the trustworthiness of sources.
5. Design skills: Everyone is able to use rhetorical means to design their own messages in textual, pictorial, graphic and filmic form and to publish them on the Internet using suitable technologies and media-specific methods.

This collection of topics on shaping the digital transformation of networked societies opens up a broad field of future-oriented and socially relevant activities for designers. The points are neither intended as a scientific presentation of the subject area in scope and depth, nor do they claim to be exhaustive. They are described in a popular scientific language that is intended to motivate designers to deal with these or other fields of research and action as part of a public interest design course and to develop their own interests in the subject.

[1] cf. Berners-Lee, Tim. The web report. The creator of the World Wide Web on the limitless potential of the Internet. Econ Publishing House 1999

[2] cf. homepage World Wide Web Consortium W3C (retrieved 15.12.2017: https://www.w3.org/Consortium/facts)

[3] see S&P Index data. Published on the website: http://fortune.com/global500 (retrieved 1.11.2017)

[4] cf. Pick, Yussi. The echo principle. How online communication has an offline effect. Czernin 2013

[5] cf. Schwab, Klaus. The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Pantheon 2016

[6] cf. Kucklick, Christoph. The granular society: How the digital is dissolving our reality. Ullstein 2016

[7] cf. Berger, Hannes. Public service broadcasting and digitization. Ibidem 2016

[8] cf. Becker, Jörg. The digitalization of media and culture. Springer VS 2013

Bibliography:

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Reclam Leipzig 2017.

Bartsch, Simone. … would you tell me your e-mail address? Nomos Universitätsschriften Baden-Baden 2012.

Becker, Jörg. The digitalization of media and culture. Springer VS Wiesbaden 2013.

Berger, Hannes. Public service broadcasting and digitization. Ibidem Stuttgart 2016.

Berners-Lee, Tim. The web report. The creator of the World Wide Web on the limitless potential of the Internet. Econ Verlag Berlin 1999.

Brodnig, Ingrid. Lies on the net – How fake news, populists and uncontrolled technology manipulate us. Brandstätter Verlag Vienna 2017.

Han, Byung-Chul. In the swarm: views of the digital. Matthes & Seitz Berlin 2013.

Herb, Ulrich (ed.). Open Initiatives: Openness in the digital world and science. universaar Saarbrücken 2012.

Jaekel, Michael. Smart City becomes reality: a guide to new urbanities in the digital modern age. Springer Vieweg Wiesbaden 2015.

Kerres, Michael. Media didactics: Conception and development of media-supported learning opportunities. De Gruyter Berlin 2013.

Knorr, Alexander. Cyberanthropology. Hammer Leipzig 2011.

Kozinets, Robert V.. Netnography. Sage Publications Thousand Oaks (USA) 2015.

Kucklick, Christoph. The granular society: How the digital is dissolving our reality. Ullstein Taschenbuch Berlin 2016.

Kuhn, Johannes. Technical innovations have been the subject of debate before. Essay Süddeutsche Zeitung online 27.05.2016 (retrieved 15.12.2017: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/samstagsessay-vorsicht-zukunft-1.3008159)

Morozov, Evgeny. Smart new world: digital technology and human freedom. Karl Blessing Verlag Munich 2013.

Pick, Yussi. The echo principle. How online communication has an offline effect. Czernin Vienna 2013.

Protzen, Jean-Pierre and David J. Harris. The Universe of Design: Horst Rittel’s Theories of Design and Planning. Taylor & Francis London 2010.

Reichert, Ramón (ed.). Big Data: Analyses of the digital transformation of knowledge, power and economy. transcript Bielefeld 2014.

Renz, Marcel. The Electrotechnical Exhibition in Frankfurt in 1891 and its consequences. Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller Saarbrücken 2011.

Schwab, Klaus. The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Pantheon Munich 2016.

Stalder, Felix. Culture of digitality. Suhrkamp Berlin 2016.

Link Source of supply Book publication: What is Public Interest Design?

Spatial strategy Scenography and atmospheric research

Excerpt from the book article “The Language of Space”, in: Architektur WAHRnehmen ed. Abel/Rudolf, transcript Bielefeld 2018

Every change in the state of our body is involuntarily evaluated by the emotional centers of our brain in a fraction of a second. However, it takes us more than a second to see, hear, touch, taste or smell what it is, which is why we always perceive rooms in an inner mood. Our emotional mood in the perception process is reflected in the atmosphere of the room situation. Due to our empathy, rooms still have an effect on people even when we look at them in the form of pictures or films. Empathy increases with immersion, which is why paintings, photographs, films or spatial stagings often move us more than the reality of our lives. One indicator of the aesthetic effect of immersion is the fascination we experience in the process of perceiving a spatial situation.

Moods have a vital function for human survival, as they activate reflexes, drives and instincts and promote spontaneous emotional reactions:

1. warn of danger through feelings of fear and activate flight reflexes
2. indicate food offers through appetite and activate food intake
3. Draw attention to species conservation offers through desire and activate seduction strategies
4. strengthen combat readiness through aggression and activate attack strategies
5. Increase motivation to act and activate activities through motivation
6. induce relaxation through tiredness and activate readiness for sleep
7. Create friendliness through trust and activate partner search
8. evoke compassion through pain and activate assistance

As a rule, people have their emotional reactions under control to the extent that they can suppress spontaneous action reflexes, but this is far less successful with involuntary emotional reactions. The emotional effects of a room situation can therefore be read quite well from people’s gestures and facial expressions. If you ask, people can often express their mood quite precisely. Due to the atmospheric effects of spatial situations on our emotional mood, it is impossible to perceive a spatial situation in an unbiased and value-neutral way. It doesn’t matter whether we are in a real or imagined space. What matters is the suggestive power of the visual worlds, soundscapes, stories or music. This knowledge is very useful for architects, planners, clients, investors and other planning participants when they need to understand and evaluate competition results, initiate and moderate opinion-forming processes or make and take responsibility for decisions in the design and planning process. The atmosphere of a room shapes the first impression, triggers spontaneous emotional reactions and influences the value judgment, which is strengthened by rational arguments and is difficult to revise.

We perceive space with all our senses, which is why it is important for the analysis of aesthetic effects how a room looks, how colors and light appear, how it feels, how it sounds, smells, tastes, behaves or influences our actions. The atmosphere of a room situation is made up of all sensually perceptible events. Unintelligible noises, tones, sounds, fragments of speech, fragments of music, smells, colors, light, reflections, mirroring, transparencies, movements or touch are usually processed unconsciously. We only notice them when they attract our attention or when we pay attention to them. Even if atmospheric features are missing, we immediately sense the unfamiliar emptiness, as rooms suddenly seem artificial and alienating. In film production, atmospheres are therefore designed and produced with great effort for each individual scene. All levels of spatial perception that can be depicted on film are carefully staged. In scenography, the spatial strategy of atmospheric staging is used for the design of theater performances, exhibitions, trade fairs or events. In scenography, people, objects, actions, lighting moods, color themes, language and sound are professionally designed and staged in relation to the aesthetic effect and content function of the whole.

Atmospheric effects are often neglected in contemporary urban planning and architecture. This is problematic because every walk, drive or flight over landscapes and settlement areas has a strong atmospheric effect on people, shaping their emotional mood and influencing their behavior. The atmospheric quality of squares, streets and buildings increases when they are staged for people’s actions in terms of perspective, dynamics, haptics and sound, which can very often be observed in the urban design and architecture of the pre-modern era. The soundscape of historic urban spaces includes people who spend time there, meet, work, argue, have fun and exchange ideas. Particularly important buildings were often arranged in the visual axes and at the corner points and emphasized through their form, materiality and surface design. This enables easy orientation and creates identity. Particularly important squares were often enhanced by water features and fountains, which are central elements for people, regardless of whether they are spending time there or looking at the people gathered there. We perceive running water as part of the soundscape and as a tactile refreshment, even if we don’t feel the cool water directly on our bodies. The materials of historic squares, streets and paths were often made from the natural stone of the surrounding area, which conveys regional identity and is also sustainable, as natural materials age very slowly and “gracefully”.

On the other hand, today there are often infrastructures for motorized traffic, whose dirty grey, foul-smelling, often patched asphalt surfaces create neither a quality of stay nor an identity. Even more problematic is the design of the buildings, which often turn away from the noisy, dirty public traffic area. The unadorned, unstructured façades laid out in a grid, the hidden, anonymous entrance situations or the small window openings framed by thick plastic frames, which often let little light into tiny interior spaces. The visual feel of historic façades is often characterized by plaster surfaces that are structured and personalized by textures, mineral paint coats or ornaments and murals. This gives houses, neighborhoods and cities their character and quality of stay for people, whether they are residents or visitors. On a walk through historic and modern neighborhoods, the different spatial strategies and their consequences for people can be empirically observed and systematically evaluated. Today, the aesthetic appeal of cities, neighborhoods and individual properties is an important location factor for companies and employees, with social, cultural and economic consequences for every community. We should therefore begin to apply the spatial strategy of scenography to the urban planning and architecture of our time, especially as there are already some successful examples. A return to traditional formal languages would merely be a sign of a lack of will to deal with the quality of human spatial perception and to apply the spatial strategies that follow from this.

The spatial strategy of scenography focuses on the atmospheric effects of all perceptible spatial situations on the emotional mood and behavior of people. People should immerse themselves in situations and experience the content presented in a sensory way. Through the power of experiences, they should be motivated and moved to do and learn something specific. The aesthetic effect of atmospheres can highlight the value of events, such as the opening ceremonies of major sporting events or the appearance of important holders of power in a secular or spiritual context, such as the Pope’s sermon at Easter, the Hajj in Mecca, military parades or summit meetings. The staging of exhibitions and museums primarily serves educational purposes, while trade fair presentations by companies pursue an economic benefit. All perceptions are associatively linked and are activated at the moment of experience.[1] For this reason, colors can appear fresh, stimulate the appetite or cause nausea. Atmospheres have an emotional effect as they attune our entire body to the spatial experience, which has an impact on changes in hormone levels and metabolic functions such as heartbeat, breathing, appetite and motivation. The atmosphere of a room determines the intensity and quality of our experience.[2] Light falling through a window onto a well-chosen reading place can be more important for the perception of space than the size of the room or the height of the ceiling. In the perception of space, what exists outside of us merges with what we make of it in our imagination or through our actions. For humans, nothing is simply there, because in order to perceive something, to understand and comprehend it, we have to acquire the meanings and the potential for action of the object or circumstance in mostly time-consuming, repeated exploration processes. This leads us to the discursive analysis of the linguistic structure of space.

[1] Axel Buether; Die Bildung der räumlich-visuellen Kompetenz: Neurobiologische Grundlagen für die methodische Förderung der anschaulichen Wahrnehmung, Vorstellung und Darstellung im Gestaltungs- und Kommunikationsprozess, Burg Giebichenstein 2010

[2] Gernot Böhme; Atmosphere: Essays on the New Aesthetics, Suhrkamp 2013

Lecture at the Bauhaus University Weimar
as part of the Bauhaus Masters series
Gabriel Dörner

Tue, Nov. 20, 2018, 7:00 p.m., Room HP05,
, Van-de-Velde Building, Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 7

On 12. and From 13 October 2018, the HAWK – University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Hildesheim, Holzminden, Göttingen, Faculty of Design at the Weinberg Campus in Hildesheim is hosting an international conference on “Color in Design – The Value of Color” together with the Deutsches Farbenzentrum e.V. (DFZ). The collected areas of knowledge and application present current research and development issues with regard to the use of color in design.

The aim of the conference is to promote encounters and the exchange of knowledge and experience in the strategic application of color in design and architectural sub-disciplines. Lectures from various scientific, technological and design disciplines, as well as practical workshops, the color design forum and the light, color design and space laboratory encourage in-depth discussion of the topic. A joint evening event forms the supporting program of the conference.

So far, we can confirm the following participants: Martin Benad, Munich; Studio Besau Marguerre, Hamburg; Prof. Mark Braun, HBK Saar; Prof. Dr. Axel Buether, University of Wuppertal; Prof. Dr. Daniel Martin Feige, ABK Stuttgart; Justine Fox, CalzadaFox, London, UK; Jessica den Hartog, Maastricht, Netherlands; Jörg Held, Texturwerk, Reinheim; Thierry Lescrauwaet, Color Passport, Antwerp, Belgium; Jörg Niederberger, Büren, Switzerland; Nathalie Pagels, Düsseldorf; Prof. Timo Rieke, Hanover; Tomislav Topic & Thomas Granseuer, Quintessenz, Hanover/Berlin; Prof. Markus Schlegel, Frankfurt; Axel Voelcker, Ober-Ramstadt; and many more.

Conference program on the website: www.farbe-im-design.de

October 12, 2018, 4:45–5:15 p.m.
Presentation: Evidence-Based Color Design
Prof. Dr. Axel Buether, University of Wuppertal
Color researcher

180914_Color_in_Design_Buether__Program_complete_A3_web

Interim report research study: “Assessment of the psychological and medical effects of color and lighting design in intensive care medicine by patients, relatives and staff”

As we have established during several inspections, observations and discussions in intensive care medicine, many key factors in the area of colour and lighting design can be improved and optimized for the well-being and state of health of patients, the trust and satisfaction of relatives and the work motivation and identification of staff. In design practice, however, there is a lack of clear guidelines and recommendations that are based on the current state of research and practice and can be applied in the opinion-forming, planning and decision-making process of clinics. The reason for this is the fundamental lack of study results in this field of application, which can be observed worldwide. The planned study is to be based on initial, much smaller precursors (Richter, P. G. & Ragaller, M. (2003) Assessment of a color-redesigned intensive care unit room by patients and staff.

The planned renovation measures based on the existing color and lighting concept for both wards of the Clinic for Intensive Care Medicine offer a rare opportunity for a scientific study. Both the condition before the renovation and the condition after the renovation are recorded empirically so that comparisons can be made. The information is collected via interviews (qualitative method) and questionnaires for patients, relatives and staff (quantitative method). Survey questionnaires as well as film and photographic observations and documentation are planned as media.

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Designing atmospheres

We work painterly with light and dark when we turn the designed rooms towards the light, turn them away from the light, bring the light into the interior through openings or exclude it through walls and ceilings. Light-colored materials and surfaces reflect the warm white spectrum of sunlight, which appears brightly colored to us where parts of the spectrum are converted into heat through absorption. Dark materials, on the other hand, absorb the visible part of the incident light strongly or completely, which also reduces the proportion of ambient light.

If the proportion of reflection on the surfaces facing the light decreases, the surfaces of all other components appear equally poorer in contrast, less structured, darker and less saturated. The entire room atmosphere becomes cloudy, which is accompanied by strong changes in the material coloration or architectural coloration. With increasing opacity, the haptics and value of the material surfaces and objects used are reduced. At the same time, orientation in the room is made more difficult.

We can counteract the negative effects of clouding with artificial light by methodically planning and using light colors in a targeted manner. The atmospheric quality of exterior and interior spaces is determined by the overall perception. This begins with the perspective-planned shaping, positioning, joining and composition of all components in relation to each other and to the room as a whole, continues with the haptic structure of all color surfaces and ends with the selection and arrangement of all light sources, the specifications for light color and illuminance as well as the setting of ambient, diffuse and specular accents.

Artificial light is a highly effective tool for creating atmospheres both indoors and outdoors when used after dark or in rooms with little daylight or dark rooms. In addition, it can compensate for many time and weather-related fluctuations in daylight, which helps to control the room atmosphere and thus the feeling of well-being and usability.

By mastering industrially produced light sources, we gain great power over the atmosphere of rooms, which we can stage like a stage. If, on the other hand, we forego the choreography of light and color in the design and planning phase, we accept considerable restrictions on the quality of stay, use and loss of value. We should therefore not leave the atmospheric effects of light and color to chance, but include them in all planning and decision-making processes from the outset.

Complete article: FACES OF INTERIOR Issue 1/2017

Link AIT website

Contents:

1. from the phenomenon to the systemic order of colors

2. the most important color registers and color collections in architecture

3. the topicality of Le Corbusier’s color collection “Polychromie Architecturale”

4. the most important color systems in architecture

5. the interaction of light and body colors in architecture

6. criteria for the selection and quality assurance of colors

1. from the phenomenon to the systemic order of colors

Color is a natural phenomenon, created by the refraction, reflection and absorption of light and a genetic factor in the emergence and diversification of life on earth. The entire environment is a color system that ensures the survival of countless species. The production of pigments in the plant world not only serves photosynthesis and thus the growth of organisms, but also provides orientation for insects, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, which are specifically attracted to ensure dispersal and fertilization. Our perception of the beauty of natural colors is therefore based on an intuitive understanding of a system of symbols whose color codes are used by more than 20 million species to communicate. Man constantly transforms and expands this natural order of colors through the color design of his cultural space, whose colorfulness always reflects current social requirements for orientation, deterrence, attraction, camouflage, identity, behavior control and socio-cultural communication.

The pre-modern order of the colors of our villages and cities, buildings, infrastructures, parks, fields and commercial forests creates an intuitive form of orientation in the cultural space, as it clearly delineates functions and possible uses and designates them in a generally understandable way. Until the age of globalization, the colour design of the cultural area was based on natural resources of materials and dyes, resulting in the development of regionally diversified colour cultures. Precious building materials and dyes were often imported for particularly important buildings, which is why they often stand out as landmarks from the canon of regional architectural color. The same system was also used to clearly differentiate between the colors of public and private spaces. Important places and buildings are immediately recognizable, even to strangers, by their striking colors and shapes, thus assuming the function of an intuitive orientation and guidance system. We orient ourselves almost exclusively on the colorfulness of façade surfaces, which appear to us as a spatial composition of bodies against their background. The social order of pre-modern societies is therefore reflected not only in the repertoire of forms and the materiality of public space, but also in the architectural coloration. Color enables differentiation, categorization and identification. The aesthetics of historical architectural coloration follow this function. Due to this outstanding importance for the legibility of historic cityscapes, the color scheme is protected as an authentic component of our architectural heritage and is carefully reconstructed wherever possible.

The practice of systematic descriptions of color tones based on standardized colour samples and standard agreements therefore only developed with the industrialization of modern societies. The discovery of synthetic dyes accelerated the emergence of the chemical industry, which today produces more than 9 million dyes a year. tons of colorant produced. Global chemical companies such as Bayer, Merck, Hoechst and BASF began their development with patents on synthetically produced dyes that revolutionized the appearance of our living spaces and consumer goods worldwide. The quality of the new dyes had to meet international industry standards, which forced the development of scientifically based color systems. On behalf of the Deutscher Werkbund, Nobel Prize winner Wilhelm Ostwald was already researching a color system for practical use in architecture, crafts and industry in 1914. The “Ostwald double cone” named after him is still the basis of many color systems today.

2. the most important color registers and color collections in architecture

The industrialization of all areas of our lives demands globally binding colour standards to ensure consistent surface qualities for the planning and production of architecture and everyday objects. For this reason, the development of standardized colour collections began at the start of the 20th century, such as the RAL colour catalog created by the Reichsausschuss für Lieferbedingungen (RAL) in 1927. In today’s practice, color registers and color collections that are freely available or can be purchased for a nominal fee facilitate communication between manufacturers and customers. They consist of standardized reference color samples that enable legally binding agreements between customers and manufacturers. The manufacturer can produce the samples in the form of material samples, which gives the customer a realistic impression of the color effect, as influencing factors such as surface structure, color depth or gloss level can be included in the evaluation. Other manufacturers provide color registers or color collections of printed or coated papers whose color shades are designated according to an industry standard.

The most important color collection for the field of architecture is still the “RAL Classic”, which was introduced in 1927 and today contains 213 standardized colors that can be reproduced in large parts of the industry. When selecting new shades, the emphasis is on timelessness, which is why current shades such as trend colors can be found more easily in the “RAL Effect” color catalog, which contains 490 solid and 70 metallic shades. Anyone looking for plastic samples will find

“RAL Plastics”, a color collection that makes 100 of the most frequently requested colors available. In addition, the RAL Academy, in cooperation with the German Color Center and the House of Color Zurich, has been offering regular training courses for color design in architecture and trade since 2015.

The world’s most important color collection for the print sector is the “Pantone Color Matching System”, whose 1755 spot colors significantly expand the CMYK print color space. Due to increasing demand from architects, craftsmen and private customers, specialist paint retailers are now also increasingly stocking mixing units that can be used to produce Pantone shades to customer specifications. The most important Pantone color collections are standard in all Adobe programs, while print shops worldwide have access to original Pantone printing colors. This ensures security and diversity in the selection and realization of print products that can be used in many countries around the world with the same color reliability. A variety of color collections can be purchased in the form of color fans, books or ring binder pages that contain pastel, metallic and neon colors in addition to coated and uncoated papers. Most products are updated annually, which should be taken into account when making cost-intensive purchases. The product range of the Pantone color collections is no longer only aimed at graphic designers, but increasingly also at product designers and, with severe restrictions, also at interior designers. The use of Pantone color collections for cotton, nylon and plastics helps in the selection of textile colors for interior design. However, the products are only suitable for determining wall paints and product colors to a limited extent, as the color codes usually have to be converted into more common standards such as RAL or NCS. The sale of all products is supported by the publication of trend information and an international consulting and training network. Alternatively, the “HKS color fans” and color books that are widely used in Europe can be used, which, like the Pantone color collections, are standard in all Adobe programs, but are relatively inexpensive to purchase.

3. the topicality of Le Corbusier’s color collection “Polychromie Architecturale”

Le Corbusier recognized the power of color for modern architecture when he stated: “Colour in architecture is as powerful a means as the ground plan and the section. Or rather: polychromy, a component of the ground plan and the section itself.” Artur Rüegg’s newly compiled and highly successful “Polychromie Architecturale” not only documents an impressive collection of “Le Corbusier colors”, but also the theory and system for their application in architecture.

Le Corbusier’s theoretical approach is based on the form of abstract painting he practiced himself, in which he no longer used colors in a naturalistic way, but as a field of experimentation for human perception. It was clear to him that color itself expresses a message that is perceived and causes reactions, such as the purist revolutionary lime white in the middle of bourgeois quarters or the modernization of traditional interior concepts through free compositions of colour fields. For him, colors are a tool for the tectonic shaping of space, which is thus formed for the perceiving viewer, structured according to harmonious principles and brought into the work through the materialization of the three-dimensional composition.

In his color collection, he compiles a repertoire of white tones and colored grays, sandy and ochre-colored natural tones as well as strong chromatic colors. The color collections, which he describes as harmonious color keyboards, are each assigned to a theme such as “space, sky, velvet, wall, sand, landscape or colorful spots”. Each color keyboard is made up of three large color fields that form the background or environment for two melodic overtone series, each consisting of 14 small color fields. Users can develop their own color compositions from the repertoire of basic tones and overtones without creating formal errors or discords. It was important to Le Corbusier that the overall composition, which can be chosen with the help of templates or freely, remains harmonious and thematically clear in every arrangement. He realized the application of his system in the Villa La Roche.

The systemically applicable tool was conceived by him for the practice of architects, who generally have no basic training in painting and, due to the complexity of their profession, usually only insufficiently deal with the aesthetic, tectonic and semantic effects of colors in space. The shades of Le Corbusier’s keyboards are now produced and marketed by the Uster (Switzerland) based paint manufacturer kt.Color using largely original pigment formulas, even though the name “Le Corbusier Farben” may no longer be used for copyright reasons.

Image Color collection Polychromie Architecturale by Le Corbusier, photo Axel Buether

4. the most important color systems in architecture

The systematic ordering of colors is based on the three fundamental properties of color perception: hue, brightness and saturation. All color systems are structured in the form of three-dimensional coordinate systems whose axes function according to the polarity or opposition principle. Spheres, cubes, cones or rhombohedrons are used depending on the intended purpose. On the brightness scale, light and dark or black and white are contrasted. On the saturation scale, there is a gray tone and a colored tone opposite each other. The hue scale is very often arranged in the form of a color wheel in which the physiologically determined primary colors yellow and blue as well as red and green complement each other. Complementarity means that two color tones contrast to the maximum and produce an achromatic shade of grey when mixed. Any number of mixed color tones can be determined on the scales, which are tested by test subjects according to the principle of equal distance and adapted to the sensory spectrum of our visual perception system. In the center of the color wheel is usually a medium achromatic gray that darkens to black, while it lightens to white on the other side. The two most important color systems for architecture, urban planning, design, trade, building authorities and monument preservation are the “RAL Design System (RAL Design)” and the “Natural Colour System (NCS)”. Color readers are available for both systems, which can be used to decode the color designations on real surfaces. In practice, however, a color fan proves to be the more reliable tool, as surface characteristics and signs of aging lead to deviations in the digitization of the color tone found.

The “Natural Color System (NCS)” is based on the “Ostwald double cone” system, which describes a triangular body of rotation. The double cone is made up of triangles of the same color tone, the sides of which are defined by a specified hue as well as black and white. The triangles of the same color tone are made up of individual tones of different color saturation and brightness. each NCS color tone occupies a precisely defined position in the color system and can be clearly located. Color tones can be determined visually or numerically by the user. The designation NCS 1050 – R50B refers to a violet that is in the middle between red and blue (R50B) with a black content of 10% (10) and a color saturation of 50% (50). Numerical gradations can be made in all directions of the NCS color space with a factor of 10. (Image NCS color space) The NCS color space contains 1950 shades, which are available as a color fan, sample card or color atlas.

The “RAL Design System” consists of 1625 colorimetrically equally spaced shades, which are arranged according to the CIELab color space. This perceptual color space is the industry standard today and is easy to read for color measurement devices. It enables the continuous calculation of color tones that can be converted into other color spaces such as RGB, CMYK or HSB. Each hue has a unique identifier from which the basic hue (color circle 0-360°), the CIELAB brightness (scale 0-100 between black and white) and the saturation or chroma can be read. RAL 190 30 90 is a dark blue-green with a low lightness of 30 and a high saturation of 90. RAL Design is available as a color fan, sample card or color atlas.

For reasons of practicability, all color systems refrain from recording many qualitative properties of color such as luminosity, intensity, transparency, purity, gloss, dullness, texture or color depth, which limits their informative value for architectural practice. Surface effects, signs of ageing, proportions, neighborhood influences, irregularities or physical factors such as reflection, transmission and absorption of light cannot be recorded with this method. This reveals the application possibilities and limitations that color systems have for architectural practice.

Image RAL Design System, photo Axel Buether

5. the interaction of light and body colors in architecture

The mathematical definition and measurement of the technically usable color space led in 1931 to the definition of the “CIE standard valence system” (CIE International Commission on Illumination), which is still valid today in a modified form. Colorimetricians measure the perceptible color space by generalizing the sensations of color stimuli and defining them using colorimetric numbers. They speak of color valences, which characterize the average effect of a defined light source on a reference group. Today, color valences are measured with reference to the “CIE standard color chart”, which shows the different sensitivity of our visual perception system to spectral wavelength ranges. The blue-violet areas at the lower edge of the perceptible light spectrum (from 380 nanometers) are just as narrow as the red-orange areas at the upper edge (700 nm). The middle green range, on the other hand, comprises 90% of all perceptible color tones, if the green-yellow and blue-green ranges are added. The technically defined color spaces such as the “CMYK print color space” or the “RGB light color space” are inscribed in this mathematically defined color space, which determines the limits of our color perception.

The “CIE standard color chart” creates the basis for “color management”, which ensures the “true color” flow of information between input and output devices such as scanners, cameras, monitors and printers. Since all other technically usable color spaces are based on this, definitions and conversions between light and body colors are now possible without any problems. This globally valid, generally binding technical standard creates the prerequisite for checking the color representation of projectors, monitors, displays, lights and illuminants as well as the color accuracy of printed products, textiles and other consumer goods. There are no formulas for converting RGB and CMYK values to color collections such as RAL, HKS or Pantone, but there are tables that are freely available online.

The mathematically defined CIE color space is of great importance for architecture, as it serves as the basis for determining the “light color” and thus the “atmosphere” of rooms. We use the “color temperature” and the “color rendering index” to measure the atmospheric qualities of light sources. We always use the spectrum of sunlight as a reference, which gives all surfaces their usual body color. The color constancy of our visual system is responsible for the fact that we only perceive the diverse changes in all light and surface colors during the day if we observe them specifically. Without this power of our perceptual system, we would never be able to clearly determine body colors. Over the course of the day and seasons, sunlight often changes between the warm white range, which extends up to 3,300 Kelvin, and the cool white range, which runs from 5,000 – 16,000 Kelvin. Cool white daylight between 5,000 and 6,000 Kelvin characterizes the morning hours. It activates the human organism, creates a good working atmosphere and increases our alertness and motivation. The daylight white of fluorescent lamps and LED light sources offer approximations. Warm white light, on the other hand, characterizes the evening hours. The low color temperatures create atmospheres of calm and relaxation. We perceive color temperatures of approx. 1,500 K, which are reached by candlelight and open fire, as reddish warm and very cozy. The light from incandescent lamps and halogen lamps is somewhat higher in the warm white range at around 2,700 K and therefore has a slightly yellowish and pleasantly natural effect, especially because it also achieves good values in the “color rendering index”.

The color rendering index indicates the extent to which a light source changes the surface colors of its surroundings. Energy-efficient light sources often only emit parts of the visible light spectrum, which is why missing color components such as red cannot be reproduced. In the test procedure, the changes in 14 test colors are measured against the spectrum of sunlight. LED light sources achieve an average color rendering index of approx. 80%, while fluorescent lamps only achieve approx. 50% and thus cause strong changes in the body colors of people, rooms and objects. Many color ranges are no longer perceived or are completely distorted. The energy-inefficient incandescent lamp, on the other hand, achieves up to 100% and thus the closest approximation to the color spectrum of sunlight that can be achieved by conventional technical means. This is why color matching in the industry is carried out under standard light in special light booths. Where possible, samples of the colors of facades and interiors should be taken under daylight conditions at midday or under realistic artificial lighting conditions. Lighting parameters such as illuminance, color temperature and the color rendering index should be defined in order to rule out subsequent deviations in the sampled color tones.

Image: Color temperature (black-body curve), standard lighting, RGB and CMYK color spaces in the CIE standard color chart

7. criteria for the selection and quality assurance of colors

The aesthetic effect of architectural color is determined by the interaction of material color and the influence of light in the built space. The aesthetic effect of the color changes with the angle of the sun to the component, with the season, the time of day and the weather. Paintings and color prints on unstructured paper or representations on computer monitors are only meaningful if planners and designers know all the influencing factors and can assess their spatial effects. Ultimately, only sample surfaces that are inspected under real conditions at the place of use are binding in terms of color. But even here there is still a high planning risk, as for reasons of economy and practicality only a few variants can be sampled, which are determined on the basis of color systems and color collections. Controlling the aesthetic effects of color in space is only possible to a limited extent, even on large sample surfaces, as color tones influence each other (simultaneous contrast) and change with their extent and position in the visual field. The entire material aesthetic also changes with the viewer’s position in the room, which can never be captured in computer simulations. If all influencing factors of built spaces are taken into account, the informative value of color samples is considerably reduced.

Although our perception of color allows us to distinguish between many millions of shades, in architectural practice the palette is reduced to the building materials and paints available on the market. Since every building material has a color, color decisions in the planning process and on the building site are unavoidable. For the aesthetic assessment and selection of the color of building materials, most manufacturers provide color samples that can be pre-selected during a consultation, in the catalog or on the website. As a rule, the color collection is determined by the manufacturer before the production process, which is based on demand and current trends. To get an overview, planners and contractors should therefore take a look at the color collections of several manufacturers before deciding on a building material or product. Aesthetic orientation is provided by reference projects, the colorfulness of which should be assessed not only on the basis of illustrations but also, if possible, on the actual object. Building inspections can also be used to check color tones and color compositions of building materials and products that have been manufactured according to customer requirements (customizing) and are not available as samples. Reference objects are the most reliable basis for assessing the diverse effects of architectural color.

Image Sampling of color tones for the Marrahaus Heilbronn on a scale of 1:1 to check the contrast effects, light and shadow effects and visual perspectives, photo Axel Buether

If the promises of manufacturers and distributors are to be believed, all available color shades should be available for paints such as lacquers, emulsion paints, silicate and lime paints. However, the free choice of paint colors is impossible for technical and economic reasons. Paints consist not only of pigments, but also to a large extent of fillers, binders and solvents. The quality of the components determines the range of colors that can be produced, their effect and durability. The quality of ingredients has its market price, which is why the cost of commercially available paints varies greatly. If you request the color shade according to a common color system when ordering or in the tender text as usual, you will usually receive an inexpensive paint with a very low color depth, brilliance and durability for reasons of economy. Manufacturers have adapted to the demand for low-cost products and therefore usually only offer their higher quality paints on request.

Attention: The selection of the color tone according to color systems such as RAL or NCS makes binding statements about the hue, saturation and brightness of the paper sample! It is not possible to determine how the color tone actually affects the surface of the material in the room. The gloss level of the color tone is part of determining the perceptual quality of a coating, as powdery, matt or high-gloss surfaces reflect ambient light extremely differently. In addition, statements must be made about transparency, as thin glazes allow the material color of the surface to show through, while multi-layer glazes achieve a greater depth of color. Sunlight changes most paints to a great extent in a few months and years, which is why the light resistance of paints must be taken into account. To ensure the quality of surface paints, it is important to select and prepare a suitable substrate and to use processing techniques appropriate to the material. When tendering for painting and decorating work, therefore, only specialist companies should be used that have sufficiently qualified personnel and can provide competent advice to planners and building owners. Slightly higher costs for the quality of the paint and the workmanship pay for themselves after a short time, as the appearance is of a much higher quality and lasts much longer. With some paints, such as mineral paints, ageing processes that only occur after a very long time can also have a very attractive effect. Mineral pigments consist of mixtures of complementary-colored crystals that are barely visible to the naked eye. Nevertheless, a unique depth of color and brilliance can be perceived, as the countless crystal bodies are penetrated by light and allow the surface structure to glow from within after multiple reflections. The centuries-old lightfast quality of high-quality mineral pigments cannot be achieved with commercially available synthetic dyes.

If you want to achieve bright, long-lasting white tones, deep, shimmering blacks or mysteriously colored grays that won’t look dirty, yellowed or faded even after years of use, there’s no getting around high-quality paints. For this reason, high-quality paints should always be used for architectural paintwork, as small additional investments in paints pay for themselves in various ways over the service life of buildings. High-quality paints not only look better, they are also more resistant to light and age better. Mineral paints can last for hundreds of years and develop a natural-looking patina if they are applied professionally to suitable plaster substrates!

6. criteria for the successful use of color in construction:

1. development of a color concept taking into account the aesthetic, semantic and technical functions of colors in the context of the application situation at the place of use

2. binding determination of all color tones used on the basis of a color system or a color collection under real lighting conditions at the place of use

3. definition of further quality criteria such as light resistance, ageing resistance, gloss level, mattness, transparency, opacity, surface structure and texturing, effects (metallic effect, glimmer effect, mother-of-pearl effect, diamond effect, neon effect, etc.)

4. binding determination of all materials or coating agents, the composition and preparation of the substrate as well as the processing techniques used, taking into account applicable standards

5. sampling

• Creation of large sample areas of approx. 1 square meter at the correct angle to the light source
• Testing in daylight at lunchtime
• Use of the planned artificial light sources
• Observe the size contrast: the effect of each color surface changes with its size in the field of view
• Composition: The effect of all color surfaces changes with the proportion of all parts to the whole Facial impression
• Simultaneous contrast: The effect of a color surface is changed by color tones in the immediate vicinity and further surroundings (physiological effect of contrast enhancement)
• Successive contrast: The effect of a color surface changes due to changes caused by changes in light or movements of the viewer (physiological effect of complementary afterimages)

6. quality monitoring during the manufacturing process and quality control during acceptance as well as archiving of information on the color and product (product data sheets, photo documentation, etc.)

Link to issue DETAIL 12/2016 – Color, material, surface