For the first time, the Werkwoche programme has been combined with a top-class international conference on experimental design research, NERD 6th Sense. Theoretical input on research questions and methods will therefore be provided.

However, there will also be plenty of practical design events on offer. One focus is on the topic of artificial intelligence: "How do you design transparent, explainable and ethically justifiable AI?", ask user researchers and designers from IBM in their workshop ‘Designing for trustworthy AI’ and want to explore this critically and collaboratively with students.

Art researcher Max Haarich will also look into this topic. He addresses the question of how to deal  with the "absolute megatrend of the working world" and dedicate himself to generative AI focussing on image generation.

Wide range of workshops

Cologne-based interaction designer Jakob Kilian will be taking a more experimental approach, as he wants to work with sensors and build and train small AI systems. His prototyping workshop is called "Making (Non)-Sense". Another workshop on offer sounds just as appealing: "Game over", with Andrea Anner and Thibault Brevet. The two are travelling from Zurich and Marseille to Augsburg to explore game mechanisms with two collaborative robot arms. Human-machine communication plays a major role at the Werkwoche, but not the only one. The workshop spectrum ranges from animation, comics, visual storytelling, collage, videography, speculative design and graphic novels to inclusive web design, coding and art.

Guests from Germany and abroad

The artist Claudia Vogel comes from Switzerland and her focus is on odours of the people. "Smell your body’" is about our olfactory perception. Josh Schaub is another popular Swiss artist. He's a motion designer, well-known for his animated posters. ‘We like to move it’ is the title of his workshop programme.

Last but not least, we are very happy to welcome our guests from the Iberian Peninsula. João Pombeiro teaches students how to design digital collages and Raúl Goni from Barcelona develops communication in public spaces. Visual activism is the focus of his work.

This and much more is on offer at Werkwoche 2024, which is not only taking place on the THA's Red Gate campus, but also at Gaswerk, where Cornelia Steuerwald and Roman Kohnen are offering an ideas workshop.

All our exciting lectures will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon.

Participation in the workshops is reserved exclusively for students of the Faculties of Design and Computer Science. All interested parties are welcome to attend the lectures.

Detailed information can be found at

www.werkwoche.de