Award 2016

Prof. Ahn Sang-soo is a graphic designer and typographer from South Korea who is known for the modernisation of the Korean alphabet. He reduced the 11,172 possible character combinations of the traditional alphabet to 67, providing the basis for the transformation of the traditional Hangul for digital communication. He has been professor at the Hongik University in Seoul since 1991. In 1988, he founded the magazine Bogoseo / Bogoseo and the Paju Typograpy Institute. He has also published several books. Anh Sang-soo was vice-president of the International Council of Graphic Design, and his work has been awarded internationally.

Renate Flagmeier is senior curator at the Werkbund Archive – Museum der Dinge in Berlin. In her curatorial work she is, among others, working on the contexts of culture and industry in modern times and the subject of goods and consumer culture. Her work is informed by social history of art and feminist art history.

The “Museum of Things” is a museum of product culture of the 20th and 21st century. The historical core of the institution is the archive of the Deutscher Werkbund (1907), an association between art and industry, which advocated for a contemporary design and for quality in the design and production of everyday goods.

Jan Mammey studied at the State Academy of Photographic Design in Munich and at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig. After his graduation he was “Meisterschüler” of Heidi Specker and a fellow of the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony; the MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire and the Blue Mountain Center, New York. His works has been acquired by collections, such as the Collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur and the State Art Collections Dresden.

In 2013, he won the grand prize at the 5th International Marianne Brandt Contest in the category Photography.

Barbara Schmidt studied at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle and the Aalto University Helsinki. After graduating in 1991, she was responsible for the successful realignment of the KAHLA porcelain factory in the turbulent years of German reunification. During multiple stays abroad, among others, in Japan, Hungary and the Netherlands, she deepened her knowledge of ceramics.

Since October 2013, she is professor of Experimental Design at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, after teaching at various universities (Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, the Academy of Fine Arts of Hamburg and the University of the Arts Berlin). Her work has been exhibited and awarded internationally.

Prof. Dr. Harald Welzer is a sociologist and social psychologist. He is co-founder and director of FUTURZWEI – Stiftung
Zukunftsfähigkeit – a foundation for future viability. Welzer is a permanent visiting professor of social psychology at the University of St. Gallen, a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development and the Schleswig-Holstein Council for Future Development, and professor of Transformation Design at the University of Flensburg.

Just as the Bauhaus once helped to shape a transformation process into a modern world, it is important – in the face of climate change and dwindling resources – to make this process of change and transformation viable for the future.

Zeitguised is an award-winning studio of artists, designers and technologists providing consultancy for synthetic art and design with in-house creative direction and production. The studio was established in 2001 by German architect Henrik Mauler and American sculptor and fashion artist Jamie Raap with an interest to explore the zone between imagination, virtual construction and realism. The exquisite realities of Zeitguised are crafted as a unique blend of seductive design, contemporary art, handcrafted algorithms and tailored generative methods. Shapes, colours, movements realise themselves as autonomous life forms, behave like ghosts in an artificial choreography, with movements that are imaginary yet familiar.