Hey,
I am Jakob (he/him), a Hannover based multidisciplinary working eco- social designer with a focus on systemic and transformative design.
In my work I am concerned with the social aspects and relationships that form our daily life, how we respond to crisis and where possibilities for positive change might be hidden.
My approach to design is influenced by mindfulness and compassion since I believe a lack thereof lies at the foundation of many problems we face today.
Never for money, always for love.
TRANSFORMAGRAMM
On the transformagramm you will find past, present and possibly future work-and life-stories around the topic of exosocial transformation. It was designed firstly to show how diverse transformation can be and secondly to support the ecoscocial activist’s own search within the transformative labyrinth with its countless projects and opportunities. The user of the website can click through the (real or fictional) projects and get inspired by the stories that are written like real live stories in order to create a picture in the readers mind.
Hyperlinks within the stories are guiding through transformative communication concepts, organization structures, hierarchy systems and so on, a research base that can be used for the users own project. The stories written in the transformagramm don’t have to be part of anyones reality but can remain dreams and visions, which, in form of real life stories, create images of worthy futures in the readers head and give a glimpse of what might be possible. These stories make complex visions of futures less abstract and actually more fantastic and realizable.
GEGENREDEN
The newspaper on the wall „Gegenreden“ dresses the problem of the (missing) reaction to racist or discriminating positions. While discussions with hardcore right wing extremists have been proven to be a waste of time and possibly harmful, right wing speech has, next to having a strong media appearance, slowly woven itself into the fabric of common language. Phrases and words like „Flüchtlingswelle“ which were introduced by extremists are now commonly used. By using those words, phrases and their hidden meanings we silently approve of extremists political positions. Words, or the meaning we associate with them, have power, and we need to address that issue more proactively.
But how can we react when we are confronted with racist talk? Should we even react to it? And might it be dangerous?
Our projects aims at people that are politically engaged, but not strongly enough to actively look for political education programs like workshops about the topic. The newspaper on a wall „Gegenreden“ is supposed to be there for people that have the desire to react, but don’t know how to go forth with that. „Gegenreden“ is a platform for stories, written by people that were experienced situations in which they reacted - or not. We can learn from those stories, we can from strategies for the future from them and train ourselves in empathy.
„Gegenreden“ can be found in public spaces, it is free to download and printable on four sheets of paper, everyone can share them with the world, and co- write stories and articles.
DATENSTROM
The Datenstrom Project from the first semester at the Art Academy in Brunswick is a project that focuses on the energy consumption of internet data traffic. With ever more people having access to the internet and ever growing amounts of data being moved (streaming, cloud computing, smart devices,...) the energy consumption of the internet grows and grows. With every GB people send over the internet CO2 is released. Datenstrom aims to bring the topic to the people in order to engage a public discussion, shows alternative courses of action for the individuals and provides the audience with visual elements and useful information.
We developed a bike connected to an led strip, that told you, dependent on the amount of time you spend on the bike, how much online content you could consume with the power generated by biking. Another part of the project was a give-away tea box with info material on the topic. Like heating up a cup of tea needs the same amount of energy as two google searches.
