The Design Research Lab is a network of people, organisations, and non-human agents engaged at the intersection of technologies, materials, and social practices. Our aim is to design socially and ecologically sustainable tools, spaces, and knowledge that support people’s participation in a digital society – based on common principles of inclusiveness and respect for the planet. This puts the basic democratic right to take part in the digital sphere into practice. We start our research from individual lifeworlds and the needs of minoritized groups, beyond consumer majorities.
We are an interdisciplinary team of designers, researchers, tech-enthusiasts and critical thinkers from Berlin University of the Arts, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, as well as Einsteincenter Digital Future (ECDF).
After completing his studies in Industrial and Interaction Design at University of Applied Science Magdeburg and University of Bergen (Norway), Alexander Müller-Rakow worked as a freelancer in the field of Interior, Transportation and Product Design. In 2009 he joined the Design Research Lab, where he works as research scientist and PhD Candidate.
He investigates the relation between bodily movements, interfaces and situational meaning. His project-grounded research is strongly influenced by his growing interest in experimental and embodied interfaces, new instruments for musical expression and sound reactive performance. In addition to research he likes working as lecturer, e.g. at Hochschule für Kunste Bremen, University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg and Berlin University of the Arts. When he grows up he would like to be a milliner or a cyborg.