The Design Research Lab is a laboratory for experimental design and research reflecting on the digital society. Through playful interventions, critical making and collaborative reasoning we investigate possible futures. As a platform and network, we are deeply involved with the requirements and policies needed for an inclusive and sustainable development of the digital society from a design perspective.
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).
Michael Ertel was born in 1985. He is studying Sociology at the Technical University of Berlin. In 2008 he passed his pre-diploma in the field of Social Psychology, Ergonomics and Science, and Technology Studies. As part of his study, his latest research project was at the airport control center of Tegel Airport. Drawing on the “actor network theory” he collected data to discover and evaluate different communication structures.
Since July 2009 he works “on the ground” for the StreetLab project and is responsible for contacting. In addition, he supports the team with organization and evaluation of user-generated content.