My name is Michel Hohendanner and I am a designer and design researcher & theorist. I am currently working as a research associate at the Munich Center for digital Sciences and AI & the Faculty of Design at Munich University of Applied Sciences. I am also doing my PhD in design theory at the University of Wuppertal.
My current research interests focus on the social impact of increasingly digitalized living environments as well as the influence of technological applications on interpersonal relationships and the role that design plays in these contexts.
Please feel free to reach out to me via
since 2013 – Freelance Designer
2022 – Research Associate
Munich Center for Digital Sciences & AI (MUC.DAI) & the Faculty of Design (FK12) at University for Applied Sciences Munich
2021 – Doctoral Candidate
University of Wuppertal
2021 – Research Associate
Institute for Digital Ethics at Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart
2020 – Researcher in Residence
Kyoto Design Lab (Kyoto Institute of Technology)
2020 – Advanced Design MA
University of Applied Sciences Munich
2017 – Fine Arts & Multimedia BA
(Minor: media informatics)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
2014 – Literature Studies BA (Comparative Literature)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
2013 – State-Certified Communications Designer
Designschule München
The dissertation project explores the epistemic and didactic potential of design in the context of the digital transformation and the interpersonal influence of technological applications. Approaches of critical and speculative design, participatory technology assessment and digital ethics flow into theory-generating empirical applied design research in order to answer the central question of how we want to live together in increasingly digitalized living environments. Design practice is thereby made accessible to a broad field of discussants in the course of deliberative formats. In this way, the ethical implications and questions that design integrates in the context of digitalization and technological applications are both brought to the attention of practitioners and carried into the social discourse through the design of discussion contributions.
Ullstein, C., Engelmann, S., Papakyriakopoulos, O., Hohendanner, M. & Grossklags, J. (2022). AI-Competent Individuals and Laypeople Tend to Oppose Facial Analysis AI. In: Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization (EAAMO ’22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 9, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1145/3551624.3555294
Hohendanner, M., Ullstein, C. & Mizuno, D. (2021). Designing the Exploration of Common Good within Digital Environments: a Deliberative Speculative Design Framework and the Analysis of Resulting Narratives. In: SUPSI, HSLU, swissdesignnetwork (Hrsg.): Swiss Design Network Symposium 2021 Conference Proceedings: Design as Common Good / Framing Design through Pluralism and Social Values, S. 566-580.
Ullstein, C. & Hohendanner, M. (2020). Exploration of the Future of Co-Creative Systems Through Collaborative Speculative Design Practices. Presented at the International Conference on Computational Creativity 2020, Coimbra, 2020.
Hohendanner, M., Ullstein, C., Buchmeier, Y. (2022): Cross-cultural perspectives on technology-driven future societies through the lens of collaborative speculative design. Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Human – Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Science and Fiction organized by Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, Japanese-German Center Berlin (JDZB) and Waseda University, Tokyo. Conference Program
Hohendanner, M. (2022): Design als Anwendungsfeld digitaler Ethik – Kompetenzen und Verantwortung einer Disziplin im medienethischen Diskurs. In: Selke, S. (Hrsg.): Zugluft Magazin #03 – Perspektiven auf den digitalen Wandel: „Digitaldialog 21“, Hochschule Furtwangen, S.114-117