114 — GRADUATES
sugar chair An Experiment in Media and Design Fabian Gatermann derfabi@kisd.de Master Product Design & Process Development Main Thesis: Design Theory & History Prof. Dr. Michael Erlhoff Gender & Design Prof. Dr. Uta Brandes
The master thesis, which has the title “Sugarchair”: an Experiment in Media and Design, deals with the polarity of the concept of design in the postmodern age. The thesis raises a provocative question, by obtaining its results through media reviews of a critical product. In the first place, the thesis is trying to create a more precise picture of design through looking at it from different perspectives like art, media, economy and ethics. This thesis will elaborate a different concept of the term “design”. Modern life leaves very few areas unaffected by
design. Even our biography has turned into part of the design concept. The second part of the thesis concerns the creation of a critical design object. On the one hand, we have a manufactured object called “sugarchair”. On the other hand, we have “designed” a designer called Pieter Brenner. The sugarchair is an editable chair made of sugar and Pieter Brenner is a self-confident, self-educated and capitalist designer. The chair is understood as a symbol of design, but has been turned into a critical design object, because the sugarchair is nonKISD e-YEARBOOK 2011 — DESIGN & PROVOCATION