Uta Brandes

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Uta Brandes (born January 1, 1949 in Hanover ) is a German design expert, theoretician and author. From 1995 to 2015 she was professor for gender and design and for design research at the Cologne International School of Design .

biography

Uta Brandes first studied English, sport and political science, then sociology and psychology at the University of Hanover and graduated with an MA. She then did her doctorate with Oskar Negt and Regina Becker-Schmidt .

During her studies she worked as a teacher at a technical college and as an assistant director at the State Theater in Hanover . From 1973 to 1982 she was co-editor of the experimental magazine for art, literature, music, architecture and design "zweischrift". Original work published in “two letters” and a. by John Cage , Christo , Ernst Jandl , Martin Kippenberger , Friederike Mayröcker , Alessandro Mendini , César Pelli , Haus-Rucker-Co , Valie Export , Peter Weibel , Lawrence Weiner . After completing her studies, she became a research assistant at the University of Hanover as part of a DFG research project, and then deputy head of the research institute Women and Society.

After moving to Frankfurt am Main, she was appointed head ministerial advisor (deputy state secretary) to the state chancellery of the Hessian state government - however, she resigned from this civil servant perspective after six months and continued to work as a freelance author for radio, magazines and books. During this time she also participated in the founding of the German Association of Women Journalists.

At the end of the 1980s, she was the first director to set up the Swiss Design Center in Langenthal and was actively involved in founding the Designer Forum.

In the early 1990s she developed the concept for the event area of ​​the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn and became director of this forum - among other things, she initiated and organized congresses there (e.g. on the future of the senses), short operas and Experimental music concerts.

She also founded be design (together with Michael Erlhoff ) in Cologne, an office for design consultancy, conception and research. She is founding chairwoman of the German Society for Design Theory and Research and founded the international Gender Design Network (iGDN) in 2013. She was visiting professor at universities in Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong, New York and Sydney. She was and is a member of many juries and was a member of the design selection committee of the German National Academic Foundation.

From 2000 to 2006 she organized the St. Moritz Design Summit together with Michael Erlhoff.

Since her retirement in August 2015 she has been working on various projects: u. a. for "The Other Academy", Design Institute for Social Innovation at Hong Kong Polytechnic University; as exhibition curator of the traveling exhibition “Blue & Pink: Rethink” - about gender-sensitive and gender-insensitive design; and in the context of the international Gender Design Network (iGDN) she conducts research on gender and the city. She advises companies on the inclusion of gender in the design process and she writes books and essays.

Uta Brandes lives in Cologne.

Research projects

Non-intentional design

Non-intentional design (NID) is a term that Uta Brandes and Michael Erlhoff introduced to design research in the late 1990s. It describes the everyday, unprofessional, so to speak, remodeling of the professionally designed. NID arises from the use of an object, always when a functionally specified (and thus restricted) intention is violated or the specified application is not redeemed in the newly found application. NID examines the production of function and meaning of things in and through use. It describes all those manipulations, processes, manners in the course of which people change their living and working environment through minor or major interventions. Its main principles can be summarized as follows:

  • Reversible conversion: An object is used temporarily or permanently in a new context, whereby the original * condition and the original function are not destroyed (jam jar as a pen container).
  • Irreversible conversion: the new use leaves permanent traces (bottle as a candlestick); the object has to be permanently changed for the new application (screw jar with a perforated lid as a sugar dispenser).
  • Change of location: Things are removed from their original place of use (Euro pallets as bed frames), or, conversely, a place is converted for a new purpose (parties under bridges).

Claims of business women traveling alone to the hotel culture

The hotel study was in the context of teaching and research of Uta Brandes at the Köln International School of Design (KISD) the Cologne University . According to Uta Brandes, 40% of business travelers are women. In Germany, the number of traveling business women is also increasing rapidly from currently around 25%. Lufthansa has already responded with its own magazine for business women; some hotels are starting to notice female guests, mostly still reluctantly. The qualitative exploration study sought to find out how women traveling alone behave and feel in these hotels, whether the hotels meet their expectations and requirements and which things, rooms and services they miss. Methodic procedure:

  • oral and written interviews with women traveling alone (international)
  • written surveys of men traveling alone (international) for comparison
  • Hotel management survey (Europe-wide, hotel chains)
  • Covert observations of the behavior of female hotel guests in different hotels and hotel areas: bar, lobby, breakfast room ...
  • Self-experiments: female students alone at the bar
  • Interviews with two female and two male internationally renowned designers ("portraits")

Women are anything but satisfied with the existing hotel culture. Because in most hotels, unconsciously or preconsciously, the businessman continues to be the guideline for hotel design and service.

In summary, the difference to traveling men turns out to be striking: While women on average want about 30 things, services and atmospheres - and often criticize them as missing - a large majority of men are satisfied with (free) WiFi good mattress and shaving foam are available.

Publications

  • Uta Brandes / Michael Erlhoff (eds.): My Desk is My Castle - Exploring Personalization Cultures (Birkhäuser), 2012, ISBN 978-3-0346-0774-2 (English only)
  • Uta Brandes / Michael Erlhoff (eds.): Dada's Best, Hamburg (Nautilus) 2009, ISBN 978-3-89401-601-2
  • Uta Brandes / Michael Erlhoff / Nadine Schemmann: Designtheorie und Designforschung, Stuttgart (UTB) 2009, ISBN 978-3-8252-3152-1
  • Uta Brandes / Sonja Stich / Miriam Wender: Design by Use: The Everyday Metamorphosis of Things (German Edition), Basel - Boston - Berlin (Birkhäuser) 2009 / Design by Use. The Everyday Metamorphosis of Things (Engl. Edition), Basel - Boston - Berlin (Birkhäuser) 2009, ISBN 978-3-7643-8866-9
  • Uta Brandes / Michael Erlhoff: Non Intentional Design, Cologne (Daab) 2006, ISBN 978-3-937718-93-4
  • Uta Brandes (ed.): Michael Erlhoff & Friends, Basel (Birkhäuser) 2006, ISBN 978-3-7643-7689-5
  • Design is not an art. Technological and cultural implications of design, Regensburg (Lindinger + Schmid) 1998, ISBN 3-929970-32-5
  • Uta Brandes (Ed.): Hartmut Esslinger and Frogdesign, Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1992, ISBN 3-88243-215-2
  • Uta Brandes / Richard Bachinger / Michael Erlhoff (eds.): Corporate culture and tribal culture, Verlag der Georg Büchner Buchhandlung, Darmstadt 1988, ISBN 3-927902-26-8
  • Uta Brandes / Rolf-Peter Baacke / Michael Erlhoff: Design as an object. The new shine of things, Berlin (Frölich & Kaufmann) 1983, ISBN 3-88725-008-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ designpreis.sachsen.de, Prof. em. Dr. Uta Brandes, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  2. ↑ "Really sensual, please" Uta Brandes on women in hotel rooms. (Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 17, 2010)
personal data
SURNAME Brandes, Uta
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German design expert, theorist and author
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover