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University / department
Universität Wuppertal
Mediengestaltung
University URL
Project supervisor
Prof. Dr. Mihai Nadin
Supervisor commentary
Knowledge work is the subject that Clemens Lango chose as his subject of interest. He decided to remain within design by suggesting an operating software, not a new program. An operating software is an artefact of extreme importance given the fact that knowledge work exposes the knowledge worker to a variety of software programs and hardware implementation. Networking makes the whole even more complex. His Ph.D. thesis takes into consideration the complexity of Internet-based work and address aspects that we are all aware of. visuos could, if implemented with enough attention to detail become a powerful aid to all those who have to deal with a huge variety of knowledge sources and a very broad variety of data types.
His thesis is an original contribution, foundational in nature. It is in the nature of the technology addressed in his work to undergo fast cycles of change. Clemens Lango has tried to overcome this intrinsic condition.
The project has a high degree of closeness to reality. There is a widespread demand for innovation in the field of software solutions for knowledge work.
Course abstract
The precursor of the thesis subject was part of the DFG (German Science Foundation) funded research project "Interactive multimedia navigation". The concept has been invited for presentation at various conferences such as "Media Forum Cologne 1997 & 1998" - Cologne, "Ed-Media - Ed-Telecom 1998" - Freiburg, "Content Visualization and Intermedia Representations 1998" - Quebec/ Canada, "Envisioning Knowledge - The Knowledge Society and the New Media 1999" - Munich.
Relation to the research area
visuos' started off as a research project funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation). It is the doctoral thesis of Dr. Dipl.-Des. Clemens Lango. Clemens Lango belongs to the very few who understand that design has reached a new stage and that research in design has become a legitimate goal for this stage. The computational foundation of design entails a new condition. While everything that designers knew from past practice aesthetic relevance, implicit communication, the functionality and ergonomic quality of the designed object, interdisciplinarity, etc. remains valid, we are now in a phase in which the designer, not unlike the software developer, generates tools at the meta-level, not at the object level. More precisely, to design an interface, for example, means to understand software and hardware, the characteristics of the users, and the characteristics of the activity to be eventually supported. To design ubiquitous computing means to integrate, not to isolate, activities. Moreover, design has made possible. Without design, what is possible remains only possible. Things become real as we design and implement them.