Dr. Julia von Thienen

Senior Researcher & Lecturer
Room: H-3.7

Dr. Caroline Szymanski

Lecturer & Practice Expert with a background in social neuroscience, dancing and design thinking

Roles: Co-founding of the neurodesign initiative, lecturing and mentoring with a focus on the physiological basis of team performance, and co-authoring publications such as Neurodesign Live

Dr. Marisol Jimenez

Lecturer & Artist

Marisol Jiménez is a composer, performer and multi-disciplinary artist from Guadalajara, Mexico, currently residing in Berlin. Her work expresses an intense fascination with the tactile process of creating sound, an interplay of the entropic within the structured musical machinery, colliding the primeval with the technological to seek forceful sensuous and visceral energies. Her output includes numerous chamber and electronic works, as well as sound and intermedia installations. Most of her acoustic, electronic and mixed media works involve self-made sound sculptures, found objects, and collected sound materials from her own field recordings, improvisations, and performances. She completed a Doctorate degree in composition at Stanford University, at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) in 2011, and a Masters of Arts degree from Mills College, Oakland, CA (2005). You can find more information about Marisol's works here.

Roles: Co-designing and hosting sonic thinking courses

Kim-Pascal Borchart

Researcher

with a background in IT systems engineering

Projects: Innovation and Law, Needs-Based Outcome Assessments,C-Tracer

Holly McKee

Researcher

with a background in Digital Health

Projects: Smart Garden Office, Sonic Scopes

Luca Hilbrich

Researcher & Lecturer

with a background in audio technologies

Projects: Sonic Scopes, Schaeffer's Charades, Brain Data Sonification, Tele-Symbiosis

Philipp Steigerwald

Researcher & Lecturer

with a background in audio technologies

Projects: Sonic Scopes, Schaeffer's Charades, Brain Data Sonification, Tele-Symbiosis

Tim Strauch

Researcher & Lecturer

with a background in audio technologies

Projects: Sonic Scopes, Schaeffer's Charades, Brain Data Sonification, Tele-Symbiosis

Leonardo Auri

Guest Researcher, Lecturer & Artist

Leonardo Auri has a professional background both in music and computer science. His current works explore synergies across both fields, as he develops Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based music instruments. You can find out more about the portfolio of his works here.

Role: Co-lecturing sonic thinking classes

Projects: Environmental Instruments, Genetic Musical Material Generator

Anastasiia Berg

Guest Researcher

with a background in user experience design

Projects: Re-designing the ECDTR publication platform, Nature-Inspired Design

Arrigo Bertacchini

Guest Researcher

with a background in economics science and European policies.

International and Inter-Institutional Contributors

Prof. Dr. Jan Auernhammer

Lecturer

Jan is Associate Professor in creative, human-centered design practices at the University of Technology Sidney (UTS). Formerly, Jan was Executive Director of the Neurodesign Program at Stanford University.

Roles: Co-founding of the neurodesign initiative, organizing community events, authoring publications such as NeuroDesign, and guest lecturer on the history of the field

Dr. Irene Sophia Plank

Lecturer & Author

Irene is a postdoc at LMU Klinikum München. She received her PhD from the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, investigating different processes of social understanding. She explores how we understand people who are different from ourselves, and how life experiences shape such understandings. In her phd she compared mothers and non-mothers in their understanding of children and other adults. Her current research focuses on cases where social understanding and interaction are atypical or impaired. These cases are often associated with two interactaction partners being less "in sync", and she tries to use this phenomenon to characterise interactions.

You can find more information about Irene's works at irenesophiaplank.com.

Roles: Various lecturing activities specifically concerned with neuroscientific methods and the neuroscience of empathy; authoring of publications especially on empathy in the context of design thinking

Julius Holtz

Researcher, Lecturer & Artist

Julius Holtz holds a Master in Sound Studies and is the founder of the Berlin-based composition and sound design studio Sonic Fiction. His research questions arise from his practice as an artist and designer. Within the scope of emerging technologies and Virtual Reality environments, Julius evaluates the potential of connections between auditory and cognitive processing. The question of how we experience sound leads to investigations in sound quality. Like taste in music, the perception of sound is subjective. Sonic measurements describe the physical properties of the sound itself. They don’t measure the cognitive and physical processes taking place in our bodies. Julius' research in sound perception utilizes artistic concepts as well as qualitative, scientific approaches and applied methods of corporate sound design.

You can find more information about the works of Julius Holtz at https://juliusholtz.de

Role: Co-lecturing sonic thinking classes

Dr. Cobi van Tonder

Sound Artist, Researcher, Lecturer

Cobi van Tonder explores diverse avenues of listening, including field recordings, microtonal drone music, audio-physical infrasound listening, human-computer interface design, technology, new media, and heritage acoustic research in the context of natural and cultural sites. She currently works as a research fellow at the University of Bologna's Architecture Department.

Projects and Links: ACOUSTIC ATLAS - Cultivating the Capacity to Listen, https://otoplasma.com, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cobi-Van-Tonder, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9309-5632, https://www.instagram.com/cobi.van.tonder/

Diane Barbé

Sound Artist, Researcher, Lecturer

Diane Barbé explores the intersections of ecology and experimental music, working with field recording as much as with additive synthesis, aerophones and percussion. Her work delves into the manifold practices of musicking with projects like The Alien Kin, where ensembles of non-musicians develop playful spaces of interspecies communication, non-standard tunings, and collective synchronisation. In her research, Diane focuses on the way our sonic Umwelten have impacted the way we communicate verbally as well as non-verbally, and how spectral and temporal musicalities surround us. Her works materialise as solo and collaborative performances, acoustic and electronic pieces, as well as sound and mixed media installations. Some of it can be found here: www.dianebarbe.com.

Past Contributors

Ilia Berg

Project: Visual Communication of Design Thinking Principles & Research Findings

Nicolas D'Aleman Arango

Project: Sonic Thinking

incl. the development of the Brainwave Virtual Instrument and research into the role of background music in creative work

Prof. Dr. Henrik von Coler

Lecturer

Ass. Prof. Henrik von Coler is a composer, performer and researcher with a background in engineering, electronic music and empirical research, who joined Georgia Tech in 2023. In his creative work, the design of technological systems is an integral part of the creative process. His research topics include spatial aspects of fixed media and live electronics, algorithms for sound synthesis, novel instruments, control devices and artistic practices for solo performers and ensembles.

Previously, Henrik von Coler was the director of the TU Studio for Electronic Music at Technische Universität Berlin, part of the Audiocommunication and Technology department.

Roles: Co-designing and hosting sonic thinking education