I’m already near the end of my digital media master studies. The time just flew. 😮

We were only 12 students and most of the topics we worked on during the past one and a half years were very practical. There was also a cooperation with the private applied arts college Berliner Technische Kunsthochschule (btk) for some of the courses, which I highly appreciated.

The first semester was filled with many short projects, like for example: creating a song lyric, working on different texts about media theory, talking about image interpretation or the combination of media and architecture.

We also had to hold several speeches. One of them was at the New National Gallery in Berlin during our visit of the exhibition “Modern Times. The Collection 1900 – 1945”. I’ve chosen to speak about the image “Young Men from Papua” by Emil Nolde. It was very interesting to research about Nolde and his support for the Nazi regime. But as all forms of modernism was rejected as “degenerated art”, also his works were condemned. Afterwards I had a whole new (negative) view on the South Seas works and Nolde himself…

There was also a project were we should explain the word “Heimat”, something like “home” in English, in a short animation or presentation. I’ve chosen a short animated flash film, but it was really hard to come up with good ideas to explain the meaning.

My courses at the btk during the first semester were: “Human Factor in Design” and “Informationsvisualisierung”(information visualization). They were both very interesting, with a different teaching style, compared to our university of applied sciences in Brandenburg. Something like a more “school” like atmosphere. 😆

In Human Factor in Design we talked a lot about usability and the strategies to develop and test stuff, thinking about the final users. At the end we handed in a project plan, with personas, user journeys, wireframes and a final usability review on a chosen project. I’ve chosen a new Dress Up Game, which I’ve developed in the next semester.

In Informationsvisualisierung we worked on different information visualisation styles and concepts. Our final assignment was to present all of ones Facebook friends in an original style and include some calculations with data one can get from the system about those friends. My final app really worked, up to a certain extent. 😉