{"id":100251557,"date":"2026-03-25T10:28:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fh-joanneum.at\/?p=100251557"},"modified":"2026-03-25T10:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:27:12","slug":"designing-for-collapse-elevate-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fh-joanneum.at\/en\/news\/designing-for-collapse-elevate-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing for Collapse @ Elevate 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Birgit Bachler<\/h6>\n

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Andreas F\u00f6rster<\/h6>\n

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As part of the 2026\u00a0Elevate Festival<\/a>, held this year under the theme \u201cVital Signs,\u201d 65 second-semester Information Design students explored a speculative scenario: What happens if the internet permanently collapses?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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In collaboration with the Elevate festival<\/a>, the  Design Thinking Workshop developed experimental responses to this question, opening up new perspectives on communication, infrastructure, and social organization without digital networks.<\/p>\n

Working from randomly generated scenario elements—including infrastructural shifts, social contexts, political tones, and different time spans since the collapse—eleven teams embarked on an intensive week of research, ideation, and prototyping. Through an iterative design thinking process, the students developed a diverse range of artifacts exploring possible everyday practices in a post-internet world.<\/p>\n

The results were publicly presented in the Heimatsaal. Designer and design theorist Harald Gründl joined the presentations as an external expert, offering feedback on the students’ projects, artifacts, and presentations. The concepts ranged from beer exchange systems and analog dating formats to underground data-sharing networks, gastronomic concepts built around rumors, new networking structures for parents, and political initiatives addressing food and information scarcity.<\/p>\n

Guest lecturer Chad Reichert from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit<\/a> once again contributed an international perspective. Together with Birgit Bachler<\/a> and Andreas Förster<\/a>, he guided the students through the workshop. The following week, the teams also presented their work to Elevate co-founder and organizer Bernhard Steirer.
\nThe workshop highlighted that design not only produces solutions but also raises questions. For many students, the outcome was less a final answer and more a reflection on how design can be used more critically and responsibly.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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