Function

Professor in the area 'Science and Theory': Design Cultural Studies, Design Research, Design Management

Vita

In the nexus of theory and praxis, Konstantin has worked in the interdisciplinary areas of aesthetics, media culture, design, strategy, and business. His research delves into the connections between various epistemologies and materialities that shape objects of modernity like “Entrepreneurship” and “Interfaces,” operating within current design, creative, and entrepreneurial dispositifs. He is the founder and co-editor of the 8-volume book series texturen (Logos Berlin), Uncanny Issues (Textem Hamburg), and co-editor of Genealogy of Media-Thinking (UdK Berlin).

www.konstantinhaensch.de
www.texturen.net
www.uncannyissues.com

He has taught B.A. and M.A. courses at Berlin University of the ArtsHTW University of Applied Sciences BerlinUniversity of PotsdamHAWK – University of Applied Science and Art Hildesheim, and Princeton University.

Konstantin’s professional journey began as a certificated Media Designer for Digital and Print (IHK Fulda). Before his academic pursuits, he co-founded a tech startup. Subsequently, he was a branding executive at a digital platform company and worked as ‘Head of Strategy’ at a digital agency. Upon his relocation to Berlin, he earned his B.A. and M.A. (supervisor: Siegfried Zielinski) in Communication in Social and Economic Contexts from Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin), with the support of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung).

While at UdK Berlin, he served for six years as a Research Assistant at UdK’s Institute for Theory and Praxis of Communication under the chair of Thomas Düllo. As part of a research project on urban ethnography and cultural geography, he served as a visiting scholar in the Chinese University of Hong Kong‘s anthropology department. 2022 Konstantin completed his dissertation project under the guidance of Thomas Düllo and Franz Liebl on the design & strategy history of the connected smart speaker (publication in progress).

From 2020-23, he held a graduate stipend from the German Department at Princeton University, where he completed the M.A. program with a thesis on Hans Blumenberg and Michel Foucault. (Advisors: Joel Lande, Nikolaus Wegmann)