WDE Spotlight: Karin Fischnaller

Can you tell a little more about yourself, your background and your design practice?

My name is Karin Fischnaller and I am an information designer based in Amsterdam. Growing up surrounded by mountains made of rocks, today I find myself surrounded by mountains consisting of unprocessed data. A few years ago, I completed the master’s programme Information Design at Design Academy Eindhoven, and it significantly influenced the development of my current design practice.

My design studio The Anderen acts as a navigation tool and interface by taking big, unwieldy chunks of raw information and converting them into digestible bites. We make knowledge accessible to the user.

Our work stretches the norms of standard digital interface design, playing with tension and subtlety to encourage the user’s free navigation, supporting the public debate and sparking new knowledge. Specifically, we structure and organise data, build storylines, produce visualisations and choreograph interactions. These interfaces become “(digital) information spaces” where contents are reorganised in an architectural construction through nonlinear and multi-layered narratives in network-like structures.

Organising mountains of data seems like a task that calls for deep analytic thinking, but we think it’s crucial to begin the process with playfulness and intuition. This provides unique angles and novel approaches to tackle the topic at hand.

The Anderen’s research seeks to challenge; exposing paradoxes and hegemony in order to inform public debate. Within this work, we remain committed to visualising complexity and playing the role of facilitator in engaging people with the societally relevant topics of the day. The goal of our self-initiated work is to shed light on the plurality and nuances that lie beyond the surface of contemporary issues, providing new insights and surprising perspectives—making sense of today’s world to inform tomorrow’s.

At World Design Embassies, we believe that design thinking is fundamental for arriving at new directions and perspectives on solutions for complex social issues. How do you see that as a designer?

It’s essential. Repeatedly challenging assumptions and persistently asking questions enable us to unlearn and learn while moving closer towards inclusive societies, or eventually post-human-centred lives. At the same time, no design process is perfect – thus also creating the space to reflect upon itself is at least equally important.

Your project Lorem Ipsum will be part of the Embassy of Inclusive Society during Dutch Design Week 2023. What can you tell us about the project and its phase?

The installation Lorem Ipsum visualises key guidelines and advice for inclusive (physical) presentations. It is an invitation for the public, designers and cultural institutions to consider how to include diverse bodily experiences by design. How do we create space for the different needs of different bodies? And how can different people access exhibition information from their own point of view? In this installation, the guidelines became the exhibit and placeholder itself. 

In the end, this installation goes beyond a mere checklist of information placement, spatial arrangement, colour contrast, font size, material choices, tactile experiences, audio elements, light planning, or seating arrangements. One tangible example of its effectiveness is the way concise texts benefit everyone. Creating an accessible design within a range of measurements involves not only making choices but also offering alternative means of understanding the message.

Currently, we’re in the final phase of production. It’s mesmerising to see it all come together while some very last challenges remain to be tackled.

How do you think/hope your work will make an impact?

I hope my work offers ways to navigate our complex world where there is so much information to explore, absorb and validate. Peeling layer by layer, I hope to help people understand their impact on these global information systems and hopefully inspire conversations about change. By visualising research, I hope to build bridges between two worlds that too often seem to be isolated from each other. I believe that multiple entry points into nonlinear narratives and the possibility to digress into side stories allow users to make their own connections and learn something new independently, at their own pace. Newly acquired knowledge feeds into making better judgments and understanding nuances, thereby being less likely to fall for conspiracy theories or biases.

Why did you choose to participate in the Embassy?

The Embassy of Inclusive Society is a space to (un)learn. Working on the visual translation of the guidelines for accessibility has allowed me to explore and embrace multiple access points in order to convey information. Along this process, I’ve been loosening hard-wired patterns and gained new knowledge that I aim to share.

Do you have a dream project you would like to realise in the future? What is it and why?

In my mind, I have a shelf filled with ideas and curiosities. They all share the urge to reveal underlying power structures, intertwined economies, and significant repercussions.

Together with fellow information and spatial designer Miruna Dunu, we’re curious to explore how we as a species relate to our cultural, technological and biological reality in the face of accelerating digitisation and climate change. While our environment is deteriorating, we’re building the Metaverse. We create digital avatars while altering our physical bodies to attain digitally driven beauty standards and social acceptance. Our goal is to explore the tensions between the physical and digital body and between the increasing digitisation and the equally increasing data carbon footprint. Summarised in our working title: The Unbearable Lightness of Your Digital Body.

Suppose you get to choose one person for the ultimate collaboration (a scientist, artist, philosopher, biologist, designer, politician, whoever). Who would you choose and why?

There are many, but I’d love to ring up researcher Kate Crawford and podcast maker Roman Mars. In the book “Atlas of AI” Crawford reveals how technical systems such as Artificial Intelligence are designed to serve and intensify existing systems of power. Mars is the host and creator of 99% Invisible, a podcast about the unnoticed constructions that shape our world. Both are great food for thought. 

I’m also grateful for the collaborations I had in the past. Working with design researcher Shay Raviv on her visual essay “Beyond Projects” reminded me of the great value of continuity in order to create impact. She’s also in charge of initiating Lorem Ipsum.

Later, when you look back on your career as a designer: what do you hope to have achieved by then?

 I hope that by that time we’ll be embracing plurality and multiple perspectives on narratives with joy!