Prof. Dr. Peter Friedrich Stephan
Professional
Peter is a designer and consultant for digital and social transformation. For over 30 years he has worked for clients like Apple, Bertelsmann, Burda Publishing, KfW Bank, Medialab, Philip Morris and Telekom. For his projects in designing transformation he developed tools such as the ConcernCanvas that are published open source at designingtransformation.org – access to tools for the pluriverse.
Academic
Peter is a full Professor for Transformation Design at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He lectures at international universities on design, transformation and the concept of »concerns«. Peter was a Professor for Electronic Publishing, Multimedia, and Networks since 1997 and from 2002–2013 also a guestlecturer for Leadership in Digital Innovation at the University of the Arts Berlin and University St. Gallen/Switzerland. In 1994 he co-founded the first university program in Computational Design. He wrote a doctoral dissertation (Dr. phil) on Transformation Design, Actor-Network-Theory and Bruno Latour.
Research
Peter‘s research interests focus on the cognitive and emotional aspects of digital and social transformation. Projects include:
– »Theorymachine« (documentation in preparation)
– »Medienquadrat/Knowledge Design« funded by Federal Ministery of Education and Research – BMBF
– »Intelligent Objects« – funded by acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering
– »Bits–Bilder–Bedeutung« – research cluster funded by the Ministery of Innovation, Science and Research Northrhine-Westfalia
Publications
Peter wrote 50+ scientific papers on transformation design and cognitive design available in German, English, French and Japanese at Academia and Researchgate. His latest book »Designing Concerns – Bruno Latour und das Transformation Design« was published in 2024 (Transcript Verlag). As an editor he published »Knowledge Media Design« (Oldenburg, 2005) and »Events and E-Commerce« (Springer, 2000).
Community
Peter serves the creative and scientific communities as a consultant for the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Wissenschaftsfonds Österreich – FWF and Zentrale Evaluations- und Akkreditierungsagentur – ZEvA. He was a peer reviewer for the conferences Mensch und Computer, retune and Learntec as well as for the magazines i-com and Revue – Magazine for the Next Society.