With digitalisation, our world seems to be becoming more and more dematerialised. However, it is the materiality of things that provides opportunity for any experiential action. Physical interfaces thus serve as mediators and communication carriers in the dialogue between man and abstract machine. While the distribution of roles was clearly defined in the past – the human being acts, the machine functions – we are experiencing more and more that we “co-operate” with objects and that they “co-operate” with us. These hybrid artifacts – between analog and digital – escape the digital world and become actors in a physical environment. It is only through the fact that things oppose us and create friction that we become aware of them and allow for a tangible space for action.
Andreas Muxel studied communication design at the University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg and media arts at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. In his experimental works he deals with the entanglement of code and material as well as man-machine interaction. A body of work at the intersection of design, art and science has widely been exhibited and honored internationally (e. g. Ars Electronica Festival Linz, FILE Festival São Paulo, TodaysArt Festival Brussels, VIDA Award Madrid, Share Price Turin).
2015 he co-founded the design studio “NEOANALOG” with a focus on the development and design of hybrid artifacts and spaces. From 2013 to 2017, Andreas Muxel worked as a professor of Interface Design at the Cologne International School of Design (KISD). Since the winter semester 2017/2018 he is a Professor of Research and Teaching in “Physical Human-Machine Interfaces” at the Faculty of Design, Augsburg University of Applied Sciences.
