Stefan Schmidt

Background

About Stefan Schmidt

I am a philosopher and design researcher. My strength lies in conceptual work. My training as a philosopher involved developing analytic abilities which can be broadly applied to analyzing complex situations and problems outside the philosophical context. I also worked as a copy editor for mainly academic German texts in various fields. However, my skills are not limited to a specific text genre. I have been teaching philosophy at the University of Wuppertal as well as design theory at the Peter Behrens School of Arts (University of Applied Science, Düsseldorf)[since 2014]. In addition, I organized several international conferences covering diverse topics such as philosophy of film, design theory and philosophical foundations of archeology. My current research in the area of design focuses on the function and role of the environment for human experience. I developed a philosophical concept of topology, which enables me to analyze various forms of human interaction. This concept can be very useful for interaction design as well as certain forms of UX design. The main focus of philosophical topology is place, which is not simply understood as a position in space but rather as a decentralized network of relations. These relations include human experience, particularly the role of the body as well as things with which and through which we establish relationships.