Prof. Michael Renner

Head of IDCE / Head of MA Digital Communication Environments

Field of Activity

Prof. Michael Renner is in charge of IDCE and a member of the Executive Board of HGK Basel FHNW. He heads the Master's programme Digital Communication Environments, the IDCE's advanced-education courses and the Incubator for Design Cultures project funded by swissuniversities to promote the dual skills profile. He has co-curated the exhibition «unleashed; revisiting early explorations of interactive media in visual communication design» in Fall 2024 at the Tinguely Museum Basel and was chair of the AGI 2024 events in Basel. He is on the advisory board of the SNSF funded research project WYSIWYG (2024 – 2027) – a collaboration between HEAD Geneva and the HGK Basel, IDCE.

Institute Digital Communication Environments
MA Digital Communication Environments
Incubator for Design Cultures
International Master of Design UIC/HGK (MDes/MAS)

Biography

Prof. Michael Renner, 1961,experienced the digital revolution first-hand when he went to work for Apple Computer Inc. and The Understanding Business in California in 1986, just after completing his diploma as Graphic Designer at the former Basel School of Design. Research and reflection upon the meaning of images in the context of digital tools became the central theme of Renner’s practical, pedagogical and theoretical design activities. Since 1990, he has his own design Studio in Basel with corporate and cultural clients. He started teaching in 1990 in the Visual Communication Institute of Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW with an emphasis on Information Design, Interaction Design and Design Research. In 1999 he was named chairman of the institute. From 2005 until 2013 he was member of «eikones», the Swiss National Center of Competence in Iconic Research, and from 2013 until 2016 he was member of the European research network «What Images Do». His approach to develop research activities in the field of design is based on the aim to further develop existing competencies of image creation. With this approach of gaining knowledge through the creation of images the design process becomes the central research theme and a methodology at the same time. He has been applicant and co-applicant of several research projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. He is visiting professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has lectured and taught workshops in Europe and abroad, is member of the advisory board of Visible Language and member of the Aliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).

Instagram
https://a-g-i.org/user/michael.renner@fhnw.ch/view/projects/

Publications (selection)

2017	Renner M.: Practice-led Iconic Research; Towards a Research Methodology of Visual Communication, in: Langkilde K. (ed.), Poetry of the Real, Basel 2017, pp. 135 – 159.
2016	Renner M.: Word to Image – Image to Word. The Contribution of Visual Communication to Understanding and Dialog, in: P. Lloyd & E. Bohemia, (eds.), Proceedings of DRS2016: Design + Research + Society – Future-Focused Thinking, Volume 3, pp. 1073 – 1088, DOI 10.21606/drs.2016.
2015	Boehm G., Budelacci O., Renner M. (eds.): Face and Identity, München 2015
2014	Renner M.: Ornamental Images and their Digital Occurences, in: Aaron Marcus (ed.), Proceedings HCII 2014 Conference. Design, User Experience, and Usability. Theories, Methods, and Tools for Designing the User Experience, Vienna 2014, pp. 663 – 674.
2011	Renner M.: Image, Imagination, Innovation: How Can We Overcome the Common Ground in the Processes of Visual Design? in: Aaron Marcus (ed.), Proceedings HCII 2011 Conference. Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS), Vienna 2011, pp. 285 – 294.

Research projects (selection)

2009–2013	Co-Leitung des eikones Moduls „Bild und Entwurf“ in Zusammenarbeit mit Prof. Dr. Nicolaj van der Meulen
2012–2014	Projektleitung des SNF DORE geförderten Projektes „Campus +“ (Neue Strategien für die Visualisierung von städtebaulichen Veränderungsprozessen) (13DPD3_136756)
2012–2014	Projektleitung des SNF DORE geförderten Projektes „Visual Search +“ (New Approaches to Content Based Image Retrieval) (13DPD3_136840)
2016–2019	Mitantragsteller des SNF Sinergia-Projektes „Swiss Graphic Design and Typographie Revisited“ (CRSII1_160825). Verantwortlich für den Cluster „Principles of Education“ in Zusammenarbeit mit Prof. Dr. Arne Scheuermann, Prof. Dr. Sarah Owens und Prof. Dr. Peter Schneemann

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Prof. Michael Renner

Head of IDCE / Head of MA Digital Communication Environments

Field of Activity

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Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE)