This book examines design as a mode of philosophical inquiry, proposing that design gains critical relevance when it engages the material and technological structures that shape everyday life. Rather than offering solutions, it foregrounds design as a practice of questioning—one that reframes problems, visualizes tensions, and materializes ideas to make them thinkable. Through this lens, design becomes a method of understanding the world rather than transforming it through predetermined visions. The book argues that the real power of design lies in developing tools: tools that construct alternative worlds for reflection, and tools that help us perceive the existing world anew. In doing so, it positions design as an intellectual practice capable of expanding both our conceptual and material horizons.
Pages: 312
Language: English
16.8 × 22.4 cm
75 b/w ill.
Björn Franke’s practice focuses on the social, psychological, and philosophical implications of technology, examining how the evolving technological world reshapes human behavior, relationships, and self-conception. By conceptualizing his artistic practice as a material and visual philosophy within the concrete realities of life, he explores the philosophical issues and paradoxical conditions that emerging technologies pose. His work, often laced with dark humor, manifests through installations, moving images, visual and material objects, writing, and lectures.
Franke’s work has been showcased internationally at prestigious venues such as the Museum für Gestaltung (Zurich), Gewerbemuseum Winterthur (Winterthur), MUDAC (Lausanne), Triennale di Milano (Milan), Württembergischer Kunstverein (Stuttgart), CUBE Gallery (Manchester), Kunsthalle Mainz (Mainz), Design Museum Holon (Holon), Klaus Engelhorn Depot (Vienna), Lume Gallery (Helsinki), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), and Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne (St. Étienne).
His academic research has been disseminated globally through publications, lectures, and talks. He has edited several books, including “Not at Your Service: Manifestos for Design” (Birkhäuser, 2022) and the experimental series “Seeing” (VC Edition, since 2022), exploring the edges of visual culture. He has also convened seminal conferences such as “Counterparts: Exploring Design Beyond the Human” (2022), “Undesign” (2016), “The Stuff Between Us: Designing Interactions Beyond the Object” (2013), and “Making/Crafting/Designing: Perspectives on Design as a Human Activity” (2011).
Franke holds a BA in Industrial Design from Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design, an MA in Design Products from the Royal College of Art, and a PhD in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art. He has received fellowships from Akademie Schloss Solitude and Artist Residency Schloss Balmoral.
Currently, he teaches at Zurich University of the Arts and has previously taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Royal College of Art.