Lynn is a design researcher based in Berlin, exploring the wondrous world of science.

I’m working as a Design Researcher and Creative Engagement Manager at the Natural History Museum in Berlin and a PHD student at Bauhaus University – and currently founding a Design Studio for Public Engagement.
In general, my research focuses on entanglements and future interdisciplinary playgrounds for science, design and public engagement.

In specific, my practice-based research topic address the value of design research approaches, such as speculative and critical design for scientific research aiming at refining our understandings of nature and that leads to socio-ecological solutions and climate action.

What I do:

Fostering and enabling collaborations between scientists, designers and artists focusing on diverse topics related to climate action and biodiversity.

Exploring and showcasing the value of design research for science communication, public engagement to build bridges between science, society and nature

Exploring the potentials of natural history museums as innovations hubs for climate action and design, art and science collaborations.

Unveiling the unseen – showcasing the unexplored, invisible and surprising natural histories through creative engagement approaches.

The overall mission is to bridge design with scientific disciplines in the design education, to support design students following a career in science and to support to shape the field of design research in Germany.
Therefor,  I am a voluntary mentor at Experimental Realisme and a Jury member at German Graduate Design Award 2023.

The story so far:

Since my studies in Communication Design at HS Trier back in the 2010’s, I have been involved in exploring the potential of the interdisciplinary intersection of design and science, regarding societal, technological and environmental challenges. These explorations accumulated in my award-winning master project “Design in the Anthropocene” (2016) that showcases the manifold on the roles of design in and for scientific research that deals with human-related environmental impacts, such as plastic waste. To do so, I accompanied researchers on scientific expeditions focusing on plastic waste pollution in the oceans, collaborated with material scientists on bio-based, speculative materialities and created a public engagement format in terms of the Luxembourg Design Biennale.

This project unveiled the roles of design as a translator and facilitator in responsible research and innovation processes. Furthermore, it visualises the design discipline itself is a scientific field in its own right, which renegotiates the boundaries and understanding of science.

From 2018 to 2023, I was working as Research Fellow at the Fraunhofer Center for Responsible Research and Innovation in Berlin.  As part of my work, I explored the value of design approaches, such Co-Design, Speculative and Critical Design approaches for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) as well as Science Communication and Public Engagement on a diverse range of topics.

In terms of this position, I developed and lead the research project „Food Fictions“ funded by BMBF (2021) aiming at using „speculative food design“ as narrative tool for science communication and public engagement on planetary health – from pop-up exhibitions, to cooking workshops to podcasts episodes. I was also involved in  „Transferwissenschaft“ , where I coined the value of design research for interdisciplinary knowledge transfer. To do so, I explored the commonalities between design and science since the 1960s to question supposed contradictions between different disciplines. For her, science and design are complementing each other – while science understands the world in its being, design understands the world in its becoming.

Beside of my practice-based work, I am also a PHD candidate at Bauhaus-University in Weimar. In my thesis, with the current working title „Between extinct species and speculative artifacts: Natural History Museum as catalysts for climate action through Design research“, I am exploring future roles of natural history museums (NHM) as well as future developments in biodiversity research at the intersection of design research, science communication and public engagement. A special focus is placed on the role of speculative artifacts as boundary objects for public engagement to bridge the gap between knowledge from the past, challenges of the present and co-creative solutions for the near future.

In the context of my special interests in biodiversity research, I am particularly fascinated by research projects that deal with „invisible“ stakeholders that continually challenge our understandings of nature, such as insects, microbes, „otherminds“ – and a bit of quantum physics.

I wants to give shape to the invisible main protagonists of our planet, to remind us that we humans are only a small part of a very complex ecosystem.