«Grounded Transformation» is a design practice that aims to bring about structural change through collaborative processes of learning, negotiation, and action. It is a concept that was developed at the IXDM (Institute for Experimental Design and Media Cultures).

For the past two years, I have been working there as a professor of process design and have followed the exciting projects of the people that shape IXDM. As different as they are, they are united by a fundamental understanding that design holds the potential for structural change. Design the change you want to see in the world, so to speak.

When I was asked to design a lecture series for the university-wide CoCreate program, I quickly arrived at the idea of exploring this approach in greater depth.

Over the course of six sessions, the series asks: How do collective processes emerge? Whose knowledge matters? What infrastructures determine how we work and think? And how can design open up spaces where other futures become conceivable? Each session explores these questions through methods, projects, and discussions—ranging from dialogic knowledge formats and the examination of critical infrastructure work to speculative ecologies and collective worldbuilding.

The series will take place during the spring semester of 2025 at HGK Basel and is open to students as well as continuing education participants from outside the university (organized by Ivana Jović, Head of Continuing Education at IXDM).