Paul Morat
I am an interaction designer and HCI researcher based in London, UK. My work investigates the transformative interplay between humans and computer technology, using design as a performative tool that shapes perception and interaction in the hybrid space.
Work
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Curriculum Vitae (download detailed)
Work Experience
IU International University, Berlin
Guest Lecturer for 3D Interaction Design
03.2024 – present
AIKEN CURA, Berlin
Interaction Designer
06.2020 – 09.2024
Interaction Design Lab, Potsdam
Associate UX Researcher
09.2020 – 03.2024
Education
Imperial College London
M.Sc. Innovation Design Engineering
09.2024 – present
Royal College of Art, London
M.A. Innovation Design Engineering
09.2024 – present
National Taipei University of Technology
B.A. Interactive Media Design – Semester Abroad
10.2022 – 01.2023
Fachhochschule Potsdam
B.A. Intefacedesign (GPA 4.0)
09.2018 – 03.2024
Talks (Selection)
Hegel Congress, Bamberg, 2023
SIGGRAPH, Vancouver, 2022
SIGGRAPH Asia, Tokyo, 2021
Ars Electronica Center, Linz, 2021
Mensch und Computer, Ingolstadt, 2021
Exhibitions (Selection)
Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, 2022
Art Biesenthal, Berlin, 2022
New European Bauhaus Festival, Brussels, 2022
Universelles Design, Kassel, 2021
Honours and Scholarships
S+T+ARTS Air Residency – Shortlist, Rome, 2023
Entry in the Golden Book of the City of Bamberg, 2023
Art Directors Club Young Talent Award, Hamburg, 2023
Art Biesenthal, Artist in Residence, Berlin, 2022
next Reality Young Talent Award, Hamburg, 2021
Germany Scholarship, Potsdam, 2021
Hessian State Award Universal Design, Frankfurt, 2020
Statement (download portfolio)
In the age of digitality, valid optimistic and pessimistic visions for the future of computer technology confront each other. The discussions on preservation or exchange, renewal or upheaval influence social developments and are reminiscent in their speed of the progress of technology itself. How computers confront humans already has a culture-creating dimension. The evolving digital sphere and the shift of the physical life into interstitial spaces result in an interdependence between technological and social developments.
In this discourse, the freedom to adopt a perspective that combines scientific knowledge and technology in an unbound way, potentially providing a direction for innovation and resulting social change, is unique to art and design. Especially when working with computer technology. As computational processes themselves do not have a gestalt, they only appear to humans throu gh designed interfaces. Design determines the way we perceive and interact with computers.
Dealing with computer technology and its effect on human beings as individuals and societies requires an attitude that attempts to approach innovation without prejudice but with stance. Designing interfaces demands awareness of their impact and thus interdisciplinary evaluation. In practice, this initially defines an observational position. In this context, I am concerned with reinterpreting design as a performative technique between human and non-human actors. Questions about expanding design‘s scope of action and the hybrid interaction of humans, machines, and algorithms are central to this.
My work is not limited to a technological medium but follows principles in the process,
at the end of which tangible exper-iences for the user occur. Constructing virtual augmented environments and the interaction with them, is understanding human perception and influencing it in consequential ways; creating virtual spaces. The free examination of the medium as an inspiration to extract possibilities of interaction forms the beginning. The production process finally represents a dialogue between the interaction designer, inter-disciplinary scientists, and the technical medium itself.