Five years of visual media design at Linköping University
The MSc Design program opened at Linköping University in 2017. It is a two-year program where we bring students together from different design disciplines to work on societal challenges.
The program offers three specializations reflecting areas of excellence within Linköping University. One of them is Visual Media, located at Campus Norrköping to leverage the internationally renowned work in visualization, media technology and public science communication.
The Visual Media students spend much of their time in the Norrköping studio, exploring the design possibilities of advanced visual media.
Looking back on the first five years, the students have demonstrated the potential for innovative and interesting visual media design in many important fields. Here is a handful of examples, chosen to give a flavor of what we do in the Visual Media track.
The idea of using virtual reality to influence people’s values and choices towards a more sustainable lifestyle has been explored on several occasions. In her 2020 master thesis, Chetana Deshpande designed a VR experience to encourage ecologically sustainable behaviors.
Martyna Jach presented her master thesis earlier this spring on the topic of dietary choices and their environmental impact.
In the Studio 3 course in the fall of 2020, the students Mina Mani Kashani, Solith af Malmborg, Malin Müller, Matilda Wallén and Dong Wang facilitated a Living Lab process exploring more sustainable and inclusive futures of downtown Norrköping.
Charlotta Bertzen and Jekaterina Basjuka devoted their recent master thesis project to designing engaging interactive multi-screen productions for exhibitions.
In the fall 2021 version of the Advanced Visualization Design course, students Ylva Bröms, Saige Paget and Elsa Sörensen created a comprehensive infographic on the topic of global deaths caused by unsafe drinking water.
In the spring of 2020, the course project in Augmented Information Spaces by Mina Mani Kashani, Matilda Wallén and Dong Wang focused on creating audience engagement around the permanent art collection at the County Museum in Linköping.
In her 2022 master thesis, Matilda Wallén explored new strategies for vegan activism to stimulate reflection and learning through graphic design interventions in everyday environments.
Much of the previous work in visual media at our division has been focused on creating and developing the visualization technology that enables innovative visual communication. What we do in the Visual Media track of the MSc Design program, as well as in other design-oriented courses and projects (such as this one), is to concentrate on what to communicate and why. Many of the topics come from the overall program orientation towards societal challenges; the methods and craft skills are mainly drawn from graphic design and interaction design. When combined with state-of-the-art technology, the results are quite convincing.
To conclude, I feel that it is a great privilege to work with these and other students in the Visual Media track and the MSc Design program as they learn, develop and grow. I am looking forward to the next five years.
