Prof. Mario Doulis

Since 2007 Mario Doulis has been Professor at Merz Akademie, where he is co-director of the New Media department and active in the master program. From 2003-2007 he was Professor of Interface Design and co-leader of Research and Development at the Academy of Art and Design at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW, where he was also member of the Swiss Design Network. From 2007-2012 he was founder and then head of the Virtual Environment Group at the Institute of 4D–Technologies (i4Ds) at the School of Engineering at FHNW, which became the Institute of Interactive Technologies. After an apprenticeship as a stone sculptor (1987-1991), he began studying industrial design at the University of Design in Pforzheim, which he completed in 1998. As industrial and interface designer he does research and teaches in the field of information visualization, 3D design, and Virtual Reality.

His interdisciplinary approach to art, design and science, and his 25 years of experience in the field of emerging technologies, led to national and international cooperations, e.g. with the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour (CASCB), the Max-Planck-Institute of Animal Behaviour MPI-AB, and Zukunftskolleg-Institute for Advanced Study, University of Konstanz, with the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), Stuttgart, and with the Research Institute for Electrical Communication (RIEC), Tohuku University, Sendai, Japan.

Since 2007 Mario Doulis and his students participated in “POLE” (Project oriented learning environment), an international and interdisciplinary student cooperation project, initiated by Prof. Dr. Christoph Holliger at the  FHNW Northern Switzerland (Universities of Applied Sciences), with changing partner universities such as Tecnológico de Monterrey (Department of Industrial Design), Savannah College of Art and Design SCAD (Department of Design Management), Northumbria School of Design (Interactive Media), Aalborg University (Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology), and Blekinge Institute of Technology (Department of Computer Science).

He has several years of experience in research and development activities for research groups in Germany, (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and GMD), as well as companies such as Mercedes-Benz Group and BMW.

Research Projects (Selection, since 2005)

• „Remediate I und II“ – Research project of Merz Akademie and Akademie Schloss Solitude, in cooperation with MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg and Landesanstalt für Kommunikation (LFK)
• „Mediaglobe“ – User Interface Design, part of research programme Theseus of Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy with Transfer|media, Hasso Plattner Institut Potsdam and defa spektrum
• „Inside Science“. Project in cooperation with KIT about scientific communication
• “POLE (Project oriented learning environment)“: Project in cooperation with FHNW Nordschweiz (Departments Industrial Design und Angewandte Psychologie), Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico (Department Industrial Design), Savannah College of Art and Design SCAD, USA (Design Management), Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden (Computer Science).
• “Das unsichtbare Medium- Zwischen Angleichung und Imagination: Untersuchungen zur Raumwahrnehmung in virtuellen Umgebungen” – in cooperation with Dr. D. Agotai, FHNW (CH)
• “Dramaturgie in der interaktiven Medienkunst“
• „Skizzen für Informationsvisualisierung mit VR“
• „Exploring Scientific Data Archives using Virtual Reality“
• „4D-Interface für Prozessmanagement“
• „Interaktionsbaukasten“
• “Spaceactor – Interaktion in virtuellen Welten”