Laura Dratschmidt, Bilge Kizil and Andrea Petz are the best Bachelor graduates of the summer semester 2020 at Macromedia University. In a year marked by extraordinary circumstances, they have achieved exceptional results. Congratulations to them and to the entire graduating class. How wonderful that we were able to accompany you on your way. All the best for the future. #youchange.
Every semester, Macromedia University honors the best graduates of the current graduating class with the Presidential Award. In the summer semester of 2020, within the Undergraduate Programs, these were three students from the Faculty of Arts: fashion designer Laura Dratschmidt from the Leipzig Campus, design student Bilge Kizil from the Freiburg Campus, and media and communication designer Andrea Petz from the Cologne Campus, with grade point averages between 1.1 and 1.2. Congratulations!
The best BA graduate in the summer semester 2020 comes from the Leipzig Campus. Laura Dratschmidt is a fashion designer – and is on fire for future topics. „In my bachelor’s thesis, I looked at interactive everyday clothing using the example of the smart denim jacket from Levis and Google. I was interested in the extent to which products of this kind could entail unexpected risks and challenges,“ says the Leipzig graduate. „Despite all the euphoria for the possibilities, we need a conscious approach to new technologies.“ It is precisely this dimension that Dratschmidt’s supervisor, Prof. Claudia Damm, highlights: „Dratschmidt connects the specific context of clothing with possibilities of ambient computing and derives highly relevant, ethical questions about digitalization, data use and technologization from this. She argues stringently and at the highest level – an absolutely convincing work. Chapeau!“
Bilge Kizil, the second best graduate of the BA graduating class, studied in Freiburg. In her bachelor project 20IN20, she portrays 20 creative professionals. She is actually concerned with the dimension of diversity and ambiguity in artistic work – but in view of the global lockdown, she also asks the photographers, picture editors, film directors, art directors and influencers about the influence of COVID-19 on their work. This openness is typical for Bilge Kizil, as Prof. Karin Jobst emphasizes: „With her enthusiasm and integrative way of working, Bilge Kizil has set great impulses at the Freiburg campus. She has inspired fellow students and professors time and again. It was really a pleasure to work with her!“
The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic – Cologne graduate Andrea Petz puts them at the center of her research. What does domestic isolation do to people? How do they experience themselves and how does this influence individual creativity? Andrea Petz dedicated her bachelor’s thesis „Design practice for individual identity formation using the example of domestic quarantine during COVID-19 isolation“ to these questions. In general, design is something very dynamic for the third-year student: „It is appropriate and important to constantly critique and reflect on oneself,“ Petz said. „Because just as design is a constantly ongoing process, so is your own career and personal development.“
With this in mind, we wish all BA graduates* a never-ending curiosity, joy in change, and a willingness to keep stepping out of their own comfort zone. #youchange
(IMH)