In mid-June, Macromedia Professor Ute Hilgers-Yilmaz contributed to the Design-Tech 2019 conference in Haifa, Israel. The 2-day event was hosted by the Israel Institute of Technology, Technion, with the goal of ‘fostering design awareness and design thinking among Science and Engineering students’.
The Design-Tech conference aims to create a discussion about design as a strategic resource for tech companies and the ways in which these companies can utilize design to make their technology more accessible.
“I met great researchers on the Design-Tech in Haifa,” commented Prof. Ute Hilgers-Yilmaz, when questioned about her experience at the Conference, “There were many interesting projects dealing with sustainability or taking care about nature and combined with digital technologies. That also shows the options for designers, to influence certain important processes beside commercial subjects.”
Both an Educator and Designer, Prof. Hilgers-Yilmaz has, for many years, been fascinated with Complementary Alternative Medicine, often referred to as CAM. As a strong believer and self-practitioner of Complementary Alternative Medicine, Prof. Hilgers-Yilmaz considers it vital to retain the oral traditional remedies that have been passed down from generation to generation. “We have to reconsider existing ‘artificial’ or commercially driven systems like pharmacy or modern medicine,” remarks Ute, “Instead we need to keep an eye on natural resources and phenomenon like self-healing options or natural drugs and treatments – I call it for centuries gained knowledge.”
During her speech at Design-Tech 2019, Prof. Hilgers-Yilmaz introduced her concept to create an online archive focused on these remedies. “The idea is to collect and save this ‘old’ information worldwide in a digital diagnosis system and provide it to professionals as to patients”, Prof. Hilgers-Yilmaz explains. “The holistic intention is to change human behaviour to attentiveness: caring for their health, instead of unconscious consumption.”
To learn more about the Macromedia Design-Programmes click here:
(written by Rosie Hall, Macromedia Student of Media and Communication Management)