© Alexander RosenkranzHjördis Lyn Behncken directs the Foundation Class in Visual Communication at the Kunsthochschule Kassel and, together with Insa Deist, runs the design and research studio Notes on in Berlin. They jointly conceive fluid collaborative projects in the area of graphic design for art and culture, including web design and development, exhibition design, book layout, art direction, and concept development, encompassing work for cultural institutions as well as close cooperation with art producers and joint teaching activities.
She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig with a final project “Bold, slick, simple, clear my mind” in the class of Maureen Mooren. The reading performance was an autofictional approach to describing, writing, and talking about graphic design and its efficacy in teaching. Since then she has been researching the entanglements of design and writing production, including in the film-installation work “De-speaking De-sign,” which was exhibited as part of the series Cultivation Techniques at the Kunstverein Leipzig.
Since 2022 she has been working, again with Insa Deist, on the research project “Composition as Explanation,” for which she organizes workshops in the form of live action reading groups at art schools. The workshops thematize (design) language and language systems, involving reading and appropriating texts from (graphic) design theory and encouraging students to engage with texts performatively.