Christian Faubel is an interdisciplinary scholar working in the differing fields of neuroscience, autonomous systems research and media art & design. He holds a PhD in electrical engineering and has completed research on autonomous systems at the Institute for Neural Computation from 2002 to 2012. From 2012-2018 he was working as artist, researcher and teacher at the academy of media arts cologne. Since 2020 he holds a position as professor for smart connected products at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne, where he teaches in the new bachelor program code & context. In 2002, he founded derstrudel, a collective for the mediation of a relaxed approach to electronics and robotics. Since 2002 he has taught more than 50 workshops in building simple analog robots at international venues and festivals.
In his work, Christian Faubel is interested in what enables complex behavior, and how this may result from the interaction of very simple units and their interrelations. In his artworks, installations, workshops & performances he tries to convey insights about theoretical concepts such as self-organization, emergence or embodiment along an aesthetic dimension. He considers his artworks, workshops and performances to be in the tradition of philosophical toys as they combine the mediation of scientific concepts with pleasure and amusement.