Juan Castro-Gutierrez wins the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) prize 2009

By Simone Fischer

The president, Prof. Dr. Brigitte Grass, presented the DAAD prize 2009 worth 1000 Euro to Juan Castro-Gutierrez for his artistic talents and his commitment at the Faculty of Design on 21st November during a ceremony in the faculty's foyer. The DAAD sponsorship prize has been awarded since 1996 to foreign students who stand out not only through excellent academic work, but also on account of notable social and intercultural commitment. The individual universities themselves decide upon the award of the prize.
Juan Castro-Gutierrez comes from Lima/Peru and has already obtained a bachelor degree in communication design. The 36-year old attracted attention with the professionalism and originality of his thesis on the subject "Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune", Claude Débussy's comparative interpretation inspired by the poem of the same name by Stéphane Mallarmés. "The felicitous result, indebted to the highly sensitive use of acoustic and visual perception and its intellectual implementation in an artist concept, and exploiting the potential available in a creative artistic work with regard to the richness of ideas, materials and typography, was rewarded by the examiners with the well-deserved mark 1.0", is how Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Pfeifer praised the student's work in his laudatio. Juan has been studying for his masters degree since the Winter semester 2008/09 and one can even now look forward to his next project, namely an investigation into the "Sound of paper under criteria such as size, grammage, volume and quality".
Yet it was not just Juan's research drive and his curiosity of suspected, although still unproven phenomena that were decisive in winning the prize. His intercultural mobility and social skills likewise prompted the decision. "The collaborative atmosphere is characteristic for our faculty. His fellow students also profit from the likes of him. Students discuss topics amongst themselves and bring up any questions that arise in the classroom. It spurs the competition between students and enlivens the general critical discourse", emphasised the laudator.
Juan was delighted with the honour and declared: "It was simply the best decision to study at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences Design ".