BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
EDITORS
Florian Hadler
is visiting professor for media theory at the Berlin University of the Arts. His academic work focuses on genealogies, paradigms and hermeneutics of digital media, services and applications, on philosophy of secrecy and on visual and diagrammatic narratives. He also works as an associate in the realm of digital strategy.
Selected Publications:
Hadler, Florian and Daniel Irrgang, eds. Zur Genealogie des MedienDenkens. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2017.
Hadler, Florian; Haupt, Joachim, eds. Interface Critique. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2016.
Hadler, Florian. G-Geheimnis, Kleiner Stimmungsatlas in Einzelbänden. Hamburg: Textem, 2014.
Daniel Irrgang
is research associate, focus: media theory, and assistant to the rector at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. Before his position in Karlsruhe, he has been scientific supervisor of the Vilém Flusser Archive, Berlin University of the Arts (2013–2016). With an M.A. in Media Studies, he is currently writing his doctoral thesis on diagrammatics.
Selected Publications:
Irrgang, Daniel. Vom Umkehren der Bedeutungsvektoren. Prototypen des technischen Bildes bei Vilém Flusser. International Flusser Lectures. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2017.
Irrgang, Daniel, and Florian Hadler, eds. Zur Genealogie des MedienDenkens. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2017.
Alice Soiné
studied philosophy and cultural anthropology with a focus on media theory. She is a PhD student at the research group SENSING. The Knowledge of Sensitive Media at the Brandenburg Centre for Media Studies (ZeM). In her dissertation project she examines the ways in which the embedding of the subject in the technological environment is currently configured.
Selected Publication:
Soiné, Alice. „Interface als Strategie visueller Selbstorganisation. Sichtweisen einer Anthropologie des Medialen.“ In Jahrbuch immersiver Medien 2016: Interaktive Medien. Interfaces – Netze – Virtuelle Welten, edited by Institut für immersive Medien/Fachhochschule Kiel, 13-26. Marburg: Schüren Verlag, 2017.
CONTRIBUTORS
Christian Ulrik Andersen
INTERFACE MYTHOLOGIES - XANADU UNRAVELED. With Søren Pold.
PhD, Associate Professor at Aarhus University, Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies. Inspired by network and software culture his research addresses the intersection between software and cultural performativity. In particular, he addresses the notion of “interface criticism” as performed in a variety of design and arts practices.
Selected Publications:
Andersen, Christian Ulrik, and Søren Pold, eds. Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond Buttons. Århus: Århus Universitetsforlag, 2011.
Andersen, Christian Ulrik, and Søren Pold. The Metainterface - The Art of Platforms, Cities and Clouds. Cambridge, MA & London, England: MIT Press, 2018.
Max Bense
1970: AUTOMOBILE AND INFORMATION: THE SELF, THE AUTOMOBILE AND TECHNOLOGY
Max Bense † (1910 - 1990) was a German philosopher and writer in the fields of philosophy of science, aesthetics, and semiotics. He probably is best known for his work on text theory and information aesthetics, a field he established parallel to, although independently from, Abraham A. Moles. Bense taught philosophy of technology, science theory, and mathematical logic at the University of Stuttgart, where he became professor emeritus in 1978.
Jan Distelmeyer
DRAWING CONNECTIONS - HOW INTERFACES MATTER
... is Professor of Media History and Media Theory in the European Media Studies program of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and the University of Potsdam. The subject matter of his work ranges from film history, popular culture and media theory to computer games, politics of interfaces, and digitalicity.
Selected Publication:
Distelmeyer, Jan. Machtzeichen. Anordnungen des Computers. Berlin: Bertz + Fischer, 2017.
Vilém Flusser
1986: LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF LEONARDO
Vilém Flusser † (1920–1991) was a cultural philosopher and media theorist. Born and raised in Prague, he emigrated in 1939 to Brazil following the German invasion. After his appointment as a member of the Brazilian Institute of Philosophy (1962) he worked as a lecturer in communication science. He returned to Europe in 1972. Flusser published numerous books and countless contributions in magazines and newspapers. In 1991, he died in a car crash near the German-Czech border.
Lukas Hartmann
MNT REFORM - DIY PORTABLE COMPUTER
(MA Communications), worked as programmer in Berlin since 2004, coded the world’s largest radio play (USUS) and smallest disco (Teledisko). He read code in the Quelltextlesung and became an open source hardware manufacturer launching the the open hardware brand MNT and the Reform DIY laptop in 2018.
Branden Hookway
TRAINING SETTING. With Maria Park
... teaches in the Architecture and the Information Science departments at Cornell University. He holds a Ph.D. in the history and theory of architecture from Princeton University.
Selected Publications:
Hookway, Branden. Interface. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014.
Hookway, Branden. Pandemonium: The Rise of Predatory Locales in the Postwar World. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.
Susanne Jany
TRANSGRESSIONS AT THE POST-OFFICE COUNTER
2013 Visiting Scholar at Harvard University; since October 2015 Research Assistant at Image Knowledge Gestaltung. An Interdisciplinary Laboratory, Cluster of Excellence, and since April 2016 Research Assistant at the Department of Cultural History and Theory, both HU Berlin.
Selected Publications:
Jany, Susanne. „Making Buildings Work.“ In Architecture/Machine, edited by Laurent Stalder, Moritz Gleich, 70-81. Zürich: gta Verlag, 2017.
Jany, Susanne. „Operative Räume. Prozessarchitekturen im späten 19. Jahrhundert.” Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft: Medien/Architekturen 12, no. 1 (2015): 33–43.
Olia Lialina
RICH USER EXPERIENCE, UX AND DESKTOPIZATION OF WAR
Olia Lialina is a pioneer internet artist and Professor at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart. She co-founded the Geocities Research Institute and reflects on new media, digital folklore and vernacular web in her writings, exhibitions, and talks.
Maria Park
TRAINING SETTING. With Branden Hookway
... is an Associate Professor and Director of AAP Exhibitions and Events in the College of Art, Architecture, and Planning at Cornell University. Her work explores human presence and agency within a media-reliant society and is represented by Margaret Thatcher Projects in New York City and Nancy Toomey Fine Art in San Francisco, CA.
Søren Bro Pold
INTERFACE MYTHOLOGIES - XANADU UNRAVELED. With Christian Ulrik Andersen
... (Aarhus University) has published on digital and media aesthetics. His main research field is interface criticism which discusses the role and the development of the interface for art, literature, aesthetics, culture and IT.
Selected Publications:
Andersen, Christian Ulrik, and Søren Pold, eds. Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond Buttons. Århus: Århus Universitetsforlag, 2011.
Andersen, Christian Ulrik, and Søren Pold. The Metainterface - The Art of Platforms, Cities and Clouds. Cambridge, MA & London, England: MIT Press, 2018.
Lasse Scherffig
THERE IS NO INTERFACE (WITHOUT A USER). A CYBERNETIC PERSPECTIVE ON INTERACTION
... is the Art and Technology Department Chair at San Francisco Art Institute, where he teaches since 2015. He previously taught at Bauhaus University Weimar and Academy of Media Arts Cologne. His work has been published and exhibited internationally.
Selected Publications:
Scherffig, Lasse. “Feedbackmaschinen. Kybernetik und Interaktion.” PhD thesis, KHM Köln, 2017.
Scherffig, Lasse. "Moving into View: Enacting Virtual Reality.“ Mediatropes 6, no. 1 (2016): 1-29.
Christine Schranz
COMMONS FOR THE CARTOGRAPHY: HOW SOCIAL COMPUTING CHANGES THE DESIGN OF INTERFACES
... holds a PhD in Design and is a lecturer and principle investigator at the Academy of Art and Design in Basel, Switzerland. She is on the management board of the Institute of Integrative Design and currently conducts a project on “Augmented Space” (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation) at the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures.
Selected Publication:
Schranz, Christine. “Die Karte als Interface.” In Jahrbuch immersiver Medien 2016: Interaktive Medien. Interfaces – Netze – Virtuelle Welten, edited by Institut für immersive Medien/Fachhochschule Kiel, 27-37. Marburg: Schüren Verlag, 2017.
Alan N. Shapiro
GESTALT-IDEAS AT THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE
... was recently (2015-2017) Visiting Professor for Transdisciplinary Design at the Folkwang University of the Arts. He is currently Lecturer for “Design and Informatics” at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne. He is the author or editor of the books: Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance, The Technological Herbarium, Die Software der Zukunft, and Transdisziplinäre Gestaltung.
Selected Publications:
Shapiro, Alan N. “Towards a Software of the Concealing World.” In Tracelation, edited by Tyyne Claudia Pollmann. Berlin: Archive Books, 2017.
Shapiro, Alan N. “Light-Writing in Las Vegas.” (photo-essay) In Nevertheless. 17 Manifestos, edited by Andrea Sick. Hamburg: Textem Verlag, 2018.
Konstanty Szydłowski
THE CONCEPTUAL DEBTS AND ASSETS OF INTERFACE
... studied philosophy and french philology in Warsaw, Freiburg and Berlin. He works as an art critic, curator and translator and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the Berlin University of Arts.
Julie Woletz
Julie Woletz is Professor for Social Media at Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen. She has broad experience in research & development of interfaces and digital media, acquired in industry, e.g. as Head of User Experience with phaydon research+consulting, and academic research centers such as the Centre for Digital Cultures, University of Lüneburg.
Selected Publications:
Woletz, Julie. Human-Computer Interaction. Kulturanthropologische Perspektiven auf Interfaces. Darmstadt: Büchner, 2016.
Mangold, Michael, Peter Weibel, and Julie Woletz, eds. Vom Betrachter zum Gestalter. Neue Medien in Museen – Strategien, Beispiele und Perspektiven für die Bildung. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2007. (2nd revised edition forthcoming in 2018)
Gabriel Yoran
APPLIED METAPHYSICS - OBJECT-ORIENTED ONTOLOGY AND OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING
... is a writer and entrepreneur. He co-founded three Internet companies before graduating in Philosophy under Graham Harman with a thesis on Speculative Realism. He is co-founder, VP Marketing and Communications at Steady Media and lives in Berlin and Rhode Island, USA.
Selected Publication:
Yoran, Gabriel. The Interfact – Object-Oriented Ontology and Gilbert Simondon, London: Open Humanities Press, forthcoming in 2018.
Siegfried Zielinski
1997: ART AND APPARATUS (A FLUSSERIAN THEME). PLEA FOR THE DRAMATISATION OF THE INTERFACE
... is rector of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. Until his election in February 2016 he held the chair for media theory at the Berlin University of the Arts. He is the Michel Foucault Professor of Media Archaeology and Techno-Culture at the European Graduate School, Saas-Fee and founding rector (1994–2000) of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He has published numerous books and essays mainly focusing on archaeology of the media.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
EDITORS
Florian Hadler
is visiting professor for media theory at the Berlin University of the Arts. His academic work focuses on genealogies, paradigms and hermeneutics of digital media, services and applications, on philosophy of secrecy and on visual and diagrammatic narratives. He also works as an associate in the realm of digital strategy.
Selected Publications:
Hadler, Florian and Daniel Irrgang, eds. Zur Genealogie des MedienDenkens. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2017.
Hadler, Florian; Haupt, Joachim, eds. Interface Critique. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2016.
Hadler, Florian. G-Geheimnis, Kleiner Stimmungsatlas in Einzelbänden. Hamburg: Textem, 2014.
Daniel Irrgang
is research associate, focus: media theory, and assistant to the rector at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. Before his position in Karlsruhe, he has been scientific supervisor of the Vilém Flusser Archive, Berlin University of the Arts (2013–2016). With an M.A. in Media Studies, he is currently writing his doctoral thesis on diagrammatics.
Selected Publications:
Irrgang, Daniel. Vom Umkehren der Bedeutungsvektoren. Prototypen des technischen Bildes bei Vilém Flusser. International Flusser Lectures. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2017.
Irrgang, Daniel, and Florian Hadler, eds. Zur Genealogie des MedienDenkens. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2017.
Alice Soiné
studied philosophy and cultural anthropology with a focus on media theory. She is a PhD student at the research group SENSING. The Knowledge of Sensitive Media at the Brandenburg Centre for Media Studies (ZeM). In her dissertation project she examines the ways in which the embedding of the subject in the technological environment is currently configured.
Selected Publication:
Soiné, Alice. „Interface als Strategie visueller Selbstorganisation. Sichtweisen einer Anthropologie des Medialen.“ In Jahrbuch immersiver Medien 2016: Interaktive Medien. Interfaces – Netze – Virtuelle Welten, edited by Institut für immersive Medien/Fachhochschule Kiel, 13-26. Marburg: Schüren Verlag, 2017.
CONTRIBUTORS
Christian Ulrik Andersen
INTERFACE MYTHOLOGIES - XANADU UNRAVELED. With Søren Pold.
PhD, Associate Professor at Aarhus University, Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies. Inspired by network and software culture his research addresses the intersection between software and cultural performativity. In particular, he addresses the notion of “interface criticism” as performed in a variety of design and arts practices.
Selected Publications:
Andersen, Christian Ulrik, and Søren Pold, eds. Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond Buttons. Århus: Århus Universitetsforlag, 2011.
Andersen, Christian Ulrik, and Søren Pold. The Metainterface - The Art of Platforms, Cities and Clouds. Cambridge, MA & London, England: MIT Press, 2018.
Max Bense
1970: AUTOMOBILE AND INFORMATION: THE SELF, THE AUTOMOBILE AND TECHNOLOGY
Max Bense † (1910 - 1990) was a German philosopher and writer in the fields of philosophy of science, aesthetics, and semiotics. He probably is best known for his work on text theory and information aesthetics, a field he established parallel to, although independently from, Abraham A. Moles. Bense taught philosophy of technology, science theory, and mathematical logic at the University of Stuttgart, where he became professor emeritus in 1978.
Jan Distelmeyer
DRAWING CONNECTIONS - HOW INTERFACES MATTER
... is Professor of Media History and Media Theory in the European Media Studies program of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and the University of Potsdam. The subject matter of his work ranges from film history, popular culture and media theory to computer games, politics of interfaces, and digitalicity.
Selected Publication:
Distelmeyer, Jan. Machtzeichen. Anordnungen des Computers. Berlin: Bertz + Fischer, 2017.
Vilém Flusser
1986: LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF LEONARDO
Vilém Flusser † (1920–1991) was a cultural philosopher and media theorist. Born and raised in Prague, he emigrated in 1939 to Brazil following the German invasion. After his appointment as a member of the Brazilian Institute of Philosophy (1962) he worked as a lecturer in communication science. He returned to Europe in 1972. Flusser published numerous books and countless contributions in magazines and newspapers. In 1991, he died in a car crash near the German-Czech border.
Lukas Hartmann
MNT REFORM - DIY PORTABLE COMPUTER
(MA Communications), worked as programmer in Berlin since 2004, coded the world’s largest radio play (USUS) and smallest disco (Teledisko). He read code in the Quelltextlesung and became an open source hardware manufacturer launching the the open hardware brand MNT and the Reform DIY laptop in 2018.
Branden Hookway
TRAINING SETTING. With Maria Park
... teaches in the Architecture and the Information Science departments at Cornell University. He holds a Ph.D. in the history and theory of architecture from Princeton University.
Selected Publications:
Hookway, Branden. Interface. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014.
Hookway, Branden. Pandemonium: The Rise of Predatory Locales in the Postwar World. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.
Susanne Jany
TRANSGRESSIONS AT THE POST-OFFICE COUNTER
2013 Visiting Scholar at Harvard University; since October 2015 Research Assistant at Image Knowledge Gestaltung. An Interdisciplinary Laboratory, Cluster of Excellence, and since April 2016 Research Assistant at the Department of Cultural History and Theory, both HU Berlin.
Selected Publications:
Jany, Susanne. „Making Buildings Work.“ In Architecture/Machine, edited by Laurent Stalder, Moritz Gleich, 70-81. Zürich: gta Verlag, 2017.
Jany, Susanne. „Operative Räume. Prozessarchitekturen im späten 19. Jahrhundert.” Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft: Medien/Architekturen 12, no. 1 (2015): 33–43.
Olia Lialina
RICH USER EXPERIENCE, UX AND DESKTOPIZATION OF WAR
Olia Lialina is a pioneer internet artist and Professor at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart. She co-founded the Geocities Research Institute and reflects on new media, digital folklore and vernacular web in her writings, exhibitions, and talks.
Maria Park
TRAINING SETTING. With Branden Hookway
... is an Associate Professor and Director of AAP Exhibitions and Events in the College of Art, Architecture, and Planning at Cornell University. Her work explores human presence and agency within a media-reliant society and is represented by Margaret Thatcher Projects in New York City and Nancy Toomey Fine Art in San Francisco, CA.
Søren Bro Pold
INTERFACE MYTHOLOGIES - XANADU UNRAVELED. With Christian Ulrik Andersen
... (Aarhus University) has published on digital and media aesthetics. His main research field is interface criticism which discusses the role and the development of the interface for art, literature, aesthetics, culture and IT.
Selected Publications:
Andersen, Christian Ulrik, and Søren Pold, eds. Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond Buttons. Århus: Århus Universitetsforlag, 2011.
Andersen, Christian Ulrik, and Søren Pold. The Metainterface - The Art of Platforms, Cities and Clouds. Cambridge, MA & London, England: MIT Press, 2018.
Lasse Scherffig
THERE IS NO INTERFACE (WITHOUT A USER). A CYBERNETIC PERSPECTIVE ON INTERACTION
... is the Art and Technology Department Chair at San Francisco Art Institute, where he teaches since 2015. He previously taught at Bauhaus University Weimar and Academy of Media Arts Cologne. His work has been published and exhibited internationally.
Selected Publications:
Scherffig, Lasse. “Feedbackmaschinen. Kybernetik und Interaktion.” PhD thesis, KHM Köln, 2017.
Scherffig, Lasse. "Moving into View: Enacting Virtual Reality.“ Mediatropes 6, no. 1 (2016): 1-29.
Christine Schranz
COMMONS FOR THE CARTOGRAPHY: HOW SOCIAL COMPUTING CHANGES THE DESIGN OF INTERFACES
... holds a PhD in Design and is a lecturer and principle investigator at the Academy of Art and Design in Basel, Switzerland. She is on the management board of the Institute of Integrative Design and currently conducts a project on “Augmented Space” (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation) at the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures.
Selected Publication:
Schranz, Christine. “Die Karte als Interface.” In Jahrbuch immersiver Medien 2016: Interaktive Medien. Interfaces – Netze – Virtuelle Welten, edited by Institut für immersive Medien/Fachhochschule Kiel, 27-37. Marburg: Schüren Verlag, 2017.
Alan N. Shapiro
GESTALT-IDEAS AT THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE
... was recently (2015-2017) Visiting Professor for Transdisciplinary Design at the Folkwang University of the Arts. He is currently Lecturer for “Design and Informatics” at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne. He is the author or editor of the books: Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance, The Technological Herbarium, Die Software der Zukunft, and Transdisziplinäre Gestaltung.
Selected Publications:
Shapiro, Alan N. “Towards a Software of the Concealing World.” In Tracelation, edited by Tyyne Claudia Pollmann. Berlin: Archive Books, 2017.
Shapiro, Alan N. “Light-Writing in Las Vegas.” (photo-essay) In Nevertheless. 17 Manifestos, edited by Andrea Sick. Hamburg: Textem Verlag, 2018.
Konstanty Szydłowski
THE CONCEPTUAL DEBTS AND ASSETS OF INTERFACE
... studied philosophy and french philology in Warsaw, Freiburg and Berlin. He works as an art critic, curator and translator and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the Berlin University of Arts.
Julie Woletz
Julie Woletz is Professor for Social Media at Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen. She has broad experience in research & development of interfaces and digital media, acquired in industry, e.g. as Head of User Experience with phaydon research+consulting, and academic research centers such as the Centre for Digital Cultures, University of Lüneburg.
Selected Publications:
Woletz, Julie. Human-Computer Interaction. Kulturanthropologische Perspektiven auf Interfaces. Darmstadt: Büchner, 2016.
Mangold, Michael, Peter Weibel, and Julie Woletz, eds. Vom Betrachter zum Gestalter. Neue Medien in Museen – Strategien, Beispiele und Perspektiven für die Bildung. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2007. (2nd revised edition forthcoming in 2018)
Gabriel Yoran
APPLIED METAPHYSICS - OBJECT-ORIENTED ONTOLOGY AND OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING
... is a writer and entrepreneur. He co-founded three Internet companies before graduating in Philosophy under Graham Harman with a thesis on Speculative Realism. He is co-founder, VP Marketing and Communications at Steady Media and lives in Berlin and Rhode Island, USA.
Selected Publication:
Yoran, Gabriel. The Interfact – Object-Oriented Ontology and Gilbert Simondon, London: Open Humanities Press, forthcoming in 2018.
Siegfried Zielinski
1997: ART AND APPARATUS (A FLUSSERIAN THEME). PLEA FOR THE DRAMATISATION OF THE INTERFACE
... is rector of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. Until his election in February 2016 he held the chair for media theory at the Berlin University of the Arts. He is the Michel Foucault Professor of Media Archaeology and Techno-Culture at the European Graduate School, Saas-Fee and founding rector (1994–2000) of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He has published numerous books and essays mainly focusing on archaeology of the media.