Till Heilmann.info

News

• Publication
  Innis and Kittler: The Case of the Greek Alphabet. In: Media Transatlantic. Ed. Norm Friesen. Cham: Springer 2016, pp. 91–110.
• Publication
  Zur Vorgängigkeit der Operationskette in der Medienwissenschaft und bei Leroi-Gourhan [On the Precedence of the Operational Chain in Media Studies and Leroi-Gourhan]. Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie 2 (2016): 7–29.
• Talk
  The Allure of the Ancients. Media and Classics. University of Bristol. 25.–26.11.2016.
• Project
  The push button and the digital condition (PDF)
• Code
  tah_Makros_v0.1.dotm (0.1), VBA macros for easier typing of (typographic) quotes and editing of Word documents.

Biography

Till A. Heilmann is a researcher at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Bonn. He studied German, media studies, and history. Research associate at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Basel (2003–2014) and at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Siegen (2014–2015); doctorate for a thesis on computers as writing machines (2008); visiting scholar at the University of Siegen (2011); Fellow-in-Residence at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, University of Iowa (2012).

• Curriculum vitae (PDF)
• Short biography (TXT)
• vCard (VCF)

Contact information

Research

Fields of research

• Media history
• media theory
• media semiotics
• history of media studies

Research focus

• Digital do it yourself
• algorithmic everyday life
• postdigital interfaces
• North American and German media theory
• standardization and norms

Publications (selection)

Full list in CV (PDF), as plain text (TXT) or BibTeX file (BIB)

• Textverarbeitung. Eine Mediengeschichte des Computers als Schreibmaschine [Word Processing: A Media History of the Computer as a Writing Machine]
  Bielefeld: Transcript 2012.
  Rezensionen: KULT_online, rezens.tfm, TagesWoche Mewi-Blog, Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte (pp. 222–224)
  Sample: Preface (German; PDF)
  Full text search: libreka!
• Innis and Kittler: The Case of the Greek Alphabet
  Media Transatlantic. Ed. Norm Friesen. Cham: Springer 2016, pp. 91–110.
• Zur Vorgängigkeit der Operationskette in der Medienwissenschaft und bei Leroi-Gourhan [On the Precedence of the Operational Chain in Media Studies and Leroi-Gourhan]
  Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie 2 (2016): 7–29.
• Datenarbeit im “Capture”-Kapitalismus. Zur Ausweitung der Verwertungszone im Zeitalter informatischer Überwachung [Data-Labor in Capture-Capitalism. On the Expansion of the Valorization Zone in the Age of Informatic Surveillance]
  Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 2 (2015): 35–48.
• Karl Büchers Kriegsschriften. Aus der Vorgeschichte der deutschsprachigen Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft [Karl Buecher’s ‘War Writings’: On the Prehistory of German Communication and Media Studies]
  LiLi. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 179 (2015): 96–106.
• Reciprocal Materiality and the Body of Code
  Digital Culture & Society 1/1 (2015): 39–52.
• Die Oberflächlichkeit des Digitalen [The Superficiality of the Digital]
  Das Wissen der Oberfläche. Ed. Christina Lechtermann and Stefan Rieger. Berlin–Zürich: Diaphanes 2015, pp. 253–266.
• Handschrift im digitalen Umfeld [Handwriting in the Digital Environment]
  Osnabrücker Beiträge zur Sprachtheorie (OBST) 85 (2014): 169–192.
• “Tap, tap, flap, flap.” Ludic Seriality, Digitality, and the Finger
  Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 8/1 (2014): 33–46.
• Digitalität als Taktilität. McLuhan, der Computer und die Taste [Digitality As Tactility: McLuhan, the Computer and the Key]
  Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 2 (2010): 125–134.

Recent talks

• 3D Printing: (Un)Making Seriality
  Seriality, Seriality Seriality. Freie Universität Berlin. Berlin. 22.6.2016.
• Kann man digitale Artefakte ertasten? [Can One Touch Digital Artifacts?]
  Prière de toucher: Der Tastsinn in der Kunst. Museum Tinguely. Basel. 8.4.2016.
• Wie der Computer zur Schreibmaschine wurde [How the Computer Became a Typewriter]
  Dies academicus. University of Bonn. Bonn 2.12.2015.
• 3D-Drucker: Zur Ideologie des Machens [3D Printers: On the Ideology of Making]
  Utopien: Wege aus der Gegenwart. Bayreuth University. Bayreuth. 3.10.2015.
• Rechnerraum, Kommandozeile, Formfaktor: Drei Gehäuse der Computer [Computer Room, Command Line, Form Factor: Three Cases of Computers]
  Gehäuse: Mediale Einkapselungen. University of Paderborn. Paderborn. 21.5.2015.

Recorded talks

• Spaces of Word Processing (19 min 26 s)
  “Das Büro als Interieur (1880–1960) – The Office as an Interior (1880–1960).” Swiss Federal Archives. Berne. 17.10.2013.
• Taste und Finger. Anmerkungen zum Begriff des Digitalen [Button and Finger. Some Remarks on the Concept of the Digital] (German; 45 min 15 s)
  “HyperKult 20: Trivialisierung.” Leuphana University. Lüneburg. 8.7.2011.
• Innis and Kittler: The Case of the Greek Alphabet
  “Media Transatlantic: Media Theory in North America and German-Speaking Europe.” University of British Columbia. Vancouver. 8.4.2010.
• Wolkentechnik. Verfügbarkeit und Zerstreuung [Cloud Technics: Disposability and Dissipation] (German; 51 min 12 s)
  HyperKult 18: “The Cloud.” Leuphana University. Lüneburg. 3.7.2009.

Texts available online (in alphabetical order)

• Ein Blick in den Rückspiegel. Zur Vergangenheit und Gegenwärtigkeit von Understanding Media [A Look in the Rear-View Mirror. On the Past and Presence of Understanding Media]
  Navigationen 2 (2014): 87–101.
• Buttons and Fingers: Our ‘Digital Condition’
  Paper presented at Media in Transition 7 “Unstable Platforms: the Promise and Perils of Transition.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 15.5.2011.
• Digital Decoding and the Techno-Logic of Representation
  Paper presented at the Annual conference of the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts “Decodings.” Atlanta, Georgia. 8.11.2009.
• Digitale Kodierung und Repräsentation. DVD, CSS und DeCSS [Digital Decoding and Representation: DVD, CSS, DeCSS]
  Navigationen 2 (2010): 95-112.
• Digitalität als Taktilität. McLuhan, der Computer und die Taste [Digitality As Tactility: McLuhan, the Computer and the Key]
  Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 2 (2010): 125-134.
• The Durable, the Portable, and the Processible
  Paper presented at Media in Transition 6 “Stone and Papyrus, Storage and Transmission.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 25.4.2009.
• Die Frage nach dem Digitalen [The Question Concerning the Digital]
  Paper presented at the Annual conference of the German Society for Media Studies “Spekulation.” University of Frankfurt. Frankfurt am Main. 4.10.2012.
• Innis and Kittler: The Case of the Greek Alphabet
  Paper presented at “Media Transatlantic.” University of British Columbia. Vancouver. 8.4.2010.
• Markup and Materiality
  Paper presented at the Conference of the European Society for Literature, Science and the Arts (SLSAeu) “Textures.” Stockholm School of Economics. Riga. 17.6.2010.
• README.1ST
  Preface to: Textverarbeitung. Eine Mediengeschichte des Computers als Schreibmaschine [Word Processing. A Media History of the Computer as a Writing Machine]. Bielefeld: transcript 2012.
• “Tap, tap, flap, flap.” Ludic Seriality, Digitality, and the Finger
  Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 8/1 (2014): 33–46.
• Wolkentechnik. Verfügbarkeit und Zerstreuung [Cloud Technics: Disposability and Dissipation]
  Paper presented at HyperKult 18 “The Cloud.” Leuphana University. Lüneburg. 3.7.2009.

Teaching

Full list in CV (PDF)

2015

• Netzkritik [Net Critique] (PDF)
  Graduate course. University of Bonn
• Friedrich Kittlers Medienwissenschaft [Friedrich Kittler’s Media Studies] (PDF)
  Undergraduate course. University of Vienna
• Personal Computer. Geschichte, Technik, Theorie [Personal Computer: History, Technology, Theory] (PDF)
  Graduate course. University of Bonn

2014

• McLuhan vs Kittler
  Undergraduate course. University of Siegen
• 50 Jahre Understanding Media [50 Years of Understanding Media]
  Undergraduate course. University of Siegen
• Theorien des Digitalen [Theories of Digitality]
  Undergraduate course. University of Basel

Code

Unix

• contacts.sh (version 0.2)
  Simple shell script for formatted output of data filtered from a CSV contacts file (see comments in code for further details)

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

• tah_Makros_v0.1.dotm (version 0.1)
  Global template containing VBA macros for easier typing of (typographic) quotes and editing of Word documents

Citation Style Language (CSL)

• Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft
• Leviathan
• Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften (Heilmann)
• Sozialwissenschaften (Heilmann)