Till Heilmann.info

News

• Project
  The Processed Picture: Imaging in the Age of Photoshop. Principal Investigator, funded by the DFG at the University of Bonn within the SPP Das digitale Bild (2172), 2020–2022.
• Online text
  Reading the source code for Adobe Photoshop (part I). SPP Das Digitale Bild (blog). 14.10.2020.
• Publication/online text
  Blackbox Bildfilter. Unscharfe Maske von Photoshop zur Röntgentechnischen Versuchsanstalt Wien [Black Box Image Filter: Unsharp Mask from Photoshop to the X-Ray Research Institute Vienna]. In: Navigationen 2 (2020), pp. 75–93.
• Publication/online text
  Formatwechsel. Zur Methodendebatte [Format Change: On the Debate on Methods]. Together with Florian Sprenger and Christoph Engemann. In: Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 2 (2020), pp. 188–191.
• Publication/online text
  Anfänge. Über Diskurse der Digitalisierung [Beginnings: On Discourses of Digitization]. In: Wovon sprechen wir, wenn wir von Digitalisierung sprechen? Ed. Martin Huber, Sybille Krämer and Claus Pias. Bayreuth: University of Bayreuth 2020, pp. 13–35.
• Publication
  Friedrich Kittler’s Alphabetic Realism. In: Classics and Media Theory. Ed. Pantelis Michelakis. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2020, pp. 29–51.
• Code
  doom_fire.sh (version 0.2), DOOM Terminal Fire for the Bash shell (after Fabien Sanglard).

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 image processing
• algorithms and computer programming
• North American and German media theory

Publications (selection)

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

• Blackbox Bildfilter. Unscharfe Maske von Photoshop zur Röntgentechnischen Versuchsanstalt Wien [Black Box Image Filter: Unsharp Mask from Photoshop to the X-Ray Research Institute Vienna]
  Navigationen 2 (2020): 75–93.
• Ontology and Ontography in Digital Imaging
  Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung 10/1 (2019): 133–146.
• Es gibt keine Software. Noch immer nicht oder nicht mehr [There is No Software – Still or Anymore]
  Smartphone-Ästhetik. Zur Philosophie und Gestaltung mobiler Medien. Ed. Oliver Ruf. Bielefeld: Transcript 2018, pp. 159–178.
• Jede/r, alles, immer, überall. Zum Diskurs des Machens am Beispiel 3D-Druck [Anyone, Anything, Anytime, Anywhere: On the Discourse of Making Using 3D Printing as an Example]
  Sprache und Literatur 115–116 (2015): 6–20.
• Married… with a Mission
  (together with Anna Tuschling) Von Game of Thrones bis The Walking Dead. Interpretation von Kultur in Serie. Ed. Timo Storck and Svenja Taubner. Berlin–Heidelberg: Springer 2017, pp. 67–86.
• Der Klang der breiten Rille [The Sound of the Wide Groove] (Reply to Erhard Schüttpelz)
  Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie 3 (2017), online.
• 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.
• Reciprocal Materiality and the Body of Code
  Digital Culture & Society 1/1 (2015): 39–52.
• 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

• Ancestral Sin: Orality and literacy in classical media theory
  Siren Echoes: Sound, Image, and the Media of Antiquity. Cornell University. Ithaca. 8.11.2019.
• Computer Images and Imaginations – CGI in the Early 1990s
  (Re-)Imagining New Media in Art & Popular Culture at the End of the 20th Century. University of Bonn. Bonn. 11.10.2019.
• Interfaces in Photoshop. Zur Materialität digitaler Bilder [Interfaces in Photoshop: On the Materiality of Digital Images]
  Medien-Materialitäten (GfM-Jahrestagung 2019). University of Cologne. Cologne. 27.9.2019.
• How Writing Turned Digital
  Academic Writing in Digital Contexts: Analytics, Tools, Mediality. Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Winterthur. 6.9.2019.
• Diskurse des Digitalen [Discourses of the Digital]
  Wovon sprechen wir, wenn wir von Digitalisierung sprechen? University of Bayreuth. Bayreuth. 13.02.2019.
• Das Internet in der Geschichte der Medien [The Internet in the History of Media]
  Lecture series Education and Digitality. University of Bochum. Bochum. 13.11.2018.
• Ontography and Digital Imaging
  Ontography: Procedures, Problems, Prospects. Internationales Kolleg für Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie. Weimar. 19.10.2018.
• Programmierte Poesie. Zur Medialität computergenerierter Gedichte [Programmed Poetry: On the Mediality of Computer-Generated Poems]
  Mediale Poetologien der Literatur. University of Basel. Basel. 13.10.2018.
• Artificial Intelligence and (Dark) Enlightenment
  The Democratization of Artificial Intelligence. University of Bochum. Bochum. 6.9.2018.

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.
• 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)

• Anfänge. Über Diskurse der Digitalisierung [Beginnings: On Discourses of Digitization]
  Wovon sprechen wir, wenn wir von Digitalisierung sprechen? Ed. Martin Huber, Sybille Krämer and Claus Pias. Bayreuth: University of Bayreuth 2020, pp. 13–35.
• >Blackbox Bildfilter. Unscharfe Maske von Photoshop zur Röntgentechnischen Versuchsanstalt Wien [Black Box Image Filter: Unsharp Mask from Photoshop to the X-Ray Research Institute Vienna]
  Navigationen 2 (2020): 75–93.
• 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.
• Zum Bonner Programm einer neo-kritischen Medienwissenschaft [On a Scheme for a Neo-Critical Approach in Media Studies]
  (together with Jens Schröter) Navigationen 2 (2016): 7–101.
• 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.
• Comic Sans: The Typographer Replaced
  Unterweiss Bulletin 2 (2018).
• 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.
• 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.
• Formatwechsel. Zur Methodendebatte [Format Change: On the Debate on Methods]
  (Together with Florian Sprenger and Christoph Engemann) Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 2 (2020): 188–191.
• 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.
• 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.
• Der Klang der breiten Rille [The Sound of The Wide Groove] (Reply to Erhard Schüttpelz)
  Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie 3 (2017).
• Literaturverwaltungsprogramme und ‘Privatstile’: Ein Vorschlag zur freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle [Reference Management Software and ‘Private Styles’: A Proposal for Voluntary Self-Regulation]
  Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 1 (2018): 197–201.
• 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.
• Medien verstehen: Marshall McLuhans Understanding Media [Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media]
  (Ed. together with Jens Schröter) Lüneburg: Meson Press 2017 (CC-BY-SA 4.0).
• Reading the source code for Adobe Photoshop (part I)
  SPP Das Digitale Bild (blog). 14.10.2020.
• 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.
• Reciprocal Materiality and the Body of Code. A Close Reading of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
  Digital Culture & Society 1/1 (2015): 39–52.
• “Tap, tap, flap, flap.” Ludic Seriality, Digitality, and the Finger
  Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 8/1 (2014): 33–46.
• Wege und Ziele. Die unstete Methodik der Medienwissenschaft [Paths and Goals. The Wandering Methodology of Media Studies]
  (Together with Christoph Engemann and Florian Sprenger) Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 1 (2019), pp. 150–161.
• Worin haust ein Computer? Über Seinsweisen und Gehäuse universaler diskreter Maschinen [In What Does a Computer Reside? On the Modes of Existence and Casings of Universal Discrete Machines]
  Gehäuse: Mediale Einkapselungen. Ed. Christina Bartz, Timo Kaerlein, Monique Miggelbrink and Christoph Neubert. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink 2017, pp. 35–51.
• 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)

2019

• Medien und Mediengeschichtsschreibung: Digitale Medien [Media and Media Historiography] (PDF)
  Graduate course. University of Bonn
• Programmieren als Kulturtechnik [Programming as a Cultural Technique]
  Graduate course. University of Bonn

2018

• Zur Medialität digitaler Medien [On the Mediality of Digital Media]
  Graduate course. University of Bonn
• Geschichte und Theorie der digitalen Bildbearbeitung [History and Theory of Digital Image Processing]
  Graduate course. University of Bonn

2017

• Kulturtechnische Prinzipien digitaler Medien [Cultural Principles of Digital Media]
  Undergraduate course. University of Bonn
• Programmieren als Kulturtechnik [Programming as a Cultural Technique]
  Graduate course. University of Bonn

2016

• Digitales Do it yourself [Digital Do It Yourself] (PDF)
  Graduate course. University of Bonn
• Kulturtechnische Prinzipien digitaler Medien [Cultural Principles of Digital Media] (PDF)
  Undergraduate course. University of Bonn

2015

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

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 0.2.1)
  Simple shell script for formatted output of data filtered from a CSV contacts file (see comments in code for further details)
• doom_fire.sh (version 0.2)
  DOOM Terminal Fire for the Bash shell (after Fabien Sanglard)
• metternich.c (version 0.1.4)
  Text-based Metternich solitaire game
• napoleon.c (version 0.4)
  One-deck Napoleon solitaire using Unicode characters (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

BASIC

• STTR1_TAH_20171123.patch
  Patch for STTR1, the oldest surviving version of the text-based Star Trek video game from the 1970s, to make it run on modern BASIC interpreters like Chipmunk BASIC (see comments in code for further details)

Citation Style Language (CSL)

• Referenz Geisteswissenschaften (Heilmann) (30.01.2018)
  “Reference” citation style for German humanities (see comments in code for further details)
• Leviathan (German)
• Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung (German)
• Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft (German)
• Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften (Heilmann) (German)
• Sozialwissenschaften (Heilmann) (German)