Till Heilmann.info

News

• Talk
  Artificial Intelligence and (Dark) Enlightenment. The Democratization of Artificial Intelligence. University Bochum, EBZ, Springorumallee 20. 6.9.2018.
• Talk
  Programmierte Poesie. Zur Medialität computergenerierter Gedichte [Programmed Poetry: On the Mediality of Computer-Generated Poems]. Mediale Poetologien der Literatur. University of Basel, Forum eikones, Rheinsprung 11. 13.10.2018.
• Publikation
  Es gibt keine Software. Noch immer nicht oder nicht mehr [There is No Software – Still or Anymore]. In: Smartphone-Ästhetik. Zur Philosophie und Gestaltung mobiler Medien. Ed. Oliver Ruf. Bielefeld: Transcript 2018, pp. 159–178.
• Publikation/Online-Text
  Literaturverwaltungsprogramme und ‘Privatstile’: Ein Vorschlag zur freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle [Reference Management Software and ‘Private Styles’: A Proposal for Voluntary Self-Regulation]. In: Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 1 (2018), pp. 197–201.
• Publication/online text
  Comic Sans: The Typographer Replaced. In: Unterweiss Bulletin 2 (2018)
• Publication
  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]. In: 3D-Druck (= Sprache und Literatur 115–116, 2015). Ed. together with Christoph Ernst, Thomas Hensel and Jens Schröter, pp. 6–20.
• Publication
  Ambient. Ed. together with Jens Schröter, Gregor Schwering and Dominik Maeder. Berlin–Heidelberg: Springer 2018.
• Publication/online text
  Der Klang der breiten Rille [The Sound of the Wide Groove]. Reply to Erhard Schüttpelz’s contribution on the question of operational chains in Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie 3 (2017).
• Book project
  Photoshop. Das Bildarchiv der Gegenwart [Photoshp. Image Archive of the Present]
• Code
  referenz-geisteswissenschaften-heilmann.csl (30.01.2018), “reference” citation style for German humanities (see comments in code for further details).

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)

• 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.
• 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).
• 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.
• 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.
• 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

• Digitale Bildformate. Das Beispiel Adobe Photoshop [Digital Image Formats: Adobe Photoshop]
  Vom Medium zum Format. University of Bochum. Bochum. 15.9.2017.
• The Allure of the Ancients: On Kittler and the Greek Alphabet
  Media and Classics. University of Bristol. Bristol. 26.11.2016.
• 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.
• Zum Bonner Programm einer neo-kritischen Medienwissenschaft [On a Scheme for a Neo-Critical Approach in Media Studies]
  (zus. mit Jens Schröter) Navigationen 2 (2016), S. 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.
• 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).
• 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.
• 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)

2018

• 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)
• metternich.c (version 0.1.4)
  Text-based Metternich solitaire game in C

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