Biography
Till A. Heilmann is
a postdoctoral researcher at the CRC Virtual Lifeworlds at Ruhr University Bochum, working on digital image archives.
He studied German, media studies, and history.
Research associate at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Basel (2003–2014),
at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Siegen (2014–2015) and
at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Bonn (2015–2021);
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);
acting professor of Digital Media and Methods, and Media Theory at the University of Siegen (2020–2021, 2024).
Contact information
Till
A.
Heilmann,
PhD
Ruhr University Bochum, CRC Virtual Lifeworlds (1567)
Universitätsstraße 150,
GB 8/135,
DE-44801
Bochum
Tel. +49 234 32-27820,
e-mail: Till.Heilmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
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)
- Processed Pictures, Photoshop, and Unsharp Mask
International Journal for Digital Art History 8 (2021): 162-175.
- Friedrich Kittler’s Alphabetic Realism
Classics and Media Theory. Ed. Pantelis Michelakis. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2020, pp. 29–51.
- 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 20/1: 150–161.
- 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.
- 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
- GIF 0.0: On the Forgotten History of Early Networked Images
Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen. Essen. 5.6.2024.
- Was sagen einem 100.000 Zeilen Code? [What do 100,000 lines of code tell us?]
codes/verstehen: Die doppelte Hermeneutik von Source Codes. Leuphana University Lüneburg. Lüneburg. 11.5.2024.
- GIFs Galore! Online-Bildarchive am Vorabend des WWW [GIFs Galore! Online Image Archives on the Eve of the WWW]
Mögliche Muster: Zur Produktivität virtueller Bildarchive, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum. 29.6.2023.
- Photoshop and the Automation of Visual Culture
Workshop PhotoFutures, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, 19.6.2023
- Capture kaput? Datenarbeit mit Smart Speakern [Capture kaput? Data-labor with smart speakers]
Voice Assistants in Private Homes. CRC Media of Cooperation. University of Siegen. Siegen. 8.5.2023.
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.
- ASCII-Art. ChatGPT über Texte, Bilder, den Schwanz des Capybaras und sich selbst [ASCII Art: ChatGPT on Texts, Images, the Capybara’s Genital and Itself]
ChatGPT und andere ‘Quatschmaschinen’. Ed. Anna Tuschling, Andreas Sudmann and Bernhard J. Dotzler. Bielefeld: Transcript 2023, pp. 71–75.
- Ausschalter [Off Switch]
Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 30/1 (2024): 31–33. -
- The Beginnings of Word Processing: A Historical Account
Digital Writing Technologies in Higher Education. Ed. Otto Kruse et al. Cham: Springer 2023, pp. 3–14.
- 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.
- Friedrich Kittler: Die Eskalation der Medien [Friedrich Kittler: The Escalation of Media]
Together with Jens Schröter. Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft 1 (2024): 79–93.
- 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).
- Ontology and Ontography in Digital Imaging
Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturforschung 10/1 (2019): 133–146.
- Processed Pictures, Photoshop, and Unsharp Mask
International Journal for Digital Art History 8 (2021): 162-175.
- 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.
- Was heißt Originalerhalt digitaler Bilder? Authentizität und Materialität von frühen GIFs im Internet [What Does of Preservation of the Original Mean Concerning Digital Images? Authenticity and Materiality of Early GIFs on the Internet]
ARCHIV. theorie & praxis 1 (2024): 47–52.
- 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.
- Wie liest man 100.000 Zeilen Code? [How To Read 100,000 Lines of Code]
Quellcodekritik. Zur Philologie von Algorithmen. Ed. Hannes Bajohr and Markus Krajewski. August Verlag: Berlin 2024, pp. 87–125.
- 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)
2024
- Kulturtheorien im Licht der Medienwissenschaft [Cultural Theory in Light of Media Studies]
Undergraduate course. University of Siegen
- Einführung in die Medienwissenschaft II [Introduction to Media Studies II]
Undergraduate course. University of Siegen
- Vilém Flusser: Philosophie digitaler Medien [Vilém Flusser: Philosophy of Digital Media]
Undergraduate course. University of Siegen
- Critical Code Studies
Graduate course. University of Siegen
2023
- Zur Ästhetik digital verarbeiteter Bilder [On Aesthetics of Processed Images]
Undergraduate course. Ruhr University Bochum
- Geschichte der Personal Computer [History of Personal Computers]
Undergraduate course. Ruhr University Bochum
Selected courses from previous years
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
Citation Style Language (CSL)
