talks

Talk about my sabbatical semester in Aotearoa/New Zealand in winter 2024/25. I explored the question of how game design can contribute positively to the climate and sustainability debate. During my research semester, I exchanged theory for practice: in an artistic residency in a renaturation project in Kawakawa (Aotearoa/New Zealand), I literally stood with my feet in the swamp – searching for a meaningful creative contribution. The lecture took place on October 21st 2025 as part of the Jour Fix programme at Burg Giebichenstein - University of Art and Design Halle. Produced with the kind support of BURG StreamLab. ...

On Wednesday 7.12.22 I was invited to give a keynote on the panel Intermediality/Hybrid Form as part of the symposium Umbruch Film by werkleitz in Halle. In my talk I gave a presentation on changing media reception in immersive media and what the challenges and strategies are in developing immersive narrative worlds. This panel dealt with questions of how complex narratives can be conceived and produced not only as FIlm, but also in other media forms (video installation, VR & AR, apps and internet applications, podcasts, etc). Participating were: Clemens von Wedemeyer, Marleine van der Werf, Paul Kirsten, Katharina Weser, Maren Schuster, Lars Rummel, Thomas Taube, Ralph Wendt, Ana Maria Vallejo and Peter Zorn as host. ...

As part of the #SpielKlima conference from 3 to 6 May 2022, I gave a talk about Potentials, Opportunities and Risks of Digital Games in the Climate Discourse - “Games for Future”, showing projects we do at Multimedia|VR-Design at BURG. I ended the presentation with the statement that: Games can … ● create awareness ● create empathy ● change behaviour (nudging) … and much more! Players should … ● look at their own footprint (energy consumption and use of resources) ● question their own gaming behavior and interests. ...

In September I was together with Milan Grajetzki in Mexico City for an presentation and workshop at Facultad de Artes y Diseño FAD UNAM. It was a very nice crowd and we had lots of interesting discussions, till the earth began to shake and reality felt more virtual than VR … Watch the presentation online. Stream of the full presentation and performance:

In September 2016 I gave a talk about framing in animation, games and art at the Expanded Animation symposium that was part of the Ars Electronica Festival 2016 in Linz. In this talk I focused on strategies that expand and question the traditional use of the screen and actively incorporate the human body and the physical space. Not only since the renaissance of virtual reality has the rigid format of the screen as a frame been challenged, but also through a long history of artistic inquiries that explored the boundaries between the real and the mediated space. The question we have to ask ourselves is to what extent these expanded spaces create a deeper understanding of reality or completely cut us off via immersive simulations of existence. I showed examples of my own work and also work of students of the newly formed department exMedia at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne to open discussions about the hybrid forms in art, animation and games. ...

A short references list of a talk I gave at the Game Studies at the Museum event at Museum of Applied Arts Cologne (MAKK) on Nov. 27th. presented art works Q4U, Feng Mengbo, Documenta 11, 2002 Long March: Restart, Feng Mengbo, MoMa, 2008 Computerspielen – perspectives of play exhibition, Next Level Conference 2013 A Mesmerizing Game of Snake, Animated GIF, Author Unknown 2013 Golden Calf, ////////fur////, 2012 Bejing Accelerator, Marnix De Nijs, 2006 ...

RULES: make + break, making rules for critical play Reference list of a talk I gave at the TH Köln as part of the KISDtalks (Program PDF) on Oct. 27th. Game of Life, John Conway, 1970 16-bit ALU in minecraft, theinternetftw, Sep. 2010 assassin creed / paris photography, Damien Hypolite Modern Chess, Europe, 9th century GO, China, 2500 B.C. Backgammon, Iran, 3000 B.C. Skinner’s Box, B. F. Skinner, 1930s “draw a straight line and follow it” – Composition No.10, La Monte Young, 1960 ...

July 8th-10th, 2010, Leuphana University Lüneburg Hyperkult is an annual workshop/symposium on computer science, culture and society at Leuphana University Lüneburg. This year’s theme is “Mobiles – You Are Now Here”. The KHM participates with a talk/performance entitled “Context Aware Devices – Context Aware Users” presenting artistic strategies for mobile devices and data spaces. The presentation is given by Jonas Hansen, Thomas Hawranke, Laura Popplow, Martin Rumori and Lasse Scherffig. ...

I gave an overview presentation of all kind of augmented reality activities for the master class at the Amsterdam film academy. During the talk, I showed lots of video examples. Here is an overview of most works I showed: A good resource about augmented reality is the site: http://gamesalfresco.com/