Benjamin Heidersberger (born in 1957 in Braunschweig, Germany) is a German

media art New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies, comprising virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robotics, 3D prin ...

ist, journalist, entrepreneur and culture manager. He lives and works in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's hea ...

Early life

Heidersberger studied physics, biology, and computer science at the

Technical University of Braunschweig The Technische Universität Braunschweig (unofficially University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology), commonly referred to as TU Braunschweig, is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. ...

in 1978. From 1978 to 1984, he was part of the interdisciplinary artist group ''Head Resonance Company'' in Wolfsburg. Along with vocalist and percussionist Peter Elsner, they conducted research on how ideas become reality in architecture, music, performance and installation.

Career

In 1984, he moved to

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

to work for a PC-dealer. From 1988 onward, he was an editor of the Computer-Magazine, ''MACup,'' about hardware and software, and later about art, technology, and society. In 1989, he co-founded the ''Ponton-Lab'' as an artist group and realised interactive media and TV-projects on

Documenta ''documenta'' is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. The ''documenta'' was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultura ...

- 8 and Documenta- IX, in Japan 1993 as well as on

Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in the ...

1986, 89, 90 and 96 under the brand ''Van Gogh TV''. In 1992, the international project Piazza virtuale was realised, transmitting during the 100 days of Documenta daily 90 minutes of live-TV from 12 studios across Europe. The same year he curated the exhibition "Creative Software – On Men and Milestones" at

. In 1993 and 1994, Heidersberger taught Design of Electronic Media at Merz-Academy in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

. Ponton-Lab was formed into a full-service internet agency with up to 20 employees and realised the websites for the Lower Saxony State Government and for the Federal Press Office and later the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1998 he launched Kulturserver, an

online community An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...

for art and culture consisting of online-services for 20.000 artists similar to

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

. The project was invited to present at the international conference “Cultura y Desarrollo” in Havana. In 2002, he founded the Heidersberger Institute in Wolfsburg Castle to archive and publish the work of his father, photographer Heinrich Heidersberger. The Institute collaborates with contemporary artists to contextualise that work. In the same year he was curator for netart on the 4th Werkleitz Binnale. Beginning in 2011 Heidersberger gave lectures at the Department of Media Studies and Musicology in

Humboldt-University The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick Willia ...

. In 2012, he curated and produced the concert of the Japanese composer Shinji Kanki, for the Alvar Aalto Festival in

. He realized the algorithmic piano composition Pentatonic Permutations in a series of concerts and sound installations, among others at

2016. In 2017, he began curating the production-arts festival ''Drehmoment'' for the ''KulturRegion Stuttgart''.kulturregion-stuttgart.de: Benjamin Heidersberger wird künstlerischer Leiter für das Projekt 2018
, 3. February 2017, retrieved July 16, 2018

Awards and nominations

* 1991 Smithsonian Award, Washington – Nominee * 1993 Siemens International Media Art award, by ZKM Karlsruhe * 1993

Prix Ars Electronica The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the best known and longest running yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria) ...

* 1994 Interactive Media Festival, Los Angeles – Nominee * 2000 Best of Business-to-Business Award, as CEO, category Multimedia * 2002 eMIL- Award, category User Interface * 2003 eMIL- Award, category Internet * 2004 WebFish award of the

Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (german: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheranism, Lutheran, Continental Reformed church, Reformed (Calvinism, Calvinist) and united and uniting churches, United ( ...

(EKD), category Innovation * 2008 WebFish of the EKD, category Internet

Bibliography

* Heinrich Heidersberger: ''Wolfsburg – Bilder einer jungen Stadt''. Herausgeber, with Bernd Rodrian, . * Johannes Ehrhardt (Hg.): ''Netzwerk-Dimensionen. Kulturelle Konfigurationen und Managementperspektiven, Die virtuelle Piazza''. 1992, . * Manfred Waffender (Hg.): Cyberspace : Ausflüge in virtuelle Wirklichkeiten, Die digitale Droge. 1993, * Christoph Ernst, Jens Schröter (Editors): (Re-)Imagining New Media. Techno-Imaginaries around 2000 and the case of "Piazza virtuale" (1992),

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heidersberger, Benjamin Living people 1957 births New media artists German multimedia artists