Mediating Practice

My artistic-pedagogical approach combines experimental media art with cultural educational work. In my workshops, projects, and exhibitions, I connect traditional forms of expression with contemporary technologies. Participatory processes are central, as learners are encouraged to incorporate their own ideas and themes into artistic formats. From university seminars to workshops and the Flying Artist's Room, artistic activation is at the forefront of my process. Through experimental media, participatory methods, and socially relevant topics, participants learn to perceive art as an open, collaborative, and exploratory process. This not only results in creative outcomes but also fosters personal and communal development steps.

The Fliegendes Künstler:innenzimmer (“Flying Artist’s Room”) is a mobile, multi-year artist-in-residence initiative by the Crespo Foundation in partnership with the Hessian Ministries of Education and Culture. Designed to function as a live-in studio on school grounds in rural Hesse, the project aims to integrate artistic research into daily life, fostering cultural participation beyond urban centers. In Wolfhagen, this expanded format landed at the Walter-Lübcke-Schule in October 2023, establishing a fully equipped artist studio where I live, work, and engage directly with the community over three days each week. The permanent presence of an artist enables deep collaboration, experimentation, and meaningful dialogue between contemporary art practice and local context, a model I built upon throughout my residency.

„That felt like an airplane crash! Can we do this every morning?!“ Adil 13, Hauptschüler

This statement was made at 7:45 in the morning following sound experiments in my studio. Alongside sharing my own practice, I established an open, process-oriented space for research, art, and community during my residency at the Walter-Lübcke-Schule, aiming to sustainably inspire youth in rural areas toward collective artistic thinking.

Layover (Zwischenlandung) – Workshop, Game & Exhibition

As part of the Fliegendes Künstler:innenzimmer residency at the Walter-Lübcke-Schule in Wolfhagen, I carried out the multi-phase collaborative project Layover (Zwischenlandung) together with designer Tang Wan-Jung. Students first developed 2D drawings of imaginative flying creatures, birds, and airborne hybrid machines on paper, before engineering them into 3D folded paper mockups.

All student sketches and prototypes were digitized and converted into vector drawings and 3D CAD models. In the residency workshop, each component was precision laser-cut from wood and subsequently painted by hand by the students according to their original color patterns and graphic designs.

In parallel, the full collection of student-created models was integrated into a dynamic 3D virtual environment. This resulted in the official exhibition poster as well as an interactive 3D browser simulation game (Zwischenlandung), where the flock of student-designed creatures navigates in real time through an expansive virtual sunset landscape.

From August 19 to September 14, 2025, the work was showcased in a group exhibition at the Crespo Foundation in Frankfurt. The physical wooden sculptures were displayed on custom rolling transport-crate plinths alongside a large interactive screen installation where visitors could explore and guide the digital swarm in real time.

Café Nimmersatt: Vacancies as Potential

Under my guidance as part of a project, a group of students analyzed vacant spaces in Wolfhagen. Following the analysis, students developed various usage concepts—from a historical museum in the bunkers to a reading café. A crucial cornerstone of the project has been the close, active cooperation with the City of Wolfhagen (Stadt Wolfhagen): the city and Mayor Dirk Scharrer have provided immense institutional and personal support from the very inception of the project right through to today.

The project was awarded 20,000 euros by the Hessian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Energy, Transport, Housing and Rural Areas through the "Ab in die Mitte!" competition. With this funding and municipal collaboration, we renovated an empty storefront on Burgstraße and officially opened "Café Nimmersatt" in November 2025. The project represents active democracy building: A diverse group of young people takes full responsibility, designs the interior, makes operational decisions, and manages the space.

Thanks to the support of the local bookstore, Manders, we received tremendous book donations to fill the shelves. Today, the space operates with a vision of future self-organization, hosting peer-to-peer teaching events like origami and electronic music workshops, alongside small exhibitions and readings, such as a session with artist Colo Kraft.

Demokratie, ein Poetry Slam

For Democracy Day, the Fliegendes Künstler:innenzimmer produced a small booklet featuring the students' poetry slam texts on the topic of democracy. These texts were performed at Kassel's Martinskirche during the memorial service for the 5th anniversary of Walter Lübcke's death in the presence of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and received great recognition.

To honor their work, we compiled the 15 texts into a published book, which was handed directly to the Federal President at the memorial. Following a series of right-wing and antisemitic graffiti incidents at the school, we also generated a QR code linking to a digital download of the book. This code was distributed across the school as a firm statement against hate and intolerance, and was prominently featured at our summer festival.

Animate the Facade

In the workshop Animate the Facade, part of the Children's University at the University of Applied Sciences Wels/Linz/Hagenberg, young people designed animations for the façade of Ars Electronica. After an introduction to stop-motion technology and public art, they developed their own messages for public space: What do I want to communicate to Linz or the world? Using an intuitive digital drawing tool I programmed specifically for the workshop, they created animated sequences – from a "Love is Love" rainbow flag to European Championship-enthusiastic country colours to a flickering error signal. The workshop combined artistic practice with social reflection and strengthened awareness of media design in urban space.

Future 2 – It Will Have Been

Together with a youth group, the concept of art was expanded over a period of one week, a small project with microcontrollers was implemented, and an artistic project in public space was developed. Crucially, the kids took over: they processed their lockdown experiences and visions of the future by organizing an "illegal" Corona Party installation, powerfully manifesting what they missed most during the pandemic. This intervention demonstrated how participatory art enables youth to reclaim public space and their own voices in times of crisis.

Material & Process

The seminar "Material & Process" places the material at the center of every artistic work – whether physical/haptic (wood, paper, textile) or structural/immaterial (algorithms). We look at interdependencies between the digital and physical worlds by experimenting with analogue and digital processes (laser cutting, Riso printing, 3D printing, stamping).

This seminar focuses on seeing material as an independent element that can not only be manipulated, but also has its own qualities and resistances. The participants should get to know these qualities and apply them in their own artistic projects.