Obsolete Futures – A Media-Archaeological Re-Evaluation of Technical Artifacts

This page presents research in media studies and media philosophy, with a focus on media archaeology, philosophy of technology, and new organology.

Curriculum Vitae
Research topics
Talks & Teaching
Residencies, Scholar- & Fellowships
Publications
Addenda and Errata
Epistemic Probes
Contact

birth – death

learning new things

My research investigates musical instruments, programming, and technical systems as operative media, exploring how these artifacts configure knowledge, perception, and action across historical, obsolete, speculative, and contemporary contexts.

strange, forgotten and speculative musical instruments
‘obsolete’ media and technologies
patents of the 19th and early 20th century
generative systems for sound and visuals
programming and ‘artificial intelligence’

The case of tampico at Oxford University: Materiality and Meaning of Musical Instruments – june-27-30-2024 (talk)
Rückkopplung als Material und Methode at EvH RWL Bochum – june-4-2024 (talk/workshop)
Poiesis as research at IAMAS Institute of Advanced Media Art and Sciences – february-13-2024 (talk)
Ungehörte Geschichte(n) – Streichklaviere des Deutschen Museums at Deutsches Museum: Arbeitskreis Forschung – february-06-2024 (online talk)
ki macht schule?! at KHM: other minds – lecture series #2 – june-29-2023 (seminar)
feedback sounds at KHM: ground zero – summer semester 2023 (seminar/workshop)
lofi sampler/looper at KHM: ground zero – summer semester 2023 (seminar/workshop)
cassette loop…cassette loop…cassette loop… at KHM: ground zero – winter semester 2022/23 (seminar/workshop)
meta matter(s) no. 5 at ZKM: next generation 9.0 – june-22-2022 (talk/performance)
experiments and/as improvisations at KHM: Artistic research – in the wild – may-27-2022 (seminar)
hidden sounds at KHM: ground zero – winter semester 2021/22 (seminar/workshop)

(1.3.-31.10.2026) Guest researcher at Forschungsinstitut für Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte – Deutsches Museum Munich (fellowship)
(20.5.-20.7.2024) Scholar in residence at Forschungsinstitut für Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte – Deutsches Museum Munich (residency + scholarship)
(5.2.-3.5.2024) Guest researcher at IAMAS Institute for Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (residency)
(15.9.-15.12.2023) Scholar in residence at Forschungsinstitut für Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte – Deutsches Museum Munich (residency + scholarship)
(2.7.-4.8.2023) Reverse engineering and experimental archaeology at Greifenberg Institute of Organology (residency)
(3.7.-15.7.2022) The poetics of making at Palazzo Ricci – European Academy of Music and Performing Arts (residency + workshop)

(in preparation) Baudet – The Piano-Quatuor and its maker in 19th century Paris, DM Studies, Munich: Deutsches Museum Verlag.
(2025) Rediscovering Dr. Richard Eisenmann – A Microhistory of the Electrophonic Piano, (doctoral thesis), Cologne: Academy of Media Arts.
(2025) “Max Ainmiller und sein Orpheon,” Musik in Bayern Band 89, Jahrgang 2024, München: Allitera Verlag, pp. 119-132.
(2025) “What is it like to create a bow – Poiesis as research,” in Trogemann G. (ed.) The Unknown in Design, Art and Technology, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, pp. 103-125.
(2024) “Wilhelm Uebelacker – (Nicht nur) Erbauer eines neuen Musikinstruments,” Deutsches Museum Munich.
(2023) “meta matters no. 5,” KHM Magazin #1, pp. 95-100.
(2022) “Creation as experiment – A pragmatic approach to being in the world,” in Trogemann, G. and Butz, K. (eds.) In the making. Cologne: Academy of Media Arts, pp. 17-47.
(2022) “Experiment and expectation – Exploring the social life of ink dots,” in Trogemann, G. and Butz, K. (eds.) In the making. Cologne: Academy of Media Arts, pp. 49-56.
(2022) “The end of copyright,” Montepulciano Journal – The poetics of making, pp. 99-105.

(2025) Rediscovering Dr. Richard Eisenmann – A Microhistory of the Electrophonic Piano

Another patent application by Eisenmann in Austria for Elektromagnetische Vorrichtung zur Erzeugung und Verlängerung von Tönen an Klavieren und anderen musikalischen Instrumenten.

A letter from Oskar von Chelius to Hermann von Helmholtz, stating that Eisenmann had demonstrated his invention to Helmholtz and expressing Chelius’s opinion of the apparatus.