Stephan Porombka

Stephan Porombka initially was a literary scholar at the Free University and the Humboldt University in Berlin, focusing on New Media; he was an early expert on hypertext as well as a slam poet and a journalist. In 2003, he became professor at the University of Hildesheim, where he initiated the degree courses "Creative Writing and Cultural Journalism" and "Literary Writing" and established the quality management for the entire university. In 2013, he became professor for textual theory and textual design at the Berlin University of the Arts. His work there focuses on ways to transform established concepts of literary, essayistic, and journalistic creativity and text production in a changing culture of writing under digital conditions. Since 2015, he has been a columnist for the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT.
 

Talk: Menschen des 21. Jahrhunderts (talk in German)

Track: Where Are We Now?
Date: Day 1 – 12:30
Location: Neufert-Mansion, Gelmeroda

Stephan Porombka will put on display the transformation of the people August Sander photographed for his project “Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts” (“People of the 20th Century”). Porombka’s “People of the 21st Century” appear first of all to themselves. Their selfies take the place of the sociological construction of individuality that Sander set out to document with his photographs. Almost a hundred years later, Porombka reconstructs the images on the display of his smartphone as variations of his own appearance. In his talk, he will discuss the rediscovery and further development of Sander’s encyclopedia under the conditions of the next modernity. He will also continue the “People of the 21st Century”-project in an improvised photo studio with the participants of the Digital Bauhaus Summit.
 

Photostudio: People of the 21st Century

Track: Modern Talking
Date: Day 1 – ongoing
Location: Neufert-Mansion, Gelmeroda

Stephan Porombka will set up a mobile photo studio for the time of the conference to continue and extend his documentary project "People of the 21st Century." He will take pictures of the participants of the conference and combine them with August Sander's images from "People of the 20th Century." The photos taken will be displayed in an online gallery which develops in real time. Everyone present is invited to pay Porombka a brief visit in his studio to be transformed by him into one of the people of the 21st century.