Sascha Pohflepp (30 January 1978 – 17 June 2019) was a German artist, designer, and writer whose work focused on the role of technology’s influence on the environment, often collaborating with scientists and other artists to explore this theme.[1]

Sascha Pohflepp
Born30 January 1978
Cologne, Germany
Died17 June 2019 (2019-06-18) (aged 41)
Berlin, Germany
NationalityGerman
Occupation(s)Artist, designer, writer

Biography

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Born in Cologne, Pohflepp received his diploma at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2006 under media artist and designer Joachim Sauter, after studying during a guest term at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris with Brice Dellsperger [fr].[2] In 2009, he received is Masters of Arts in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art in London, UK, where he worked with Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby, Noam Toran.[3]

In 2015, Pohflepp began his doctoral work with Benjamin H. Bratton in the PhD Program in Art History, Theory and Criticism with a concentration in Art Practice in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego.[4] In Fall 2018, he advanced to candidacy with dissertation research on a new theory of "post-rational design", which interrelates discourses on the inhuman with the assemblage theory of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and a rethinking of the Anthropocene. This project was influenced by his participation in the graduate specialization track in anthropogeny at the Center for Academic Research & Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) at the University of California, San Diego, where he was an Annette Merle-Smith Fellow and worked with the anthropologist Pascal Gagneux.[5]

As an artist and designer, Pohflepp explored these ideas in such works as Growth Assembly (2009, with Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, illustrations by Sion Ap Tomos); Spacewalk (2017); Deep Unlearning (I) (2018, with Chris Woebken); and Those Who (2019).[6]

Work

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Pohflepp created work on the subjects of synthetic biology, geo-engineering, artificial intelligence, and space exploration, and been credited with extending the framework of Critical Design into the realm of elaborate Counterfactuals and other modes of narrative.[7]

His work has been included in numerous international exhibitions, including Talk to Me: Design and Communication between People and Objects at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Grow Your Own: Life After Nature at The Science Gallery in Dublin; Hyperlinks: Architecture and Design at The Art Institute of Chicago; and New Order at the Mediamatic Fabriek in Amsterdam.[8] He received two Honorary Mentions from the VIDA Art and Artificial Life Awards and was an Eyebeam resident in 2013.[9] In 2015, he was shortlisted for the Berlin Art Prize.[10]

His essay "Living Machines," co-authored with Sheref S. Mansy, is part of the 2017 book, Synthetic Aesthetics: Investigating Synthetic Biology's Designs on Nature published with MIT Press.[11]

References

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  1. ^ Bianconi, Giampaolo (7 March 2013). "Artist Profile: Sascha Pohflepp". Rhizome. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
  2. ^ "Sascha Pohflepp". pohflepp.net. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  3. ^ "Sascha Pohflepp". pohflepp.net. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  4. ^ "Sascha Pohflepp". visarts.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  5. ^ "Sascha Pohflepp | Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA)". carta.anthropogeny.org. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  6. ^ "Sascha Pohflepp". pohflepp.net. Archived from the original on 14 July 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  7. ^ Dunne, T. & Raby, F., Speculative Everything, The MIT Press, p. 84
  8. ^ Pohflepp, Sascha. "CV". Pohflepp.com. Archived from the original on 4 July 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  9. ^ "Sascha Pohflepp". Eyebeam. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  10. ^ "Berlin Art Prize - 2015". Berlin Art Prize. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  11. ^ SYNTHETIC AESTHETICS : investigating synthetic biology's designs. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. 2017. ISBN 978-0262534017. OCLC 967826171.
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