My journey

I started my professional career as an assistant of photography working with Glenn Watson and Ken Nahoun in the United States. On my return back to Germany I studied Photography at the Johannes-Gutenberg-School for Print and Media, Stuttgart. After having prepared a successful portfolio I got accepted to study Visual Communication at the University in Bielefeld which is one of Germany’s leading universities in Design. After having received my bachelor degree I then worked as a free lance photo journalist for leading German newspapers including the TAZ and die Zeit.

Over a year, I documented the change and shifts in East Germany, mainly in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern before and after the reunification. My photographic work lead to seven photo art exhibitions across Germany. The most spectacular exhibition named Radiopilze was based around radioactive contaminated mushrooms that I had collected 10 years after the Tschernobyl disaster. I had created chemo radiograms from the mushrooms and framed with lead.

 

I completed a masters in Media Sciences at the University of Tuebingen, and then joined one of Germany's leading multimedia companies 21Torr where I worked as a web developer and screen designer for three years. Out of 21Torr was Metropolis born. I became the co-founder and Senior Online Editor of the Metropolis AG, the leading online community in Germany at the time (1999) with over 1.3 million registered members. Together with Marcel Heyne I founded the first online art banner competition, held in conjunction with ZKM (Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany) and developed an online communication forum for democracy (Tower of Power) with members of the German parliament and Hermann Josef Hack (a German media artist and former scholar of Joseph Beuys). We developed a secure online voting system for the Greens of Germany that enabled them to vote on important matters without being physically at party meetings.

 

I was asked to develop and teach courses in Screen Design, Web Programming and Project Management as well as Net Art at the University in Furtwangen and Tuebingen, Germany.

After the 2000 dot.com bubble bust which more or less ruined our company I moved with my young family to Australia and have since taught in the area of new media design at several Australian universities including CQU, QUT and USC.

 

My main interest is in Design and Education and how both can complement each other. My research projects are focused on computer supported education that makes use of technology to reach out to different types of learners as well as disadvantaged learners. One of my past projects 'Jumping the Fence' is a computer-based educational adventure that challenges children to interact with the natural environment through exploration and experimentation. The latest research project ‘My Tertiary Education Day’ is using an electronic book to encourage young learners to reflect on their aspirations.

 

In my spare time, yes there is such a thing, I write novels (at least one so far) and travel with my wife Kate through Australia in our little tiny Suzuki Jimny – Go Jimny!

 

Professional memberships

  • American Computing Association (ACM)
  • Association for Computer Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (ACM SIGGRAPH)
  • Design Institute of Australia (DIA)
  • The Digital Industry Association for Australia (AIMIA)
  • Singapore Business Council of Australia Inc

Awards

  • USC's Office for Learning and Teaching Citation, 2013