Sascha Pohflepp (January 30, 1978 – June 17, 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.

Biography

Born in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

, Pohflepp received his diploma at the

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universit ...

in 2006 under media artist and designer

Joachim Sauter Joachim Sauter (16 May 1959 – 10 July 2021) was a German media artist, designer and technology entrepreneur. He was appointed Professor for New Media Art and Design at the Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK (Berlin University of the Arts) in ...

, after studying during a guest term at the

École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs The École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ÉnsAD, also known as Arts Decos', École des Arts Décoratifs) is a public grande école of art and design of PSL Research University. The school is located in the Rue d'Ulm in Paris. Prof ...

(ENSAD) in Paris with . In 2009, he received is Masters of Arts in Design Interactions at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It of ...

in London, UK, where he worked with

Anthony Dunne Anthony Dunne is a critical designer, educator and founder of the art group Dunne and Raby. He runs the studio with his long term partner and collaborator Fiona Raby. He was a reader at the Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA ...

Fiona Raby Fiona Raby (born 1963) is a British artist and University Professor of Design and Social Inquiry at The New School. She served as professor of Industrial Design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She was also a member of the research and te ...

, Noam Toran. In 2015, Pohflepp began his doctoral work with

Benjamin H. Bratton Benjamin H. Bratton (born 1968) is an American Philosopher of Technology known for his work spanning social theory, computer science, design, artificial intelligence, and for his writing on the geopolitical implications of what he terms "planetar ...

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 The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

. 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 Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

and a rethinking of the

Anthropocene The Anthropocene ( ) is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. , neither the International Commission ...

. This project was influenced by his participation in the graduate specialization track in anthropogeny at th
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. 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).

Work

Pohflepp created work on the subjects of

synthetic biology Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary area of research that seeks to create new biological parts, devices, and systems, or to redesign systems that are already found in nature. It is a branch of science that encompasses a broad ran ...

geo-engineering Climate engineering (also called geoengineering) is a term used for both carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM), also called solar geoengineering, when applied at a planetary scale.IPCC (2022Chapter 1: Introduction and F ...

, artificial intelligence, and space exploration, and been credited with extending the framework of

Critical Design Critical design makes aspects of future physically present to provoke a reaction. ''"Critical design is critical thought translated into materiality. It is about thinking through design rather than through words and using the language and structu ...

into the realm of elaborate

Counterfactuals Counterfactual conditionals (also ''subjunctive'' or ''X-marked'') are conditional sentences which discuss what would have been true under different circumstances, e.g. "If Peter believed in ghosts, he would be afraid to be here." Counterfactual ...

and other modes of narrative. His work has been included in numerous international exhibitions, includin
''Talk to Me: Design and Communication between People and Objects''
at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting 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 The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and list of largest art museums, largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visit ...

; and
New Order
' at the Mediamatic Fabriek in Amsterdam. He received two Honorary Mentions from the VIDA Art and Artificial Life Awards and was an Eyebeam resident in 2013. In 2015, he was shortlisted for the

Berlin Art Prize The ''Berliner Kunstpreis'' (Berlin Art Prize), officially Großer Berliner Kunstpreis, is a prize for the arts by the City of Berlin. It was first awarded in 1948 in several fields of art. Since 1971, it has been awarded by the Academy of Arts ( ...

. 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.

References

External links

*
Sascha Pohflepp
anthropocene-curriculum.org
Sascha Pohflepp
hkw.de
Sascha Pohflepp
rca.ac.uk
Sascha Pohflepp: Power Points of the Far Future
www.hmkv.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Pohflepp, Sascha Artists from Cologne Synthetic biology artists 1978 births 2019 deaths 21st-century German artists Berlin University of the Arts alumni