my up-to-date c.v. - if you need my bio for an event, please don’t copy/paste it from other sites, because they are likely to contain outdated information.
Florian Cramer [Taiwanese name 官無名] (1969), reader/practice-oriented research professor in Autonomous Art and Design Practices at Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
My up-to-date publication list can be found here.
Most recent:
Lumbung, Commons and Community Art, co-authored with Simon Kentgens, Rotterdam: HumDrumPress, 2023, 136 pages (print and Open Access)
A Near-sighted Falling into Technology: Through the Looking Glass of Art Practice as Human Self-Experimentation, Accidents and Coincidence, co-authored with Elaine W. Ho, in: Joke Brouwer & Sjoerd van Tuinen (eds.), Technological Accidents, Accidental Technologies, Rotterdam: V2_ Publishing, 2023, pp. 60-80
Making Matters. A Vocabulary for Collective Arts, editorial committee: Florian Cramer (WdKA), Anja Groten (Hackers & Designers), Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (Het Nieuwe Instituut), Pia Louwerens, Marie-José Sondeijker (West Den Haag), Janneke Wesseling (Leiden University), with contributions by among others Display Distribute / Elaine W. Ho, Feral Atlas / Lili Carr & Feifei Zhou, Jatiwangi art Factory / Bunga Siagian & Ismal Muntaha, Dani Ploeger, Kate Rich, Femke Snelting, Olu Taiwo, Z. Blace, Amsterdam: Valiz, 2022
Artistic Research: Dead on Arrival?, published in Henk Slager (ed.), The Postresearch Condition, Utrecht: Metropolis M Books, 2021 (and as grey literature by 展銷場 Display Distribute)
Postdigital: A Term That Sucks but Is Useful (interview by Petar Jandric), in: Postdigital Science and Education, Vol. 3, 966–989 (2021), Springer
I blog and do photo journalism, mostly on Rotterdam’s DIY arts, on the social network diaspora.
My moving images are here.
I am a reader (in Dutch: lector, in Canadian English: research chair in Research-Creation, in non-UK English: practice-oriented research professor) in 21st Century Visual Culture at Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, Netherlands, an art and design school which is part of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool Rotterdam).
I do my best to teach, on a project basis, in as many departments of my school as possible, both on the B.A. level and in the different Masters programs of the Piet Zwart Institute (which is part of Willem de Kooning Academy).
Within the research department of my school, I am specialized in Autonomous Practices, one of our three B.A. graduation profiles. The Autonomous Practices curriculum and projects are looking into new ways of defining, creating and experimenting with autonomy in the arts and elsewhere, as opposed to traditional, and now often problematic, Western paradigms of aesthetic and artistic autonomy.
Currently, I am a supervisor in the Dutch Professional Doctorate Arts + Creative pilot program as well as a co-supervisor of PhD candidates at Leiden University and University of Amsterdam.
I have co-supervised two research projects funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), respectively its applied-science branch SIA:
Making Matters: Bridging art, design and technology through Material Practices. This project investigated new, collective material practices that break with the split of mind and matter, thinking and making.
Autonomy Lab; this project investigates how artist/research/activist/multidisciplinary collectives give new meaning to autonomy, and how and for whom autonomy is practiced and created in their work.
Outside my school, I am an associate member of the Pearl River Delta-based 展銷場 Display Distribute collective, operating as the Rotterdam Relay Center of its 後勤慢遞 LIGHT LOGISTICS courier service. I also run the weekly radio program "Mixed Business" on Radio WORM, am a student/tutor in the BananSkole and board member of Stichting Lezeren, an artist-run non-profit organization for free Dutch language and literacy courses.
I am on the academic advisory board for the arts magazine Neural and of APRJA, a peer-reviewed Open Access journal published by the media studies department of Aarhus University, Denmark, and on the advisory board of PASS, the Center for Practice-Based Art Studies of University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
I studied Literature and Art History at Freie Universität Berlin, Universität Konstanz and University of Massachusetts at Amherst. My teachers were (among others) Barbara Naumann, Renate Lachmann, Sara Lennox, Samuel Delany and Gert Mattenklott. In 1988, I took a summer course in moving images and filmmaking with Werner Nekes and Dore O., in 2010, a 16mm film workshop with Robert Todd and a radio play workshop with Felix Kubin, in 2011, an 8mm film workshop with Dagie Brundert.
M.A., Comparative Literature and Art History, Freie Universität Berlin, 1998
Diplom Kulturwissenschaften, Wissenschaftsakademie Berlin, 2003
Dr. phil, Comparative Literature, Freie Universität Berlin, 2006
SVH Verklaring Sociale Hygiëne, Stichting Vakbekwaamheid Horeca, 2010
I have been working at Willem de Kooning Academy (and its department Piet Zwart Institute) in Rotterdam since 2006 (preceded by a research fellowship in 2004), as a reader/research professor since 2008. Confusion about this may result from the renaming and reorganization of departments in which I worked.
writer on arts, information technology and (sub)culture since 1990, zinemaker since 1982.
lecturer (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) in Comparative Literature, Peter-Szondi-Institut für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, 1998-2003.
course director, Master programme Media Design & Communication, Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, Hogeschool Rotterdam, 2006-2010.
head Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, Hogeschool Rotterdam, 2010-2011.
(founding) director of the research center Creating 010, Hogeschool Rotterdam, 2011-2015.
volunteer & part-time program developer at WORM Rotterdam, 2011-2015, where I co-founded the WORM Parallel University and helped organize the festival Afrofuturism Now!.
guest tutor at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA), China, where I co-taught a project seminar with Nan Wang, 2017.
guest tutor in the self-organized art school Bcademie, Rotterdam, 2018.
1989-today: project-based collaborations with Lloyd Dunn, Stewart Home, John Berndt, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, Istvan Kantor, Luther Blissett/Wu Ming 1, Eva & Franco Mattes, Heinrich Dubel, Sebastian Luetgert, Rafael Horzon, Cornelia Sollfrank, Alan Sondheim, mez breeze, Tatiana Bazzichelli, Katrien Jacobs, Coolhaven, Jeroen Kuster, Mariëtte Groot, filmwerkplaats collective, Sato Endo, Paolo Davanzo & Lisa Marr/Echo Park Film Center, Wilhelm Hein & Annette Frick, Lukas Simonis & Ergo Phizmiz, Jan Van Den Dobbelsteen, Rasheedah Phillips, Moor Mother, Frank Rowenta, Goodiepal & Pals/BananSkolen, Woodstone Kugelblitz/The Voluntary Fire Brigade of the Apocalypse, Clara Balaguer, Johanna Monk, Dalin Waldo, Lula Valletta, Marc van Elburg, Elaine W. Ho, Simon Kentgens, De Aanschouw Rotterdam.
2002-2004 moderator, with Tilman Baumgärtel, rohrpost mailing list, German-language forum on Internet culture founded in 2001
2002-2003 editor, with Alan Sondheim, of the unstable digest on the Nettime mailing list.
2002-2003 editor, with Alexei Shulgin, Olga Goriunova, Alex McLean, Amy Alexander, of the software art repository runme.org
2022: documenta fifteen (as a contributor to several projects/collectives/workshops)
2019: Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles, USA & Vancouver, Canada
2018: Underappreciated Moviemakers Festival - Pittsburgh, USA
2017: Woodstone Kugelblitz TAKE OVER - SIGN, Groningen, Netherlands
2015: The Work Of Art In The Age Of Technical Remediation - Kulturni Centar Požega, Serbia
2011: MisALT Screening Series - ATV Artists’ Television Access, San Francisco, USA
2010: Also Space² - C-Space, Beijing, China
2010: moddr_* - iMal, Brussels, Belgium
2009: Pixxelpoint 2009 - Unce Upon a Time in the West - Pixxelpoint, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
2007: POIESIS - Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1989: Festival of Plagiarism, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
2024: Collective Communities / The Autonomous Fabric of Rotterdam, a conference on artist-run spaces and collectives in times of gentrification, changing demographics and digital platform capitalism, in collaboration with Roodkapje Rotterdam
2020: Making Matters II, on collaborative material practices in the arts, with among others Display Distribute, Jatiwangi art Factory and Garnet Hertz, in collaboration with the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts/Leiden University, West Den Haag, Het Nieuwe Instituut and Waag Society.
2019: The Autonomous Fabric, on DIY spaces and self-organization in Rotterdam, in collaboration with the Autonomous Practices tutors of Willem de Kooning Academy and many artist-run/DIY spaces in Rotterdam.
2019: Making Matters, on Critical Making and material practices in the arts, in collaboration with the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts/Leiden University, West Den Haag, Het Nieuwe Instituut and Waag Society.
2019: Urgent Publishing, on new publishing strategies in the age of populism and fake news, in collaboration with Institute of Network Cultures & ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem.
2014-2017: Zine Camp, Rotterdam’s zine (making) fest at WORM, in collaboration with main organizers Amy Suo Wu, Tim Braakman, Rachel Sender, Kimmy Spreeuwenberg.
2014: Off the Press: Electronic Publishing in the Arts, in collaboration with Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands & publishers Valiz, Bis and NAi010
2012: Het Boek uit de Band, on electronic book publishing, in collaboration with Institute of Network Cultures & e-boekenstad, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands & Amsterdam Public Library
2011-2014: Imagine an Audience, on new forms of production and distribution of moving images, in collaboration with Piet Zwart Institute and International Film Festival Rotterdam
2010: viralcommunication.nl, conference on memes and social media, Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
2009: print/pixel, conference on electronic publishing, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
1999-2004: Wizards of OS, conference on Free Software/Open Source and Culture, Berlin
2016-2022: board member De Player/De Layer, a space for sound/performance art
2018-2022: board member PrintRoom, a space for artists’ books and DIY publishing
2019-2022: board member (A)WAKE, a space for the in-between voices with multiple cultural backgrounds
2017-2019: board member Herman, a Rotterdam-based DIY venue for music, performance and poetry
2016-2019: advisor (= jury member) Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, Deelregeling Digitale Cultuur
2013-2014: board member OPEN! Platform for Art, Culture and the Public Domain, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2010-2012: board member Stichting WORM, Rotterdam
2008-2010: jury member netznetz, City of Vienna, Austria
2002: jury member read_me festival, Moscow, Russia
2001: jury member transmediale.01 software award, Berlin, Germany
Vox Pop award Simon Mari Pruys prize for design criticism, 2019, for my essay Welcome to the Crapularity: Design as a Problem
with my WdKA colleagues: SURF Open Science Award, 2017, for our long-term commitment to Open Access publishing
media/art/research award, Ars Electronica & Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institut, Linz, Austria, 2007, for my book & PhD thesis Exe.cut[up]able statements Poetische Kalküle und Phantasmen des selbstausführenden Texts (Open Access PDF here)
Junggesellenpreis der Netzliteratur, Literaturhaus Stuttgart, 2005, for plaintext.cc
Pegasus 98, special award for Internet literature (given by Die Zeit, Radio Bremen and ARD Online), 1998, for Permutations
Willem de Kooning Academy
Research Station
t.a.v. Florian Cramer
Wijnhaven 61
3011 WJ Rotterdam
The Netherlands
J.J.F.Cramer@hr.nl