Stefanie Rau ☞ is a graphic designer with an artistic writing practice ☞ is interested in (visual) translation processes ☞ likes to think and write (/ write to think) ☞ has been involved in self-organized educational settings ☞ studied visual communication at the Berlin University of the Arts and Critical Studies at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam ☞ believes in (self-)criticality as a mode to stay in motion ☞ is co-founder and partner at operative.space ☞ teaches at the weißensee school of art and design in Berlin ☞ understands teaching as learning, unlearning, and the responsibility to create a space ☞ has been part of the graphic design team of queer-feminist Missy Magazine ☞ probably forgot something to mention in this list …

CURRENTLY / COMING UP

2021–2024 ● Artistic research project “+dimensions - neue Potenziale fördern in Kunst und Design”, funded by Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre, Weißensee School of Art and Design, Berlin.


ONGOING

Together with Marius Förster and Robert Preusse I run the design studio operative.space, based in Berlin and Cologne.

Since March 2019 I am teaching at the Weißensee School of Art and Design in Berlin in the foundation year.


PAST PROJECTS

2013–2021 ● In regular irregularity I worked as a graphic designer for the queer-feminist Missy Magazine, Berlin.

2018–2020 ● Participant in the Critical Zones Study Group, a seminar and exhibition project conducted by Prof. Bruno Latour at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and ZKM | Center for Art and Media.

2017 ● Tutor, hosting discussion groups at the Studium Generale Programme, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam (together w/ Aidan Wall and Ioanna Gerakidi).

2016–2017 ● Organisation of the student-led project and exhibition space Rietveld Pavilion, Amsterdam (together w/ Marie Larsen and in collaboration w/ Sophie Rentien and Alice Dhinaut).

2016–2017 ● Reading group Uh Uh Uh Umm together w/ Ioanna Gerakidi and Rosie Haward (based in Amsterdam).

2013–2016 ● Involvement in the self-organised educational project Parallel School: co-organisation of workshops at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2013 and as part of the off-program of the 26th International Graphic Design Biennale in Brno (CZ), 2014.

Parallel School Workshop, UdK Berlin 2013.

2015 ● Research assistant for the exhibition “GLOBALE: Allah’s Automata. Artifacts of the Arab Islamic Renaissance (800–1200)”, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe.

Manuscripts in a vitrine in front of the reconstruction of “the instrument that plays by itself” by Liang Zhipeng at ZKM Karlsruhe.

2014–2015 ● Teaching assistant, Atlas of MediaThinking and MediaActing in Berlin, research seminar and exhibition project, led by Prof. Siegfried Zielinski, Berlin University of the Arts.


EDUCATION

2015–2017 ● Critical Studies Department (MA), Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam
2011–2014 ● Visual Communication (BA), Berlin University of the Arts
2009–2011 ● Visual Communication, Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences

“Tropes of a Palm”, End of the Year Programme, Amsterdam 2017.

“Bedingtes Assoziieren — Für das Lesen der Welt müssen die Dinge der Welt miteinader verknüpft werden gemäß ihrer innigen und verborgenen Verbindungen, Übereinstimmungen und Analogien”, Bachelor project 2014.


PUBLICATIONS

2021 ● “Neue Typen” and co-editing of “Un-Ordnung schaffen” (w/ Daniela Burger and Lisa Klinkenberg, advised by Anja Kaiser and Rebecca Stephany), and texts by Ece Canlı, Julia Meer and interviews with Zoff Kollektiv (Laura Maikowski and Susanne Beer) and Girls Like Us (Jessica Gysel, Katja Mater, and Sara Kaaman) in: Missy Magazine 03/21, Berlin.

2020 ● “Glossolalia: Tidings from Terrestrial Tongues” (written together w/ Bettina Korintenberg, Rachel Libeskind and Robert Preusse) and “Words For A Tongue We Are Losing” in: Critical Zones. The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth. Edited by Bruno Latour & Peter Weibel, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

2019 ● “The Movements of Ramon Llull and the Lullist Network: A Chronotopological Cartogram” (w/ Robert Preusse) in: DIA-LOGOS: Ramon Llull’s Method of Thought and Artistic Practice, edited by Amador Vega, Peter Weibel, Siegfried Zielinski. University Of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN.

2019 ● “Participation Procedures” (Results of the workshop together w/ Robert Preusse) in: February 29,2052 – ZK/U Fact-finding committee #02: Heterotopic Places, edited by Martin Conrads. ZK/U Center for Art and Urbanistics, Berlin.

2018 ● “Feeding Back (Or: And Still We Keep Holding On To Our Spoons)” in: Becoming the Other – A Self Guide, a project by Aether Galerie, Sofia, Bulgaria for Soft Power Palace, Stuttgart.

2018 ● “Being an art worker on the cargo ship—it makes me weak” in: Extra-Curricular, edited by Jacob Lindgren. Onomatopee, Eindhoven.

2017 ● Convos – In conversation with Delphine Bedel, Tom Clark, Florian Cramer, Mariana Lanari, Silvio Lorusso, Koen Nutters, TXTbooks and Pieter Verbeke, edited together with Daniel Seemayer. PUB/Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam.

2017 ● “Neighborhoods” in: Not Far From Where We Began, edited by Tom Clark together with the Critical Studies Department, Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam. Published by Werkplaats Typografie / ArtEZ Press.

2017 ● “On Hands In Gloves” in: Surface Level Expressions, co-edited with Lucie Bejoan, Rosie Haward, Asja Novak and Aidan Wall. Critical Studies Department, Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam.

2016 ● “Assignment to the Academy” (w/ Robert Preusse und Till Wittwer, in the name of Parallel School) in: Taking a Line for a Walk. Assignments in Design Education, edited by Emilia Bergmark, Corinne Gisel, Nina Paim. Spector Books, Leipzig.

2016 ● Four Lectures, self-published, print-on-demand.

2016 ● Atlas of MediaThinking and MediaActing in Berlin, edited together w/ Kristin Moellering and Leon Strauch. Berlin University of the Arts, together with transmediale festival, Berlin.

2015 ● “A conversation of the participants and co-organisers of Parallel School (Berlin), Utopia School (New York), Free Cooper Union (New York) and Relearn (Brussels)” in: Think Twice Before You Think, edited by Toni Brell und Sophie Dyer. A Feral Studio, Glasgow.

2014 ● “Magnification” and “Digitus” in: War postdigital besser?, edited by Martin Conrads and Franziska Morlok. Revolver Publishing, Berlin.

2013 ● “Karte des MedienDenkens im West-Berlin der 1960er-80er” in: Forum zur Genealogie des MedienDenkens, Vol. 1, edited by Daniel Irrgang und Clemens Jahn. Verlag der Universität der Künste, Berlin.

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GRAPHIC DESIGN

For graphic design inquiries, please contact me here.


RECENT ACTIVITIES

January 22, 2022 ● Lecture on the typographic concept for „Departure Neuaubing“ (together w/ Robert Preusse), Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism.

Sept 2, 2021 ● “Words for a Tongue We Are Losing” (video essay) contributed to the panel on “Memory and Matter” at Memory Full – Reimagining the Relations Between Design And History, organised by the Design History Society hosted (online) by FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel.

June 28 – July 2, 2021 ● “TBA – To Be Announced” – Workshop on the relationships of graphic design to language, voice, body and space; with the 2nd year in the communication design department at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, Halle/Saale.

May 26 – June 11, 2021 ● “Exercises in / for Exchange” – Workshop organised together w/ Henrike Uthe as a collaboration between students of the Weißensee School of Art and Design and Berlin University of the Arts; with an exhibition (June 11 – July 11, 2021) at the showcase of designtransfer, Berlin.

Showcase, designtransfer / UdK Berlin, July 2021.

May 25, 2021 ● Reading of “Neue Typen” as part of the online event for the relaunch of Missy Magazine, organised together w/ Daniela Burger, Lisa Klinkenberg and Lena Rossbach, hosted by Ulla Heinrich, with contributions by Jihee Lee and Elisabeth Michiel.

May 2021 ● Co-editing of “Un-Ordnung schaffen” (w/ Daniela Burger and Lisa Klinkenberg, advised by Anja Kaiser and Rebecca Stephany), and texts by Ece Canlı, Julia Meer and interviews with Zoff Kollektiv (Laura Maikowski and Susanne Beer) and Girls Like Us (Jessica Gysel, Katja Mater, and Sara Kaaman) Missy Magazine, issue 03/21.

March 8, 2021 ● Co-organisation (w/ Rena Onat and Maxie Schneider) of “Reveal, Proclaim, Act – Perspectives of Feminist Practices in Art, Design and Technology. Symposium on the International Women*s Day”, w/ lectures by Renata Kutinka, Marie Dietze and FEM_ARC, hosted online by Weißensee School of Art and Design.

August 2020 ● Publication of two texts “Glossolalia: Tidings from Terrestrial Tongues” (written together w/ Bettina Korintenberg, Rachel Libeskind and Robert Preusse) and “Words For A Tongue We Are Losing” in: Critical Zones. The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth. Edited by Bruno Latour & Peter Weibel, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

April 3, 2020 ● Interview about the work with operative.space on the platform collide24.org.

Jan 28, 2020 ● Talk & Discussion as part of the opening of “Teaching Design Conversations” with Imad Gebrayel and Madeleine Morley, hosted by Lisa Baumgarten and Anja Neidhardt, A–Z Presents, Berlin.

Dec 8, 2019 ● Performative reading of “Words For a Losing Tongue” as well as “Glossolalia” (together w/ Bettina Korintenberg and Robert Preusse) within the public programme of the exhibition Blind Sensorium | Il paradosso dell’Antropocene, National Archaeological Museum, Matera (IT).

Dec 3–5, 2019 ● Workshop at HyperWerk – Institute of Postindustrial Design, FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel (CH).

“Conflicts as tools”, HyperWerk, HGK FHNW Basel.

Oct 5, 2019 ● “Durch Räume über Gestaltung und mit Gestaltung über Räume nachdenken” (Lecture + Discussion), HURRA HURRA Festival – International Festival of Design Education for the 21st Century, Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design, Halle/Saale.

Flyer accompanying the lecture (DIN A4, Riso-printed, black/yellow)

Feb 16, 2019 ● “Participation Procedures” (Workshop together with Robert Preusse), ZK/U Fact-finding committee #2, ZK/U Center for Art and Urbanistics, Berlin.

Aug 18, 2018 ● “Being an art worker on the cargo ship—it makes me weak” (Reading) at the Berlin booklaunch of Extra-Curricular, Hopscotch Reading Room, Berlin.

Reading at the booklaunch of Extra-Curricular on August 18, 2018, Hopscotch Reading Room, Berlin.

Jul 5, 2018 ● “Cartographic Narratives” (Lecture together w/ Robert Preusse), medialounge um 6, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe.

Jun 30, 2018 ● “Tropes of a Palm” (Screen-based Reading), London Conference in Critical Thought, Westminster University, London.

May 24, 2018 ● “On Hands in Gloves” (Screen-based Reading), LOW TEXT #3 Instructions / After the eclipse, Flutgraben 3, Berlin.

May 24. Flutgraben 3, Berlin. (Photo: Nailya Bikmurzina)

Apr 18/20, 2018 ● “Feeding Back (Or: And Still We Keep Holding On To Our Spoons)” (Screening), Independent Political Activism Short Film Festival 2018, Athens.

Apr 14, 2018 ● “In A Nutshell” (Performative reading and installation), as part of the exhibition As I Intensify I Become More Singular, curated by Ioanna Gerakidi, Sub Rosa Space, Athens.

Sub Rosa Space, Athens, GR. (Photo: Alexandra Masmanidi)

Apr 7, 2018 ● “Tropes of a Palm” (Screen-based Reading), Ex_Changing Perceptions – Art for Change, hosted by the DAAD – German Academic Exchange Service, Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin.

Mar 9, 2018 ● “On Hands In Gloves” (Lecture) at the conference Apparition – The (im)materiality of modern surface, Leicester Castle, De Montfort University, Leicester.

Leicester Castle, De Montfort University, UK.

Oct 22, 2017 ● “Feeding Back (Or: And Still We Keep Holding On To Our Spoons)” (Lecture Performance) Virtualities & Realities Conference, Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga.

Sep 29, 2017 ● “Material Utopias” (Lecture Performance) as part of the book launch of The Sandberg Series, Stedelijk Book Club: Press! Print! Publish!, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

A book, a microphone, a camera, a screen and me. Stedelijk Book Club 2017, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Sep 6, 2017 ● “Tropes of a Palm” (Screen-based Reading) as part of the exhibition Präsenz, Kritik, Utopie. Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart.

Jun 16/17, 2017 ● “Tropes of a Palm” (Screen-based Reading) & “Winds & Wheels” (Reading), Critical Studies End Of Year Programme, Butcher’s Tears, Amsterdam.

Reading of “Tropes of a Palm”, Butcher’s Tears, Amsterdam.

May 20, 2017 ● “Tropes of a Palm” (Screen-based Reading) Botanical Garden VU, Amsterdam.

May 5, 2017 ● “On Hands in Gloves” (Reading) as part of the book launch of Surface Level Expressions. San Serriffe, Amsterdam.

Apr 21, 2017 ● “A Device With Defects” (w/ live transcription by Lucie Berjoan) as part of YOUR WORDS IN MY MOUTH | MY VOICE ON YOUR TONGUE, conceived by Ghislaine Leung Künstlerhaus, Stuttgart.

Apr 14, 2017 ● “Gathering Thoughts Like People” (Lecture Performance) as part of One Publishes to Find Comrades. fanfare, Amsterdam.

Hands navigating through books during the performance at fanfare, Amsterdam.

Sep 29, 2016 ● “Feeding Back (or: And Still We Keep Holding On To Our Spoons)” (Lecture Performance and video installation/essay film), as part of the exhibition SEEN BY #6: On Off Shore, curated by Paul Feigelfeld, Museum for Photography, Berlin.

Installation view, Museum für Fotografie, Berlin.

Jun 18, 2016 ● “Feeding Back (or: And Still We Keep Holding On To Our Spoons)” (Lecture Performance), Butcher’s Tears, Amsterdam.

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