Coded Secrets

Daniela Hönigsberg

Daniela Hönigsberg M.A.

Department of Art History

Hertzstrasse 16
Bldg. 6.34
76187 Karlsruhe
daniela hoenigsberg@kit edu

Daniela Hönigsberg is a research associate at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in the Department of Art History. Since 2014, she has been pursuing her doctorate at the Technical University of Berlin on the topic of software as an artistic material. In 2015, she worked as a research associate at the Technical University for six months, preparing the proposal for the project “Authorship 2.0.”

Her research focuses on computer-based art of the 1990s and early 2000s, the interweaving of art and science, and the theory of classical modernism and early postwar modernism.

Vita
  • Akademische Mitarbeiterin im DFG-Projekt Browser Art. Navigating with Style am KIT – Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Institut für Kunst- und Baugeschichte, Fachgebiet Kunstgeschichte
  • Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der Technischen Universität Berlin, Institut für Kunstwissenschaft und Historische Urbanistik der Fakultät I – Geistes- und Bildungswissenschaften
  • Promotionsstudium Kunstwissenschaft (Arbeitstitel: Material ›Selbstorganisation‹ Die Anwendung selbstorganisierter Software in digitalen Kunstwerken) an der Technischen Universität Berlin
  • Praktikum im Museumsbetrieb, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
  • MA Kunstwissenschaft und -technologie (Masterarbeit: Werner Haftmanns Moderne) an der Technischen Universität Berlin
  • Tutorin mit Unterrichtsaufgaben an der Technischen Universität Berlin, Institut für Kunstwissenschaft und Historische Urbanistik
  • Praktikum im Museumsbetrieb, Vancouver Art Gallery, Kanada
  • BA Kultur und Technik / Hauptfach: Kunstwissenschaft (Bachelorarbeit: Fabrizio Plessis – Tempo Liquido) an der Technischen Universität Berlin
Publications

Review

Daniela Hönigsberg: [Tagungsbericht zu:] Physics und Art(efacts) (Villa Elisabeth, Berlin, 14. – 15.09.2018). In: ArtHist.net, 08.01.2019. Letzter Zugriff 09.07.2020. <https://arthist.net/reviews/19813>.

Interview

Lectures

2022

27.6.2022: Präsentation und Workshop “Double View But Single Vision? Tracing Artistic Internet Browsers” (mit Barbara Filser, Inge Hinterwaldner, Konstantin Mitrokhov), Freie Universität Bozen-Bolzano [I] im Rahmen der 13th International Conference on Computational Creativity 2022, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, 27.6.-1.7.2022

2020

12.11.2020: „Code: analysieren – vergleichen – visualisieren. Methoden zur Untersuchung von Computercode in Kunstwerken“, Philipps-Universität Marburg / DDK – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg [D], Workshop „Das digitale Bild – Methodik und Methodologie: fachspezifisch oder transdisziplinär?“ des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms “Das digitale Bild” (12.-13.11.2020)

18.2.2020: “Browserkunst. Navigieren mit Stil” (gemeinsam mit Inge Hinterwaldner), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München [D], Initialtagung des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms “Das digitale Bild” (17. – 19.02.2020).

2014
02.07.2014: „Werner Haftmanns Moderne – Verteidigungsstrategien während des Nationalsozialismus und in der Nachkriegszeit und ihre konstituierende Funktion“. Technische Universität Berlin [D], Absolvententag des Fachgebiets Kunstgeschichte am Institut für Kunstwissenschaft und historische Urbanistik.

Research

Main Research Interests

Schwerpunkte meiner Forschung sind der Computercode als künstlerisches Material, computerbasierte Kunst der 1990er und frühen 2000er Jahre, Wissenschaft und Technik in Kunstwerken, sowie die Theorien der klassischen Moderne und frühen Nachkriegsmoderne.
In der Auseinandersetzung mit Kunstwerken setze ich den Ausgangspunkt in einer formalen Betrachtung, welche auch neuere Materialien, wie Computercode in eine kunstwissenschaftliche Analyse mit einbeziehen. Dies stellt für mich die Basis dar, um darauf aufbauend mit Ideen, Konzepten und Methoden zu spielen und zu streiten. Es reizt mich, darüber das Werk in seinen spezifischen Eigenschaften sowie Kontexten erfassen zu können und Fragenkomplexe zu entwickeln, die auch zu neuen Erkenntnissen führen.

My research focuses on computer code as artistic material, computer-based art of the 1990s and early 2000s, science and technology in artworks, and the theories of classical modernism and early post-war modernism.
When dealing with works of art, my starting point is a formal analysis, which also incoporates new materials such as computer code into the established art historical analysis. This is the fundation for me to play and argue with ideas, concepts and methods. Moreover I am interested in grasping the work in its specific characteristics and contexts and to develop complexes of questions that also lead to new insights.

Current projects

Browser Art. Navigating with Style

Since December 1, 2019 I am an academic resercher in the DFG project ‘Browser Art. Navigating with Style’. In a transdisciplinary team of art history, computer science and visual design, methodological tools for the analysis of artistic browsers are being developed, in an extension of the established art historical methodology. These tools enable us to include the software in the analysis of the works and the browser to be visualized in a computer-based way, in order to make the processes underlying the interface accessible.

Computercode als künstlerisches Material

In my dissertation project I am investigating computer code as artistic material. The focus is on works of art from the 1990s and early 2000s whose software has not only generative but also self-organizing properties that directly influence the artistic enquiry. The analysis comprises on the one hand the development of appropriate methods to include computer code in an art historical analysis and on the other hand the application of these methods to the examined artworks in order to show the formal and content-related consequences of the artistic use of self-organizing software.

Teaching Concept

Does it matter whether we examine a medieval altar retable or a work of art consisting primarily of binary code? In many respects, the answer must be a definit ‘yes’. However, art historical analysis has developed fundamental and established steps that promise insights despite new materials and techniques. In my teaching, I therefore pursue a structured and formal analysis that places the work of art at the centre of attention. On the basis of this analysis, which is developed together with the students, I would like to develop, test and discuss specific questions and approaches to the individual work. Another one of my concerns is to make female positions in art history more visible.

Winter semester 2020/21

Face – Surface – Interface: Lynn Hershman Leeson’s artistic œuvre throughout six decades.

The diversity that makes up Lynn Hershman Leeson’s artistic oeuvre over six decades makes it possible in this seminar to trace some of the central themes – such as identity, masks, gender, reality and virtuality – in the artist’s work through different techniques, media and genres, using a single artistic position from painting, sculpture, photography, film and video, installations and performances to pioneering works of media art. The different creative periods and techniques will be discussed in presentations based on the analysis of an exemplary work and linked to a thesis.