Jasper Otto Eisenecker

Nowadays, we consume media primarily via our smartphones—a display on which many processes run simultaneously. In her essays on image overload, digitality, and geopolitical image spaces, Hito Steyerl also describes excess, simultaneity, and fragmentation in [i]Duty-Free Art[/i] (2017)—all core elements of what could be understood as hyper-display. However, hyper-displays do not only exist in digital space. They are already described as a “panorama of signs” in Walter Benjamin’s Passagen-Werk. Benjamin’s analysis of the Parisian passages reveals early forms of excess and commodity aesthetics: shop windows, advertisements, reflections. We want to start our week-long typography workshop with an excursion to Hannover-Linden, the district with the highest density of kiosks in Germany. We are particularly interested in the kiosk as a typographic hyper-display consisting of cigarettes, drinks, magazines, lottery advertisements, price tags, advertising posters, and colorful packaging. There is no clear “first” or “most important” piece of information—everything speaks at once. For us as viewers, this creates a visual and semiotic field that resembles a collage rather than a shop window. We want to embrace this non-hierarchical form of display and explore it typographically – very much in the spirit of Donna Haraway when she talks about hybrid assemblages, overlays and non-hierarchical networks in her essay [i]A Cyborg Manifesto[/i]. We will meet on Tuesday, January 13, at 9:38 a.m. (departure from Bremen Central Station with the RE 8 to Hanover Central Station at 8:17 a.m.) to travel together to Hanover-Linden. We can set up our “tents” at [i]Ruine HQ[/i], an independent art space at Selmastraße 4, 30451 Hanover. On this day, we will stroll through the district, drift, view various hyper-displays, map them, and collect typographic samples. Back in Bremen, we will explore, test, experiment with typographic settings, and translate our impressions into an appropriate form or presentation over the following days. This week's motto is: the more, the better. It is therefore important to actively participate on all workshop days and to work proactively on the tasks even on days without classes.

[i]Books require action.*[/i] Heinrich Mann, 1919 Initiated by Annette Gilbert, colleagues from various universities (Berlin, Marburg, Augsburg and Bremen) are invited to take part in the project “Schwarzer Markt für rote Bücher” in the winter term 25_26 to deal with “‘alternative’ forms of literature and book production: the pirating or reprinting that takes place without the knowledge or permission of the authors or publishers”. (...) Pirated printing reached a new high point with the student and left-wing movement at the end of the 1960s. The focus was on the fight against copyright, which was seen as an outdated relic of a bourgeois era, as exemplified by the name of the pirated printing publishing house “Zerschlagt das bürgerliche Copyright”. With their ‘socialized prints’, the pirate printers countered the idea of private ownership with the idea of collective ownership. (...) But far too little is known about all this, not least because of the criminalization of pirated printing. The German Publishers and Booksellers Association put detectives on the scene on behalf of the established publishers, who were allegedly losing millions in profits. Later, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) became involved in criminal prosecution – on the (unfounded) suspicion of supporting the RAF. Today, pirated prints are therefore more likely to be found on private bookshelves or in private archives than in libraries, which were prohibited from acquiring them. "* In Bremen, we will look through an archive of pirated prints at the Bremen State and University Library, go on a search for printers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, lawyers, pub vendors, buyers and readers to talk to contemporary witnesses and visit the Archive for Social Movements. Our research may result in an exhibition planned by the Freundeskreis der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen for spring 2026 or in individual independent projects with a typographic focus. What access do you personally have to this material and what relevance do you attach to this form of publishing in the here and now? Whereas in the 1960s the printed word was often the main object of the dissemination of pirated prints, today knowledge is supposedly just a click or a prompt away. What can we learn today from the movement of that time, including its protagonists, for example with regard to knowledge monopolies, gatekeeping, platform capitalism and data mining? A visit to the unique collection of over 3,000 left-wing, student pirated prints from 1968, which Albrecht Goetz von Olenhusen collected over the course of his life and which Annette Gilbert was able to arrange for the DNB Leipzig two years ago so that it is now available to the public, would be possible towards the end of the semester. *from: Handbuch der Raubdrucke 2, Theorie und Klassenkampf. Eine Bibliographie.  Götz von Olenhusen / Gnirß

[i]Books require action.[/i] Heinrich Mann, 1919* Initiated by Annette Gilbert, colleagues from various universities (Berlin, Marburg, Augsburg and Bremen) are invited to take part in the project “Schwarzer Markt für rote Bücher” in the winter term 25_26 to deal with “‘alternative’ forms of literature and book production: the pirating or reprinting that takes place without the knowledge or permission of the authors or publishers”. (...) Pirated printing reached a new high point with the student and left-wing movement at the end of the 1960s. The focus was on the fight against copyright, which was seen as an outdated relic of a bourgeois era, as exemplified by the name of the pirated printing publishing house “Zerschlagt das bürgerliche Copyright”. With their ‘socialized prints’, the pirate printers countered the idea of private ownership with the idea of collective ownership. (...) But far too little is known about all this, not least because of the criminalization of pirated printing. The German Publishers and Booksellers Association put detectives on the scene on behalf of the established publishers, who were allegedly losing millions in profits. Later, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) became involved in criminal prosecution – on the (unfounded) suspicion of supporting the RAF. Today, pirated prints are therefore more likely to be found on private bookshelves or in private archives than in libraries, which were prohibited from acquiring them. "* In Bremen, we will look through an archive of pirated prints at the Bremen State and University Library, go on a search for printers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, lawyers, pub vendors, buyers and readers to talk to contemporary witnesses and visit the Archive for Social Movements. Our research may result in an exhibition planned by the Freundeskreis der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen for spring 2026 or in individual independent projects with a typographic focus. What access do you personally have to this material and what relevance do you attach to this form of publishing in the here and now? Whereas in the 1960s the printed word was often the main object of the dissemination of pirated prints, today knowledge is supposedly just a click or a prompt away. What can we learn today from the movement of that time, including its protagonists, for example with regard to knowledge monopolies, gatekeeping, platform capitalism and data mining? A visit to the unique collection of over 3,000 left-wing, student pirated prints from 1968, which Albrecht Goetz von Olenhusen collected over the course of his life and which Annette Gilbert was able to arrange for the DNB Leipzig two years ago so that it is now available to the public, would be possible towards the end of the semester. *from: Handbuch der Raubdrucke 2, Theorie und Klassenkampf. Eine Bibliographie.  Götz von Olenhusen / Gnirß ** from the event description by Annette Gilbert

[i]Books require action.[/i] Heinrich Mann, 1919* Initiated by Annette Gilbert, colleagues from various universities (Berlin, Marburg, Augsburg and Bremen) are invited to take part in the project “Schwarzer Markt für rote Bücher” in the winter term 25_26 to deal with “‘alternative’ forms of literature and book production: the pirating or reprinting that takes place without the knowledge or permission of the authors or publishers”. (...) Pirated printing reached a new high point with the student and left-wing movement at the end of the 1960s. The focus was on the fight against copyright, which was seen as an outdated relic of a bourgeois era, as exemplified by the name of the pirated printing publishing house “Zerschlagt das bürgerliche Copyright”. With their ‘socialized prints’, the pirate printers countered the idea of private ownership with the idea of collective ownership. (...) But far too little is known about all this, not least because of the criminalization of pirated printing. The German Publishers and Booksellers Association put detectives on the scene on behalf of the established publishers, who were allegedly losing millions in profits. Later, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) became involved in criminal prosecution – on the (unfounded) suspicion of supporting the RAF. Today, pirated prints are therefore more likely to be found on private bookshelves or in private archives than in libraries, which were prohibited from acquiring them. "* In Bremen, we will look through an archive of pirated prints at the Bremen State and University Library, go on a search for printers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, lawyers, pub vendors, buyers and readers to talk to contemporary witnesses and visit the Archive for Social Movements. Our research may result in an exhibition planned by the Freundeskreis der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen for spring 2026 or in individual independent projects with a typographic focus. What access do you personally have to this material and what relevance do you attach to this form of publishing in the here and now? Whereas in the 1960s the printed word was often the main object of the dissemination of pirated prints, today knowledge is supposedly just a click or a prompt away. What can we learn today from the movement of that time, including its protagonists, for example with regard to knowledge monopolies, gatekeeping, platform capitalism and data mining? A visit to the unique collection of over 3,000 left-wing, student pirated prints from 1968, which Albrecht Goetz von Olenhusen collected over the course of his life and which Annette Gilbert was able to arrange for the DNB Leipzig two years ago so that it is now available to the public, would be possible towards the end of the semester. *from: Handbuch der Raubdrucke 2, Theorie und Klassenkampf. Eine Bibliographie.  Götz von Olenhusen / Gnirß ** from the event description by Annette Gilbert

[i]Books require action.[/i] Heinrich Mann, 1919* Initiated by Annette Gilbert, colleagues from various universities (Berlin, Marburg, Augsburg and Bremen) are invited to take part in the project “Schwarzer Markt für rote Bücher” in the winter term 25_26 to deal with “‘alternative’ forms of literature and book production: the pirating or reprinting that takes place without the knowledge or permission of the authors or publishers”. (...) Pirated printing reached a new high point with the student and left-wing movement at the end of the 1960s. The focus was on the fight against copyright, which was seen as an outdated relic of a bourgeois era, as exemplified by the name of the pirated printing publishing house “Zerschlagt das bürgerliche Copyright”. With their ‘socialized prints’, the pirate printers countered the idea of private ownership with the idea of collective ownership. (...) But far too little is known about all this, not least because of the criminalization of pirated printing. The German Publishers and Booksellers Association put detectives on the scene on behalf of the established publishers, who were allegedly losing millions in profits. Later, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) became involved in criminal prosecution – on the (unfounded) suspicion of supporting the RAF. Today, pirated prints are therefore more likely to be found on private bookshelves or in private archives than in libraries, which were prohibited from acquiring them. "* In Bremen, we will look through an archive of pirated prints at the Bremen State and University Library, go on a search for printers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, lawyers, pub vendors, buyers and readers to talk to contemporary witnesses and visit the Archive for Social Movements. Our research may result in an exhibition planned by the Freundeskreis der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen for spring 2026 or in individual independent projects with a typographic focus. What access do you personally have to this material and what relevance do you attach to this form of publishing in the here and now? Whereas in the 1960s the printed word was often the main object of the dissemination of pirated prints, today knowledge is supposedly just a click or a prompt away. What can we learn today from the movement of that time, including its protagonists, for example with regard to knowledge monopolies, gatekeeping, platform capitalism and data mining? A visit to the unique collection of over 3,000 left-wing, student pirated prints from 1968, which Albrecht Goetz von Olenhusen collected over the course of his life and which Annette Gilbert was able to arrange for the DNB Leipzig two years ago so that it is now available to the public, would be possible towards the end of the semester. *from: Handbuch der Raubdrucke 2, Theorie und Klassenkampf. Eine Bibliographie.  Götz von Olenhusen / Gnirß ** from the event description by Annette Gilbert