Achim Lipp Vita

Vita Achim 2008

(Für Guggenheim Museum in Berlin)

After his education at the Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg, the pedagogic institute and Hamburg University in the subjects fine arts, pedagogy, history of art and German, at last Achim Lipp took on the position as a manager to direct the entire field of visitor information during the World Exhibition EXPO 2000 in Hanover from 1995 to 1999. All conceptual work has been completed and meanwhile put into action.

At present he is managing the project Sheik Fayed Knowledge Center Abu Dhabi / Living Library, which was started in December 1999 by the Bertelsmann foundation together with the United Arab Emirates. In April 2000, the chancellor of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg entrusted him with developing the framework of how to combine the 19 university collections within the next years in a university museum , the Universeum. Integrating the 19 collections into the Academic Heritage Network Europe, which is currently created, is part of the conception.

His professional focus is the field of digital media, especially the user-oriented conception of interactive applications. These can be subdivided into the design of complex systems, as developed and realized for the universal exhibition EXPO 2000 in Hanover, for EUKIOSK (the networking of five European municipal administrations), for the European MuseumsNetwork EMN (the networking of seven European museums), for Art Network, as well as for the design of information media such as the ”Talking Map” or the ”Electronic Dousing Rod”. Mr. Lipp’s ideas about modern information processing and knowledge organization are neatly meshed together, as his projects, publications and lectures prove. Advanced information technology, along with cultural traditions – as they can be found in the presentation and reception of exhibitions in museums and in the fields of entertainment – are supporting this process. The foundations of this approach were laid in his long-standing activity as head of the pedagogic department at the Hamburger Kunsthalle. By doing this, he pursues the primary goal of opening new ways to the individual knotting of information to knowledge with the aid of digital media. He soon had to find out that there was hardly anything to learn in the academic field, as he experienced while being an assistant lecturer at the Art Academy of Fine Arts, Hamburg as well as during his teaching assignments at Bremen University. This might sound quite amazing today, but that’s a fact. In order to still realize and experience what he had in mind, the only possibility left was to win sponsors and cultural institutions over, and to receive public promotion means.

The selection, processing and providing of multimedia information presents a central problem for the design of digital scenarios and is underestimated to a large extent. That means, the user-oriented application potential of technological features has to be recognized and formed, and ought to be a main constituent part of media conception: In the course of the last 15 years, during many projects, he has developed different concepts for the acquisition of adequate multimedia contents, their preparation, connection, and arranging. Even today, in their essential characteristics, these projects occupy a role of the pioneer. They are available on CD-ROM, as computer demonstrations, catalogues, or as printed documents.

In 1986, he realized in the Hamburger Kunsthalle the first user-oriented interactive computer application in a museum worldwide, which was called ”Art Network”. He could win IBM over as a sponsor for this. At the screen, the visitor links the works of art of an exhibition conceived by Mr. Lipp, then goes through the museum with a guide printed especially for him. The entire exhibition, that is now in 4 languages, and supported by the European Committee, then moved to Florence, the cultural capital of 1987. At the same time, he was on a 4-week lecture tour on the Art Network through the USA at the invitation of the Goethe Institute.

Furthermore, he is the initiator of the wide European MuseumsNetwork EMN (1989-92), which is based on ”Art Network”, and combines the Hamburger Kunsthalle and six further large museums from five countries to the first virtual museum. The EMN developed the special nature of associative networking and was planned to be in five languages. The linking of the most different witnesses to thing beyond the bounds of specialized museums falls on fertile ground, since it opens up new vistas to the understanding of the exhibits. The project integrates the latest development of information technology along with the growing idea of an individualized access to information. A scenario comprising object-oriented databases, magneto-optical storage media, fiberglass networks, multimedia composition programs, keyword navigation, etc. All this is supported by the European Committee during its four-year term with 10 million DM. Aside from the museums, the Fraunhofer Society, ICOM/Paris and Spanish and Portuguese telecommunication societies belong to the consortium. A special experience is the communication between the users. These are the museum experts from Copenhagen, Bremen, The Hague, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon and Hamburg and the technicians, as well as the developers in Madrid, Lisbon, Karlsruhe and Berlin. Communication reveals the different bearings and experiences and marks the narrow path on which communication may succeed.

In 1993, he explained the reference his two museum-related computer applications bear to a great subject of our cultural heritage under the title "The Electronic Kunst- und Wunderkammer” as a keynote speaker at the first ICHIM conference (International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums) in Pittsburgh, USA, and got it published later in 1994 in the USA.

In the following year he was appointed a member of the Advisory Boards of Carnegie Mellon University, School of Art, Pittsburgh, USA because of his work in the field of interactive media.

Since 1995 his concept of the Electronic Kunst- und Wunderkammer has been realized again in Hanover during the World Exhibition EXPO2000. By analogy with museum holdings, all exhibits of the nations involved (approx. 190 participants) are included in the visitor information system, which is made to be offered to the most different target groups and contains the ”Theme Park”, the worldwide projects, and the schedule of events of all 153-days. He had a special four-language thesaurus developed for knowledge organization and associative navigation, and planned the EXPO Info Tool that was made available to all nations on CD-ROM to coordinate data acquisition: The EXPO Info is a program made for content specific data generation basing on experiences gained from previous applications.

A special multidimensional matrix, which allows the continuous and compatible gathering of the most different information types, was developed together with a group of international consultants from the USA, Holland, France, and Germany. He was able to oblige eps / Bertelsmann to ensure the technological and editorial realization of this complex task during the EXPO. Bertelsmann Event Media was entrusted with the production of the official catalogue including a CD-ROM.

The large project Knowledge Center Abu Dhabi / Living Library is simply trying to replace the source of energy oil, which is obviously running out of steam, with a new treasure. While doing so, it is essential not to spoil but to perpetuate the just young identity of the VAE in a rather forward-looking way. Therefore, knowledge was identified as a source of energy, which is to succeed oil in the near future, and, in a corresponding terminology, is to be ”produced” out of wells still to be discovered in a far visible Knowledge Dome, and gets to the relevant application worldwide by digital "pipelines" to be "refined" there and then, and not only in the Arabian area.

In contrast to the Knowledge Center Abu Dhabi, which is trying to replace mineral resources with intellectual treasures, it is desired to give a new meaning to the academic museums of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, which accommodate holdings from the long history of the university that are often many hundred years old. They should be kept and preserved, although they lost their inherited functions in research and science to a large extent. They have to justify their existence again: The university lecture and exhibition collections, now understood as academic heritage, are networked with other university collections within the scope of a new interpretation in a European context. To this end, the Academic Heritage Network Europe is now founded in cooperation with selected universities of the European community. Among other things, important stimulation of the concept of the virtual museums is to be expected from the network.

Both projects - as well as his previous projects – have in common that the symbiotic combination of real presentation and digital networking is considered to be the opportunity to discover new contexts of meaning, and to make it possible to experience these things individually in appropriate interaction.

Professional career

1999 Foundation of the Dynamic Mind Consultancy for interactive media projects at home an abroad 1995-1999 Manager for visitor information and visitor service at the EXPO 2000 Hanover Ltd. 1995 Appointment into the Advisory Board of the Carnegie Mellon University, School of Arts, Pittsburgh, USA 1993-1995 Public speaker on media at the museum pedagogic service of the ministry of education and cultural affairs Hamburg 1993 Conceptual and advising activity during the project "The One Million Picture Bank" of Bill Gates, Seattle, USA 1992 Visiting professorship for interactive media at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg 1991 Consultant of the Latvian culture department in the project "Multi-medial presentation of cultural identity”, Riga 1990-1993 Teaching assignments at the Art Academy of Media, Cologne, Department of Media design 1989-1992 Project manager and head of the "EMN task force of the Hamburger Kunsthalle" 1988/90 Consultant of the European Committee, Brussels, DG XIII, information technology 1988 Initiator of the European MuseumsNetwork EMN, a telecommunication project supported by the EU (realization in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Society, 7 museums, and others) 1980-1988 Head of the pedagogic department of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, employee of the Hamburger Kunsthalle since 1978 1977 2nd state examination for the teaching profession 1975-1978 Part-time lecturer at Bremen University, Department of Visual Communication 1973-1975 Hamburg University graduate scholarship 1970-1973 Assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg 1964-1970 Degree of fine arts, history of art, German philology, and educational science at Hamburg University and the Academy of Fine Arts, Hamburg with the degree 1st state examination for the teaching profession

Exhibitions in the Hamburger Kunsthalle

Art Network, Florence, 1987 Art in the net, Hamburg, 1986 More light. Art holograms and light objects, Hamburg, 1985 Ordeal by fire, a contribution to the exhibition ”Luther and the aftermath for art”, 1983 Phonotheque, Hamburg, 1981-1986 Picture bridges - the active observer, Hamburg, 1981 Trails of art, Hamburg, 1979

Publications Achim Lipp, Bert Branahl, Martina Boden, "EXPO Info Tool", CDROM, Hannover 1998 Achim Lipp (Ed), Manfred Eisenbeis, Heide Hagebölling, Lowry Burgess, "Infosphären. Information als Orientierung, Animation und Erlebnis" [Information spheres. Information as orientation, animation, and experience] Hannover, 1997 Achim Lipp, Titus Leber, "Welcome to EXPO ´97", CD-ROM, Hannover, 1997 Achim Lipp, "Towards the Electronic Kunst- und Wunderkammer: Spinning on the European Museums Network EMN", in: Visual Resources, New York, London, 1994 Achim Lipp, "The Vision of the Electronic Kunst- und Wunderkammer", in: Gesänge über dem Lerchenfeld, Beiträge zur Datenkunst [Singing above the lark fields, contributions to data art], Hamburg, 1994 Achim Lipp, "Hunger nach Wirklichkeit wecken" [Whetting hunger for reality], Interview, in: Screen Multimedia, Hamburg, 12/1993 Achim Lipp, Winfried Schmitz-Esser, "Eight European Museums teaming up for EMN, the European MuseumsNetwork, and where to go from now", in: ICHIM -2nd International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums, Proceedings, Cambridge, UK, 1993 Achim Lipp , Bettina Sefkow, " Das Europäische MuseumsNetzwerk” [The European MuseumsNetwork], in: Catalog Mediale II, Hamburg 1993 Achim Lipp, "Kunst im Netzwerk" [Art Network], in: Umbruch [Upheaval], Frankfurt, 2/1987 Achim Lipp, "Art Network", Exhibition catalog, Hamburg, Florence, 1987 Achim Lipp, "Kunst im Netzwerk" [Art Network], Exhibition catalog, Hamburg, 1986 Achim Lipp / Peter Zec, "Mehr Licht / More Light", Exhibition catalog, Hamburg, 1985 Achim Lipp, "FEUERPROBE" [Ordeal by fire], Associate edition to the exhibition, Hamburg 1983 Achim Lipp, Der Walther-Raum in der Hamburger Kunsthalle [The Walther room in the Hamburger Kunsthalle], Hamburg, 1983 Achim Lipp, "Gottesdienst vor Altarbildern" [Divine service in front of altarpieces] , in: Argumente zur museumspädagogischen Praxis 3 [Arguments to the museum pedagogic praxis], pp. 10-23, Hamburg, 1983 Achim Lipp, "Dreimal Deutschland" [Three times Germany], Exhibition journal, Hamburg 1982 Achim Lipp, "Künstlers Erdenwallen" [The artist’s earth wall], Associate edition to the exhibition, Hamburg, 1982 Achim Lipp, "Bilderbrücken. Der aktive Betrachter" [Picture bridges. The active observer], Exhibition journal, Hamburg, 1981 Achim Lipp et al., "Der Hamburger Museumswürfel" [The Hamburg museum cube], Hamburg, 1980 Achim Lipp, "Khnopff-Collier", Postal card series to the exhibition, Hamburg 1980 Achim Lipp, "Umgarnte Gedanken" [Ensnared thoughts], Associate edition to the exhibition, Hamburg, 1980 Achim Lipp, "Der zerbrochene Kopf" [The broken head], Exhibition journal, Hamburg, 1980 Achim Lipp, "Leonardo Quartett", Deck of cards to the exhibition, Hamburg, 1979 Achim Lipp, "Daumierhatz" [Hunting Daumier], Board game to the exhibition, Hamburg, 1979 Achim Lipp, "Wanderwege der Kunst" [Trails of art]; Exhibition journal, Hamburg, 1979 Achim Lipp, "ZORRRRRN", [RRRRRAGE] Comic book to the exhibition , Hamburg, 1979 Achim Lipp et al., "Die Kunst in Bildern zu denken", [The art of visual thinking] Hamburg, 1977 Achim Lipp, "Vive l´esprite", Painting project to the ”Kunst- und Wunderkammer” with 600 amateur painters, Hamburg, Kiel, Hannover, Bremen, Kassel and others, 1975-77 Achim Lipp u.a., "Kommunikationsspiele" [Communication games], in: Spielen [Playing games], Exhibition catalog, Hamburg 1971 Achim Lipp, "Vermessungen" [Measuring], Exhibition catalog, Hamburg 1970

Lectures, presentations, workshops "User Information Systems and Knowledge Worlds", Carnegie Mellon University, School of Arts, Pittsburgh, USA, September 2000 "UNIVERSEUM - Lebendiges Netzwerk des Wissens. The Vision of a Living Museum in a University ", Conference on Academic Heritage and Universities, Martin-Luther University Halle, May 2000 "Das elektronische Besucherinformationssystem der EXPO 2000" [The electronic visitor information system], Art Academy of Media Cologne within the scope of the interdisciplinary colloquium ”The universal exhibition EXPO 2000, Hannover. Conception and creation, November 1998 "Info spheres and the Concept of the Electronic Kunst- und Wunderkammer at EXPO 2000", Carnegie Mellon University, School of Arts, Pittsburgh, USA, October 1998 "Info spheres and Individualized Navigation Strategies at EXPO 2000", XEROX Research Center Grenoble, France, June 1998 "Info spheres and Memory Book: Information on Demand at EXPO 2000", XEROX Headquarter Stamford, NY, USA, May 1998 "Die Anwendung interaktiver Medien im Museumsbereich am Beispiel des Europäischen MuseumsNetzwerks" [The application of interactive media in museums illustrated by the European MuseumsNetwork], University Magdeburg, Department of Information and Society for Information Science (G. I.), December 1994 "Die Elektronische Kunst- und Wunderkammer als Erlebnis- und Vermittlungsform" [The Electronic Kunst- and Wunderkammer as a form of experience and arrangement], 13. World Computer Congress, Hamburg, September 1994 "The Electronic Kunstkammer & The European MuseumsNetwork", Conference on Electronic Publishing, Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada, May 1994 "The Electronic Kunstkammer & The European MuseumsNetwork", Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, May 1994 "Aspekte einer Mikro-Enzyklopädie des Assoziativen" [Aspects of a micro-encyclopedia of association], Multimedia project, Art Academy of Media Cologne, Winter semester 1993/94 "Das EMN und neue internationale Projekte mit interaktiven Medien" [The EMN and new international projects with interactive media], Lecture, Art Academy of Media Cologne, December 1993 "The EMN and Inter-Institutional Cooperation ", 2nd International Conference on Hypermedia and Interaction ICHIM, Cambridge, UK, September 1993 "Benutzer als Gestalter. Kunstkammer und Enzyklopädie" [The user and the designer. Art chamber and encyclopedia], Society for Information Science (G. I.), University Stuttgart, September 1993 "The Virtual Museum in the Context of the EMN", European Convention on Interactivity and Multimedia Publishing, Paris, January 1993 "The Virtual Museum in the Context of the EMN", International Congress of Art History, Berlin, July 1992 "Die Elektronische Kunst- und Wunderkammer und das Europäische MuseumsNetzwerk EMN" [The Electronic Kunst- and Wunderkammer and the European MuseumsNetwork EMN], Conference on Hyper system concepts in the media and cultural production, University Lüneburg, July 1992 "Die Elektronische Kunst- und Wunderkammer und das Europäische Museums Netzwerk EMN" [The Electronic Kunst- and Wunderkammer and the European MuseumsNetwork EMN], Lecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg, Summer semester 1992 "Die Elektronische Kunst- und Wunderkammer" [The Electronic Kunst- and Wunderkammer], Colloquium on data art and information science, Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg, May 1992 Presentation of the prototype of the European MuseumsNetwork at the CeBIT 1992, Hannover "Das Elektronische Museum II" [The electronic museum II], Seminar, Art Academy of Media Cologne, Winter semester 1991/92 "Die Elektronische Kunst- und Wunderkammer und das Europäische MuseumsNetzwerk EMN" [The Electronic Kunst- and Wunderkammer and the European MuseumsNetwork EMN], Guest lecture at Technical Academy Harburg, November 1991 "Das Europäische MuseumsNetzwerk EMN" [European MuseumsNetwork EMN], Convention of the Society for Information Science (G. I.), University Rostock, November 1991 "The Vision of the Electronic Kunst- und Wunderkammer ", Conférence "Artet Pédagogie", Dunkerque, France, October 1991 "The Vision of the Electronic Kunst- und Wunderkammer”, Introductory speech, 1st International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums ICHIM, Pittsburgh, PA.USA, October 1991 "Die kulturelle Identität Lettlands", Fallstudie über kulturelle Integration auf der Grundlage des EMN [The cultural identity of Latvia, case study on cultural integration on the basis of the EMN], Riga, Latvia, Ministry of education and cultural affairs, January-September 1991 "Das Elektronische Museum I" [The electronic museum I], Seminar, Art Academy of Media Cologne, Summer semester 1991 "Das EMN und die Elektronische Kunst- und Wunderkammer ", Seminar, Art Academy of Media Cologne, Winter semester 1990/91 "The EMN - Concept and Status of Development”, Proposers Information Day / RACE II, Direction General XIII, European Commission, Brussels, August 1990 "The EMN - Concept and Status of Development”, IMAGING Conference, London, July 1990 "The Associative Approach - Background of the EMN", Museon, The Hague, Netherlands, June 1990 "Das EMN als Elektronisches Museum" [The EMN as an electronic museum], Radio interview given to RIAS Berlin, May 1990 "The EMN - Concept and Status of Development”, Multimedia Conference, Whitechapel Gallery, London, November 1990 "Inhaltliche und organisatorische Strukturen für ein Museum im Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe." [Contextual and organizational structures for a museum at the Center of Art and Media Technology], Lecture, Workshop Museum at the ZKM-Medien für den Bürger [Media for citizens], Karlsruhe, February 1988 "More Light", Lecture tour through the USA at invitation of the Goethe Institute to his exhibition projects at the Hamburger Kunsthalle "More light" and "Art in the Net" with the following stops: Goethe-Institute Vancouver, Goethe-Institute Toronto; Museum of Holography Chicago, Museum of Holography New York; Metropolitan Museum New York; Center for Advanced Visual Studies CAVS am MIT, Cambridge, USA; May 1987