Yannic Heintzen
Yannic Heintzen (1994, DE) is a designer, artistic researcher, and lecturer based in Hamburg, Germany. He holds an MA in Graphic Design from HAW Hamburg (2023) and is currently a PhD candidate in the Binational Artistic PhD Program at HfK Bremen (University of the Arts Bremen). Supervised by Prof. Dr. Andrea Sick and Prof. Dr. Anke Haarmann.
His research investigates the question: How can we become revolutionary? Through a practice-based methodology, he develops rhapsodic machines—installations and devices that transform theoretical concepts into tangible, experiential encounters. His method combines the three practices of collecting (unearthing cultural, political, and theoretical fragments), basteln (tinkering—assembling these fragments into machines), and situating (creating spaces for collective engagement with the machines). Working across photography, graphics, sound, objects, and software, his practice challenges the boundaries between theory and practice, positioning material engagement with ideas as a form of political and epistemological inquiry.
Yannic teaches at various universities, offering critical perspectives on design practice, creative coding, and design fundamentals. He is part of the research and design collective GEWE®BE together with Canan Bunk and Stephan Kraus. His work has been exhibited, e.g., at Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse and in Weissenhofwerkstatt, Stuttgart. His master's thesis was selected by Design Zentrum Hamburg as one of the twenty best graduation projects of 2023 and displayed in the exhibition 'Schicht&&Gewebe' at Raum linksrechts in Hamburg (2024), among other places.
RESUME
CURRENT
PhD Candidate, Binational Artistic PhD Program at HfK Bremen (University of the Arts Bremen, DE) in cooperation with PhDArts at Leiden University and KABK in The Hague (NL)
Teaching at the Faculty of Design of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW, DE)
Teaching at the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences Hamburg (DE)
Member of the design and research collective GEWE®BE
TEACHING
WS25 Lectureship Critical Creative Coding at HAW Hamburg
WS25 Lectureship Layout and Typography at Macromedia University Hamburg
WS25 Lectureship Photography at Macromedia University Hamburg
SS25 Lectureship Design Practice and Ethics at Macromedia University Hamburg
SS25 Lectureship Visual Systems at Macromedia University Hamburg
WS24 Lectureship Innovation by Design at Macromedia University Hamburg
WS24 Lectureship Photography at Macromedia University Hamburg
SS24 Lectureship Design Practice and Ethics at Macromedia University Hamburg
SS24 Lectureship Special Topics in Design at Macromedia University Hamburg
SS24 Lectureship Creative Tools at Macromedia University Hamburg
WS21 Lectureship Brand Design at Macromedia University (Hamburg, Munich, Berlin & Freiburg)
SS21 Assistant Lecturer for Prof. Stefan Stefanescu at HAW Hamburg
WS20 Assistant Lecturer for Prof. Stefan Stefanescu at HAW Hamburg
SS17 Lectureship for Preparatory Design Studies at Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, hKDM Freiburg
2016 & 2017 Workshops for pupils at Fotomediale Freiburg
WORK EXPERIENCE
2025–today Lecturer at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW, DE)
2024–today Lecturer at Macromedia University of Applied Sciences (DE)
2021–today Freelance graphic designer
2019–2023 Art Director and Creative Technologist at Zum Goldenen Hirschen Hamburg (DE)
2017–2019 Junior New Media Developer at IMC AG (DE)
EDUCATION & TRAINING
2023 – Master of Arts (M.A.) Communication Design HAW HH (Hamburg University of Applied Science, DE)
2017 – Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Integrated Design - hKDM Freiburg (University of Art, Design, and Popular Music, DE)
EXHIBITIONS
03.03–16.03.2024 SCHICHT && GEWEBE at Raum linksrechts
18.06–31.07.2016 The Other and the Same / L‘AUTRE ET LE MÊME at Kunsthaus L6 Freiburg / Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse (DE)
20.05–22.05.2016 CORBUSIER REVISITED at Weissenhofwerkstatt Stuttgart (DE) Project Funded by Daimler Financial Services
23.06–04.07.2016 HEKTAR II at Haus des Waldes, Stuttgart (DE)
01.07–01.08.2015 work in progress at August2, Freiburg (DE)
23.03–05.04.2015 HEKTAR at Regierungspräsidium, Freiburg (DE)
PORTFOLIO
2023
This MA thesis examines the connection between design processes and archaeology. Archaeology builds on Foucault's discourse analysis and is used as an epistemological method by Walter Benjamin in Passagenwerk. In the work, a search is designed that poses questions to itself in the mode of an excavation. The two guiding questions were
• Can we dig ourselves out?
• How do we manage to dig up the things we dream of in the future?
I built seven machines: The Flaneur (Flanierer), The Collector (Sammler), The Clock (Takter), The Merge-Machine (Synthetisierer), The Contextualizator (Kontextualisierer), The Imaginer (Imaginierer), and The Draft-Machine (Verzeichner).
The machines emphasize the functions of terms that are retrieved during the search and embed them in the process. This illuminates their discursive space. The terms come from texts by Walter Benjamin, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, among others, from which an archaeological and ontological way of thinking was taken.
The work scrutinizes the effective space and traceability of designers and design processes. When do processes become comprehensible, and how are they communicated and discussed? The machines that come together to form a device function as artifacts of the process. They can thus be recovered and categorized. They are not the result, but the process itself. The design process works recursively and is conceived as an ongoing, transformative search that forms a rhapsodic body comprising fragments, figures, structures, and devices. The work emphasizes the perpetual state of becoming in artistic research by showing openness to multilayered understandings.
The work is untitled: the (un)told story is left to the recipient, because the artist doesn't know it either. The images shown are found images. These interact with photographs that were clearly recognizably taken at the exhibition venue and take up the postures of the people in the found images. The photographs of the postures in the white cube reflect and imitate the found images and question their identity and authenticity. They reduce viewing to a cautionary comparison of the visible and point to the limits of interpretation - and the significance of artistic interpretation.
The exhibition ‘The Other and the Same’ showed different approaches to the concept of the portrait in contemporary photography. What all the photographers have in common is their origin in the Black Forest region of Baden. exhibition