1. How did you come to Deutsches Haus at NYU?
Last year in October there was an exhibition at Deutsches Haus at NYU called „What’s your Spiel?“. Franziska Zeiner, a student worker at Deutsches Haus and student at the NYU game center, curated this wonderful show about Austrian, Swiss and German game design. Deutsches Haus at NYU was kind enough to invite me in person to the opening event, where I presented my most recent project: „Perfect Woman“. Martin Rauchbauer, the former director of Deutsches Haus and Juliane Camfield, the current director asked me to become their first game-designer-in-residence. Of course I agreed!
2. Tell us a little bit about your residency here in New York City.
Like everything in New York, my residency was a restless time filled with impressions, events, work and acquaintances with interesting people. When I first came here I walked around a lot to get to know the city. I started a sketchbook which I filled with my impressions of New York City on a regular basis. You can find these pictures at “The-alien-writer-in-NYC” Tumblr of Deutsches Haus. With the help of Franziska Zeiner I was also able to quickly establish some connections to the NYU Game Center. New York has a big, innovative and vivid independent games scene and I felt very comfortable being a part of it during my time here. Through this connection I met Nina Freeman and Emmett Butler, two super nice and talented game designers and programmers. We produced a game about Deutsches Haus at NYU together: „Haus Quest“. It was Juliane’s idea that I produce a game, presenting the three programs of Deutsches Haus: The language program, the kids program and the cultural program.
The final event of my residency will take place tomorrow on Friday, March 28th. Daniel von Bothmer, Nina Freeman, Toni Pizza, Franziska Zeiner and I will be having a panel discussion about sex in video games.
3. What is your favorite place in New York?
There are so many: My apartment, because I love to enter the spacious and bright living room in the morning and enjoy the amazing views of Manhattan. I love Deutsches Haus at NYU because everything there is so small and special and it is like a calm oasis in the middle of Manhattan. I also like the waterfront of New York, like Coney Island, where I had a wonderful walk on the snowy beach. But I do love the loud and crowded and vibrant streets in the city as well!
4. What do you miss about Germany?
I grew up having „Abendbrot" every day. This is a traditional German supper with bread, sausage, cheese and other snacks. I really miss German bread.
5. Can you tell us a little bit about the upcoming panel discussion “What’s Sex got to do with it?”?
We will have a panel discussion about sex in computer games. Computer games are in the process of slowly growing up. They are evolving from being a rather light-hearted and fun medium, to a medium that can be used like books or films to tackle humanistic topics as well. We are talking about the representation of sex in computer games and want to compare computer games to poetry and comics. Where are the differences? Where are the similarities? A lot of examples will be shown and after the panel discussion, visitors themselves can play and read games, comics and poetry about or including sex.
