Our Team
in Ludwigsburg
Jasmin Mertikat - Program Lead (Development and Networking) - on parental leave
Jasmin Mertikat has already done many things "being the first". She was the first woman to study Interactive Media, founded the first international Backpack Film Festival, the first at Hunting Alien and last but not least she is the first contact person at Tinkertank for partners, friends and everyone. Most impressive coordination achievement: The Tinkertank Seven-Cities-Roadshow within six weeks.
Florian Greth - Creative Lead (Concept and Process Development)
Florian Greth is the inventor and ingenious spirit of the team. As a 3D artist and visual effects artist, he feels at home in fantastic worlds as well as in his high-tech maker space. He also has a lot of empathy and leaves a trail of enthusiastic inventors on his way. Most useful invention: The flower watering machine.
Thomas Kühn - Creative Engineer (Workshops and Mobile Makerspaces)
As an engineer, Thomas Kühn builds, tinkers and invents without ceasing. He also creates new worlds at Tinkertank - whether with artistic craftsmanship or complex programming. Thomas Kühn is an inventor, tinkerer, mentor, mushroom picker and our quota engineer. Or - to put it in his own words - engineer DESPITE OF creativity. He wrote his thesis about maker spaces, directly after that he joined Tinkertank, where he has been a mentor for a long time, representing his credo "No power to theory".
Johannes May - Workshop Facilitator (Mentor and Mentor Network)
As an actor and professional creator of worlds, Johannes May firmly believes in the baroque concept of the world as a stage. When he's not standing on it, he tirelessly builds illusion machines and introduces a growing group of mentors to his alchemical secrets. Most disturbing symmetry: creates worlds also as a tabletop player.
Nora Hieronymus - Head of Communication, Network
Nora Hieronymus does public relations at its best, whether it's 144 characters for social media, 1.44 pages of body text for the newspaper or e-mails to 144 newsletter subscribers. She knows the right journalists and editors to make the magic of our workshops comprehensible to people outside our filter bubble.
Marie Kunzmann - Mentor, Conception & Content Creation
Marie Kunzmann is a media designer with a great passion for creating versatile interactions. She loves both - experimenting with all kinds of media and creatively imparting technical knowledge. She got to know us as a participant in our first mentor camp. Now she is actively involved in the further development of our own microcontroller.
Adelheid Dörling - Creative Lab Manager
Adelheid Dörling is an organisational talent who makes sure everything runs smoothly in our creative lab. She gets into the making, likes to try out new things and collects all kinds of things, especially hobbies. As a trained historian, she is at home in all eras - from the Romans to the Reformation to the technical achievements of our time.
Matilde Goriaux - BUFDI & Mentor
Matilde Goriaux has always loved tinkering. As often as possible, she met up with friends to brainstorm ideas and create new things (see photo). This led to the development of, for example, robots that could read audiobooks and bark, or smartphones made of paper. Since her creative pursuits diminished in the last school years, she sought a post-school engagement that would bring this passion back in the spotlight.
Julian Jungel - Supervision & Conceptual Design
Julian Jungel is a computer scientist and develops concepts for interactive media in the intersections of digital technology, craftsmanship, animation, sensor technology, generative art, music and performing arts. He has been with Tinkertank since day one and has been instrumental in developing the concept.
Michael Scheuerl - tuduu.org & media production
Michael Scheuerl is a studied virtual designer, but mainly functions as a lateral thinker. In combination with his extraordinary knowledge of innovative technologies, he always finds new solutions and unexpected combinations. He is also a passionate game designer, Arduino fan and the "Doc Brown" of the Tinker platform tuduu.org.
Our mentors
Alexander Pieper
is a game designer and programmer. For his game "The Inner World" he won the award for the best German computer game! At Tinkertank he hacks game controllers from scrap metal and comes up with all the video games! Sure, what else!
Benjamin Rudolf
builds virtual worlds and is always ahead of his time! As a visionary of virtual and extended realities, he does not shy away from any idea and always finds fascinating solutions with the participants at Tinkertank.
Christoph Rasulis
is a game designer and programmer for mobile games. At Tinkertank, he shows how to bring objects to life with "\newcommand{\ebnfmult}[1]{\txt{$\left\{\;\text{#1}\;\right\}$}\}\ \ }"!
Clara Springer
is a maker through and through, having spent a significant part of her life practically living in the makerspace. After her voluntary social year (FSJ) at Tinkertank, she is pursuing her studies, but continues to enrich our workshops with her creativity.
Eliott Deshusses
is a director for animated films with a focus on stop motion and has worked on numerous children's films, series and music videos (including "Hey Girl" by "Cro"!). At Tinkertank, he loves to teach children how to work with stop trick, storytelling, scenery construction and digital tools.
Eva Schlechte
is a textile designer and processes a wide variety of materials into works of art. At Tinkertank, she is the first person to contact when it comes to making fabrics shine and sound, breathing life into the dullest T-shirt.
Janina Schmid
is an artist completely free of prejudice towards materials. Her workshops include crocheting, welding, programming, drawing and much more. This expands her skills and horizons.
Jannik Jochim
is currently doing his diploma in interactive media at the Filmakademie - the ideal way to combine his passions of game design, illustration and music. Games and playing are important for all of us, he thinks (and has already given lectures on the subject) - and we agree with him wholeheartedly.
Julian Oberbeck
is a technical director and finds at least five effective solutions to every technical problem, as well as twelve other ideas that make every project at Tinkertank escalate in a delightful way.
Liliya Ivanova
is a StartUp Accelerator for young people and a project manager of an Innovation Incubator, and is completely dedicated to the promotion and development of people. Her proximity to technology, her experience in design thinking and rapid prototyping make her an ideal Tinkertank mentor as well as her infectious good mood.
Marcel Durer
is an enthusiastic storyteller, a friend of the word and the drawn image. His passion includes animated films, comics and, above all, interactive and transmedial media. It is precisely the special demands placed on the dramaturgy of games that excite his passion for storytelling, which he can live out without restraint in Tinkertank workshops.
Mareike Ottrand
is an illustrator, a professor for interactive illustration and holder of the German Computer Game Award, which she won with her game company for "The Inner World"! At Tinkertank, she creates the wildest creatures - not just with children - and loves to tinker with things that blink and glow.
Max Haarich
His Excellency Ambassador of the Republic of Užupis is an artistic researcher and conceptual artist. For the Institute for Applied Paradox he founded, he wanders neuronal networks, places NFTs in teletext, builds shoulder-tapping machines out of wood and writes constitutions for AIs.
Maxine Metzger
makes graphics and illustrations for board games, books, comics and anything else that needs to be more beautiful. That's why she knows a lot about game design. She calls herself a full-time geek and loves glitter, cats and mentoring at Tinkertank on all topics.
Mona Otterbach
builds scenes and worlds. And when she's not collecting prizes for them, she discovers the real worlds that serve as her inspiration. At Tinkertank, she ignites the fire of enthusiasm and creativity in every participant.
Paula Schwabe
is an interactive media designer and Arduino mentor at Tinkertank. In addition to her interactive art installations, she has developed serious games for children and adults, and is intensively involved with wearables.
Ryan Jenkins
is an educator and exhibition developer from California, currently residing in Freiburg im Breisgau. He runs a creative studio called Wonderful Idea Company, aimed at crafting playful and captivating experiences with technology, art, and science.
Simon Grothkopp
is committed as an architect and urban planner to the improvement of all our living conditions, for example with the development of a prototype house for disadvantaged families in the Philippines. With the topics sustainability and inventions, he runs open doors at Tinkertank.
Simone Pivetta
Maestro Pivetta is a video game developer who enjoys tinkering with the soldering iron. Fascinated by loud noises, fast engines, and unforeseen consequences, he's here to bring you joy with smoking circuit boards.
Sofia Strunden
brings societal, body-related, and feminist topics to the stage, exhibitions, public spaces, and the web using digital means. She loves interactive media and gamification to facilitate an accessible engagement with relevant issues - and games with few, but firm rules.
Bob - Artificial Intelligence
Bob is an Artificial Intelligence that supports us in our creative processes. Whether it's developing painting machines or brainstorming - Bob is always on hand. With his ability to understand and generate natural language, he can capture ideas quickly and express them in an easy-to-understand way, albeit sometimes very dry and full of sarcasm. Bob is the perfect partner for teams that want to implement innovative ideas.
Our founders
Inga von Staden
As a bridge builder, she has initiated numerous projects, accompanied and advised initiatives and companies, and made a significant contribution to culture, society and the economy in the process of digital transformation. We are very happy that Tinkertank is a matter close to her heart and that she has accompanied the project to this day.
Saskia Kress
as CEO of the Interactive Media Foundation gGmbH and the Filmtank GmbH, she has initiated and successfully realised numerous cross-media projects with socially significant relevance. These included groundbreaking productions such as "netwars - out of CTRL". Her work has been rewarded with practically all important awards.
