Category: Mercator Journalist in Residence

Anissa Brinkhoff (she/her) is a financial journalist and podcaster who advocates for the topics of female finance and financial education. As a freelance author and speaker, Anissa Brinkhoff» writes and speaks about finance and money. In workshops she seeks to motivate women to deal with their finances and personal retirement  arrangement themselves. She advises companies on financial podcasts or female finance topics and is the Hamburg Ambassador of the Fintech Ladies Network.

In her own podcast Finance & Feelings», she analyses feelings about money, how the family background affects how we deal with money, which dependencies and interconnections there are, where injustices persist. She addresses the issue why so many shy away from dealing with money and finance – or feel uncomfortable with it. She also uses her instagram channel» to discuss and explain finance in general and female finance specifically.

Anissa Brinkhoff studied communication sciences and journalism in Münster and Hamburg and has now been living in Hamburg for over 10 years.

During her residency, she is investigating the question of whether women are sufficiently included in the digitalisation of finance. And whether the digital gap might exacerbate the existing gender gap in finance or in financial education.

Martin Karcher is a freelance illustrator, graphic designer and graphic novelist. With a dual degree in communication design from both the FH Konstanz and the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee, he has worked as a freelancer at several agencies in Berlin. He has shown his work in exhibitions throughout Germany and Denmark. Martin Karcher» lives and works in Leipzig.

During his residency, Martin Karcher has been working on a graphic novel on the topic of “digital payment” for an audience of teenagers and young adults aged 16 and older. He explored the utopias and dystopias associated with the digitalization of the financial sector, especially digital payment.

Eventually, Martin Karcher met with students of the Bertolt-Brecht-Schule to talk about his work. And in a short exhibition, organized in cooperation with the Kunstforum of the Technische Universität Darmstadt, he showed first results of his residency.

More about the Visit to the Bertolt-Brecht-Schule, 14 December 2022 (German only)»

More about the Short Exhibition „The BitBlockKryptoComic – A Making-Of”, 16 December 2022»

More about his Residency in an eFin-Blog Post by Laura Grosser (German only)»

Rainer Lind is an artist, has won multiple awards as such, is furthermore a musician and has been teaching at several schools and universites across Hesse.

As a video artist in particular, Rainer Lind» conducts and edits interviews in a very recognizable and reduced visual documentary style.In his portraits, he often sheds light on both his interview partners’ professional expertise and how it entertwines with or differs from their personal experiences and attitudes. That way, the content is made particularly accessible to diverse audiences. Rainer Lind’s work has often but not exclusively been in the field of civic education.

During his residency Rainer Lind has pursued an interview project on the topics at the heart of the discourse project “eFin & Democracy”. He has conducted in-depth interviews with people whose lives, hobbies and/or profession allow for different and sometimes unusual perspectives on the digitalised financial sector.

On May 16, the portraits from the residency were shown in an event in cooperation with the Historischer Verein für Hessen e.V.

More about the Event „Modern Talking“ – Contemporary History and Video Portraits on the Digitalized Finance Sector »

Friedemann Brenneis is a freelance journalist dedicated to the topic of “Bitcoin”. He discusses the multifaceted world of blockchain and crypto culture in established media as well as in digital outlets:  both in his blog The Coinspondent» and in the successful podcast Honigdachs», which he has been running with two co-hosts since 2015.

Among other things, in 2021 his research took him to El Salvador, the state that gained global attention at the time for introducing Bitcoin as legal tender for the very first time. In addition, Brenneis launched the Magic Future Money» book project, which collected and published “(im)possible stories of the money of the future”.

During his residency, Friedemann Brenneis further explored the question of whether Bitcoin could really be the trigger for a new form of civic, political, and democratic engagement, or whether challenging the state’s monopoly on money and established power structures – which are essential ideas of Bitcoin -, could ultimately be dangerous or profitable for our society.

In addition to a public lecture entitled “Why Bitcoin?”, he finally presented his findings in a cooperation with the initiative Kultur einer Digitalstadt (KeD) under the title “Bitcoin – boon or bane for our society?“.

More about the Public Lecture „Warum Bitcoin?”, 26 July 2022»

More about the Public Lecture „Bitcoin – Gefahr oder Bereicherung für unsere Gesellschaft?“, 9 August 2022»