She regularly reports on security policy, technology and China for German and international media. She also works as a producer for NBC News. Just recently, she lived in Hong Kong for two years, where she researched pro-China influencers. She was recently recognized by Medium Magazin as one of the “Top 30 under 30” journalists in Germany.
Project
At ZEVEDI, Marie Bröckling is researching the question of how the judiciary deals with the growing amount of confiscated cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are subject to strong price fluctuations, so the timing of their sale is crucial. In addition, information about the illegal past of the seized cryptocurrencies is stored in the blockchain. It is therefore not easy to reintroduce them into the legal financial cycle. So far, there are no uniform rules on how seized cryptocurrencies should be resold.
Further information on the programme and application procedure can be found on the German language website».
Stefan Mey is a freelance IT-Journalist». He studied sociology and journalism in his home town of Halle as well as at the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Potsdam. In his writing, he discusses major players such as Alphabet, Meta or Microsoft – but also looks at the non-commercial “counter-world” of projects such as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Mastodon or Signal.
Project: Governance Models of Leading Cryptocurrencies
During his time at ZEVEDI, he discusses the governance models of the leading cryptocurrencies. The market capitalizations of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are in the multi-billion range. However, it is hardly known “who” is behind the cryptocurrencies, most of which are organized as open-source projects. Who is able to make the important technical decisions which, after all, can have serious economic implications? Does an individual, a small self-recruited board, or a democratically organized collective make the decisions? Often, companies as well as foundations or pseudo-foundations play a role in the ecosystem of a cryptocurrency. As benchmarks serve other large open source projects which likewise evolved together with and side by side with certain communities, organizations and companies.
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,
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 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.
Project
During her residency, she has investigated 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.
The Residency – Input and Effects
■ Presentation and Talk with High School Students, Darmstadt, 16 Mai 2023 and the eFin-Blog-Article about it by Laura Grosser, 8 August 2023, of the same title : “Why we all should talk more about money”» (in German only)
Mercator-Journalist in Residence, November / December 2022
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.
Project Proposal
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.
■ Reactions of the students of the ProGenius School Darmstadt to the BitBlockKryptoComic (in German only):
Martin Karcher about his time at ZEVEDI
“How can you showcase abstract, complex, technical topics in a visually appealing and entertaining way? As a comic artist, I find that anything can be depicted in a comic or graphic novel. It is a very diverse medium, it combines the aesthetics and expressiveness of a single drawing with the dramaturgical possibilities of a film or a play. In a comic, the moving image becomes a still, permanent series of images which can be read or “looked up” repreatedly. I therefore find it ideal for conveying more complicated content. During my time at ZEVEDI, I asked myself what impact the digitalisation of money could have on our everyday life, on our society, on our democracy in the future. My goal was to turn this question into a comic that could sensitise teenagers and young adults to the topic in an entertaining way. In addition to the development of the storyline, this also resulted in sketches for a 10-page comic, all shown in a “making-of” exhibition at the Kunstforum of the TU Darmstadt. I also held a introductory course on how to create and draw a graphic novel for students of the Bertolt-Brecht-Schule.”
Further information on the programme and application procedure can be found on the German language website».
Mercator-Journalist in Residence, March/April 2023
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.
Project Proposal
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.
Mercator-Journalist in Residence, July/August 2022
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”.
Project Proposal
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.
“How relevant is Bitcoin and what influence does it have on our society? As a journalist, I have been pursuing this question since 2013 and have been coming up with new answers ever since. As a decentralised project that is constantly and dynamically evolving, Bitcoin by design eludes systematic recording. Statements about the first purely digital money can therefore only ever be snapshots representing each very specific perspectives. Different views on Bitcoin are therefore often contradictory or even conflicting. And always shaped by individual attitudes and political and economic interests towards this new and different kind of money. But given this complex state of information, what do we actually know about Bitcoin? During my time at ZEVEDI, I looked at some of the socially most contentious aspects and explored the question of whether Bitcoin is potentially more dangerous or more beneficial for our society. In a workshop and two lectures, I presented my findings. They are preliminary results, yet again, however prompted by a consistently growing interaction between Bitcoin and society.”
Further information on the programme and application procedure can be found on the German language website».
16 December 2022, 4 pm TU Darmstadt | Old Main Buildung | Foyer of the Wilhelm-Köhler-Saal | Room 284
A Short Exhibition in Cooperation with the Kunstforum der TU Darmstadt
Martin Karcher is a freelance illustrator, graphic designer and comic artist and currently the Mercator-Journalist in Residence in the project Democracy Issues of the Digitalised Financial Sector (eFin & Democracy). On Friday, December 16, he will show first results of his residency, his work on a short graphic novel titled “BitBlockKryptoComic”.
The graphic novel for teenagers and young adults addresses utopias and dystopias associated with digital payments. Four young adults with fundamentally different attitudes raise questions like these: Do cryptocurrencies allow us to invest our money independently of the power of states and banks? Can the technologies we need for digital payments be sustainable, or will they accelerate climate change? To what extent do we need or should we even be concerned with digital currencies?
An interview with Martin Karcher by Rainer Lind», artist and lecturer at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and his filming of the conversation between Martin Karcher and senior students at the Bertolt-Brecht-Schule in Darmstadt provides further insight into Karcher’s work and the development of the BitBlockKryptoComic.
As part of the cooperation with the Art Forum of the TU Darmstadt, visitors are kindly invited to join the forum’s director Julia Reichelt for a short guided tour of the current exhibition „Cristof Yvoré. STILL LIFE»“.
Martin Karcher With a dual degree in communication design from both the FH Konstanz and the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee, he has worked as an intern and freelancer at agencies in Vienna, Munich and Berlin. He has shown his work in exhibitions throughout Germany and Denmark. Martin Karcher» lives and works in Leipzig