Lecture series: Travelling back in time to the early digital age
04/21/2026Punch cards, games journalism, digital art: from 22 April, the public lecture series "Hack & Play" at the University of Würzburg will take you on a journey back to the digital beginnings.
What did digital culture look like before the internet, USB and artificial intelligence existed? The public lecture series "Hack & Play" in the summer semester 2026 at the University of Würzburg revolves around this question (in German language).
The focus will be on home computers and games consoles from the 1970s and 1980s - a time when digital technologies first became part of everyday life. The lectures look at this phase from the perspective of computer history, media archaeology, game studies and other disciplines.
The lecture topics range from punch cards and early games journalism to digital art and questions of digital sovereignty.
The venue is the Retro Computing Lab at the University of Würzburg, a collection of historical, operational computer systems that has been used for research and teaching since 2023. The lectures will take place there in the midst of original devices and thus enable direct access to the material history of digital culture.
Dates and topics
The lectures take place on Wednesdays from 16:00 to 18:00. Centre for Philology and Digitality ZPD, Emil-Hilb-Weg 23, Hubland-Nord Campus.
Admission is free, registration is not necessary. The lectures (in German language) will also be broadcast online.
- 22.04. Moritz Feichtinger:
History on punched cards - 29.04. Aurelia Brandenburg:
Is it all about men? German games journalism and the myth of gaming as a male domain 1980-2000 - 06.05. Christian Schröter:
Digital sovereignty - 13.05. Klaus Rettinghaus:
Digital Visual Art of the 80s: Conservation and Presentation. Andy Warhol's computer graphics - 03.06. Vera Piontkowitz:
Computational Game Studies - 10.06. Hanna Hammerich and Niayesh Ebrahimi:
Cultures of Home Computer Music - 17.06. Mariangela Giglio:
Digital Remains: An Introduction to Forensic Philology - 24 June Franziska Ascher:
Computer role-playing games and Pen&Paper - 01.07. Till Heilmann:
GIF 0.0: A look into the historical archive - 15.07. Stefan Höltgen:
BASIC with/out Style: A programming style between semiotics and spaghetti code
The Universitätsbund Würzburg is sponsoring the series. Further information, including online participation, can be found on the ZPD website.
Contact
Dr Torsten Roeder, Centre for Philology and Digitality ZPD, University of Würzburg,
torsten.roeder@uni-wuerzburg.de, T 0178 / 5455445
