Till A. Heilmann is a postdoctoral researcher at the CRC Virtual Lifeworlds (1567) at Ruhr University Bochum, working on digital image archives. He studied German, media studies, and history. Research associate at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Basel (2003–2014), at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Siegen (2014–2015) and at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Bonn (2015–2021); doctorate for a thesis on computers as writing machines (2008); visiting scholar at the University of Siegen (2011); Fellow-in-Residence at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, University of Iowa (2012); acting professor of Digital Media and Methods, and Media Theory at the University of Siegen (2020–2021, 2024); book projects on Photoshop and on early GIF images (ongoing). Fields of research: Media history; media theory; media semiotics; history of media studies. Research focus: digital image processing; algorithms and computer programming; North American and German media theory. Publications include: “Was heißt Originalerhalt digitaler Bilder? Authentizität und Materialität von frühen GIFs im Internet [What Does of Preservation of the Original Mean Concerning Digital Images? Authenticity and Materiality of Early GIFs on the Internet].” ARCHIV. theorie & praxis 1 (2024): 47–52. “Blackbox Bildfilter. Unscharfe Maske von Photoshop zur Röntgentechnischen Versuchsanstalt Wien [Black Box Image Filter: Unsharp Mask from Photoshop to the X-Ray Research Institute Vienna].” Navigationen 2 (2020): 75–93; “Friedrich Kittler’s Alphabetic Realism.” Classics and Media Theory. Ed. P. Michelakis. Oxford University Press 2020: 29–51; “Zur Vorgängigkeit der Operationskette in der Medienwissenschaft und bei Leroi-Gourhan [On the Precedence of the Operational Chain in Media Studies and Leroi-Gourhan].” Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie 2 (2016): 7–29; “Datenarbeit im ‘Capture’-Kapitalismus. Zur Ausweitung der Verwertungszone im Zeitalter informatischer Überwachung [Data-Labor in Capture-Capitalism. On the Expansion of the Valorization Zone in the Age of Informatic Surveillance].” Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 2 (2015): 35–48; “Handschrift im digitalen Umfeld [Handwriting in the Digital Environment].” Osnabrücker Beiträge zur Sprachtheorie 85 (2014): 169–192; “‘Tap, tap, flap, flap.’ Ludic Seriality, Digitality, and the Finger.” Eludamos 8/1 (2014): 33–46; Textverarbeitung: Eine Mediengeschichte des Computers als Schreibmaschine [Word Processing: A Media History of the Computer as a Writing Machine] (2012); “Digitalität als Taktilität: McLuhan, der Computer und die Taste [Digitality as Tactility: McLuhan, the Computer and the Key].” Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 2 (2010): 125–134.