Florian Hadler works as a cultural entrepreneur, author, and researcher in the realm of aesthetics, strategy and transformation. He studied communication, media theory, and philosophy and obtained a Dr. phil. focusing on the cultural dynamics of the unknown.
His entrepreneurial portfolio ranges from co-founding and managing technology startups, creative studios, and industry networks to designing and production of international award-winning products, services, and media.
Across his roles he collaborates and works with organizations such as the European Commission, the New European Bauhaus, Deutsche Telekom, Volkswagen Group, and Berlin University of the Arts, targeting decision processes around technology, communication, and change.
Florian enjoys complexity and believes that visualizing thoughts can solve a lot of problems.
VENTURES
STATE Productions GmbH
Partner and Managing Director since 2021
STATE is a creative studio that creates, transforms and amplifies brands and institutions that make sense, delivering uniquely tailored solutions to strategic, technological and design challenges.
25A0 GmbH
Founder since 2019
25A0 is unicode for black square and a strategy and research office at the intersection of culture, arts, and science, conducting commissioned and self-initiated ventures, partnering with clients from the public and private sector.
25A1
Partner since 2023
25A1 is unicode for white square and a research and consulting office for museums and archives, implementing change to strengthen the societal impact of cultural heritage.
Weak Signals
Principal Investigator, 2022-2023
The research project Weak Signals, financed by Deutsche Telekom AG, examines and celebrates the nexus between the arts, science, and technology as a source of shifting paradigms in understanding and facing the challenges of the complex global realities of today and tomorrow.
Interface Critique
Founder since 2014
Interface Critique is an academic journal, book series and platform, facilitating trans-disciplinary dialogues about human-machine interaction and bridging gaps between art, science and technology.
Agents of Transformation
Co-founder since 2021
Agents of Transformation is a platform for systemic changes through arts and design, connecting the next generation with decision makers in politics and industry.
Creative Entrepreneurship
Visiting Professor Berlin University of the Arts, 2020-2023
Strategic development of the third mission profile of the university by building bridges between academia, industry and politics and strengthening the societal impact of arts and design.
Media Theory
Visiting Professor Berlin University of the Arts, 2017-2019
Teaching history and philosophy of human-machine interaction, conducting seminars on ai-driven conversational interfaces and digital culture.
ESNG
Co-founder, 2011-2014
The European Social Networks Group (ESNG) was an interest group comprised of the largest European social media networks (most of them are now extinct) and was advocating for a leveled playing field for the digital economy in Europe, eg. general data protection regulations and the European digital single market.
AKA-AKI Networks GmbH
Co-founder, 2006-2011
aka-aki was a location-based mobile social network that showed you interesting people nearby and enabled you to get in touch again with the ones you have met - before the iPhone and way before tinder. Failed successfully in 2011 after burning through several millions of venture capital.
BOOKS
Weak Signals - New Narratives in Art and Technology
Edited Monograph, 2023
Art and technology know lots of tricks. They enable us to consider the unknown future not as a threat, but as a resource of new narratives.
Diagrammatic Operations
Interface Critique Journal Vol. 4, 2023
Diagrammatic operations are – as practices of interfacing – always already specific types of ‘interface operations.’
Depth of Field
Interface Critique Journal Vol. 3, 2021
How can we think about and focus on the depth of the interface?
Navigating the Human
Interface Critique Journal Vol. 2, 2019
Just as the human is always under way, technology remains ingrained in every step and every shape.
Beyond UX
Interface Critique Journal Vol. 1, 2018
Interfaces impact our relation to the world, while governing us through immersion and engagement.
Turing Complete User
Book Series Interface Critique Vol.1 by Olia Lialina, 2021
Collected essays from net-art pioneer Olia Lialina, resisting alienation in human-computer interaction.
Interface Critique
Edited Monograph, 2016
A multidisciplinary discourse about the interface as a cultural and historical artifact.
Genealogie des Mediendenkens
Conversations between Siegfried Zielinski and Media Thinkers, 2017
What was the medium? Artistic and scientific discourses on the genealogy of media thinking.
Dialektik des Geheimen
Monograph, 2019
The secret is a powerful leitmotif for culture and aesthetics and a necessary condition of the absolute.
Was erzählt Pop?
Edited Monograph, 2018
Exploring Pop as an aesthetic for the third millenium.
Geheimnis - Stimmungsatlas
Kleiner Stimmungsatlas in Einzelbänden, 2014
Following the phantasm of the secret through language, paranoia, silence and seduction.
Florian Hadler works as a cultural entrepreneur, author, and researcher in the realm of aesthetics, strategy and transformation. He studied communication, media theory, and philosophy and obtained a Dr. phil. focusing on the cultural dynamics of the unknown.
His entrepreneurial portfolio ranges from co-founding and managing technology startups, creative studios, and industry networks to designing and production of international award-winning products, services, and media.
Across his roles he collaborates and works with organizations such as the European Commission, the New European Bauhaus, Deutsche Telekom, Volkswagen Group, and Berlin University of the Arts, targeting decision processes around technology, communication, and change.
Florian enjoys complexity and believes that visualizing thoughts can solve a lot of problems.
VENTURES
STATE Productions GmbH
Partner and Managing Director since 2021
STATE is a creative studio that creates, transforms and amplifies brands and institutions that make sense, delivering uniquely tailored solutions to strategic, technological and design challenges.
25A0 GmbH
Founder since 2019
25A0 is unicode for black square and a strategy and research office at the intersection of culture, arts, and science, conducting commissioned and self-initiated ventures, partnering with clients from the public and private sector.
25A1
Partner since 2023
25A1 is unicode for white square and a research and consulting office for museums and archives, implementing change to strengthen the societal impact of cultural heritage.
Weak Signals
Principal Investigator, 2022-2023
The research project Weak Signals, financed by Deutsche Telekom AG, examines and celebrates the nexus between the arts, science, and technology as a source of shifting paradigms in understanding and facing the challenges of the complex global realities of today and tomorrow.
Interface Critique
Founder since 2014
Interface Critique is an academic journal, book series and platform, facilitating trans-disciplinary dialogues about human-machine interaction and bridging gaps between art, science and technology.
Agents of Transformation
Co-founder since 2021
Agents of Transformation is a platform for systemic changes through arts and design, connecting the next generation with decision makers in politics and industry.
Creative Entrepreneurship
Visiting Professor Berlin University of the Arts, 2020-2023
Strategic development of the third mission profile of the university by building bridges between academia, industry and politics and strengthening the societal impact of arts and design.
Media Theory
Visiting Professor Berlin University of the Arts, 2017-2019
Teaching history and philosophy of human-machine interaction, conducting seminars on ai-driven conversational interfaces and digital culture.
ESNG
Co-founder, 2011-2014
The European Social Networks Group (ESNG) was an interest group comprised of the largest European social media networks (most of them are now extinct) and was advocating for a leveled playing field for the digital economy in Europe, eg. general data protection regulations and the European digital single market.
AKA-AKI Networks GmbH
Co-founder, 2006-2011
aka-aki was a location-based mobile social network that showed you interesting people nearby and enabled you to get in touch again with the ones you have met - before the iPhone and way before tinder. Failed successfully in 2011 after burning through several millions of venture capital.
BOOKS
Weak Signals - New Narratives in Art and Technology
Edited Monograph, 2023
Art and technology know lots of tricks. They enable us to consider the unknown future not as a threat, but as a resource of new narratives.
Diagrammatic Operations
Interface Critique Journal Vol. 4, 2023
Diagrammatic operations are – as practices of interfacing – always already specific types of ‘interface operations.’
Depth of Field
Interface Critique Journal Vol. 3, 2021
How can we think about and focus on the depth of the interface?
Navigating the Human
Interface Critique Journal Vol. 2, 2019
Just as the human is always under way, technology remains ingrained in every step and every shape.
Beyond UX
Interface Critique Journal Vol. 1, 2018
Interfaces impact our relation to the world, while governing us through immersion and engagement.
Turing Complete User
Book Series Interface Critique Vol.1 by Olia Lialina, 2021
Collected essays from net-art pioneer Olia Lialina, resisting alienation in human-computer interaction.
Interface Critique
Edited Monograph, 2016
A multidisciplinary discourse about the interface as a cultural and historical artifact.
Genealogie des Mediendenkens
Conversations between Siegfried Zielinski and Media Thinkers, 2017
What was the medium? Artistic and scientific discourses on the genealogy of media thinking.
Dialektik des Geheimen
Monograph, 2019
The secret is a powerful leitmotif for culture and aesthetics and a necessary condition of the absolute.
Was erzählt Pop?
Edited Monograph, 2018
Exploring Pop as an aesthetic for the third millenium.
Geheimnis - Stimmungsatlas
Kleiner Stimmungsatlas in Einzelbänden, 2014
Following the phantasm of the secret through language, paranoia, silence and seduction.