March 28, 2025

Call for Applications: Two Professorships at Merz Akademie

The Merz Akademie in Stuttgart is a state-recognized university for design, art, and media under nonprofit sponsorship, offering approximately 250 study places. The fields of Film and Video, New Media, and Visual Communication are considered distinct yet closely related disciplines.

They are seeking to fill two positions:

Professorship in Emerging Media in Art and Design (f/m/d, W2, 80%)

They are looking for a candidate whose artistic-theoretical practice can relate current and emerging trends in media art to activism in a forward-thinking, ethical, and sustainable way. With this professorship, the Merz Alademie aims to promote experimental and documentary positions in areas such as media activism, human-computer interaction, networked environments, creative coding, AI, and games, while strengthening the critical and artistic engagement with social media.

Application Deadline: April 20, 2025 | Job Advertisement and Application

Professorship in Film and Video (f/m/d, W2, 80%)

They are looking for a candidate with an internationally recognized film practice, who represents fictional forms at the boundaries of documentary and experimental work in both research and teaching. Research and teaching in the field of Film and Video at the Merz Akademie should be in constant correspondence with the contemporary transformation of the film image, the implications of the digital media shift, and the current aesthetic, technical, and political challenges of time-based audiovisual narration. Their ideal candidate should demonstrate aesthetic experimentation, media reflexivity, and a strong affinity for culture- and society-critical theoretical discourse.

Application Deadline: June 22, 2025 | Job Advertisement and Application

February 14, 2025

Call for Entries: FOCUS OPEN 2025

Until April 25, 2025, companies, professional designers, as well as startups, newcomers, and emerging talents from all over the world have the opportunity to submit their current and innovative design solutions for the FOCUS OPEN 2025 Baden-Württemberg International Design Award.

The FOCUS OPEN is an important component of the economic and design promotion in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It rewards the innovation and design quality of new products, services, and concepts, and stands out with moderate costs while offering very high visibility.

New this year are the categories IMMERSIVE MEDIA (conceptualization, development, or design of multisensory experiences using digital media such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), game design, immersive film productions, etc.) and CIRCULAR DESIGN (products or systems whose design strategies aim to efficiently use raw materials and return them to the biological material cycle with minimal quality loss).

Deadline Call for Entries: ~~April 4, 2025~~ – Deadline extended: April 25, 2025!

More information Call for Entrie s | FOCUS OPEN 202 5 | Application

The benefits for Award Winners:

Festive award ceremony and exhibition opening that focus public attention on all the winning products
An exhibition lasting several months in Haus der Wirtschaft Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart (impressions 202 4)
Publication in a yearbook that is distributed to the major international markets via a publishing house renowned for its books on design
Extensive online communication

The Baden-Württemberg International Design Award FOCUS OPEN 2025 is organized by the Design Center Baden-Württemberg and funded by the Ministry of Economics.

May 10, 2024

Lecture Series „Nachhaltigkeit und / Sustainability and“ at Merz Akademie

The lecture series “Nachhaltigkeit und / Sustainability and” by our CREATORS of the New Media department at the Merz Akademie gives a voice to people who show through their work, projects and initiatives that sustainability can be thought of and practiced not only “in the big picture”, but in particular through activities in many areas and at many levels. Curated by Prof. Mario Doulis.

Event dates, each at 19:30 CET, in the Merz Akademie auditorium:

May 14, 2024: Nachhaltigkeit und Designstudium.
Caja Peters and Ben Herbig, Graduates of the study program Industrial Design at Hochschule Pforzheim.
May 21, 2024: Nachhaltigkeit und Circular Design.
Julius Schäufele, Merz Akademie graduate, company founder and designer at the interface of circular economy and transformation processes in the construction and real estate industry.
May 28, 2024: Sustainability and Socical Economy. (English)
Roel Forceville, head of Recyclart, NGO in Brussels at the interface between art and the social economy.
June 4, 2024: Nachhaltigkeit und Methodik.
Angela Grosso Ciponte, sociologist, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel.
June 11, 2024: Sustainability and Compatibility. (English)
Tamarind Rossetti and Stephen Wright, artistic directors of the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart.

The colleagues of the Merz Akademie are looking forward to your visit!

Further information

September 9, 2023

The Merz Akademie expands the AMCRS!

Project Partners from the University of Konstanz visiting the VR Lab at Merz Akademie, 2023, copyright: E. Böker, CASCB

The university area of the AMCRS is expanding! We are very pleased to welcome the Merz Akademie – University of Applied Arts, Design and Media from Stuttgart as new HEROES in our network!

The Merz Akademie positions itself as an innovative place of learning between a classical art academy, a design university and a aculty of humanities. Their focus areas are film and video, new media and visual communication with a special emphasis on theory and cultural studies.