Media Aesthetics · Digital Literature · AI Critique
Simon Roloff is a media scholar, author, and digital literature researcher based in Germany. He is currently visiting professor for Media Aesthetics at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg and Senior Lecturer at the Institut für Sprachkunst (Institute for Language Art) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. He is a member of the DFG research network "Das Wissen digitaler Literatur" (The Knowledge of Digital Literature).
Previously, he was Junior Professor for Literary Studies and Creative Writing at the University of Hildesheim and Fellow at MECS (Leuphana). He studied Cultural Studies and Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Creative Writing at the German Literature Institute Leipzig, and earned his PhD from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Roloff investigates artificial intelligence at the intersection of media theory and artistic practice. His approach seeks not only to understand AI analytically but to critically interrogate and transform it through aesthetic methods. Current projects include an installation with Kaj Duncan David in "The World Through AI" at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2026), the AI-driven text engine such remorseless a havoc based on ship movement data, the seminar Writing With AI As A Critical Practice, and the KI-Schreibtutor project for German-language creative writing programs (with Dan Verständig, Center for Critical Computing).
Central to this work is the question of how digital texts — from algorithmically generated works to source code — can be read, analyzed, and theorized. The DFG-funded project code/verstehen (with Hannes Bajohr) focuses on the philology and theory of algorithmic source texts. The monograph Digitale Literatur: Zur Einführung (Junius, 2024) provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of digital literature.
Roloff's work in cultural studies analyzes practices of self-optimization, coaching, and job placement as cultural techniques. The monograph Ausweitung der Coachingzone (transcript, 2023) examines coaching as a cultural practice. Der Stellenlose (Fink, 2015) reconstructs the archaeology of the welfare state through the writings of Robert Walser.
E-Mail: simon.roloff@gmail.com
Publications: roloffsimon.com/publikationen