Dominic Riemenschneider

Consulting Art Historian

As an independent Art Historian, Dominic Riemenschneider brings together consulting for the game industry, cultural institutions and new forms of cultural mediation. His focus is on visual worldbuilding, lore & narrative design, art-related community management and streaming.

He offers workshops, guided tours with gaming aspects, lectures, moderations and event management; all around connecting games with a wide range of topics based on art, architecture, culture, religion and history.

After studying Art History, Protestant Theology and Byzantine Art History/Christian Archaeology at the University of Mainz, he worked in various public institutions as well as in the cultural and creative industries and worked as an independent scholar in the research on the Fantastics in the arts.

Since 2017 he is also doing his PhD on the architectural image in fantasy & science fiction with a focus on receptions in video games.

A list with lectures, panels, moderations and publications can be found on united-imagination.com.

Background

From 2007 to 2015 I studied Art History, Protestant Theology and Christian Archaeology/Byzantine Art History in Mainz (Magister Artium).

After that followed various activities in the cultural and creative industry (exhibitions, events, public relations, office management, deputy management) as well as in the church service (press and public relations of the EKBO in the consistory, parish offices in Friedrichshain) and associations (event management, sponsoring, finance).

In addition, there are various freelance activities in the field of academic teaching, journalism and content creation.

Since 2017 I am working on my dissertation in Art History & Ev. Theology on architectural reception in visual fantasy.

Since 2022, I have been self-employed full-time.

Lectures, Moderations, Panels

MetropolCon 2023,

Berlin, May 2023

Panel participation: E versus U: The eternal discussion about (pop)culture, fantasy & games

Panel moderation: Architecture, urbanism and power: who builds what, who decides, in reality and fantasy.

Panel moderation: Art and AI: creativity, the concept of art, commerce.

Digital Dragons 2023,

Krakow, May 2023.

Lecture: Creating Believable Game Worlds through Art History

SAE Institute GmbH

Online for all students in Germany (since winter semester 2020/21)

Lecture: History of Architecture for Game Devs

Cyberpunk Culture Cyber Conference

Online (July 9-10, 2020)

Lecture: Where Reality and Virtuality Collide: (Urban) Architectures in Cyberpunk and the Visual Strategies of the Dystopian Fantastics

Lecture Series, JGU Mainz

Lecture: Fantastic buildings and where to find them. Historical models in Fantasy & Science Fiction and the strategies of reception in fantastic media.

10th Annual Conference of the Society for Fantasy Research,

Berlin, Germany (September 18-20, 2019).

Lecture: Sublimity, wonder, longing. On the rootedness of visual fantasy in Romantic pictorial art.

77th World Science Fiction Convention, Academic Track,

Dublin, Ireland (August 15-19, 2019).

Lecture: Future-Up! Using historical models and turning them Science Fiction. Thoughts on visual strategies, reception ways and Art History

Panel Discussion: Illustration or fine art?

Panel Discussion: Fantastic buildings and where to find them

Panel Discussion: Gods, religion and atheism in the genre

Panel Discussion: What has art ever done for science?

Panel Discussion: Politics in art and art in politics

40th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

(ICFA), Orlando, FL, USA (March 13-16, 2019).

Lecture: Architecture is Might. Real political strategies behind representative buildings in the visual Fantastic.

76th World Science Fiction Convention, Academic Track,

San José, CA, USA (August 16-20, 2018).

Lecture: Realizing History for the Future - Towers in Science Fiction as symbols for technological progress and their roots in art and architecture

Panel Discussion: Tech Towns and Smart Cities: Urban Planning and Silicon Valley Alternatives

9th Annual Conference of the Society for Fantasy Research,

University of Fribourg/Fribourg, Switzerland (September 6-8, 2018).

Lecture: word, image, CGI - visualization techniques of architecture in fantasy between literary freedom and historicizing realism.

(Video)ludic history as an alternative mode of knowing the past

as part of the XIV Conference of the Contemporary History Association (AHC),

University of Alicante, Spain (September 20-22, 2018).

Lecture: The Interplay of Fiction and Faction - Architectural Worldbuilding in Fantasy Games and its Roots in European Art & Architecture.

Publications

Game of Thrones und die Sieben Weltwunder

in: Antikenrezeption in der Fantasy, hrsg. von Michael Kleu, Oldib-Verlag 2020

architectura phantastica: Architektur in der Fantasy und Science Fiction,

veröffentlicht auf Tor-Online am 13.08.2019

From Light to Dark. Using Gothic Styles to Visualise Evil in Architecture

in: A Shadow Within. Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction, hrsg. von Francesca T Barbini, Luna Press Publishing, Edinburgh 2019

Vom Hochhausbau zum Science-Fiction-Epos.

Überlegungen zu Türmen als prägendes Motiv in der Science Fiction und ihrer kulturgeschichtlichen Entwicklung,

in: Das Science Fiction-Jahr 2018, hrsg. von Michael Görden, Golkonda Verlag, Berlin 2018

Funding & Prizes