About me

Hi! I am Elisa. My interests are humans, technology, and culture, and places where these three meet.

In 2019 I co-founded SUPERRR Lab together with Julia Kloiber. With SUPERRR, we aim to develop visions and projects with the goal to create more equitable futures. We do so by researching technologies, building networks and shaping new narratives. SUPERRR is playful, visionary and feminist – and it has certainly brought joy into my work.

How did I end up doing what I do?

As a trained archaeologist, I have worked at the intersection of culture and computer science for more than a decade, both in and outside of academia. I studied 3d scanning for archaeological artifacts and machine learning for archaeological data, designed the research databases for the Musawwarat Graffiti Archive and for the German Archaeological Institute at the pyramids of Meroe within the Qatar Sudan Archaeological Project. After quitting the realm of archaeology, I became a research associate at the Department of Applied Computer Science at HTW Berlin, where I worked on setting up HTW’s Research Center for Culture and Computer Science.

After several years in academia and as a freelancer, I decided to change course and joined the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, where I worked for Civic Tech projects such as Code for Germany. In 2017 I became managing director of the Prototype Fund, which is the first public funding program for freelance software developers in Germany and fosters innovation and tech for the good cause. In 2019, I wrapped up my work at OKFN by focusing on organizational development, and accompanied the team through a spot of soul searching in a time without CEO.

Other Activities:

  • Member of the advisory board “Information and Libraries” of Goethe-Institut
  • Track Team “Technology” for re:publica 2022
  • Invited expert to the commission “Digital Agenda” of the German parliament on the topic of digital sovereignty (2020)
  • Track Team “Technoloy” for re:publica 2020
  • Invited expert to the commission of inquiry “Artificial Intelligence” of the German parliament (2019)
  • Member of the review panel for the Helmholtz Incubator for Information & Data Science (2019)
  • Expert for the Blockchain for Social Good Prize
  • Track Team “Politics and Society” for re:publica 2018
  • Track Team “Politics and Society” for re:publica 2017