For about 15 years Dr. Tim Otto Roth has worked on shadowgraphs respectively photograms and belongs now to the few leading adepts of that medial outlaw. He studied among others with Floris M. Neusüss, whose anthological work he continues in the new form of the portal www.shadowgraph.org and with numerous publications. Further fields of Roth's interests, who holds a PhD in art and science history, are among others in astrophysics and self-organization.
In 2001/02 he was guest lecturer in Madrid und Valencia (E). He gave courses and lectures at the Kunsthochschule Kassel in 2004/05 and at Folkwang University Essen in 2016/17.. Together with Peter Weibel he was chairman of the symposium “The Photogram. Light, Trace and Shadow” at the Center for Arts and Media ZKM Karlsruhe (D) in 2006. He curated in 2007 the photogram film program in the context of the photogram exhibition kamera_los at the Museum der Modern in Salzburg (A). In his publications he opens up new shadowgraphic terrain. In 2015 his dissertion as the 500 pages book Körper. Projektion. Bild – eine Kulturgeschichte der Schattenbilder, Paderborn (Fink)..
Photogram Research
= Research in Shadow Pictures
Tim Otto Roth’s approach to shadow pictures is affected by his own artistic practice. He extended the medial spectrum of the shadowgraphs. Exploring the possibilities of electronic surfaces he discovered the fragile silicon video chip, the core of every video and digital camera, as a new shadowgraphic stage. Above all in the course of his studies he learnt the historical photographical printing techniques. The resulting comprehension of this interior “material culture” of the shadowgraph provides a new insight into the world of shadow pictures.