Björn Blankenheim

Björn Blankenheim (born 1982), Ph.D., studied design technology, economics, and politics to become a teacher at vocational schools. From 2009 to 2023, he served as a research assistant at the University of Wuppertal in various capacities, including in the project Historische Kunstlehre als Grundlage von künstlerischer/gestalterischer Arbeit, Kunstwissenschaften, Kunstpädagogik und Pädagogik, as well as in the teaching areas of “Media Design and Its Didactics,” “Didactics of Visual Communication,” and “Design Technology and Art History.” Ph.D. in art history on the production aesthetics of computer games (1982–1996) in the context of historical art literature. Curator of the exhibition Game Designers & Software Artists (2019/2022/2026) and organizer of the symposium History of Games – PAtCHʼD (2022). Since 2024, he has been the founder and managing director of VAULT.NRW—the Video Game Archive for Corporate History, Literature, and Technological Culture in North Rhine-Westphalia (gUG), where he primarily researches, writes, and teaches on the history of German computer and video games.

Recent Publications: 

Bausteine zu einer Sozialgeschichte der „Game Studies“ in Deutschland. In collaboration with M. Abel and J. Böwer. PAIDIA-Sonderausgabe. Glückstadt 2026; Video-Spiele – Zur Pluralität der Game-Ästhetiken. In: Kunst+Unterricht, Themenheft „Gameästhetik," ed. by L. Zumbansen and L. M. Lewald-Romahn, Issue No. 502/503, July 2026. pp. 65–68; „Ich kann den Skelettarm nicht damit benutzen.“ – Über die Geschichte einer Reihe von Adventure-Spielen, entwickelt von dem Studio, das man erst Lucasfilm Games nannte, und dann LucasArts. In: R.T. Inderst & M. Stübecke (eds.): “This is my Labyrinth, and you are mine. Forever.” Essen 2026. pp. 15–66.