YEAR: 2023
CATEGORY: Design Research, Design History, Digital Urban Exploration
ROLE: Concept, Research, Data Collection, Video Editing
CLIENT / TYPE: Semester Project
TOOLS / MEDIUM: Screen recordings, digital research, social media, video editing, sound effects
OUTPUT: Short video, approx. 6 minutes

#greppin

This video project is an attempt at digital urban exploration. The subject is the town of Greppin, a village in the Bitterfeld-Wolfen chemical park.

Challenge
Greppin is a village located within the Bitterfeld-Wolfen chemical park. It exists between rural imagery and industrial reality, between everyday life and chemical infrastructure. The project asks how a place like this can be understood when it is not explored physically. What does “village” mean inside a chemical park? What do terms like “landscape” or “park” describe in this context?

Approach
#greppin transfers the method of walking science into the digital space. Instead of moving through the place on foot, the project approaches Greppin through online traces, social media, maps, images, videos and other digital fragments. The aim was not to create a complete portrait, but to observe how a place appears when it is reconstructed through its digital representations.

Process
The project began with collecting material from different online sources. Screen recordings became the central visual method: searches, movements through digital platforms, images, fragments of information and found perspectives were recorded directly from the laptop screen. These recordings were then edited into a short video, combined with rhythm, transitions and sound effects to create a coherent digital exploration of the place.

Result
The result is a video of around six minutes. It presents Greppin as a layered and ambiguous location shaped by industry, landscape, memory and digital representation. Rather than explaining the town from a single perspective, the video assembles different fragments into an atmospheric investigation.

Reflection
#greppin shows that digital exploration can become a form of observation in itself. Even without physical access, a place can be approached through the images, traces and stories that circulate online. The project is also a reflection on how places are defined today: not only by geography, architecture or infrastructure, but also by the way they appear, disappear and reappear in digital space.