Joachim Sauter (16 May 1959 – 10 July 2021) was a German media artist, designer and technology entrepreneur. He was appointed Professor for New Media Art and Design at the Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK (Berlin University of the Arts) in 1991, and in 1993 he created Terravision (computer program), before pursuing a lawsuit against Google for infringing the patent.

From the beginning, Joachim Sauter focussed on digital technologies and is experimenting how they can be used to express content, form, and narration. He founded ART+COM in 1988 together with other artists, designers, scientists, and technologists. Their goal was to practically research this new up-and-coming medium in the realm of art and design. He worked in this interdisciplinary environment and was a trail-blazer in the field. In the course of his work he was invited to participate on many exhibitions. Beside others he showed his work at ‘Centre Pompidou’ Paris, ‘Stejdilik Museum’ Amsterdam, ‘Museum for Contemporary Art’ Sidney, ‘Deichtorhallen Hamburg’ , Kunsthalle Wien, ‘Venice Biennial’, ‘ICC’ Tokyo, ‘Getty Center’ Los Angeles, ‘ZKM’ Karlsruhe. He received several awards like the ‘Ars Electronica Interactive Award’, the ‘Los Angeles Interactive Media Award’, the ‘Prix Pixel INA’, the ‘British Academy for Film and Television Interactive Award’, and many international and German Design Awards’. He was a full professor for “New Media Art and Design” at the ‘University of the Arts’ Berlin and from 2001 adjunct professor at UCLA, Los Angeles.

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As well as being well respected professionally, Joachim was an incredibly inspiring person. At CIID, we feel lucky to have had the chance to spend time with him. We are grateful for his knowledge and fearless ambition to break boundaries. He will be sorely missed. xxx