People behind the exhibition

Dr. Andreas Heinecke

Scenes of Silence was created by Dr. Andreas Heinecke. He studied German language and literary studies and history in Heidelberg and did a PhD about Jewry and identity. Afterwards he collected many years experience as a journalist and documentalist. He has been committed to integrating marginalised people into the active social pattern, enhancing exactly the qualities related to their diversity, apparently the reason of their exclusion.

Besides creating exhibitions like Dialogue in the Dark (→ www.dialog-im-dunkeln.de) and Scenes of Silence, Heinecke was studying how it is possible to compensate the lack of information that blind people have to deal with every day. He developed the first electronic newspaper in Germany, he  released a CD-Rom and a database with labour supplies and he created Telesign (→  www.telesign.de), a relay-interpreting-service for deaf  people. Since 1986, Andreas Heinecke is the managing director of CONSENS in Hamburg, which is focused on development of new models of communication and integration.

In Hamburg, where Dialogue in the Dark has been running successfully since April 2000, he combined the exhibition with trainings in order to qualify unemployed and disabled people. CONSENS has the aim to promote social creativity and new opportunities to raise social awareness about issues as old age, youth uneasiness, and the conditions of disabled, poor, and unemployed people. Andreas Heinecke’s commitment has been recognised by the American Foundation Ashoka International, who have named him among their Senior Fellows – the first Social Entrepreneur in Western Europe.

Orna Cohen

Co-author and Project manager of the implementation of Scenes of Silence in Rendsburg is Orna Cohen, curator and author of well known exhibitions. After benefiting from a broad and varied educational palette (psychology, educational science and dramatic arts), Orna Cohen went on to design and implement over 5,000 sqm of exhibition space world at the Cité des Sciences et de l'industrie in Paris including the “Cité des enfants”, “Electricity what’s behind the socket?” or “Desire of  learning”. She is in her element designing interactive systems which immerse visitors in the exhibition experience and help enhance their understanding of the world around them.

In Paris Orna Cohen and Andreas Heinecke implemented Scenes of Silence in 2003 at the City of Sciences and Industry as a dramatised approach bringing the deaf and the hearing worlds together. In 2004, Orna Cohen was  given the "Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres" by the French governement. She founded her own company in 2005 to offer new interactive exhibition with social and human content to challenge visitors to reflect on themselves and how they relate to others (→ www.orna-co.com).

Dr. Ulrich Hase

Dr. Ulrich Hase is an attorney and pedagogue for hearing impaired people. He received his doctorate in education(al science) His professional career began at the Hauptfürsorgestelle in Münster (Westfalen). In 1983 he changed and moved to Rendsburg where he was the director of the Rehabilitation Centre for hearing impaired in Schleswig-Holstein. Ulrich Hase undertook these tasks until he began his main official roll on April 1, 1997, as an authorised representative for people with impairments. Alongside he also works as a High school teacher and in the rehabilitation for people with impairments.

The father of two children has been partially deaf since early childhood. He learnt to cope with this by using what little hearing he had available, lip reading and by combining the contents of conversations. However, this gets difficult when no consideration is taken or when a lot of people are present. Ulrich Hase, also fluent in sign language, therefore is supported by sign-language interpreters in group situations.

For almost 30 years Ulrich Hase has been working voluntarily for different organisations focusing on dealing with disabilities, especially for the deaf and hearing impaired. Until 1999, he was the president of the German Deaf Association, now he is the president of the Deutsche Gesellschaft der Hörgeschädigten-Selbsthilfe und-Fachverbände.