Rena Tangens

Rena Tangens is an artist, network pioneer and founder of Digitalcourage e.V., which has been campaigning for a world worth living in in the digital age since 1987. She lives and works in Bielefeld.

In 1984, she and her partner padeluun (pseudonym) started the art project “Art d’Ameublement,” which was inspired by the French composer Erik Satie. Since then she enjoyed applying the artistic concept of “frame design” to technology design and political change. Rena established communication networks for civil society as early as the late 1980s and was part of the Zerberus MailBox software development team. She is an honorary member of the Chaos Computer Club and founded the “Haecksen” – an association of female hackers – in 1989.

Since 2000, she has been the organizer and jury member of the German Big Brother Awards. These “Oscars for Surveillance” bring the worst “data kraken” into the public eye every year. Rena coined the word “Datenkrake” (data kraken) in 2001, which has become a commonly used German term. In 2008, she received the Theodor Heuss Medal for her commitment to civil rights with Digitalcourage.