Staehle was born in Stuttgart in 1950, grew up in Schwaebisch Hall, and has been living in New York since 1976, where he worked as a video artist. In 1991 he founded THE THING, an independent media project which began as a bulletin board system (BBS) and became one of the seminal online- and offline- forums for net.art. Staehle most recent work explores the dynamics, sensations and implications of connectivity.