Anders Ib Michelsen

Anders Ib Michelsen

Associate Professor

Anders Michelsen; Associate Professor in art history with a focus on visual culture, PhD, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, 2007 - ; Coordinator of the first master program in Visual Culture Studies in Scandinavia 2002-2009; Consultant/lecturer, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation 2002- ; Head of Studies, Chairman of Study Board, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies 2007-2011; Chairman of PeaceWare Somaliland, 2009 - 2012; affiliated Copenhagen School of Global Health 2010-2012; mobility-coordinator for PhD-students, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-UCPH 2010-2018; steering committee, Centre for Advanced Migration Research (AMIS), University of Copenhagen 2012 - ; External Lecturer, Institute of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape 2012-2018; adjunct professor, Arts and Creative Media, James Cook, Australia 2014 - 2016; Affiliated with 4Cities, MA in urbanization, UCPH, 2018 – ; Foreign coordinator, Contemporary Scenarios of the Image and the Visual Culture), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2019 – ; Visiting professor, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2019; Visiting professor, University of Piauí, Brazil, 2019.

Key topics: Art, the visual, culture, design, innovation, urbanization, with a particular interest in;

  • Basic theoretical issues: ontologies, theories, epistemologies and method, with a focus on creativity.
  • Practices that bring research into participatory and innovative impact with private, public and non-profit stakeholders outside the university; project-focus - design management, development projects in the Global South, architecture and urbanization, innovation and creative industries.

I involve my research with a broad experience as project leader, curator, critic, journalist, manager, innovator, consultant and cultural activitist and have often organized my teaching with external partners, from civil activists such as the Trampoline House over the commercial broadcaster TV3 to online teaching at James Cook University (Australia).

Current projects

Building, Urbanization, Climate: PI, 2018 – ; research, teaching, development and knowledge transfer; focusing on artistic and creative resources in the developing South in architecture and urbanisation, in the Horn of Africa, in partnership with Abaarso Tech University, Hargeisa and collaboration with Dreyers Foundation, Copenhagen; The C. L. David Foundation and Collection, Copenhagen; Danish Institute, Damaskus; Dahabshiil, Hargeisa and Shuraako Foundation, Hargeisa; supported by The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, DANIDA, and SCI-Arc, Los Angeles (https://www.instagram.com/p/BpOoDXjAKd0/). Most recent event: workshop January 2020: https://www.facebook.com/abaarsotechuniversity/videos/213212409837900/ , https://dreyersfond.dk/okay-portfolio/somalias-arkitektur/ and https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ROAO-BoTt/ See also research-monograph in progress, Tracing Somali Architecture, https://issuu.com/fseehusen/docs/som-bog-high-res 

Visual Practice: 2018 – ; Foreign Coordinator,  research project in art and visual practices, with Contemporary Scenarios of the Image and the Visual Culture, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. See Youtube-channel, Trans Visual CAPES-PRINT PUC-Rio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM1qFuJqb94

Book projects in progress

Trans Visual: an aesthetic economy. Leiden and Boston: Brill 2021.

Tracing Somali Architecture (https://issuu.com/fseehusen/docs/som-bog-high-res) (2022).

Recent books

Transvisuality: The Cultural Dimension of Visuality (Volume 3): Purposive Action: Design and Branding (published 2019) https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/109479

Verner Panton. Environments, Colors, Systems, Patterns (published 2018 http://uk.phaidon.com/store/design/verner-panton-9780714877167

Architecture, Drawing Topology (Published 2017)
http://www.spurbuch.de/en/product-reader/product/architecture-drawing-topology.html

Selection of recent keynotes

The Lisbon Consortium, Summer School in Transvisuality, Universidade Católica Portuguesa - Lisbon Consortium 2016.

Colonial and PostColonial World Literature: Postcolonial Perspectives, University of Delhi 2018, 15-18 March 2018, New Delhi, India; invited to panel on global crowd sourcing. 

Birth Centenary of legendary architect Padmashree Laurie Baker, Department of Architecture College of Engineering, Trivandrum, India 2018. Invited speaker. 

XVth Edition of the International Seminar on Literary Studies: Literature and Arts in Bodily Presence, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2019. Invited keynote.

Publications

Publication activities in Europe, Brazil, Somalia, and Australia. Accredited for 117 publications, including 21 books registered at research registration/CURIS, University of Copenhagen, in the past 15 years most of them peer reviewed in well recognized venues on the Danish BFI-lists. Among them the best selling book Designmaskinen. Design af den moderne verden [The Design Machine. Design of the Modern World], articles on the most read list of Sage Publications, Thesis Eleven Critical Theory and Historical Sociology, and the recent lauded monograph, Verner Panton. Environments, Colors, Systems, Patterns. Phaidon, London 2018. Currently finalization of a second ph.d (dr.phil), Trans Visual: an aesthetic economy, on the relation between dynamic topologies of contemporary culture and creative forms of the visual, to be published at Brill in 2021. It develops and complements the three volume collection Transvisuality. The cultural Dimension of Visuality initiated and co-edited for Liverpool University Press, 2013-2019 and a volume on Socioaesthetics. Ambience - Imaginary, co-edited for Social and Critical Theory, Brill in 2015, and other recent publications. 

Horn of Africa: artistic and creative resources in the developing South

Chairman of the Danish-Somali association and NGO, PeaceWare-Somaliland that organised and designed the first telepsychiatric system in Africa, 2009-2012 (recognised by memorandum of agreement with Ministry of Communication, Hargeisa of 2010), in collaboration between the Danish Refugee Council, Somali Psychiatric Network, Telesom, Hargeisa and Copenhagen School of Global Health (https://globalhealth.ku.dk/news/news_2009-2011/the_mirror_doctors_the_somaliland_telemedical_system_for_psychiatry/). The system is today part of SHIFAT, Hargeisa (https://www.shifat.org/). March 2010 – March 2012 PeaceWare-Somaliland established the first active telepsychiatric services in Africa – The Somaliland Telemedical System for Psychiatry – with more than 450 treatments performed between March 2010 and January 2011 – a first in Africa.

2011-2012 collaboration with RedSea-online Cultural Foundation (http://www.redsea-online.com/) and Kayd Somali Arts and Culture (http://www.kayd.org/); invited as keynote at The Fourth Hargeysa International Book Fair22 - 26 july, 2011, Hargeisa, Republic of Somaliland. Co-founder of the research and dialogue platform The Copenhagen-Somali Seminar, 2012-2016.

First international research conference on Somali culture at UCPH, Practicing Art as Politics, 21 - 23 March 2013, University of Copenhagen in collaboration with Somali reseachers from Djibouti, Qatar, Somaliland, UK, Denmark, and Somali diaspora society activists in Denmark, co-funded by Danida, Centre for Culture and Development, APD Somaliland, Somali Diaspora Organisation, Dahabshiil, University of Copenhagen, and Aalborg University.

Building, Urbanization, Climate: PI, 2018 – ; research, teaching, development and knowledge transfer; focusing on artistic and creative resources in the developing South in architecture and urbanisation, in the Horn of Africa, in partnership with Abaarso Tech University, Hargeisa and collaboration with Dreyers Foundation, Copenhagen; The C. L. David Foundation and Collection, Copenhagen; Danish Institute, Damaskus; Dahabshiil, Hargeisa and Shuraako Foundation, Hargeisa; supported by The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, DANIDA, and SCI-Arc, Los Angeles (https://www.instagram.com/p/BpOoDXjAKd0/). Most recent event: workshop January 2020: https://www.facebook.com/abaarsotechuniversity/videos/213212409837900/ , https://dreyersfond.dk/okay-portfolio/somalias-arkitektur/ and https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ROAO-BoTt/ See also research-monograph in progress, Tracing Somali Architecture, https://issuu.com/fseehusen/docs/som-bog-high-res 

In 2020 the project is anchored in a network in The Horn and internationally at UCPH and ATU and supported by Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Danida, and SCI-Arc, Los Angeles. University of in Hargeisa (Somaliland), University of Djibouti (Djibouti) and University of Jigjiga (Somali part of Ethiopia) are connected to the network. 2018-2020 the project received funding from Dahabshiil, Hargeisa, Shuraako Foundation, Hargeisa, and the Municipality of Hargeisa, Dreyers Fond and The C. L. David Foundation and Collection, Copenhagen.

Brazil: Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro

Keynotes, lectures, workshops, conferences and presentations at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and other venues, institutions, conferences and seminars in Brazil since 1996, most recently University of Piauí, Teresina and Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Cofounder of Rio-Copenhagen Visual Culture Network, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and University of Copenhagen, 2006-, co-funded by Coordenaçao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior, Brazil (CAPES) until 2018.

With Karl Erik Schøllhammer establishment of formalized collaboration between at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and The Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, 2010 – .

Collaboration on publications, most recently the three volume collection Transvisuality. The cultural Dimension of Visuality which he is co-editing for Liverpool University Press, 2013-2019 and Socioaesthetics: Ambience - Imaginary, Social and Critical Theory, Brill in 2015.

Work with Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro on PhD-education and facilitation of research-mobility since 2010, facilitating 10 Brazilean PhD-residences in Copenhagen and establishing a broader interface between Danish and Brazilean research in the humanities, co-funded by Coordenaçao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior, Brazil (CAPES).

2018- foreign coordinator of Cenários Contemporâneos da Imagem e da Cultura Visual (Contemporary Scenarios of the Image and the Visual Culture), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, funded by Coordenaçao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior, Brazil (CAPES).

2019, Visiting Professor, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Visiting professor, University of Piauí, Teresina, Brazil, 2019.

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation

Lectures in in design and architecture since the mid-1990s. Since the early 2000s, consultant at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation. External lecturer at Institute of Archirtecture, Urbanism and Landscape, 2012-2018. Organization of seminars and workshops, e.g. on the theme of ‘atrocity’ in collaboration with University of Copenhagen and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Art. Most recently the international research seminar, The Hydra Dialogues - Cartographic Aesthetics and an Architecture of the Event (2014), ICT Solution Design, Data Driven Decision Making and Data Management Creative Data In A Global World (2017) and International Lecture Series  Spring 2018, Architecture, Urbanism and Progressive Ecology. 2010-2018 intensive development work with different course formats focusing on creative and reflective writing for architects, “Theory/Program/Project”. Students work with drawing and architecture projects is developed by reflective approaches in writing emphasizing didactical, project and communication competences by allowing students to build up a language for their architectonic ideas in textual form. One finding of this format was that creative writing qualifies architecture projects.

Research organization

Work in many different partnerships and project formats with public and private institution, external stakeholders and NGOS in different parts of the world, with a key focus on Australia, Brazil, and Somali Peninsula.

Participation in initiatives for research in visual culture, as co-director of The Danish Network for Research in Visual Culture (2004-06) and in Discourses of the visual: national and international perspectives (DVNIP) (European Science Foundation - ESF Scientific Network) (2004-2006). Member of The Culture of Ubiquitous Information (Nordforsk) (http://ubiquity.nu/), 2010-12 and Nordic Network of Visual Studies (NordForsk), 2008-2011. Member of Network of Migration and Culture (https://migrationandculture.ku.dk/), 2012-2014. Co-founder of Rio-Copenhagen Visual Culture Network, Pontificio Universidade Catholico. Rio de Janeiro and University of Copenhagen, 2006-, co-funded by Coordenaçao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior, Brazil (CAPES) until 2018.

Work with The Thesis Eleven-group anchored at Australian universities (Melbourne, Monash, La Trobe and James Cook), the Centre for Cultural Sociology at La Trobe University, Australia and the journal Thesis Eleven Critical Theory and Historical Sociology, SAGE Publications. Board member of the board of Thesis Eleven. Critical theory and historical sociology  (https://thesiseleven.com/about/). Adjunct professor for creativity, innovation and ICT, School of Creative Arts, James Cook University, Australia.

Supervision of PhD-students funded by Danish Council for Independent Research Fund Denmark, 2007 –; facilitation of research-mobility for PhD-students between Danish and Brazilian research in the Humanities, co-funded by Coordenaçao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior, Brazil (CAPES), 2008 –2018, assessment of PhD-students, Monash University, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne University, all in Australia.

Blind peer review of research projects for the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF), European Research Council (ERC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), many peer reviews of papers for Danish and international publications, journals and publishers.

Associate Member of the Bauman Institute, University of Leeds.

Conferences as organizer

2009SocioAesthetics: A Symposium On Aestheticsculture and social life. Co-organizer of international conference, Copenhagen 2009, in collaboration with Monash University, Melbourne (http://socioaesthetics.ku.dk/) 

2010Atrocities And Imagination II. Extreme Imagery - research seminar. Co-organizer of bi-national conference with the Rio-Copenhagen Visual Culture Research Network 2010, in collaboration with Pontificio Universidade Catholico, Rio de Janeiro.

2012 Viscosity of Memory, Velocity of Media. Collective images of history in contemporary visual culture. Co-organizer the international conference, in collaboration with Lund University (https://hum.ku.dk/kalender/2012/september/viscosity_memory/).

2013 , Practising Art as Politics. On The Potential Of Somali Culture In Current Globalisation. Co-organizer of the fist international conference om Somali culture in Denmark, in collaboration with Aalborg University, Centre for Advanced Migration Studies, University of Copenhagen and Academy for Peace and Development, Somaliland (http://www.copenhagensomaliseminar.net/events-2/events/).

2013-2014 Bildwissenschaft & Visual Culture. IKK-lectures series. Co-organizer of international lecture series, presenting major contributors to debates on the visual, from Germany, Denmark, Austria, and the US, in collaboration with Goethe-institut Dänemark and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation (https://kunstogkulturvidenskab.ku.dk/bildwissenschaft/).  

2013-2014 The Hydra Dialogues - Cartographic Aesthetics and an Architecture of the Event. Co-organizer of  international conference and research initiative on topological architecture, with Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Aarhus School of Architecture, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Visual Arts and Roskilde University (http://www.karch.dk/hydra).

2015 Diasporas and new media for development – perspectiveson the role of new media in communication exchange and the culture of diaspora. Co-organizer with mPower, Dhaka and Center for Advanced Migration Studies (AMIS), UCPH (https://humanities.ku.dk/calendar/2015/july/diasporas_and_new_media /)

2017 ICT Solution Design, Data Driven Decision Making and Data Management Creative Data In A Global World. Project formats for ICT4D (Information and Communication Technology for Development, UN headline) with point of departure in Bangladeshi social enterprise mPower’s ground breaking work. Co-organizer with mPower, Dhaka, Architecture, Urbanism, and Landscape, KADK, Center for Advanced Migration Studies (AMIS), and Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, UCPH (https://artsandculturalstudies.ku.dk/Calendar/2017/ict-solution-design/ )

2018 International Lecture Series  Spring 2018, Architecture, Urbanism and Progressive Ecology. Curator and co-organizer with Institute of Archirtecture, Urbanism and Landscape, KADK (https://kadk.dk/international-lecture-series-archive).

2019 IKK-Conference. Politics: Orientations and Possibilities of the Present. Co-organizer with Mikkel Bolt, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, UCPH.

2019 The para-visual: the politics of distributed observation. International seminar with Professor Celia Lury Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies University of Warwick, 27-28 November. Co-organizer with Contemporary Scenarios of the Image and the Visual Culture, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 27-28 November.

Editorial Boards

Thesis Eleven. Critical theory and historical sociology, London: Sage Journals (https://thesiseleven.com/)

Ekfrase: Nordisk Tidsskrift For Visuell Kultur, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget (https://www.idunn.no/ekfrase)

Atlantica Revista de Arte y Pensamiento, Gran Canaria: CAAM. Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (https://www.facebook.com/groups/241113742638607/) (1992-2014)

Teaching/ E-learning

Coordinator of the first MA-program in Visual Culture Studies in Scandinavia 2002-2009, oversaw its development from experimental program to a permanent program presently, with ca. 30-40 students enrolled per year (2019). 2016-2020 coordinator of a mentor-organisation encouraging and supporting students in the MA in Visual Culture to establish mentor-agreements with external partners. Broad experience with teaching for more than 20 years at universities, in particular with theoretical courses and seminars; practice-related, -led, and creative teaching; courses and presentations in research-based academic education within the fields of visual cultural studies, cultural studies, design and creative education, globalization issues, philosophy, art history, and innovation. Including experiments with outreach formats involving partners in the creative industries and creative education. Extensive lecturing in Australia, Europe, Brazil, USA, Sri Lanka, Singapore, India, Somaliland (course teaching, paper presentations, visiting scholarships, seminars, workshops). Teaching in total for more than 30 years in many parts of the Danish education system, high schools, peoples high schools, primary schools etc. From 2020 teaching in the Danish part of the MA-program 4Cities (https://www.4cities.eu/).

In 2014 he set up Understanding Creativity - a 13 lecture video course in collaboration with Arts and Creative Media, James Cook University, one of two first full length telelearning courses ever recorded at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen. 2015-16 he set up the course Diversity: Administration, Management an Innovation, at Master in Advanced Migration Studies, UCPH, the first fully interactive online course in the history of the Facultuty of Humanities, UCPH.  2015-regular use of vodcast as supplement to courses at Master in Visual Culture, UCPH.

Management

Head of Studies and Chair of the Study Board at Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen 2007-2011; headed the creation of a departmental framework for studies out of the four formerly independent departments making up the sections of the current department: art history, theater science, comparative literature and musicology.

Presided over the establishment of a joint study board, a strategic education plan, a reformed study administration, MA thesis contract system, accreditation strategies, quality assurance formats, alumni initiatives, a pedagogical development plan, internationalization approaches, including new initiatives such as a structure of nine elective topics at the MA level, from communication to aesthetical thought, diversification of master thesis formats into project, product and academic specializations, and a study track for innovation in the Humanities encompassing modules at BA, MA and a MA Thesis format, based on the establishment of elective topics on BA and MA-level across the department with a focus on entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in collaboration with external partners.

Facilitated internationalization approaches, including, “Joint Master - Erasmus Mundus in Performing Arts Studies”, the first Erasmus Mundus program in Danish Humanities and the international, interdisciplinary, MA-program in urban studies, 4Cities (http://www.4cities.eu/), in collaboration with universities in Brussels, Vienna, and Madrid.He facilitated “Joint Master - Erasmus Mundus in Performing Arts Studies” (http://performingarts-mundus.eu/), the first Erasmus Mundus program in Danish Humanities and the cross institutional MA program 4Cities (http://www.4cities.eu/) in collaboration with universities in Brussels, Vienna, and Madrid.

Participation in the department’s management team and the Head of Studies Circle at the Faculty of Humanities in the period. Between 2007 and 2011 Department of Arts and Cultural Studies emerged as one of the most educationally productive units within the Humanities at University of Copenhagen. 

Co-initiator of MA in Advanced Migration Studies, Centre for Advanced Migration Studies, accredited in 2014 and starting September 2014. 

Culture and communication

Since the early 90s work as a free lance art critic, affiliated with the cultural weekly Weekendavisen 1993-97, and as curator of art and design exhibitions.Since the early 1990s he has written many catalogue texts, newspaper articles, contribution to surveys and reports, reviews etc., most recently three texts for the 30th Council of Europe Art Exhibition. The Desire for Freedom. European Art since 1945. Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, October 2012 to January 2013, on Asger Jorn, Superflex, and Gilbert & George; 2020-2021 book-project with pioneer in Brazilian conceptual art Pedro Paulo Domingues, Rio de Janeiro.

Education

Associate Professor, PhD

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