About

Ana Alacovska is an associate professor PhD at Copenhagen Business School. Her current research interests revolve around the sociology of culture with an emphasis on the power of genres to influence institutional and social relations; the creative labour studies with a special accent on gender inequalities and the critical studies of media organizations. She is now conducting research on the economic, cultural and social dynamics of the production of Scandinavian crime fiction within the Danish publishing field. This project, entitled “Masters of Crime: Scandinavian Crime Fiction in a Media Industries Perspective”, is generously funded by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities. She has been the leader of a large research project on the temporality and informality of post-socialist creative work financially supported through a grant awarded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation through the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Arthur Le Gall is director at KEA. He is responsible for coordinating KEA’s research team and supervising studies, reports and projects. He also oversees sport-related activities.  He is specialised in policies for the sport, audiovisual, cultural and creative sectors. He designs methodologies to assess the contribution of the cultural and audiovisual sectors to the wider society and economy, and engineers support programmes and policies for the cultural and creative sectors to nurture arts, culture and creativity across territories. Arthur also delivers strategic advice to local authorities on the role of sport, culture and creative industries for local and regional development. He is the author or co-author of several research pieces on culture and creativity in Europe, including ‘Mapping the creative value chains: A study on the economy of culture in the digital age’ (DG EAC, 2017), a ‘Study on the promotion of European works in Audiovisual Media Services (DG CONNECT, 2017) or the longitudinal evaluation of Mons European Capital of Culture 2015 (Mons 2015 Foundation, 2012-2016). He holds a MA from Sciences Po Lille (FR) in European Affairs and obtained a BA in Politics & International Relations from Kent University (UK).

Federica Antonucci is PhD in Urban Studies at Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria and she has been visiting researcher at KU Leuven and Erasmus University of Rotterdam. She is balancing her academic research with her role as external consultant and researcher as part of KEA team. She is contributing to studies on culture, innovation, new media, and the impact of cultural and creative industries. Federica has an economic background and quantitative and qualitative competences on research methodologies. She speaks Italian, English and French.

Christian Fieseler is professor for communication management at BI Norwegian Business School and the founding director of the Nordic Centre for Internet and Society. He received his PhD in Management and Economics from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, in 2008. At the former he worked as a postdoctoral researcher, as well as at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and at Stanford University, before joining BI, in 2014. Cristian’s research interests center on organizational identity, corporate social responsibility and computer-mediated-communication. His research is focused on the question how individuals and organizations adapt to the shift brought by new social media, and how to design participative and inclusive spaces in this new media regime. In this field, he has over the last few years, worked extensively in projects with the European Union and the Norwegian Research Council on technology and new working modes.

Fiona McDermott is a researcher based at CONNECT, the Research Centre for Future Communications and Networks at Trinity College Dublin. Her research explores the social and cultural implications of data-driven technologies, with a particular focus on autonomous systems, data infrastructures, and urban governance. Her PhD research focuses on the application of Internet of Things technologies to public infrastructures and city services in New York City and Dublin. Previously, she was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the School of Media Studies at the New School in New York and a researcher at the Interaction Design Centre at the University of Limerick. Before engaging in academia, she worked for architecture and design practices in Germany, Denmark, and the UK. She is a member of Annex, the curatorial team selected to represent Ireland at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021.

Kirsti Reitan Andersen is a Post Doc at Copenhagen Business School. She is passionate about the creative industries and their role in the transition to more sustainable (business) practices.

In her current work she explores the ways in which the arts might take the role as a mediator in the digital transformation. She is also interested in barriers and opportunities to change towards practicing sustainability in the textile and fashion industry, focusing on local production and alternative business models. Kirsti is engaged in the development of teaching material for business students and practitioners. Amongst other material, she has helped develop a MOOC on sustainable business models for the fashion industry targeting business school students and practitioners that is available on Coursera. Kirsti was the project lead on MAKES, a project under Innovation Express that uses film, image and text to bridge design and production across Norway, Sweden and Denmark to further business opportunities in the textile and fashion industry. Kirsti has extensive experience working with design and innovation, both in consultancy and research, drawing on her background in European Cultural Studies and applying and exploring qualitative research methods in her work.

Linda Doyle is the Vice President for Research/Dean of Research in Trinity College Dublin and a Professor of Engineering and The Arts. Her expertise is in the fields of wireless communications, cognitive radio, reconfigurable networks, spectrum management and creative arts practices. She is a fellow of Trinity College Dublin. Formerly, she was the founding Director of CONNECT, a national research centre focused on telecommunications in Ireland.

Marta Cillero is responsible for communications at European Alternatives. She graduated in Media Studies, Journalism and Communication (Madrid, Istanbul and Chicago) and has a master degree in Gender Studies (Rome). She is the author of research reports about gender violence in Mediterranean countries. She is a member of the executive board and project manager at Chayn Italia, an award-winning organisation based in Italy, Pakistan, India and the UK.

Peter Booth is Associate Professor II and researcher at BI Norwegian Business School. He is trained as economist at The London School of Economics, in visual arts at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, and completed his doctorate in Cultural Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Prior to collaborating on Artsformation, Peter was part of a Research Council of Norway funded project, Digitization and Diversity, which explored how digital technologies influence the diversity dimensions in the culture and media sector. His research covers cultural economics, theories of value, sociology of art and finance, and issues connecting the arts and museum sector, digitization and diversity.

Ségolène Pruvot is a Cultural Director of European Alternatives. Ségolène has developed extensive experience in designing and implementing transnational participative cultural programmes. She curated, managed and coordinated artistic projects in several European countries, including Transeuropa Festival. She coordinates Room to Bloom, a project supporting the careers and production of young feminist postcolonial artists.

Ségolène is a Doctor in Urban Sociology. In the course of her academic career and professional life, she specialised on the exploration of the intersection between arts, the city and social change. Her PhD Thesis, realised at the University of Milano Bicocca, is entitled ‘Can Participatory Arts Help Deliver (more) Socially Just Creative Cities?’. There she explored how the theoretical input of contemporary arts theory can help better understand the role of arts in the city. She trained as a political scientist and urban planner in France, the UK, and Germany. Ségolène is passionate about the city, equality, feminism, migrant and minority rights.

Tom O’Dea is an artist and art practice-based researcher at CONNECT in Trinity College Dublin. His research is focused on finding ways to understand how technologies of computation and organisation impact upon our ways of acting and being the world. In particular, he is interested in the ways that different forms of knowledge interact in increasingly computational societies.

He completed his art practice-based PhD, ‘Unrepresentable: Technological Futures, Art and The Ontological Singularity” at CONNECT. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin and a master’s degree in Digital Media from the Huston School of Film & Digital Media, NUIG.

Víctor holds a bachelor in law and an Msc in international development studies from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. He is currently a Research assistant for the Nordic Centre for Internet and Society at BI-Norwegian Business School and is part of the Horizon 2020 project Artsformation. His main interests lie in sustainable development, digital transformation and gig workers. Particularly, Víctor is interested in how the arts and artists can contribute to face the different challenges of sustainable development within the digital transformation era.

Aris Papadopoulos is the director of innovation at LATRA, a socially-engaged research and innovation practice based in Lesvos-Greece. He is a sociocultural entrepreneur and activist, practicing and advocating for systemic change at the frontlines of 21st Century European challenges, through the decolonisation of science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. His principle work at LATRA involves developing digitally innovative projects, programs and services, that empower socio-economically disadvantaged people to become not just actors in their lives but directors of their resilient future, by operating in the cross-over of artivism, design and education. He has produced transnational cooperation projects in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, UK, Qatar, South Africa and Greece, and awarded the Uncover Design Prize, Distributed Design Award, Global Education Innovation Award and Be.Creative Challenge among others. LATRA’s work has been exhibited in the Dutch Design Week, Stockholm Design Week, St. Martins and VCUQ Galleries and funded by the European Commission, European Cultural Foundation, Nordic Council of Ministers and Creative Industries Fund Netherlands among others. He is an Architectural Association and UCL-Bartlett alumnus.

Evi Pappa is the director of education at LATRA, a socially-engaged research and innovation practice based in Lesvos-Greece. She specializes in intercultural community projects targeting the societal integration of vulnerable communities in geographically-remote areas of Greece. Evi is a civil engineer with 15 years of experience in the humanitarian and development sectors. After graduating from the University of Hertfordshire in UK, she worked in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, developing urban regeneration community projects targeting youth and young adults in deprived areas of the council. Evi currently leads the H2020 project SySTEM 2020: Connecting Science Learning Outside the Classroom (2018-2021) which focuses on science learning outside the classroom across 19 European countries. Evi has successfully managed projects in intercultural dialogue, artivism and civic engagement both in Greece as well as across Europe, and projects have attracted financing by the European Commission, Centre for Applied Human Rights & Open Society Foundations for Europe, European Union National Institutes of Culture and FundAction amongst others.

Zoénie works as a concept and project developer for Make. She focuses on the intersection of art-science-technology, and how it can engage with society and in the processes of commoning. Zoénie is also interested in the possibilities of environmental-friendly bio-materials that can be used in our daily life, and how technology and art can enable new ways of imagining and practising democracy.

Alongside working at Waag, Zoénie is a part-time theory teacher in Social Practice Department in Willem De Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Her practices include curating, researching, writing, and translating.

Previously, Zoénie worked as a full-time PhD researcher on socially engaged art in the European Research Council founded project ChinaCreative in Cultural Analysis of University of Amsterdam, investigating the critical aspects of these practices. She graduated in 2020. Zoénie obtained her master degree in cultural studies at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Lucas Evers joined Waag in April 2007 and is currently leading Waag’s Wetlab. He is actively involved in several projects that concern the interactions between the arts and sciences, arts and ethics and the arts in a contemporary makers culture. The Wetlab is a laboratory where arts, design, sciences, engineering and the public meet to research biotechnologies and their impact on society and ecology.

Lucas Evers is trained in fine arts and teaching at Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design and he studied politics at the University of Amsterdam. He worked De Balie Center for Culture and Politics and Melkweg in Amsterdam, programming cinema, new media and politics.

He organized a retrospective of French cinematographer Chris Marker was involved in projects such as ‘net.congestion – international festival of streaming media’, Next 5 Minutes, e-culture fair, an Archeology of Imaginary Media and a number of programs related to the societal debate about the life sciences.

Mariana Pérez Bobadilla (Maro Pebo) creates concepts and cares for projects of art and science at Waag, she develops learning situations where artist-lead innovation supports critical perspectives on technoscience. Ph.D. in Creative Media (City University of Hong Kong), MA in Critical and Gender Studies (Bologna University). Maro Pebo is an artist who specializes in the intersections of art and biotech and works on defying anthropocentrism and on skeptical environmental accountability.

Maro has published and presented her research internationally including at Performance Research, ISEA, EVA, ISCMA, and Media Art Histories, co-curated the Open Systems salon, the HK Leonardo Art Science Rendezvous, and was involved in the Mexican Pavilion of the 56th Venice Biennale. Previously she was senior lecturer of Moist Media at DeTao Masters Academy, Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts. Her works have been displayed at Ars Electronica, Riga Stradins University Anatomy Museum in Latvia, the Toronto Design Festival, Gerdau Museum in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and The Lahore Media Arts Festival in Pakistan.

Nora O Murchú became the artistic director of transmediale in 2020. In their research and curatorial practice, they examine intersections between the fields of art, design, software studies, and politics. Their multidisciplinary work embraces narratives and fictions, and results in objects, exhibitions, and interventions. Their research aims to help people understand how complex socio-technical systems are imagined, built, and used.

Maitreyi Maheshwari is Head of Programme at FACT, Liverpool, where she is responsible for overseeing all exhibitions, residencies, learning projects and events. Previously, Maitreyi was Programme Director at Zabludowicz Collection, London. She has also worked on the Youth programme at Tate Modern and the Interaction programme at Artangel. She has an MRes in Cultural Studies and Humanities from the London Consortium, and an undergraduate degree in History of Art from Edinburgh University. She has written for, and edited, numerous artists‘ monographs, as well as a collection of interviews for Artists in Virtual Reality (2021, published by the Zabludowicz Collection).

Andrea is the diplomat in chief of SGI, where he manages the relationships with all network members and external stakeholders. A keen listener and an experienced speaker, Andrea is responsible for developing and implementing the network culture of Science Gallery. A world citizen by trade, Andrea’s academic background includes a MA in Economics, a master in Science Communication and a PhD in Social Sciences, with a specialisation in scientific citizenship. Andrea is a member of the Expert Network of the World Economic Forum and has been a Cultural Leader in Davos in 2017 and 2018, and in Dalian in 2017 and 2019. He is a member of the board of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. In his career spanning 25 years he has worked for several public and private organisations, including science museums, government organisations and universities across Europe, USA, South Africa and Brazil, leading some of the most innovative projects on science, art, democracy and public participation. He has published 2 books and several academic and popular articles on public engagement with science and technology.

Leslie Dunton-Downer is a writer and producer whose works include books, libretti, studio albums, films, and events such as The Magical Secrecy Tour co-produced with transmediale and N.K. in Berlin. She is a member of the Harvard Society of Fellows and a former Lecturer at Harvard, where she attended college and received a PhD with Distinction in Comparative Literature.

Throughout her career Majken Overgaard has focused on the synergies between technology and contemporary art. The overall objective has been to explore the interdisciplinary universe where art, science and technology cross-fertilize and form a creative environment for development of new ideas, experiments and inventions. Majken Overgaard is an experienced teacher with a focus on creating an inclusive learning environment. As an educational activist she has initiated numerous activities for women and other underrepresented groups in art and technology. Furthermore, she has worked as an external lecturer at the IT University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen University, where the focus has been on developing new approaches to innovation and entrepreneurship for the creative sector. The starting point and motivation has always been the interdisciplinary and world changing possibilities both art and technology hold while unfolding the potential of individuals as well as communities and to make people and ideas grow and come to live.

Sarah Newman is Director of Art & Education at metaLAB at Harvard, and a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Working at the intersection of research and art, her work engages with technology’s role in human experience. In addition to her art practice, she is also a facilitator and educator, and leads workshops with her methodology to use creative materials to address interdisciplinary research problems. Newman holds a BA in Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA in Imaging Arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She has exhibited work in New York, San Francisco, Berlin, and London, and has held artist residencies in Germany, Sweden, and Italy. Newman is a 2017 AI Grant Fellow, a member of the 2018 Assembly Cohort, a co-founder of the Data Nutrition Project, and a 2019 Rockafeller AI Resident Fellow. She is currently artist-in-residence at Northeastern University’s Center for Law, Innovation, and Creativity. Her current work explores the social and philosophical dimensions of artificial intelligence and uses interactive art as a means of critique and public engagement.

Stefanie Wuschitz is an arts-based researcher with particular focus on Critical Media Practices (feminist hacking, critical making, posthuman perspectives). She graduated with an MFA in Transmedia Arts in 2006. In 2008 she completed her Masters at TISCH School of the Arts at New York University. 2009 she founded the feminist hackerspace and art collective Mz* Baltazar’s Laboratory in Vienna. In 2014 she finished her PhD on ‘Feminist Hackerspaces’ at the Vienna University of Technology. She held research and Post-Doc positions at the Umeå University, University of Applied Arts Vienna, the Vienna University of Technology, Michigan University, Berlin University of the Arts. She is currently project leader of the FWF research project ‘Feminist Hacking. Building Circuits as an Artistic Practice’ affiliated to Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna and working on a film on Digitalization titled ‘Coded Feminisms in Indonesia’ with affiliation to TU Berlin.

Idriss Nor started as a Programme Manager at the DOEN Foundation in 2004. He built up the programme Social Entrepreneurship. From 2006 – 2019 he was the team manager of Team Social and Team Creative, besides his role as programme manager. As of 2019, Idriss entered the executive board of the DOEN Foundation, in the role of Director Impact Investments.

Idriss has a significant network and experience in the cultural and media sector in the Middle-East as well as North-Africa: he helped build the first independent cultural fund the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. He speaks French and Arabic, among several other languages. Idriss was born in Frankfurt am Main and holds a Masters degree in Educational Sciences of the Universität of Frankfurt. He also followed a post-doc study of business-administration at Nyenrode

Deborah Hustic – co-founder, creative director and project manager of Radiona – Zagreb Makerpsace; STEAM and environmental consultant; new media art curator & media artist; CEO and co-founder of Intergalaktik (2020) – start-up company for electronics production (FPGA, smart City, audio devices production, trainings etc.), Textil{e}tronics (2012) – wearables related projects. Organized more than 300 workshops, conferences, exhibitions, festivals, hackathons, fairs, maker camps and events in tech and creative innovation sectors. She has taken part in numerous international and domestic exhibitions, festivals and conferences concerning DIY/DIWO, STEAM, new media and hacker/maker cultures, as well as on topics about development of art/tech/science education through workshops. Workshop facilitator for children, youth and grown-ups in the fields of creative electronics, design thinking, system innovation and eTextiles. Curated 30 international exhibitions in the fields of new media and hybrid arts.  Deborah Hustic has experiences working in private sector (publishing industry, creative industries, environmental sector, ICT), non-profit (innovation, culture, art, technology) and public bodies (international relations, policy making, diplomacy, creative education, EU affairs, mobility, intercultural dialogue and social inclusion – refugees and Roma integration, gender equality).

Lefteris Papagiannakis, Frmr. Vice Mayor on Migrant & Refugee and affairs | City of Athens. Lefteris Papagiannakis was born in France in 1971. He completed his primary and secondary education in Greece. He returned to France to study public law in the University of Lille II, followed by a DEA in European Community Law and International Economic Law. After the completion of his studies, he worked in the European Parliament as a parliamentary assistant. Since then he also worked on the education of the Muslim minority in Greece (in Thrace), as a legal counsellor for the political party Ecologists Green and the Special Secretariat on environmental inspection. He was elected in the municipal council of Athens in 9/2014 and named vice mayor on migrant and refugee affairs in 3/2016 until 8/2019.