Prof. Dr. Michel Pfeiffer (Swiss Institute for Information Science, University of Applied Sciences Graubünden)

Michel Pfeiffer is a lecturer at the Swiss Institute for Information Science at the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden (FHGR) in Chur, Switzerland. There he heads the digitization lab with the aim of transmedializing photography and audiovisual media in an archivally appropriate way. His current research questions deal with the digitization, preservation and mediation of cultural assets, especially object and metadata in the field of tension between libraries, archives and museums.

Michel Pfeiffer is an expert in digital collection management. His broad practical experience and profound theoretical knowledge enable him to analyze complex archival issues, develop and implement individual solutions. As a self-employed photographer, he was already confronted with the digitization of photographs in the early 1990s. Disappointed by the digital reproduction possibilities of the time, he became intensively involved with digitization and its quality criteria. Driven by the idea of implementing optimal processes, he built up various image databases, first for his own company, later for customers.

Today, he is a lecturer in Information Science at the FHGR (University of Applied Sciences Graubünden) in Switzerland. He teaches various topics such as: Fundamentals of Digitization, International Digitization Standards, Image Indexing, Content Mediation in Digital Asset Management Systems and the Life Cycle of Digital Preservation.

Dipl.-Soz. Axel Ermert (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Information und Wissen e.V. (DGI) – AKTS)

Axel Ermert studied sociology and information science in Berlin. From 1978 to 1994 he was a full-time employee at DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung (national and international standardisation committees in the field of documentation and terminology). He also worked as a lecturer. From 1998 to 2018, he worked at the Institute for Museum Research – SMB/PK in Berlin. He is interested in the overall view of the information field, from (printed) books to film and television, and specifically in the principles of terminology and carefully elaborated individual terminologies such as that of the information field or classification systems.

Cristina Giancristofaro (Director of Kartography CIC, London)

Cristina Giancristofaro is a Conservation Scientist with applied knowledge in the development of Information Systems for Cultural Heritage. She joined the ResearchSpace team in 2018, working on the development, design and implementation of the platform. She previously worked at the INFN Physics Department in Florence and the ENEA Research Centre in Rome, developing expertise in the synthesis of nanocomposites for conservative treatment of artistic stones and non-invasive analysis of paintings, such as PIXE, PIGE, SEM, Ionoluminescence, Laser Induced Fluorescence, scanning IR Reflectography and Multispectral Imaging. In 2013 she obtained a Master of Science Unesco in Open Source Technologies for Cultural Heritage, developing new skills in database development, GIS, web programming and specialising in 3D Photogrammetry Image-Based Modeling survey, 3D model visualisation and integration with imaging diagnostic researches. Before joining the ResearchSpace project she has been an IPERION-CH research fellow in the Scientific dept of the National Gallery in London, mainly working on digital documentation for the construction of a database of ground layers in paintings as an open access research resource. She is currently a Director of Kartography CIC, a social enterprise company concerned with data diversity, inclusion and context.

Prof. Dr. Sarah Kenderdine (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

Sarah Kenderdine researches at the forefront of interactive and immersive experiences for galleries, libraries, archives and museums. In widely exhibited installation works, she has amalgamated tangible and intangible cultural heritage with new media art practice, especially in the realms of interactive cinema, augmented reality and embodied narrative. Sarah has produced 90 exhibitions and installations for museums worldwide including a museum complex in India and one in Taiwan and received a number of major international awards for this work. In 2017, Sarah was appointed professor at the École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland where she has built the Laboratory for Experimental Museology (eM+), exploring the convergence of cultural heritage, imaging technologies, immersive visualisation, digital aesthetics and cultural (big) data. Since 2017, Sarah is director and lead curator of EPFL Pavilions a new art/science initiative. In 2020, she was named in the Museum Influencer List 2020 – The Power 10 by Blooloop and, Switzerland’s Top 100 Digital Shapers by Bilanz in 2020 and 2021.  In 2021, Sarah was appointed corresponding fellow of The British Academy. 

Dr. Johanna Aufreiter (Österreichische Galerie Belvedere)

Johanna Aufreiter has been a research associate at the Belvedere Research Centre since 2018. She is a member of the conference committee of the annual Belvedere conference “The Art Museum in the Digital Age” and co-editor of the Belvedere Research Journal. Johanna Aufreiter studied German philology and art history at the University of Graz. From 2006 to 2013 she worked as a lecturer and university assistant at the Institute of Art History at the University of Graz. In 2013 she moved to the University of Vienna, where she worked as a university assistant and head of the Laboratory for Cognitive Research in Art History at the Institute of Art History until 2017. In 2017, she completed her doctorate on the topic of optical theories in the Middle Ages. Her main research interests are optical theories, empirical image science, digital art history and medieval art. In addition to her teaching and publishing activities, she has been a speaker at exhibition openings since 2006. Since 2022 she has been a board member of DArtHist Austria – Network for Digital Art History in Austria.

Mag. Sergey Harutoonian (Österreichische Galerie Belvedere)

Sergey Harutoonian studied art history and Romance studies at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and the Université Paris Nanterre. Since June 2022 he has been curator for the contemporary art collection at the Belvedere, where he focuses on forms of digital transformation, identity issues and contemporary culture. From 2018 to May 2022, he was curator in charge of the exhibition programme at the Kunstverein Hannover. In 2022, he took over as acting director of the Kunstverein. In Hanover, he curated the following exhibitions, among others: Kameelah Janan Rasheed (2022), Beyond the Black Atlantic (2020), Artistic Intelligence (2019) and Manuel Graf (2019). He is currently preparing solo exhibitions on Amoako Boafo (2024) and Tamuna Sirbiladze (2024).

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Anja Grebe (Head of Center for Cultures and Technologies of Collecting, University for Continuing Education Krems)

Anja Grebe has been University Professor of Cultural History and Museal Collection Studies at the University of Continuing Education Krems since 2015, where she heads the Center for Cultures and Technologies of Collecting. She studied French literature, history, and art and media studies at the University of Konstanz, where she received her doctorate in art history in 2000. In 2012, she habilitated at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg with a thesis on the reception of Dürer in modern times. Since 2001, the art and cultural scientist has worked as a museum and exhibition curator and in cultural education. Teaching assignments have taken her to the universities of Bamberg, Freiburg/Breisgau, and the Berlin University of the Arts, as well as to the University of Würzburg and Peking University, Beijing, as a substitute and visiting professor. At the University for Continuing Education Krems, she directs the master’s program “Collection Studies and Management” as well as the certified programs “Digitales Kuratieren” and “Digitales Vermitteln”. She teaches, researches, and publishes on the theory and history of museums and collections, museums and digitization, issues of cultural transfer, the connection between art and the natural sciences, and international Renaissance art. Since 2022 she has been chair of the Association of Austrian Art Historians (VöKK).

Mag. Dr. Florian Windhager (Center for Cultures and Technologies of Collecting, University for Continuing Education Krems)

Studied philosophy, sociology and psychology at the University of Vienna, specializing in philosophy of culture and science. Doctorate in Digital Humanities at the University of Vienna. Studium Integrale for Science Communication and collaboration with the Chair of Cultural and Media Theory at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Academy of Applied Arts Vienna.
Since 2007 research associate, project manager and lecturer at the University of Continuing Education Krems, initially at the Department for Knowledge and Communication Management and at the Department for Arts and Cultural Studies. Lecturer at the University of Graz, the University of Passau and the University of Vienna.

Dr. Viola Rühse, MA (Head of Center for Image Science, University for Continuing Education Krems)

Viola Rühse works as the head of the Center for Image Science and course director at the University for Continuing Education Krems in Austria. She studied History of Art and German Language and Literature at the universities of Hamburg and Vienna and obtained her PhD with a dissertation on Siegfried Kracauer’s film writings. Her current main topics of research – in addition to film theory – are modern and contemporary art, science images, and critical theory. She also works as an artist/photographer and curator. One of her critical essays received the Bazon Brock Essay Award.

Alexander Wöran, MA BSc BA (Center for Image Science, University for Continuing Education Krems)
Alexander Wöran is a researcher and writer. He studied comparative literature and molecular biology in Vienna. Afterwards he worked at Ars Electronica, where he mainly curated exhibitions. He is currently a research associate at the University of Continuing Education Krems in the Centre for Image Sciences. His focus is on the development of tools and data analysis in the field of digital archiving. As a writer, he writes prose and essays, but also experiments with language in various media.

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Dr. Grischka Petri (Leibniz-Institut für Informationsinfrastruktur, FIZ Karlsruhe)

Doctorate in art history and law, legal assessor’s examination and habilitation in art history, teaching at the universities of Bonn, Cologne, Basel, Regensburg and most recently Tübingen (substitute professorship for Modern and Contemporary Art History, 2022/23), since 2021 collaboration in the NFDI4Culture Legal Helpdesk at FIZ Karlsruhe (Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure).

Mag. Frauke Kreutler (Digital Collection Management, Wien Museum)

Frauke Kreutler, born 1970 in Klagenfurt, a trained photographer, studied art history in Vienna and Dublin. 2001-2003 Collaborator on the digitisation project in the photo collection of the Albertina Vienna. Since 2003 curator and since 2008 head of the Digital Collection Management department at the Wien Museum. She manages the digitisation of the Wien Museum’s collections and worked on major projects such as the relocation of the collections to the Himberg depot. Publications on photo- and cultural-historical topics of 19^th and 20^th century Austrian history.

Prof. Dr. Maximilian Schich (Tallinn University)

Maximilian Schich is an art historian, multidisciplinary researcher and academic consultant, currently mainly a professor for cultural data analysis at Tallinn University in Estonia. His aim is to understand the nature of cultural interaction via a systematic combination of critical and creative aesthetics, qualitative hermeneutics, quantitative measurement and computation. Ongoing research builds on a background in art history (diss. HU-Berlin & Bibliotheca Hertziana), network science (BarabásiLab), computational social science (ETH-Zurich), and professional experience in cultural “database pathology.” Schich’s dissertation on “Reception and Tradication” (Biering & Brinkmann 2009) is considered a seminal contribution to network analysis in art research. In 2014, “A Network Framework of Cultural History” in Science Magazine and the Nature video “Charting Culture” made global impact. From 2013 to 2020, Schich was Associate Professor in Arts & Technology and a founding member of the Institute of Art History at UT Dallas, from where he moved to Tallinn in 2020. Schich leads the CUDAN ERA-Chair Project for Cultural Data Analytics there, currently funded by the European Commission with 2.5 million euros. Current collaborations are primarily dedicated to understanding different types of cultural interaction as well as empirical aesthetics. One aspect of this is museum collections research.

Saskia Scheltjens, MA MA (Head of Research Services Department, Chief Librarian of Rijksmuseum Research Library, RIJKSMUSEUM)

Saskia Scheltjens (BE/NL, 1970) studied Literature & Linguistics and Information – & Library Science at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. She is an experienced information manager who has worked in the academic and museum world in Belgium and the Netherlands, often initiating and leading change. Currently, she is Head of the Department of Research Services of the Rijksmuseum and Chief Librarian of the Rijksmuseum Research Library. The department is responsible for all information and data about the collection and the organisation. Together with a team of about 50 people, she is working on tools and services for researchers on top of extremely hybrid, rich and open collection data. She is fascinated by the interdisciplinary possibilities and responsabilities of digital research and a strong advocate for OPEN and FAIR collection data and – systems within the digital cultural heritage world.

Carola Korhummel, BA MA (Laboratory for Cognitive Research in Art History (CReA), University of Vienna)

Carola Korhummel is a museologist. Trained in literature, art and media studies (BA) at University of Konstanz and Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, she specialized in art history and museology (MA) with a double degree from Heidelberg University and École du Louvre in Paris. After working for Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and as a research fellow at Werkbundarchiv in Berlin, she currently works at the Laboratory for Cognitive Research in Art History at the University of Vienna. Her research and teaching focuses on the intersections of everyday culture, consumer aesthetics and digital art. In her PhD project, she investigates the art museum of the 21st century as an emotional commodity.

Enkeleda Thaqi, B.Eng. MSc (TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich)

Enkeleda Thaqi is a computer scientist. Her academic background includes a Bachelor of Engineering in Print and Media Technologies, specializing in Print and IT, from the Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart (Germany), followed by a Master of Science in Media Informatics from the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen (Germany). She recently joined the team of the chair for Human-Centered Technologies for Learning at the Technical University of Munich, where she is pursuing her PhD. Her research is part of the “Museum Gaze” project and includes the automation of the analysis of eye movement on paintings and sculptures. Her research interests are primarily centered around the areas of eye tracking, scanpath analysis, computer vision, and human-computer interaction.

Leonie Boer, MA (LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster)

Leonie Boer grew up deep in the west of Germany, in the vibrant Ruhr area, and moved to Düsseldorf to study. After gaining diverse experience in the fields of art education, museum education, press and public relations and monument conservation, she was drawn to a large art museum, the LWL Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster (Germany). Since then, she has been pushing digitization in the museum with a lot of imagination, even more patience, and a pinch of tenacity, and is just warming up for future projects.

Insa Brinkmann, MA (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg)

Insa Brinkmann studied Art History, Cultural Studies and Italian in Berlin and Florence. After working in Berlin in art auction houses, in an art foundry, at the Kulturstiftung der Länder and in art education at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, she has been a research assistant in the Digital Inventory project at the MK&G Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg since 2012 and project manager there since 2020. She oversees the retro-inventory and digitization of the museum’s holdings as well as the editing of the MK&G Sammlung Online (Online Collections).

Dr. Emily Joyce Evans (Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin State Museums)

Emily Evans studied Art History, German and Russian at Smith College, the University of Hamburg, and the University of Illinois. Prior to joining the Neue Nationalgalerie, she worked at the Museum Ludwig (Cologne), on the Manifesta 10 biennial and at De Gruyter publishers. Her publications include a comprehensive collections catalog (1905–1945) for the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, exhibition catalogs, articles, and the forthcoming Bloomberg Art Markets (where she was editor). At the Neue Nationalgalerie she is responsible for research on 20^th-century art and its publication online.

Mag.art. Jee-Hae Kim, BA (Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin State Museums)

Jee-Hae Kim is a collection researcher at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart (Berlin), responsible for the research, scientific cataloging, and strategic management of the collection’s works of media art. She studied Art History, Philosophy as well as Theatre, Film and Television Studies at the Seoul National University in Seoul/South Korea and at the University of Cologne. Her current research interests include interdisciplinary and collaborative methods for the preservation of cultural assets as well as innovative formats of knowledge management and transfer.

Mag. Dr. Katja Schumann (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden)

Katja Schumann (*1977, Dresden), art historian. Studied Art History, German Language and Literature/Media Studies and Education at the TU Dresden / University of Vienna with doctorate, postgraduate studies in Culture & Management, Hermann Krone Prize 2004, participation in scholarship programs in Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and China, freelancer at the Goethe-Institut and the Deutsche Fotothek, SLUB Dresden (Saxon State Library – Dresden State and University Library), curatorial and jury activities, since 2008 scientific editor in the database project “Daphne” at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections).

Maike Teubner, MA (Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf)

Maike Teubner is an art historian and qualified designer. As a consultant for the online collection and internal digital formats, she is currently leading the project for a new digital presentation of the collection at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf. At the Neues Museum – Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design (State Museum of Art and Design) in Nuremberg, she worked on the scientific planning of international exhibitions. At the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg she was a lecturer for digital art history. Her dissertation is dedicated to exhibition research, among other topics.

Mgr. Petr Tomášek, PhD (Moravská galerie v Brně, Brno)

The Czech art historian completed his doctoral studies at the Faculty of Philosophy of Masaryk University in Brno in 2017 with a dissertation on the art collection of the Princes of Salm-Reifferscheidt. He has worked for the Moravian Gallery since 2005, currently as curator of the Old Masters and 19th century painting and sculpture collections. He is also a specialist in nineteenth-century art. He has organized several major exhibition projects, most recently the Moravian Picture Gallery (1817-1961) in 2022-2023. Professionally, he specializes in the history of private and institutional collecting and 19th century painting.