Exhibition Work and Outreach
I have delivered public lectures on topics such as anatomical dissection, art and medicine, and anatomical representations. I always enjoy engaging with new audiences, so feel free to reach out with ideas or questions regarding availability.
Philosophy has my heart, but I maintain an active interest in art, exhibition making, and creative knowledge production.
I spent my student years as an editor of an art and culture magazine (Kulturo) and as an assistant at a leading Danish gallery (Galleri Nicolai Wallner). Conducting my PhD at a museum allowed me to follow this passion into the early stages of my academic career. Below you find an overview of exhibition project I have been involved in.
For a list of popular philosophy writings, see 'Publications'.
Capturing Epidemics – Photographs by Nicolai Howalt
13.11.20-16.05.21 | Medial Museion
When epidemics break out we experience a fundamental loss of control. From Pandora’s box to the contemporary corona crisis, we have viewed epidemics as unruly, dangerous forces breaking free. For centuries, science has worked to control and curb these forces. By pinpointing causes of diseases, it has tried to attack the epidemic loss of bodily and societal control at the root. In the case of the plague, cholera, and tuberculosis, disease was caused by bacteria.
In a series of photographs of historical objects from the collections of Medical Museion, Nicolai Howalt captures encounters between science and epidemics. The works fix – in the same manner as the blobs of bacteria substrate on the slides – surfaces of contact between disease and science. They unite microbes, history, and the scientific attempt to capture epidemics in a set of single images.
My role: Curation and concept (w/Karin Tybjerg and Kristine Frøsig Mosehol)Photographs: Nicolai Howalt, Courtesy Martin Asbæk Gallery | Production: Karin Tybjerg| Objects: Ion Meyer, Nanna Gerdes, Line Camilla Forsberg, and Maiken Ploug Riisom
Exhibition Photo by David Stjernholm, © Medical Museion
Corona will also be history one day
12.06.21-12.08.24 | Medical Museion
Epidemics make history
The exhibition "Corona will also be history one day" traces threads back in time, reflecting a year with Covid-19 in the mirror of past epidemics. The exhibition sheds light on how epidemics have affected daily lives in Denmark, as practices such as distancing, face-masks, quarantine, and intensive care spread through society. The exhibition also delves into the science, where hope for an end to the crisis lies in vaccines and treatments.
My role: ResearchThe exhibition was curated by Bente Vinge Pedersen and Anne Bernth Jensen. Exhibition design by Kathrine BaastrupHow clean is clean enough? Dirt is not in itself dirty. Rather, it is a term for misplaced matter. Cleanliness is not just good. For example, immunity arises through the exchange of microbes. Is a virus dirty? Corona divides the world into clean and unclean: we are constantly making hygienic choices, exploiting and confronting fear and isolation. Can we become too clean, too pure?
My role: Curation and content contributionThe overall exhibition – Life Support – was curated and created by the entire staff at Medical Museion 2020. It was awarded the Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits, 2021.New Spaces: Three New Strands in Contemporary Film
10.09.16-7.10.16 | Pop-up Exhibition, Copenhagen
New Spaces is an exhibition about new trends in the world of film. New Spaces an exhibition with video works, film screenings, and talks. New Spaces is an exhibition for the experimental, for film makers and film lovers, and most of all for new conversations, acquaintances, and ideas.
The exhibition focuses on three new strands: Youtube aesthetics, Virtual Reality, and Contemplative Cinema. These three strands can be seen as opposing trends, but they are all reinterpretations and upheavals of the traditional cinematic narrative.
The webcam and the iPhone, like the 8mm films of the 60s, have given film a new voice. Like the outlaws of the 'Wild West', youtubers are breaking old conventions and inventing new 'old classics'. Virtual Reality, likewise, insists on dismantling one of the most entrenched ideas in film: that the spectator is passive and that everything the audience needs to see is in front of them. Contemplative Cinema follows some traditional film traits, but operates with the slow linger of single shots: a dwelling – using this opposition to the dramaturgy of mainstream film to activate the spectator through absence, giving space to the audience as explorers of the image. Youtube, VR, and Contemplative Cinema thus all entice us to enter new spaces and explore them.
Curation and production: Sebastian Cordes and Helene Scott-Fordsmand Other Public Engagement
PHILOSOPHY AT CLARE HALL – A CONVERSATION
As part of an initiative to display the scholarly activities at Clare Hall College, fellows and students from the college were invited to discuss their research in short videos.
As a Research Fellow at the college, I met with PhD student Adham El-Shazly to discuss philosophical ethnography, understanding, and why we each chose our current style and topic of research.