Oliver Grau

Oliver Grau (1965) is Chair Professor for Image Science at the Center of Image Science at Danube University (since 2005). He received his PhD from Humboldt University, Berlin, in 1999, and Habilitation in 2003. He gave more than 350 lectures and keynotes at conferences worldwide, including the Olympic Games culture program and the G-20 Summit.

Grau's book Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (MIT Press, 2003, Book of the Month Scientific American) received more than 90 reviews. It offers a historic comparison and evolution in image-viewer theory of immersion and a systematic analysis of the triad of artist, artwork and beholder under the conditions of digital art.

He has received several awards and his publications are translated in 14 languages. His main research is in the history of media art, immersive images, emotion and immersion, the history of telepresence and artificial life and digital humanities.

Grau was founding director of the MediaArtHistories conference series (Banff 2005, Berlin07, Melbourne09, Liverpool11, Riga13, Montreal15, Krems/Vienna17). The volume MediaArtHistories (MIT Press, 2007) received more than 50 international reviews. His volume Imagery in the 21st Century (MIT Press, 2011) expanded the context of Image Science.

He conceived scientific tools for image science and directed the project "Immersive Art" of the German Research Foundation (DFG) developing an international archive for digital art (ADA, since 1999). Since 2005 Grau is also head of the database of Goettweig’s Graphic Print Collection, a private collection with 30.000 works, from Duerer to Klimt.

Grau is reviewer for international foundations (DFG, NSF, ARC, SNF, MPI, DAAD and editorial board member of international journals. Grau was among the first elected members of the Young Academy of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science & Leopoldina, in 2014 he received a doctor h.c., in 2015 he was elected into the Academia Europaea. (2019)

Interviews

• "Oliver Grau Interview", Switch 18, Sep 2002.

Links

• Profile on Donau U Krems
• Profile on AdA
• Academia.edu
• Wikipedia