Serving as an external lecturer at the IT University of Copenhagen (2015-2023) and Copenhagen
University (2015-18), Majken Overgaard concentrates on pioneering novel approaches to innovation
through the application of contemporary art, speculative design, and science fiction as
methodologies and sources of inspiration. She is currently teaching Digital Transformation at the
Culture Leadership Education.
Majken Overgaard's teaching practice naturally transitions into delivering public talks and lectures
centered on art
and technology. These talks highlight how art can provide a critical and inquisitive lens through
which to examine our rapidly changing digital world.
Culture Leadership Education - Digital Transformation
Over the past 30 years, major events such as the emergence of the Internet and the lockdowns related
to COVID-19 have changed the cultural world and our cultural consumption.
The centralized power of TV stations, film companies, and record companies has become more
widespread. This is a trend that continues today, where the digital in some cases can be equated
with physical ones. Today users also expect to be able to experience art and culture digitally, and
digital environments and communities provide culture institutions direct access to users.
They explore the specific challenges and opportunities inherent in the management task when the
physical and digital identities of cultural institutions need to be integrated, and how you support
your employees in your institution's digital transformation.
IT University of Copenhagen - Future Sustainable Companies
The world is changing and today there is more than ever a focus on sustainability - both in relation
to our climate and environment and in relation to creating living conditions that enable a work and
private life in balance. The development of decent jobs and responsible production goes hand in hand
with the overall climate effort, which are basic criteria if we are to bring Denmark to the
forefront of the development of the sustainable companies of the future.
The course takes a starting point in sci-fi/design fiction and contemporary art in order to initiate
a creative journey for the students, where they allow themselves to picture alternative realities -
realities that they develop. The goal is to try to provide the students with a stronger sense of
agency in relation to the development of their own future ideas and identities. The goal is for the
students to develop the technology and business models they believe can have a positive impact on
our planet and collective future. I believe science fiction/design fiction can be used as a tool to
make the students able to imagine other futures.
Selected Talks 2023
The Museum in the Age of Algorithms, talk at the National Gallery of Denmark, April 2023 How can data
and algorithms be used as a strategic management tool in museums? How can artists broaden our
understanding of data, considering it to be collective and relational - something that always
emerges in relationships between people and how there are always those who contribute and those who
collect and interpret data, emphasizing the need to be mindful of the power exercised in handling
data.
By being aware of these structures, museums have an exciting starting point to establish a foundation
for implementing algorithms and AI and to pave the way for a future where the use of algorithms
don't have to equate to exploitation but instead have the potential to express diversity and
justice.
Me and My Avatar, talk at Processing Day Copenhagen & Artsformation Conference Brussels
October-November, 2023 In the 1990s the world wide web became part of our lives. The Internet opened
up for new experiments with identity, gender and sexuality - online you can be whoever you want and
it is the place for the fulfillment of many dreams and fantasies.
Perhaps our online lives in the 1990s have even paved the way for the explosion of possible
identities that unfold across the Internet and the physical world? What characterizes parts of our
online lives is that we often appear with profiles or avatars that we come up with ourselves, and to
one extent or another we have all learned to experiment online.
Now many are beginning to take their experiences into the physical world. Our physical and online
lives are getting closer and closer together, and not only because of technologies such as AR and VR
and the ubiquity of smartphones, but because our digital identities are becoming more important to
us and we need to make the different formats coexist across realities.
Introduction to New Technologies for Artists, talk at Danish Visual Artists, October 2023 We are in
the midst of a digital transformation where various new technologies are reshaping artistic
processes. Artificial intelligence and blockchain are influencing both how we generate images and
text and the business models that shape artistic professions. With models like ChatGPT for text
generation, and Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Runway, and DALL-E for image and video generation, new
possibilities and challenges emerge that will undoubtedly alter the way we work, consume, and
produce. But how are these new technologies different, and how can you, as an artist, effectively
incorporate them into your daily practice? Through a one-day workshop, concepts and technologies are
introduced, providing you with the opportunity to explore different platforms and models firsthand,
allowing you to integrate them into your artistic endeavors.
Kulturmødet 2023 Moderator, speaker and curator at the following events:
AI - How does it affect visual artists?
The artist Kristoffer Ørum and curator Majken Overgaard examine how AI platforms open new
possibilities for visual artists. The companies behind these technologies have used millions of
existing images and artworks as training data. This raises the question of how it affects artists to
be part of these datasets or excluded from them and how it can impact their careers.
The Spirit in the Machine
Together with artist Jakob la Cour and writer and cultural editor at Kristeligt Dagblad, Michael Bach
Henriksen Majken Overgaard will discuss spirituality and technology.
Queer, Art, and the Internet
Majken Overgaard will be focusing on how the internet in the 90s opened the gates for experiments
with identity, gender, and sexuality. Currently, the boundaries between our internet and the
physical world are breaking down. What are the consequences for our identities, which are now
stretched across our existence both online and offline? And how does this reflect in art and
culture?
Nordic Perspective: The Expanded Experiential Space
Jesper Larsson and Jakob Skote & Majken Overgaard will be in conversation about the impact of
technological development on the creation, dissemination, and consumption of art. They will focus on
two examples of how to work purposefully and focused on cultural mediation and accessibility using
new technological tools such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality.
Is the future of culture created by technology?
Majken Overgaard will moderate a conversation between Astrid la Cour, director at SMK – the National
Gallery of Denmark, Hanne Salomonsen, CEO of Gyldendal, and Tine Fischer, rector at the National
Film School of Denmark. Technology is currently taking over the creative field and generating text,
images, video, music, film, etc. How does Danish cultural life respond to this? Is there a need for
regulation, or should we embrace a new era where culture is created by technology?
