Oliver Grau

Oliver Grau was appointed in 2005 Chair Professor at the Center for Image Science at the Danube University Krems.

His main research interests in image science focus on the histories of media art, immersion (virtual reality), and emotion, as well as the history, idea, and culture of artificial life, "living" and telematic imagery, telepresence and the development of digital humanities through tools such as online image and video databases.

[6] Using an interdisciplinary approach Grau also analysed methods which elicit or heighten the impression of immersion in digital image spaces for the viewer.

These studies sought to transcend customary single media approaches in research on perceptual illusions and to introduce concepts such as polysensuality, suggestive potential, image space, disposition of the individual observer, and evolution of the visual media as well as to expand the theoretical work on distance by Ernst Cassirer and Erwin Panofsky, amongst others.

Building on the work of Antonio Damasio, Joseph LeDoux, and Wolf Singer, and using the examples of Matthias Grünewald's Isenheimer Altarpiece, Leni Riefenstahl's film Triumph of the Will, and the computer game “America's Army”, it was demonstrated how emotional experiences with images can forge a sense of community; in this way a contribution was made to research on a problematic key concept of image science.

Through the world conferences in Berlin (2007), Melbourne (2009), Liverpool (2011), Riga (2013), Montreal (2015), 2017 Krems/Vienna (2017), Aalborg (2019), Venice (2023) Grau, as founding director and chair with the members of the boards, was able to establish the international field, which draws especially from art, media, film, technology, and science history, and includes digital humanities, sound studies, anthropology, and philosophy.

[9] Grau has conceived new scientific tools for the humanities/digital humanities, he led the project "Immersive Art" of the German Research Foundation (DFG) whose team started developing in 1998 the first international archive for digital art[10] written on an open source platform, hosted by the Society for MediaArtHistories and has since been followed up by a number of spin-off projects.

As the first online archive streamed, the Database of Virtual Art (DVA) has regularly provided video documentation since 2000.

Since 2020, ADA has been expanded into a research and teaching platform for universities through funding of 1.2 million euros from the Austrian Federal Ministry.

First International Conference on the History of Media Art, Science and Technology, Banff 2005 (2007 Berlin, 2009 Melbourne, 2011 Liverpool, 2013 Riga, 2015 Montreal, 2017 Krems, Göttweig Abbey and Vienna).