Works
He was invited to more than 350 lectures and keynotes and has conducted international lecture tours, [3] received numerous awards, [4] and produced international publications in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Serbian, Macedonian, Slovenian, Korean, Chinese. After studying in Hamburg, Siena, and London, earning a master's degree under Martin Warnke, among others, and a doctorate in Berlin under Horst Bredekamp and Friedrich Kittler, Grau taught and conducted research at the Humboldt University in Berlin, spent time as a guest researcher at institutions in Japan and the United States, and, after completing his degree at the University of Art and Design Linz in 2004, worked as a professor at various universities. Since 2005 he has held the first chair for image sciences in the German-speaking world and headed the Department of Image Science at 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.
Immersion research
Grau's book Virtual Art has more than 2700 citations according to Grau's Google Scholar profile [5] and has received more than 80 reviews,. [6]
Using an interdisciplinary approach Grau also analysed methods which elicit or heighten the impression of immersion in digital image spaces for the viewer. He found that this is primarily induced by interaction; reaction of the images in real-time to the viewer's movements (Grau 1999–2007), the utilisation of evolutionary image processes — for example, genetic algorithms — (Grau 1997 and 2001), haptic feedback, the natural design of the interface (Grau 2002), the impression of telematic presence (Grau 2000), and particularly the dimensions and design of the image display, which must fill the viewer's field of vision completely and extend up to 360° both horizontally and vertically (Grau 2001 and 2003). 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. In addition Grau undertook studies of innovative linkages of architecture and immersive moving images (Grau 2003, etc.), as well as of immersion in the history of film (Grau 2006 and 2007). The majority of these publications resulted from two research projects of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG — German Research Foundation): Art History and Media Theories of Virtual Reality, 1998–2002, and Immersive Art, 2002–2005.
Emotion research
Several research projects conducted at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German Academyof Sciences Leopoldina and two summer academies supported by the Volkswagen Foundation gave rise to an interdisciplinary study on the history of managing feelings through images and sound (Grau 2005). Building on the work of Antonio Damasio, Joseph LeDoux, and Wolf Singer, and using the examples of Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim 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.
Since 2002, Grau brought together interdisciplinary media art research and its history(s) as in an international and interdisciplinary conference series. A year of scholarly research 2003 by Oliver Grau and Wendy Coones at Humboldt University Berlin and the presentation and discussion of the concept at a DFG-funded planning meeting led by Grau with international experts at the Villa Vigoni Science Center in 2004, [7] led to the first congress on media art history in Banff (Canada) in 2005 under Grau's directorship, with 500 participants. 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. [8] His volumes "Imagery in the 21st Century" (2011), "Museum and Archive on the Move" (2017), "Digital Art through the Looking Glass" (2019) and "Retracing Political Dimensions: Strategies in Contemporary New Media Art" (2021) expanded the context of Image Science.
In 2018 Grau was a speaker at the Chicago New Media Symposium which was held as part of the Chicago New Media 1973-1992 Exhibition. The Exhibition was curated by jonCates. [9]
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