The annual PhD workshop was initiated in 2012 as a collaboration of Aarhus University, transmediale, and varying partner organizations. It provides a forum for emerging researchers to enter into speculation, critique, exchange, and dialog about their research topic. The primary focus is on the participants’ individual research projects, as well fostering networks, knowledge exchange and widening dissemination.

The workshop theme is usually inspired by the respective transmediale theme of the year; it aims to reflect on and extend the subject matter at hand. Workshop participants take part in closed seminars and talks at varying partner institutions as well as public presentations at transmediale festival in Berlin. There is also an emphasis on publication: workshop participants contribute to APRJA_, a printed peer-reviewed newspaper with an associated open access online platform.

Previous PhD workshops:

2022: RENDERING RESEARCH
RENDERING RESEARCH workshop was a collective exploration of how research is made public, and the forms it can take through speedy hands-on publishing. Workshop at École de recherche graphique, Brussels, in partnership with Centre for the Study of the Networked Image, London South Bank University.

2021: RESEARCH REFUSAL
RESEARCH REFUSAL workshop closely following the theme of this year’s festival, involved research groups and explored issues related to research infrastructures. Workshop online, in partnership with Centre for the Study of the Networked Image, London South Bank University.

2020: RESEARCH NETWORKS
RESEARCH NETWORKS workshop closely followed the theme of this year’s festival, questioning the pervasiveness of networks and their limits in research.
Workshop at the Embassy of Canada, in partnership with Global Emergent Media (GEM) Lab, Montréal.

2019: MACHINE FEELING
Machine Feeling focused on the ability of technologies to capture and structure feelings and experiences that are active, in flux, and situated in the present.
Workshop at the University of Cambridge. 

2018: RESEARCH VALUES
This workshop edition will interrogate value and values in contemporary media and digital culture.
Workshop at Brandenburg Center for Media Studies – ZeM, Potsdam. 

2017: MACHINE RESEARCH
A workshop about research on machines, research with machines, and research as a machine.
Workshop at Brussels World Trade Center.

2016: EXCESSIVE RESEARCH
EXCESSIVE RESEARCH asked: What happens when research is less about exchange and more about excess?
Workshop at Contemporary Art Lab, Liverpool John Moores University, in partnership with Liverpool Biennial.

2015: Datafied Research
This workshop edition examined the implications of datafication for research. Like transmediale 2015 CAPTURE ALL, it aimed to investigate and propose actions that push against the limits of today’s pervasive quantification of life, work, and play.
Workshop at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

2014: Post-digital Research
Post-digital Research addressed the messy and paradoxical condition of art and media after digital technology revolutions.
Workshop at Kunsthal Aarhus.

2013: Researching BWPWAP
Researching BWPWAP posed the question as to what kinds of technological and artistic practices might produce radical effects for an institutionalized research culture. How can we save research from itself?
Workshop at Leuphana University of Lüneburg. 

2012: in/compatible Research
in/compatible Research looked at incompatible interfaces, incompatible methods, and incompatible markets.
Workshop at Berlin University of the Arts.