Ola Ståhl

Det dolda, artistic research project (Ola Ståhl, Petra Lilja and Anthony Wagner)

An artist researcher and writer with a PhD and an MA from the Department of Fine Art, Art History and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds and a BA (Hons) in the History of Art, Design and Film with a minor degree in Creative Writing from Sheffield Hallam University, Ola Ståhl’s main field of research lies at the intersection between ethico-aesthetics, transversality and politics, and in particular between creative and critical practices, especially collaborative ones, including creative-critical and art writing practices, experimental publishing practices and critical event- and dialogue based practices. He has exhibited and performed internationally since the late 1990s and published several chapbooks and artist’s books alongside articles, essays and prose texts in various journals, collections and anthologies.

For three years, starting in 2001, he was part of the editorial collective of the international Cultural Studies journal Parallax and between 2001 and 2008 he served as the main instigator behind and coordinator of the London-based artist collective C.CRED [Collective CREative Dissent]. Following the cessation of the activities of C.CRED, he initiated and coordinated the activities of the alternative, experimental publishing platform Publication Studio Malmö, focusing on what might be described as the social and cultural, and fundamentally collaborative, nature of writing, in an expanded sense, and more generally, publishing with a particular focus on artists' books.

Between 2003 and 2008 he worked as Associate Lecturer on the Fine Art programme at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design and the Design Cultures programme at London College of Communication, both colleges within the University of the Arts, London. Since 2013 he’s held the position of Senior Lecturer in Design at Linnaeus University in Sweden, where he helped develop the department's + Change vision and focus on sustainability. At Linnaeus University, he currently also coordinates the activities of the Centre for Climate Emergency Studies and a platform engaging with Creative Critical Expressions and Practices. 

Please visit www.olastahl.com for further information.

Concrete, & The Smear, Ola Ståhl, artistic research project / audio-visual installation, Esbjerg Art Museum (2007) and NEON Gallery (2009)

Teaching

Ola Ståhl has primarily taught across the Bachelor programmes in Design + Change and Visual Communication + Change as well as the Master programme in Design + Change. Occasionally he has also appeared in other supervision and teaching contexts within and outside the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. His teaching assignments have primarily included courses in speculative, critical, transdisciplinary and social design, design and pedagogy, as well as courses in exploratory methods, critical and creative expressions and processes, and theory courses on sustainability, norm criticality and the connection between art, design and social and political engagement. He has also supervised numerous degree projects on both under- and postgraduate level. Currently, his main teaching obligations are related to transdisciplinary and transversal approaches to the climate emergency, creative critical expressions and practices, and artistic research.

Research

Ola Ståhl’s current research revolves around the climate emergency and the construction of ethico-aesthetic spaces for collaborative, transversal and transdisciplinary research, pedagogy, action and agency. This has taken the form of a recently established Centre for Climate Emergency Studies at Linnaeus University alongside several courses, in particular on the Master programme in Design + Change, exploring the notion of climate emergency. His other (and related) research interest is the notion of creative critical expressions and practices that traverse and intervolve the domains of critical theory and artistic research, in particular as implemented in socially and politically engaged projects. A particular focus has and continues to be an exploration of the link between crisis, creativity and criticality in relation to ethico-aesthetics and political engagement.

Commissions

At Linnaeus University, apart from being Senior Lecturer at the Department of Design, Ola Ståhl is project coordinator of the Centre for Climate Emergency Studies and a platform engaging with Creative Critical Expressions and Practices.