Royal Danish Research Articles

Design, Knowledge, and Ignorance. Jude Chua's presentation for the Design Concept Conference

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts - Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation held a one-day conference discussing the design concept on 26 August 2016. This is Jude Chua's presentation of his article, "Design Without Final Goals: Getting Around Our Bounded Rationality."

The Villages, Florida: Small‐town Metropolitanism and the ‘Middle of Nowhere’

With over 110,000 inhabitants , The Villages is the world's largest retirement community. Its numerous distinct ‘villages’, surrounded by artificial landscaping and golf courses and served by three ‘downtowns’, cater to those who crave the idealised rural life of times gone by while also offering the convenience and stimulation of the modern metropolis. Deane Simpson, leader of the Master's programme in Urbanism and Societal Change at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, investigates.

Racialised entanglements of teacher professionalisation and problematised immigrant schoolchildren: crafting a Danish welfare nation-state, 1970–2013

Modern welfare states emerged as a response to the social question and were crafted through the educationalisation of society engendering a need for a variety of professionals who could take care of citizens of concern. This article revisits the social question in a post-1970 Danish context of a growing non-western immigrant and refugee population and increasing professional attention paid to the presence of immigrant schoolchildren as a new social problem. In particular, the article takes as its point of departure the educationalisation of this new social problem, often referred to in terms of “integration”. Hence, it examines the dispositions and capacities of teachers imagined to handle immigrant schoolchildren as objects of educational and societal concern. Moreover, it explores how these entangled processes of educational problematisations and teacher professionalisation embedded in visions of good citizens and a good society, ultimately fed into the crafting of a post-1970 Danish welfare nation-state. Deploying a governmentality perspective, the analysis is based on diachronic reading of three professional journals specialised in the topic of the education of immigrant schoolchildren (1980–2013), supplemented by the annual reports of the Royal Danish School of Education (1970–2000). The article suggests that the crafting of a Danish welfare nation state between 1970 and 2013 crystallised in entanglements of subtly racialised professional subjectification and educational problematisations of immigrant schoolchildren, inextricably linking public and individual welfare to citizens practising a “Danish way of life”.

The War, the Body, and the Nation: Commemorating the War in Afghanistan at The Danish Royal Theatre

How might contemporary artistic practices respond critically to war in a post-Cold War era in which the distinctions between peace and war are dissolving? Danish director Christian Lollike set out to address this issue in the acclaimed war ballet Contact, which featured an encounter between 33 ballet dancers and three Danish veterans who had been wounded in the war in Afghanistan.

Early Scientific Expeditions and Local Encounters. New Perspectives on Carsten Niebuhr and ‘The Arabian Journey’. Proceedings of a Symposium on the Occasion of the 250th Anniversary of the Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia Felix, written by Ib Friis, Michael Harbsmeier and Jørgen Baek Simonsen

Early Scientific Expeditions and Local Encounters. New Perspectives on Carsten Niebuhr and ‘The Arabian Journey’. Proceedings of a Symposium on the Occasion of the 250th Anniversary of the Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia Felix, written by Ib Friis, Michael Harbsmeier and Jørgen Baek Simonsen

LUCAS™2 in Danish Search and Rescue Helicopters

ObjectivePrehospital resuscitation is often challenging. Giving uninterrupted and effective compressions is relatively impossible during transportation. In 2012, The Royal Danish Air Force received a donation of 8 mechanical chest compression devices (LUCAS™2; Physio-Control/Jolife AB, Lund, Sweden) to be used onboard the Danish search and rescue (SAR) helicopters. The scope of this investigation was to establish whether or not mechanical chest compression devices should be considered a necessity onboard the Danish SAR helicopters. MethodsData were compiled from SAR medical journals. From the data collected, observations were made as to when LUCAS™2 was used and what diagnosis the SAR physician made. ResultsOne thousand ninety missions were registered in the 24-month research period, and LUCAS™2 was used in 25 missions. Cardiac emergencies amounted for 25% of the missions. ConclusionThe Danish SAR helicopters retrieved 33 drowned/hypothermic patients during the research period, and the LUCAS™2 was used in 11 of the patients requiring resuscitation. The LUCAS™2 was frequently used during other emergencies like sudden cardiac arrest. Cardiac emergencies were the predominant type of mission. LUCAS™2 is now considered mandatory on Danish SAR helicopters

Music Confucius Institute: Evaluating Its Approach as an Agent for International Chinese Music Dissemination

<p>The paper identifies the educational and presentational functions of the Confucius Institute (MCI) at the Royal Danish Academy of Music (RDAM) as its core approaches which mostly influence Chinese cultural dissemination in its host country. The MCI’s utilization of the two dissemination approaches aligns with the “receiver-centered” framework introduced by Jiang and Zhang (2009), providing three concurrent strategies—Localization, “Entertainalization” and Regulation (LER)—in order to enhance the dissemination of Chinese culture to the general public. Through detailed analysis of somewhat limited pre-existing research findings and literature, this article makes the claim that the MCI has achieved positive results in its two functional domains, meeting its overseas audience’s needs at various levels whilst supporting Chinese cultural dissemination internationally. This article concludes on the prospect that more MCIs are expected to be established around the world in order to satisfy the growing needs of authentic studies in Chinese musical traditions without travelling to China, as well as to support Chinese cultural communication with the rest of the world.</p>

Political Obligation in Ancient Greece and the Modern World by Mogens Herman Hansen

202 PHOENIX adopted the language and institutions of the polis, including assemblies and officials with familiar titles such as tamias, grammateus, and epistates. Constantakopoulou concludes that there were assemblies “not exclusively composed by the citizens of the place” (230) and that these engaged in important decision-making processes that went beyond issuing honorary decrees and included resolving acute crises within communities. Intriguingly, Constantakopoulou suggests that these island koina of the Hellenistic period took their inspiration from private associations of the classical polis (discussed by Taylor and Ismard in this volume and elsewhere) that were similarly inclusive of non-citizens and even slaves. The volume ends with an essay by John Davies (“Retrospect and Prospect”), assessing the value of network analysis as a “tool for understanding the dynamics of ancient cultures” (247). While Davies celebrates the positive achievements of the volume in bringing to light an array of relationships within and beyond the polis, he sees some gaps and areas for further work. First he stresses the difference between applying network analysis at the level of the polis (as in most of the studies in this volume) and across the wider Mediterranean (as in Irad Malkin’s initial applications of this approach).4 In addition, he urges future scholars to give more thought to whether a network is hierarchical or not, as well as to the question of power. It matters, for example, that certain nodes in a network have more power than others. Furthermore, centers of power external to networks may circumscribe the scope of activity of such networks and therefore should not be ignored. Consideration of networks beyond the civic institutions of polis and, in particular, interest in the experience of slaves, is not wholly new in ancient studies.5 Nevertheless, this volume provides a useful synthesis of some of the results of network studies and the “subaltern turn” in ancient history. Moreover, these essays draw on a wide variety of theoretical models in the social sciences and many contain a heavy dose of theory and conceptual work compared to a relatively modest amount of empirical evidence. This balance will not please all, but I believe that it is a healthy counter-response to a field (ancient history) that has often sacrificed conceptual clarity and broad insights to the positivistic quest for “the facts.” University of Michigan Sara Forsdyke Political Obligation in Ancient Greece and the Modern World. By Mogens Herman Hansen. Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (Scientia Danica. Series H, Humanistica, 8, vol. 10). 2015. Pp. 75. Plato's CRITO captures “political obligation” perhaps as well as any text, ancient or modern, and it serves as a constant point of reference for Mogens Hansen’s introduction to the problem. What compels Socrates to obey the Laws even when the command of the 4 I. Malkin et al. (eds.), Greek and Roman Networks in the Mediterranean (London 2009); id., A Small Greek World: Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean (Oxford 2011). 5 On networks and associations, see N. Jones, The Associations of Classical Athens: The Response to Democracy (Oxford 1999); J. Ober, Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens (Princeton 2008); P. Ismard, La cité des réseaux: Athènes et ses associations, VIe –Ier siècle av. J.-C. (Paris 2010); and the works by Malkin (above, n. 1). On slaves, see, for example, S. Forsdyke, Slaves Tell Tales: And Other Episodes in the Politics of Popular Culture in Ancient Greece (Princeton 2012) and K. Vlassopoulos, “Slavery, Freedom and Citizenship in Classical Athens: Beyond a Legalistic Approach,” European Review of History: Revue européenne d’histoire 16 (2009) 347–363. BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 203 sovereign people is misguided and easily evaded? And how well does that dialogue help us to understand the conflicted loyalty that modern thinkers have wrestled with, from Hobbes to Rawls? Hansen’s monograph consists of two parts, a brief review of modern theory and a survey of citizen oaths that articulated political obligation in ancient Greece, all in a form concise enough for a seminar session or two. Both parts are useful in their way, though the connection between the oaths and the obligation is problematic. After all...

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto: We have to avoid treating people just like numbers

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, established Atelier Bow-Wow together with Momoyo Kaijima in 1992 in Tokyo. This architecture Studio has been worldwide recognized by its work focused on domestic practices, cultural issues and idiosyncratic forms, also by its strong academic performance with a rigorous research practice, which has allowed them to explore micro-architecture conditions in the city reflecting the complexity of urban life and how architecture is involved in it. Atelier Bow-Wow has released more than a dozen publications, among them Pet Architecture Guidebook (2001), Made in Tokyo (2001), Graphic Anatomy Atelier Bow-Wow (2007), Behaviorology (2010), and Commonalities (2014). Yoshiharu Tsukamoto is Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has taught at Harvard GSD, UCLA, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Barcelona Institute of Architecture, Kyoto Seika University, Cornell University, and Rice University.

Genfundne gravhøje i Nordjylland – Kartografiske studier

Genfundne gravhøje i Nordjylland – Kartografiske studier

Enlightenment geography in the study: A.F. Büsching, J.D. Michaelis and the place of geographical knowledge in the Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia, 1761–1767

This paper discusses the practical making of geographical knowledge 'at home' in the context of two interwoven Enlightenment endeavours, namely the fifth part of Anton Friedrich Büsching's Neue Erdbeschreibung concerning the geography of Asia (Hamburg, 1768) and the Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia (1761–1767) organized by Johann David Michaelis. It illustrates how Büsching and Michaelis sought to integrate knowledge of the study and the field in ways that allowed them to produce more accurate knowledge of Asia's historical and contemporary geography, and to legitimate the credibility and necessity – rather than the superiority – of textual critique in the study. In so doing, it criticises recent work that has stressed the epistemological divide between the study and the field in the Danish expedition and in Enlightenment science more broadly. The paper argues that understanding the relations between the historical constitution of the study, the production of geographical knowledge through correspondence, and the critical evaluation of knowledge from the field is crucial for understanding the making of Enlightenment geography.

Minor Design Activism: Prompting Change from Within

Introduction As researchers and practitioners in the field of co-design, we are interested in design activism as a particular mode of engagement that denotes collaboration rather than persuasion. Co-design already has strong connotations to an activist ethos through its historical affinity with the more explicit emancipatory tradition of Scandinavian Participatory Design from the 1970s onward. In this paper we argue that some types of contemporary co-design practices embody a different form of activist agency—one that is experimentally and immanently generated only as the design project unfolds. First, the cases that we describe are delimited in a specific context—namely, the Danish public sector—and they use the co-design methods of the co-design research center at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design. Second, the type of political engagement that this paper examines is one that is intrinsic to the design process itself, rather than being directed by a priori political teloi. To begin a closer examination of such activist positions in co-design, we propose the notion of a minor design activism, inspired by the concept of minoritarian in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.1 We describe a minor design activism as a position in co-design engagements that strives to continuously maintain experimentation. Through this ongoing quest for displacement and change, a minor design activism challenges attempts to stabilize the initial design program around already unified agendas. A minor design activism is not restricted to certain marginal or non-commercial domains.2 In fact, both cases discussed in this paper are firmly situated within public policy-driven initiatives. As such, a minor design activism distinguishes itself from more general assertions of activism in contemporary design,3 insofar as this kind of activism works from within hegemonic public institutions and agendas. From this structurally embedded position and through open-ended experiments, minor design activism seeks to challenge prescriptive agendas and to reconfigure group relations. 1 Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (London: Continuum, 2004); Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986). 2 Although providing an in-depth overview of activism in contemporary design is beyond the scope of this paper, the following definition of design activism proposed in the call for contributions to the 2011 Design History Society Annual Conference, titled “Design Activism and Social Change,” suggests that design activism should indeed “...distance itself from commercial or mainstream public policy-driven approaches. Instead, it embraces marginal, non-profit, or politically engaged ...articulations and actions.” “Design Activism and Social Change,” http://www.historiadeldisseny.org/congres/ (accessed November 21, 2013). 3 Alastair Fuad-Luke, Design Activism Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World (London: Earthscan, 2009); Thomas Markussen, “The Disruptive Aesthetics of Design Activism: Enacting Design Between Art and Politics,” Design Issues 29, no.1 (Winter 2013): 38–50; Guy Julier, “From Design Culture to Design Activism,” Design and Culture 5, no.2 (2013): 215–36.

Design Research and Art-Based Design Education Programs

Introduction This article describes a model for establishing national design research and upgrading art-based design education programs at the university level. It aims to provide an overview of the development and achievements of design research in Denmark against a particular political, organizational, academic, and professional background during a ten-year period. Having served as the director of the Danish Centre of Design Research (DCDR) from 2007 to 2012,1 I try, as objectively as possible, to review the background for the political decision to establish the Centre, its actual establishment, the research evaluation in 2010, and the closing of the Centre in 2012. In 2000 the Danish Evaluation Institute presented an evaluation of the Danish design education programs under the auspices of the Danish Ministry of Culture.2 This evaluation, called Design 2000, recommended that research activities be established at the institutions of design education. Following the issuance of the evaluation report, the Danish Parliament decided to found the DCDR in 2003. The DCDR’s purpose was to support the establishment of a joint design research capacity for the four Danish institutions offering design education programs: Aarhus School of Architecture (ASA), The Danish Design School (DDS), Kolding School of Design (KSD), and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture (RDA/SoA). The plan included a scheduled research evaluation in 2010, which would serve as the basis for a decision about the future of the DCDR, design research in Denmark and the organization of it. The evaluation was carried out as scheduled and gave a highly favorable assessment of the DCDR’s achievements. After the general election in 2011, both the DCDR and the design education programs were transferred to the Ministry of Education and Research, which oversees the other institutions of higher learning in Denmark. In 2012, the Danish government decided to close the DCDR and reallocate its annual grant of DKK 3.6 million to the three partner institutions. (Two of the original four had merged in 2011.3)

Shaping Dreams: Design Ideas and Design Fiction in Movie and Television Production Design

The aim of this article is to show how the design process influences the planning and development of moving images, i.e., live-action movies, animation, and television. The paper documents the significance of design in the early stages of film and television production and shows how industry practitioners value the contribution of designers in developing the narrative through visual support. The paper suggests a comparison of design and screenplay research and analysis. In addition, it touches on the subject of design fiction in the case of a project involving collaboration of production design students from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, and screenwriting and producer students from The National Film School of Denmark. Finally, this article provides insight into one of the newer trans-disciplinary developments in design, namely the cross-pollination taking place between the fields of design research and film research. As a result, the paper contributes to our understanding of the expanding concept of design.

The bacteriology of hidradenitis suppurativa: a systematic review.

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory disabling skin disease consisting of recurrent nodules, sinuses, fistulas and scarring involving the intertriginous regions. HS is often a therapeutic challenge and most treatments are off-label. A better understanding of aetiology and pathogenesis of HS may facilitate the development of effective treatment. Although the clinical presentation is strongly reminiscent of bacterial infection, the role of bacteria remains controversial. Studies have isolated an array of different bacteria specimens. Consistent findings of Gram-positive cocci and Gram-positive rods including Staphylococus aureus, coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) and Corynebacterium species in deep tissue samples have been demonstrated in HS and may constitute a central target for the immune system. Efficacy of antibiotics, that is rifampicin, clindamycin or tetracycline, supports a microbial role in disease pathogenesis. However, these antibiotics also work as immunomodulators of especially T cells, and the underlying mechanisms may therefore be more complex. We performed a systematic review of previous studies investigating the bacterial flora in hidradenitis suppurativa. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Royal Danish Library and Cochrane library (search date 11 December 2014). A total of 66 papers were identified and nine papers published between 1988 and 2014 matched our inclusion criteria, yielding bacteriological data of a total of 324 patients with HS (mean age 36.8years and female/male ratio 215/109). This overview of the bacteriology may aid researchers and physicians exploring the potential role of bacteria in HS. Furthermore, to stimulate a broader debate, we also present different viewpoints on the possible role of bacteria in HS.

Specific exercise training for reducing neck and shoulder pain among military helicopter pilots and crew members: a randomized controlled trial protocol.

BackgroundFlight-related neck/shoulder pain is frequent among military helicopter pilots and crew members. With a lifetime prevalence of 81 % for pilots and 84 % for crew members, the prevalence of neck pain is considered high compared to the general population. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a specifically tailored exercise intervention would reduce the prevalence and incidence rate of neck/shoulder pain among helicopter pilots and crew members.MethodThis study used a prospective, parallel group, single blinded, randomized controlled design. Participants were military helicopter pilots and crew members recruited from the Royal Danish Air Force. Inclusion criteria were: 1) employed within the Royal Danish Air Force as a helicopter pilot or onboard crew member (technician, systems-operator, tactical helicopter observer and/or navigator), 2) maintaining operational flight status at enrollment, and 3) operational flying within the previous 6 months. Primary outcome was change in neck and shoulder pain assessed by 1) a modified version of the “Standardized Nordic questionnaire for the analysis of musculoskeletal symptoms” and by 2) pressure pain threshold measurements. Secondary outcomes included: postural balance, strength, stability, and rate of force development for neck and shoulder muscles. Measurements at baseline and follow-up were conducted at four air force bases in Denmark. Sixty-nine participants were individually randomized to either a training group (TG) or a reference group (RG). Participants in the TG performed 20-weeks of physical exercise training divided into sessions of 3 × 20 min per week. Training was completed within working hours and consisted of specific exercise training for the neck and shoulder muscles based on the principles of “Intelligent Physical Exercise Training”. The RG received no training.DiscussionIn spite of the high prevalence of flight related neck/shoulder pain among military helicopter pilots and crew members there are currently no evidence based guidelines for the prevention or clinical handling of neck pain among these occupational groups. Results from this study may therefore be beneficial for future establishment of such guidelines.Trial registrationEthical committee of Southern Denmark (S-20120121) 29 August, 2012.Clinical Trail Registration (NCT01926262) 16 August, 2013.

Holding Your Scream in Your Hand. 3D Printing as Inter-Dimensional Experience in Contemporary Artworks by Alicia Framis, Martin Erik Andersen and Hito Steyerl

Abstract During the last couple of years, 3D printing has been widely discussed as a technology with the potential to revolutionize production methods as we used to know them. However, hitherto not much has been written about the aesthetic| aspects of this new possibility of transferring bits to atoms. What kinds of (3D) images are awaiting us? This article focuses on how three contemporary artists are including 3D prints and the process of 3D printing in their work. The article offers a short introduction to the characteristics of 3D printing followed by indebt analysis of art works by Spanish installation artist Alicia Framis. Danish sculptor and professor at The Royal Danish Art Academy Martin Erik Andersen and German filmmaker and writer Hito Steyerl. The article points out how these, very different, works of art use 3D printing to offer the viewer a sense of inter-dimensionality. The central experience here lies somewhere between 2D and 3D.

The Seventeenth-century Slave Trade in the Documents of the English, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Prussian Royal Slave Trading Companies

Historians have traditionally placed the seventeenth-century records of the main European slave trading companies, such as the British Royal Africa Company and the Dutch West India Company, in the context of history of empire and commerce. More recently, these records are being revisited to parse the more tenuous cues for social and cultural history of West African polities and the enslaved. This article introduces the underutilized collections of the smaller Northern European slave trading companies (the Swedish Africa Company, the Danish Africa Company and the Prussian Brandenburg Africa Company). The triangulation of these sources with those of the larger trading companies offers new insights into the competition for African slaves, power dynamics between Africans and Europeans, and African adaptations to the vagaries of the trade.

Johannes Pedersen, Encyclopaedia of Islam og den muslimske verden

Jørgen Bæk Simonsen: Johannes Pedersen, Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Muslim World. The manuscript collection at the Royal Library consists of a very large collection of papers by the Danish Orientalist Johannes Pedersen (1883–1977). Pedersen’s works were of great importance to the study of Islam and Muslim culture and, in 1949, he was therefore appointed by the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters to represent Danish Orientalist research in a joint European initiative to publish a new edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, which had first been published between 1910 and 1934, with a supplementary volume in German, English and French in 1930. Pedersen was the host of an editorial meeting held in Copenhagen in September, 1955. Pedersen’s papers illustrate how the group of European Orientalists at the meeting was required to deal with criticism from Muslim groups. In the summer of 1955, a small pamphlet was published in Pakistan with the title No Muslim Participation??? that criticised the manner in which the editorial board behind the new publication of the Encyclopaedia of Islam was established. The pamphlet was followed up by protests directed against the editorial board that, at its meeting in Copenhagen, was obliged to address the issue. Pedersen’s papers also show that individual German Orientalists felt left out of the joint European initiative to prepare a new edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, and it is concluded that letters sent to Pedersen are evidence of the fact that it was German Orientalists who mobilised groups in Pakistan to criticise the composition of the editorial board.

Coffee and qat on the Royal Danish expedition to Arabia – botanical, ethnobotanical and commercial observations made in Yemen 1762–1763

In spite of widespread consumption of coffee in Europe at the time of the Royal Danish expedition to Arabia 1761–1767, little was known of the cultivation of coffee in Yemen and of the Arabian coffee export to Europe. Fresh leaves of qat were used as a stimulant on the Arabian Peninsula and in East Africa, but before the Royal Danish expedition to Arabia this plant was known in Europe only from secondary reports. Two members of the expedition, Carsten Niebuhr and Peter Forsskål, pioneered studies of coffee and qat in Yemen and of the Arabian coffee export. Linnaeus' instructions for travellers requested observations on the use of coffee, but otherwise Forsskål and Niebuhr's studies of coffee and qat were made entirely on their own initiative. Now, 250 years after The Royal Danish expedition to Arabia, coffee has become one of the world's most valuable trade commodities and qat has become a widely used and banned drug.