Prof. Dr. Mi You

Mi You is a professor of Art and Economies at the University of Kassel / documenta Institute. Prior to joining the University of Kassel, she was a research associate in the Art and Media Studies department at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (2014-2021). She has also held lecturer positions in the Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art program of the School of Art, Design and Architecture, Aalto University (2019-2020), in the Roaming Academy program of the Dutch Art Institute (2018-2019) and in the Media Art program of the University of the Arts Bremen (2016-2017). Dr. You is trained in media theory and science and technology studies.

Academic interests

Her academic interests are in new and historical materialism, performance philosophy, as well as the history, political theory and philosophy of Eurasia. She completed her PhD studies with Prof. Dr. Pexte Bexte and Prof. Dr. Marie-Luise Angerer at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne in 2019.

Prof. Dr. You has worked internationally as a curator. She works with the Silk Road as a figuration for old and new networks and technologies. Under this rubric, she has curated shows and programs at Asian Culture Center in Gwangju, South Korea, Ulaanbaatar International Media Art Festival, Mongolia (2016), Zarya CCA, Vladivostok (2018) and with Binna Choi, she is co-steering a research/curatorial project “Unmapping Eurasia” (2018-). At the same time, her interests in politics around technology and futures led her to work on “actionable speculations”, articulated in the exhibition, workshops and sci-fi-a-thon “Sci-(no)-Fi”¹ at the Academy of the Arts of the World, Cologne (2019), as well as in her function as chair of committee on Media Arts and Technology for the transnational NGO Common Action Forum.² She is one of the curators of the 13^th Shanghai Biennale (2020-2021).³

Memberships and activities

She co-initiated (in 2011) and is committee member of EU-funded project “Transnational Dialogues”⁴, an exchange platform between China, Europe and Brazil. She is a fellow of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Bonn), Zentrum Paul Klee (Bern), Independent Curators International (New York) and Berggruen Institute Europe (Venice).  She is a member of the Academy of Arts of the World, and serves as director of Arthub⁵ and advisor to Institute for Provocation.⁶

Footnotes

• 1. www.adkdw.org/de/article/2111_sci_no_fi
• 2. commonactionforum.net
• 3. shanghaibiennale.org
• 4. transnationaldialogues.eu
• 5. arthubasia.org
• 6. www.iprovoke.org

• New and Historical Materialism
• Art and Technology
• Solidarity-based economics
• Curation Studies
• Eurasian Geo-Imaginations

• Since 12/2021
  Professor for Art and Eco­no­mies , University of Kassel
• 8/2021 - 11/2021
  Subsitute Professor for Art and Eco­no­mies, University of Kassel
• 1/2020 – 7/2021
  Curator, 13. Shanghai Biennale
• 10/2014 – 7/2021
  Scientific Assistant, Art and Media Studies, Academy of Media Arts Cologne
• 8/2019 – 6/2020
  Lecturer, Curating and Mediating Art, School of Art, Design and Architecture, Aalto-Universität
• 10/2018 – 7/2019
  Lecturer, Dutch Art Institute
• 10/2016 – 9/2017'
  Lecturer, University of the Arts Bremen
• 4/2015 – 2/2019
  Doctoral Thesis at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne
• 5/2012 – 12/2013
  Humboldt Fellow, Bundeskanzlerstipendium der Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung
• 8/2013
  Fellow, Zentrum Paul Klee (Bern)
• 11/2011
  Fellow, Independent Curators International (New York)

• Part of the series editorial team of the Afterall Exhibition Histories book series, Afterall Research Centre at the University of the Arts London (since 2023)
• Advisory Board Member, School of Digital Art Gallery (Manchester, since 2021)
• Chairmanship of the Committee, “Media Arts and Technology”,Common Action Forum (Since 2019)
• Member of theAkademie der Künste der Welt (Cologne, since 2018)
• Consultant for the Institute for Provocation (Beijing, since 2017)