‘People are the product of their relationships with their environment. It’s important to understand how technological developments influence these relationships.’
Michel van Dartel is Research Professor Situated Art and Design at the Avans Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT) and was affiliated with V2_Lab for the Unstable Media
between 2005-2024. He holds an MSc in cognitive psychology and a PhD in artificial intelligence.
Alongside his work at CARADT, Michel is figurehead of the Art route of The Dutch National Research Agenda (Nationale Wetenschapsagenda, NWA) and member of the taskforce Professional Doctorate Arts+Creative as well as the international board of ISEA. He also acts as an advisor and independent curator. As an advisor, he sat on committees of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA), Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Amsterdam Fund for the arts, Creative Industries Fund NL, Mondriaan Fund, Dutch Culture, Van Beek-Donner foundation, Willem de Kooning Academy, Piet Zwart institute, ShanghaiTech University, Festival Ars Electronica, Future Everything, the Nam June Paik Art Center and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre. His curatorial work includes the thematic group exhibitions Data in the 21st Century (V2_, 2016), The Value of Nothing (TENT, 2014, co-curated with Jesse van Oosten), The Progress Trap (The New Institute, 2014, co-curated with Boris Debackere and Michelle Kasprzak) and The Power of Things (Dutch Electronic Art Festival, 2012, co-curated with Alex Adriaansens and Michelle Kasprzak).
Michel also is a manuscript reviewer for conferences and journals including Leonardo, and he is the editor and author of numerous scientific and artistic articles and books, including Aesthetics in the Wild_ (2016), The Vibrancy Effect (2012, edited with Chris Salter and Harry Smoak), New Aesthetic, New Anxieties (2012, with David Berry, Michael Dieter, Michelle Kasprzak, Nat Muller, Rachel O’Reilly and José Luis de Vicente) and the artist publications Machines Will Make Better Choices Than Humans (2016, with Douglas Coupland) and The Iron Ring (2014, with Cecilia Jonsson).
Publications
Dartel, M. van & Meys, W. in collaboration with Holt, J., Quaedackers, E., Bergh, H. van den, Gerritzen, M., Baart, R. (2024, Nov) #16 Bridging the Gap Between the Origin of Life Research and Society. PRELIFE – Pathways, Reactions, and Environments leading to LIFE: An interdisciplinary approach. Approved proposal. Avans University of Applied Sciences, Breda
Dartel, M. van (2024, June). co-writer of Artistic Methods in the Key Enabling Methodologies Agenda 2024-2027
Dartel, M. van (2024, June) Member of the ISEA International Board, ISEA International 2024
Dartel, M. van (2022) Contributor of the Future Art Ecosystems 3: Art x Decentralised Tech edition, Serpentine. ISBN 978-1-908617-78-1
Witter, M., de Rooij, A., van Dartel, M. & Krahmer, E. (nov. 2022) Bridging a sensory gap between deaf and hearing people–A plea for a situated design approach to sensory augmentation, PERSPECTIVE article, in Frontiers in Computer Science.
Hilhorst, M., Contributors: van den Eijnde, J., van Dartel, M., Joore, P. & van Beurden, K. (2022) A closer look at collaboration for impact through applied design research, Collaboration for Impact magazine, Translation: Martz, L.
Lugthart, S. & van Dartel, M. (in press) Designing Situated Learning Environments for Media Design Education: A Case Study, in AIGA DEC, & Zahabi, L. (Ed.), SHIFT.
van den Broek, S., de Rooij, A., & van Dartel, M. (accepted), Living with Living Artefacts: Six Concepts for Designing User Acceptance of Living Artefacts, In Proceedings of the 2022 Conference of the Design Research Society (DRS 2022).
Lugthart, S. & van Dartel, M. (2021) Simulating Professional Practice in STEAM Education: A Case Study, European Journal of STEM Education, 6(1), 17.
Lugthart, S. & van Dartel, M. (submitted) Designing Situated Learning Environments for Media Design Education: A case study.
Nouwens, M., Heerkens, N. & van Dartel, M. (2020), An Invitation to DANCE: Making Sense of Viewer Interaction in Installation Art. (ISEA2020)
Asselbergs, B. & van Dartel, M. (2020) Situated Design Methods in Urban Planning: An educational research case study. AMPS conference on Experiential Design – Rethinking relations between people, objects and environments).
Croes M. & van Dartel, M. (2020) The Interaction Attention Continuum: An Education Application Study. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – CHI ’20.
Lugthart, S. & van Dartel, M. (2019). Teaching Situated Actions: A case study. In: M. Carmo (ed.) International Conference on Education and New Developments (END 2019) Volume I. InScience Press: Portugal, pp. 202-206.
Van Dartel, M., & de Rooij, A. (2019). The Innovation Potential of Sensory Augmentation for Public Space. In: Park, J., Nam, J. & Park, J.W. Proceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Electronic Art. Gwangju, Korea, Republic of. Pp.79-84.
Roberts, D. & van Dartel, M. (submitted) Inviting self-transcendence into everyday activities: An art installation exploratory case study.
Croes M. & van Dartel, M. (2020) The Interaction Attention Continuum: An Education Application Study. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – CHI ’20.
Van Dartel, M.F. and Nigten, A. (2017), The Value of Waste, LEONARDO 51(2). MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.
Ruhl, A., de Rooij, A., van Dartel, M. (2017), The Artistic Potential of Tactile Vision Interfaces: A First Look, In Proceedings of the ACM Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction TEI’18.
Van Dartel, M.F. (2017), Menselijke waarden bij technologie, In: WMNL State of the Art. Vereniging Deltametropool: Rotterdam.
Van Dartel, M.F. (2017), Art and Design Pedagogies after the Situated Turn, In: Snepvangers, K., and Davis, S. (Eds) (in press). Embodied and walking pedagogies engaging the visual domain: Research co-creation and practice. Common Ground Publishing: Champaign IL.
Van Dartel, M.F. (2017), A conversation, In: Lomme, F. & Plough, J. (Eds.) We Are The Market! Onomatopee: Eindhoven.
Van Dartel, M.F. (2016), Unravelling Human Situatedness Through Art. In: van der Zouwen, T. and Spindler, M. (Eds.) Flow beyond Systems. Challenging Organisations and Systems (COS). Volume 6 (2)
Van Dartel, M.F. (2016), The Cloud is full of Dada In: From Dada to Data (Gerritsen M. and Olma, S. (Eds.)) Museum of the Image, Breda
Van Dartel, M.F. and Nigten, A. (2016) The Value of Waste. LEONARDO
Van Dartel, M. (Eds.). and Coupland, D. (2016), Machines will make better choices than Humans, V2_Publishing: Rotterdam, NL.
Van Dartel, M.F. and Altena, A. (2016), Data in the 21st Century. In: Futurosity (Meessen, Y. and Slater, M. (Eds.), Rotterdam: Kunstblock.
Van Dartel, M.F. (2016), Art and Design Pedagogies after the Situated Turn. In: Snepvangers, K., and Davis, S. (Eds.). Embodied and walking pedagogies engaging the visual domain: Research co-creation and practice. Common Ground Publishing: Champaign IL.
Van Dartel, M.F. (2016), Aesthetics in the Wild: Art and Design Practices and Pedagogies after the Situated Turn, Breda, Avans University of Applied Sciences.
Lugthart, S., van Dartel, M., Quispel, A. (2017), Plans versus Situated Actions in Immersive Storytelling Practices, In N. Nunes, I. Oakley, and V. Nisi, (Eds.) Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) 10690: Interactive Storytelling (pp. 38-45). Springer: Berlin.
de Rooij, A., van Dartel, M., Ruhl, A., Schraffenberger, H., van Melick, B., Bontje, M., Daams, M., and Witter, M. (2017), Sensory Augmentation Interfaces: A Dialogue between the Arts and Sciences, In A. Brooks, Brooks, E. & Vidakis, N. (Eds.) Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering (LNICST): Interactivity, Game Creation, Design, Learning, and Innovation. Springer: Berlin.
Van Dartel, M.F. (2017), Unravelling Human Situatedness Through Art In T. van der Zouwen & M. Spindler (Eds.) Flow beyond Systems. Challenging Organisations and Systems (COS), 6(2), pp.1121-1136.
Van Dartel, M.F. (2018) Art and Design Pedagogies after the Situated Turn. In: Snepvangers, K., and Davis, S. (Eds). Embodied and walking pedagogies engaging the visual domain: Research co-creation and practice. Common Ground Publishing: Champaign IL.
Swart, S. (2018) Nederlands e-cultuurbeleid niet langer toonaangevend: Interview met Marleen Stikker, Michel van Dartel en Anne Nigten, Boekman 116: Kunst & Techniek
Van Dartel, M. & de Rooij, A. (2018) Sensory Augmentation for Public Space. In: Nigten A. (2018) Proceedings of Balance Unbalance 2018: New Value Systems – Sustainability and Social Impact as Drivers for Value Creation, 41-42. Van Dartel, M. & de Rooij, A. (submitted) Sensory Augmentation for Public Space
Asselbergs, B. & van Dartel, M. (2018) Situated Design Methods in Urban Planning: A case study. In: N. Nigten (Ed.) Proceedings of Balance Unbalance 2018: New Value Systems – Sustainability and Social Impact as Drivers for Value Creation
Asselbergs, B. & van Dartel, M. (submitted) Situated Design Methods in Urban Planning: An educational research case study.
Ruhl, A., de Rooij, A., van Dartel, M. (2018) The Artistic Potential of Tactile Vision Interfaces: A First Look. In Proceedings of the ACM Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction TEI’18. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 73-79. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3173225.3173271 (Best Work in Progress)
Croes M. & van Dartel, M. (in preparation) The Interaction Attention Continuum: An Education Application Study.
Van Dartel, M.F. and Nigten, A. (2018) The Value of Waste. LEONARDO 51(2). MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.
Plough, J. (2018) A conversation with Michel van Dartel. In: Lomme, F. & Plough, J. (Eds.) We Are The Market! Onomatopee: Eindhoven.
Research Group: Situated Art and Design
Living in cities developed around data and acting within the inscrutable structure of our techno-society demands art and design that can help understand how we relate to these rapidly changing surroundings and to reflect on that relationship. The research group Situated Art and Design responds to this exigency by fostering a situated turn in art and design through a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary research projects in partnership with academic and cultural partners, as well as with government and industry.
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‘My practice is situated in between different actors, in this shape-shifting middle many things can happen.’
Tara Karpinski 
‘Imagination is the key to a strong inclusive society. Artistic work and situated design can contribute to a better understanding of the other.’
Jenny van den Broeke
‘Investigating the potential of sensory augmentation to bridge the sensory gap between deaf and hearing.’
Michel Witter
‘‘Understanding how creativity and imagination emerge from interactions with our environment will lead to improved innovation processes, tools and technologies.’’
Alwin de Rooij
‘Through an interplay of design and research, the apt questions and necessary tools can be discovered and applied to each research project.’
Antal Ruhl
‘Humans are atmospheric beings, particles, dust, in intimate cycles of exchange, actors with an incredible force.’
Annemarie Piscaer
‘Could experimental sensory translation of art works improve their accessibility for sensory diverse exhibition audiences?’
Eva Fotiadi
‘I’m interested in how we can implement situated learning within design education.’
Sarah Lugthart
‘How can the notion of the ‘script’ be used in a situated design practice? ’
Ollie Palmer
‘The ultimate goal is to provide people with the information, skills and tools that enable them to improve the quality of their daily lives.’
Simone van den Broek
‘For me, the iterative design-research process is an exciting journey towards designs that can transform human consciousness.’
Danielle Roberts
‘The essence of the situated, cinematic experience of dance lies in the mental interaction where the public becomes co-author.’
Noud Heerkens
‘Who benefits?’
Ivo Koolen
‘Getting comfortable with ambiguity enables designers to absorb feedback and use it to make better design choices.’
Gabri Heinrichs
‘I look at the ways in which citizens can play an active role in shaping their cities, and how new media and technology can contribute to this.’
Barbara Asselbergs
‘Power, control and chance play an important role in every creative process. I explore this complicated correlation.’
Michiel van Opstal
‘Attention during interaction is personal, not a given fact.’
Misha Croes