Per Thorgaard
The Hospital Room of the Future: How Art and Culture Support Health and Well-being
The hospital room of the future should be designed to support both the patient and their treatment – addressing the whole person, not just the illness. How can technology and a thoughtfully designed environment contribute to this vision?
This talk explores how culture can play a role in healthcare – complementing traditional medical treatments to improve well-being. Through real-life examples, we’ll look at how hospitals can incorporate art and culture into patient care. Imagine a hospital room that adapts to the individual patient’s needs, creating a more supportive and healing environment. Just as the pharmaceutical industry is developing personalized medicine, could we also create a more “personalized hospitalization” using cultural medicine?
Dr. Per Thorgaard is a senior physician at Aalborg University Hospital. For the past 20 years, he has been actively involved in building national and international networks focused on understanding how culture and health interact. He regularly gives talks and writes about the topic and co-authored the first Danish book on Culture and Health, published in 2017. As a co-founder of the North Jutland Center for Culture and Health (NOCKS), he has played a key role in advancing the field. In recognition of his work, he received a Danish Music Award in 2015.
Sophie Lund Rasmussen
Hedgehog poo is the shit! How the lives of hedgehogs describe biodiversity
Biodiversity is disappearing right before our eyes, and it’s crucial to keep track of this loss to focus conservation efforts where they are needed most. But how can we do that? By using hedgehog poo, of course!
While spending countless nights in the field radio-tracking the lovable European hedgehogs to better understand their decline, Dr. Sophie Lund Rasmussen had an innovative idea: using eDNA analysis of hedgehog droppings to gain insights into their diets and, in turn, the local biodiversity around them.
Dr. Sophie Lund Rasmussen is a Research Associate at WildCRU, University of Oxford, a Research Fellow at Linacre College, University of Oxford, and an affiliated researcher at Aalborg University in Denmark. Known affectionately as “Dr. Hedgehog,” She has engaged in hedgehog research since 2011 and is now considered a leading expert on European hedgehogs, working tirelessly to uncover the reasons behind their decline and how to stop it.
Mikkel Huse
Designing with Natures Code: From seed to systems
Nature holds a vast catalogue of solutions – efficient, multifunctional, and adaptive – all refined by evolution. Every structure, function, and material use follows precise logics shaped over millions of years. These natural rules create systems that seamlessly respond to their environment while evoking deep emotional connections.
By understanding and applying these principles, Mikkel Huse moves from seed to systems, designing with nature’s code to create products that merge biological intelligence with modern technology.
Designer Mikkel Huse is dedicated to exploring the intricate relationship between nature and design through innovative and functional creations. Specializing in crafting furniture and functional objects inspired by natural systems and biological processes, he leverages advanced technologies and evolutionary programming to reimagine everyday forms, revealing the transformative potential of nature’s solutions.
Linda Nhu Laursen
Would you marry your coffee table?
Why do we equate a good life with consumption while seeing a sustainable life as deprivation? Dr. Linda Nhu Laursen believes that if we change how we relate to the things we own, a sustainable life doesn’t have to feel like a sacrifice. Instead of constantly buying and discarding, we can embrace long-lasting products and repair what we have – creating a good life that is also sustainable.
Right now, the message around sustainability often makes it seem like an either-or choice: either enjoy life with economic growth and overconsumption or struggle through a life of restriction and sacrifice. But Linda’s research challenges this idea. She argues that durable, well-designed products can help us live well without harming the planet. Instead of blaming and shaming people, we should focus on making sustainability something everyone can take part in by repairing our relationship with the things we use every day.
Dr. Linda Nhu Laursen is the Head of Research at AAU Design Lab and an Associate Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark. She has written several books on long-lasting design, repair, and waste materials and has won awards for both her research and leadership. As a passionate advocate for sustainability, she actively shares her ideas and research mission – Design with Staying Power – to inspire change.
Andreas Møgelmose
AI will never be intelligent – and that’s okay!
For decades, we’ve been on the brink of creating truly intelligent computers, but each time, the dream seems to slip further away. Promises of increased productivity and improved lives have often gone unfulfilled, leaving us still searching for something more. In this talk, AI researcher Andreas Møgelmose explores why this happens and suggests a new way to think about artificial intelligence. Perhaps, he argues, the goal shouldn’t be to replicate the vague and complex idea of human intelligence after all.
Dr. Andreas Møgelmose has been a computer enthusiast since he first learned to type. As AI technology grew, he was drawn into the world of computer vision, and today, he teaches and conducts research in the field of AI.