Dr. Schaffer, Johanna

Professor for Theory and Practice of Visual Communication

Johanna Schaffer is Professor for the Theory and Practice of Visual Communication at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. She works as a theorist with a particular interest in the political dimensions of aesthetic processes, often collaborating with designers and artists.

She received her doctorate from the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg with a dissertation on the ambiguities of visibility. She has taught at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the University of Art and Design at Linz, the New Design University in St. Pölten, and elsewhere. Between 2009 and 2012 she was at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where she helped to establish and develop a practice-based doctoral program and an art-based research platform.

Selected publications:

Carola Dertnig, Simonetta Ferfoglia, Tom Holert, Heinrich Pichler, Johannes Porsch, Johanna Schaffer, Stefanie Seibold, Axel Stockburger: Troubling Research: Performing Knowledge in the Arts. Sternberg Press, May 2014, sternberg press and troublingresearch.

“Formlos, wie Spucke,” in: Rachel Mader, Radikal Ambivalent. Engagement und Verantwortung in den Künsten heute. Diaphanes, April 2014. 209-222, diaphanes.

“From the distance, closer: A conversation/Aus der Distanz, näher. Ein Gespräch,” Sabelo Mlangeni with/mit Julia Bavyka and/und Johanna Schaffer, in: Sabelo Mlangeni. postapart/heid communities. exhb.cat./Ausst.Kat. Academy of Fine Arts Vienna 2014, postapartheidcommunities.wordpress.com/katalog.

Petja Dimitrova, Eva Egermann, Jens Kastner, Tom Holert, Johanna Schaffer: Regime. Wie Dominanz organisiert und Ausdruck formalisiert wird. Edition Assemblage, July 2012, edition-assemblage.

Johanna Schaffer: Interviews. What is it that makes research in the arts so different, so appealing? Johannes Porsch, Axel Stockburger, Tom Holert, Diedrich Diederichsen, Stefanie Seibold, Heinrich Pichler, Carola Dertnig, Simonetta Ferfoglia. Vienna: Academy of Fine Arts, 2011, download-interview-booklet.

Barbara Paul & Johanna Schaffer: Mehr(wert) queer: visuelle Kultur, Kunst und Gender-Politiken – Queer (added value): Visual Culture, Art and Gender Politics. Bielefeld: transcript 2009.

Johanna Schaffer: Ambivalenzen der Sichtbarkeit. Über die Visuellen Strukturen der Anerkennung. Bielefeld: transcript 2008.