Karl Stocker

Head of PhD Program Media Arts/Digital Media, Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, Georgia

Professor, Institute of History, University of Graz, Austria

After my studies of History and European Ethnology at the University of Graz, I obtained my doctorate in 1981. Habilitation followed in 1988. Since 1984, I have been teaching as lecturer and visiting professor at various universities, such as the University of Graz, the Ghk/University of Kassel, the University of Arts Berlin, the Hochschule für Gestaltung HfG Schwaebisch-Gmuend, the École Supérieure d’Art et Design Orléans, the Universitat Politècnica de València – Facultad de Bellas Artes and the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts in Wuhan. Since October 2024, I have been leading a PhD program "Media Arts/Digital Media" together with Nana Iashvili at the Faculty of Media Arts at Tbilisi State University in Georgia.

Between 2004 and 2021, I developed and lead the study programs “Information Design” and “Exhibition Design” and was responsible for the “Institute of Design and Communication” as its head. My expertise in this field of education ranges from culture-theoretical and socio-relevant issues via design theory and practice to topics such as the future of academic teaching and education in general. For more than 15 years, I have also been active in quality assurance for institutions such as the “Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation (FIBAA)”, and I support universities as external expert in developing their study programs and selecting their staff.

In 1990, I founded the agency “Bisdato” together with Karl Kaser, since then realizing numerous projects and exhibitions, such as the Styrian Regional Exhibitions “Pilgrimage - Wallfahrt” (1994) and “Traffic - Verkehr” (1999), the “Mountain of Memories – Berg der Erinnerungen” for Graz European Cultural Capital (2003), “Absolutely free. The Woodstock Effect” for the Museum Joanneum and the permanent exhibition and visitor centre of the Nature Park Southern Styria (2019).

In the past years, I held many lectures on Design, Exhibition Design and the UNESCO Cities of Design, in Austria as well as abroad. My latest independent publications „Designing Sustainable Cities. Manageable Approaches to Make Urban Spaces Better: Detroit, Graz, Istanbul, Mexico City and Puebla (Basel 2020)“ (together with Sigrid Bürstmayr), “Sozio-Design/Socio-Design: Relevante Projekte – Entworfen für die Gesellschaft/Relevant Projects – Designed for Society (Basel 2017)” (with FH JOANNEUM) und “The Power Of Design. A Journey through the 11 UNESCO Cities of Design (Wien, New York 2013)“ all deal with the topic area of Design. 2025 “Lessons on Change. 15 Creative Minds share their Stories” (together with Christina Hedin and Sophie Kauper; Birkhäuser: Basel) and "The ART of Using Artificial Intelligence: A Non-Technical Guide to Creative Synthesis" (together with Sandro Asatiani; Sandros Books: Tbilisi) have been published.