I am Professor and Chair of the department of Art + Design at Northeastern University, with a secondary appointment in the school of Public Policy. I received my PhD in Urban Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hold a Master of Science from the MIT Media Lab, and a Dipl. Ing. in Architecture from the Technical University Vienna. I worked as Key Researcher at the Austrian Ludwig Boltzmann Institute and the Ars Electronica Futurelab and professor in the Interface Culture program of the Art University Linz, Austria. I am currently visiting scholar at Harvard Metalab and was recently fellow and visiting professor at the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism & the Humanities.
My current research focuses on environmental information and evidence construction as a socio-material design process. My current book is Autographic Design: the Matter of Data in a Self-Inscribing World (MIT Press). I wrote the award-winning monograph Waste is Information – Infrastructure Legibility and Governance (MIT Press), worked as an advisor to the United Nations and published books on digital public space, accountability technologies and urban informatics. My PhD dissertation received the Outstanding Dissertation Award 2014 from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, my research received the Best Paper Award 2012 from the Journal of the American Planning Association and the ASCINA young PI award.
In my artistic practice, I often collaborate with composers Sam Auinger and Hannes Strobl under the name stadtmusik. My work has been exhibited internationally in venues including the Centre Pompidou, Sundance and the Hong Kong International Film Festival, ZKM Karlsruhe, Secession Vienna, and the Seoul International Media Art Biennale. My awards include the first prize in the NSF Visualization Challenge, the Jury Award at the Melbourne International Animation Festival, the Art Directors Club Silver Award, a Special Mention at the 12th International Media Art Biennale, and Honorary Mentions from File Festival São Paulo, Ars Electronica and Transmediale, Berlin.
Research/Publications Highlights
Academic Monographs:
- Offenhuber, Dietmar. 2023. Autographic Design: The Matter of Data in a Self-inscribing World. Cambridge: MIT Press
- Offenhuber, Dietmar. 2017. Waste Is Information: Infrastructure Legibility and Governance. Cambridge: MIT Press (Winner ASCINA Award 2017)
Edited Volumes:
- Offenhuber, Dietmar, and Carlo Ratti, eds. 2014. Decoding the City: Urbanism in the Age of Big Data. Basel: Birkhauser.
- Offenhuber, Dietmar, and Katja Schechtner, eds. 2013. Accountability Technologies: Tools for Asking Hard Questions. Vienna: Ambra / Birkhäuser
- Offenhuber, Dietmar, and Katja Schechtner, eds. 2012. Inscribing a Square: Urban Data as Public Space. 2012th ed. Vienna, New York: Springer.
Recent Journal Articles:
- Offenhuber, Dietmar. 2024. “Shapes and Frictions of Synthetic Data.” Big Data & Society 11 (2).
- Offenhuber, Dietmar, and Joy Mountford. 2023. “Reconsidering Representation in College Design Curricula.” She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, The Future of Design Education: Rethinking Design Education for the 21st Century, 9 (2): 264–82.
- Offenhuber, D. 2020. “What We Talk About When We Talk About Data Physicality.” IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 40 (6): 25–37. [link]
- Offenhuber, Dietmar. 2019. “Data by Proxy-Material Traces as Autographic Visualizations.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. [pdf]
- Offenhuber, Dietmar. 2019. “The Platform and the Bricoleur—Improvisation and Smart City Initiatives in Indonesia.” Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science 46 (8): 1565–80. https://doi.org/10/gf78qm [pdf]
Exhibitions:
- 2025 Venice Biennale of Architecture (upcoming)
- Existência Numérica, Exhibition & Symposium, Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro 2024
- Atmospheres – Austrian Cultural Forum NYC 2023
- Exhibition “New Elements” New Tretyakov State Gallery, Moscow 2021
- Seoul Architecture Biennale 2019
Departments
Art + Design
Education
- Diplom-Ingenieur of Architecture, Vienna University of Technology
- MSc in Media Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- PhD in Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professional Experience
- Core Team Member, Ars Electronica Futurelab, Linz, Austria
- Key Researcher & Leader of the Interactive Space Group, Ars Electronica Futurelab, Linz, Austria
- Key Researcher for Visualization, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Media Art Research, Linz, Austria
- Mentoring two pilot projects in Moldova and Kosovo
- Advisor, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Past Clients
- United Nations
- Ars Electronica
- National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation Tokyo (Miraikan)
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Research Focus
- Accountability-oriented Design
- Aesthetics and Policy
- Information Design and Visual Epistemology
- Infrastructure Studies
- Design and Governance
- Urban Systems
Courses Taught
- Research Methods
- Thesis
- Information Design and Visual Analytics
- Mapping Strategies
Professional Affiliations
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- Scholars Strategy Network (SSN)
- Austrian Scientists and Scholars in North America (ASCINA)
