Can research look like this?

Social scientist experiments with shapes and colours.

CBS is staking a lot on international publication these days however CBS is not alone. Of course research should be communicated via books, articles and talks but now social scientist Maja Horst is looking for other ways.

She has entered into an untraditional collaboration with spatial designer Birte Dalsgård and the result is a 30 m2 installation which will be made public in connection with 24 hour Research on April 27th. The installation is an expression of the Danish attitude to stem cell research and new technology but it consists of pictures more than of words.

Moral dilemmas

Maja Horst not only tries to talk about research in a new way. She also tries to get people to participate actively in the debate as soon as they enter the installation. It is about having a dialogue with people in the research process.

- Pregnant women can deselect boy foetuses. This is the latest in a long line of moral dilemmas and questions being posed to the Danish public by research and new technology. Often the question does not come up until the technology is already developed and the answer can be either a yes or a no. This means the debate is often polarized and not very constructive, - Maja Horst says.

It is exactly the idea of having a dialogue with people that is the background for the experiment with research communication. The installation is financed by the Research Council and will be presented on Friday, April 27th in connection with 24 hour Research.

24 hour Research takes place on April 27th-28th and CBS participates with several activities. You can chat with some of Denmark’s foremost experts via our homepage and ask them questions about management, home economics and financing as well as private economics. You can also test robots created by the students and researchers at Department of Informatics.