▓ Gudrun Havsteen-Mikkelsen (DK, 1992) is a research-based designer, visual journalist and filmmaker, currently based in Denmark / Iceland. Working as a visual journalist, she focuses on social, political and environmental narratives and materials, that emphasizes on the Arctic region and its possible future.

▓ She holds a Master of Arts (MA) at the new established master program GEO-Design at Design Academy Eindhoven (2020-2022), and is currently guest tutoring at Listaháskóla Íslands the MA and BA in Design (2022/2024)

▓ She holds a one-year residency in the Design Department from Sandberg Instituut (2019-2020) and BA from Product Design at Iceland Academy of the Arts (2015-2017) and Industrial Design & Ceramic Form at The Royal Danish Academy, Design School (2014-2015).
Her work has been exhibited in the following exhibitions; Spring Exhibition, Charlottenborg Kunsthal (Feb.-Mar. 2024), Design March, Design Film Festival, The Nordic House (May 2023), SÍM Residency Exhibition, Korpúlfsstadir (Apr. 2023), Milan Design Week, Cinema Parentesi BASE (Apr. 2023), Onomatopee publisher and gallery (Jan. 2023), DAE Graduation Show DDW 2022  (Oct. 2022), DAE DDW 2021 (Oct. 2021), Milan Design Film Festival, Geo-Design / Camera Control Reciever (Nov. 2021), AQUARIA — Or The Illusion of a Boxed Sea, MAAT (Jun. 2021), SKURÐ_PUNKTAR / COUNTER_POINT (Mar. 2019), Blóm í vasa / Flowers in a Vase, Ásmundarsalur (Mar. 2019), Forms of LifeNordic House (Mar. 2018), GESTURES / TEIKNHafnarhús Reykjavík Art Museum (May 2017), Iceland Academy of the Arts (Nov. 2016), Trashed Treasures, Perlan (Feb. 2016), The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Design School (Jun. 2015), Aarhus Raadhus (Jun. 2013).
Her writing has been published in Snowblindness (Onomatopee, 2022), A Pack of Lies (Pub Journal Sandberg Instituut, 2020), and The Arctic This Week (2023). She was in residence at SÍM Residency in Reykjavik (Apr. 2023), The Danish Institute in Rome (Dec. 2019) and Art Hub Copenhagen Work Desk Residency (Aug. 2019), and worked as an intern at Lukas Wegwerth Studio in Berlin with projects in New York, Matera and Berlin (Sep. 2017- Mar. 2018) and assisted ceramic artist Buller Hermansen on projects in Denmark (2010-2015).


▓ She graduated with a MA from Design Academy Eindhoven with the paper Reading Maps, Reading Business that deals with semiotic analysis in maps of mineral exploration in the Arctic region in relation to a design practice, and her final project, an essay film, Promises for Business on mineral extraction and exploitation in Greenland (2022). And from her BA at Iceland Academy of the Arts (2017) she graduated with the thesis Symbiosis of Human and Water in the Anthropocene and her final project The Mining Project – an ex-colonist mining for gold in Greenland, which is all at once a critique and an exploration addressing natural resources, power, promises and the people of Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat). Furthermore she is working around practices of archiving, investigating Nordic colonialism and meanings of ‘collective memory’, while engaging with the radio and podcast media through Radio Arctic (co-founder and co-host, © 2023).

▓ Portfolio (ask for my portfolio as a pdf):
Radio Arctic (2023), Automated narration of an Arctic landscape (2023) Promises for Business (2022), Snowblindness - Let’s talk about storytelling, colonialism, Netflix and my great-grandfather (2022), Visual Journal (2021)Snowblindness Podcast Series (2021), A Matter of Accessibility (2021), Hydrarchy choreographs vessel behaviour at Sea (2021), Camera Control Receiver (2021), Senza Terra (2021),Future Forestry in the Arctic (2020), Narratives on EM (2020), Tracing Kalaallit Nunaat (2019 on-going collaborative research), Miners & Labour (2019), Blóm í vasa/Flowers in a vase (2019), The Mining Project (2017), The Horse is Present (2016), Gender Weapon (2016), Trashed Treasures (2016), Of Bones (2015) and Icelandic Clay  – an material experiment (2015).

▓ Vimeo

▓ Freelance Design & Research

Podcast producer for Polar Journal through Radio Arctic (2024). Videographer for Iceland University of the Arts, Bachelor Design Departments (Jan. 2024). Guest-speaker at Arctic Centre, Groningen University (Jan. 2023). Research Intern for The Arctic This Week at The Arctic Institute, and responsible for The Map of the Month (2023). She assisted Damien Rice Music Limited with graphic- and product design (2018). Furthermore she assisted Assistance for Thomas Pausz on Species Without Spaces (2018). She illustrated the book Skibskost fra sejlskibenes tid - fortællinger fra Marstal (2015).

▓ News Sbowblindness will be showcased during The Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition, Copenhagen, Denmark, 02.02.24-03.03.24. Radio Arctic will be airing during Arctic Frontiers, Tromsø, Norway, 29.01.24-02.02.24.
Received Statens Kunstfond’s career program Den Unge Kunstnerikse Elite(2023),
Radio Arctic
aired for the first time during Arctic Circle Assembly, Reykjavik, Iceland, in collaboration with Anna Diljá Sigurðardóttir, 21.10.23. 
Speaker at JUSTNORTH General Assembly, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, 14.06.23.
Snowblindness - Let’s talk about storytelling, colonialism, Netflix and my great-grandfather’ launched at Onomatopee, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, 13.01.23. 
Speaker through IMAKA at the Arctic Centre, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands, 09.01.23. 
Speaker during the South Iceland Biennale ‘Design Expansions Symposium at the Nordic House, Reykjavik, Iceland, 19.11.22.
Speaker during the Symposium Learning with at Kazerne DDW22, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, 23.10.22.


▓ contact: gudrun_eriksen@hotmail.com 


© Gudrun Havsteen-Mikkelsen