Exploring how humans use technology to think and create
I’m Peter Dalsgaard, Professor of Interaction Design at Aarhus University. I explore digital technologies from a human-centered perspective with a focus on how humans use technology to think and create in new ways. I develop theories to understand these processes, collaborate with external partners in industry and public organisations to study real-life cases, and co-develop new digital tools and systems to gain new knowledge about their implications in practice.
My profiles: Aarhus University | Google Scholar | Twitter | Linkedin. Contact: +45 20652942 | dalsgaard@cavi.au.dk
News and recent publications
[Sep 10]: Keynote at VIA Research Days 2025: Working Creatively with Machines.
[Sep 10]: Paper accepted for IASDR 2025: Peter Dalsgaard, 2025. Designing for Ethical Friction: Reclaiming Agency and Accountability in AI-Supported Creativity.
[Sep 10]: Paper accepted for IASDR 2025: Peter Dalsgaard, 2025. Scaffolding Metacognition in Design with Generative AI Tools.
[Sep 10]: Paper accepted for IASDR 2025: Peter Dalsgaard, 2025. How Interaction Modalities Influence Academic Co-Writing with Generative Artificial Intelligence.
[June 12] Paper accepted for the Critical Computing conference: Peter Dalsgaard. 2025. “GenAI and the Crisis of Creative Labor: Automation, Augmentation, and the Artist’s Role“.
[May 30] Paper accepted for ECCE’25: Peter Dalsgaard. 2025. “Creative Ambiguity and Cognitive Tension in Generative AI Tools” .
[May May 30] Paper accepted for ECCE 2025: Peter Dalsgaard. 2025. “Thinking through Prompting: The Prompt as Cognitive Interface in Human-AI Interaction”.
[April 21] New article in ACM TOCHI: Emilia Rosselli del Turco, Nanna Inie, James D. Hollan & Peter Dalsgaard. 2025. “How Creative Practitioners Use Tools to Capture Ideas: A Cross-Domain Study“.
[Apr 10]: Keynote speaker at NNU’25: “Creative Computers? When Human Creativity Meets AI“
[Mar 10 ’25] Honourable mention award for our ACM CHI 2025 paper: Katrin Heimann, Minke Nouwens, Suneetha Saggurthi & Peter Dalsgaard. 2025. “Micro-Phenomenology as a Method for Studying User Experience in Human-Computer Interaction“.
[Feb 25 ’25] Paper accepted for the ACM CHI 2025 Workshop on Tools for Thought: Peter Dalsgaard. 2025: “Generative AI as a Tool for Creative Cognition in Design“.
Current projects
CoCreate
Studying the benefits and shortcomings of digital tools used in collaborative creative work. Read more on the project website.
Managing Ideas in Creative Work
Examining the role and nature of tools that designers use to capture, manage, and develop ideas, specifically in the domain of design. Read more on the project website.
Reinvent
Creating a participatory platform for communities to develop, discuss and present best- practice examples of solutions for how to rethink society after the COVID-19 lockdown. Read more on the project website.
PLACED
Developing digital services to help libraries transform into vibrant urban innovation hubs by supporting knowledge creation activities among citizens and turning this knowledge into an ever-growing part of the urban community’s shared resources. Read more on the project website
Experimenting, Experiencing, Reflecting
A collaboration between science and art led to examine perception, decision-making, action, notions of togetherness, collaboration, and the transmission of knowledge. Read more on the project website
Human-Centered Information Spaces
Envisioning a future in which the existing world of documents and applications is linked to multiscale personalized information spaces that behave in accordance with the context and history of activity. Read more on the project website
Short bio
Full professor of Interaction Design at Aarhus University.
Founder and co-director of the Centre for Digital Creativity.
Currently principal investigator of the projects CoCreate, PLACED, Creative Tools, and Reinvent.
My profiles elsewhere: Aarhus University | Google Scholar | Twitter | Linkedin
Contact: dalsgaard@cavi.au.dk
For prospective students
I am currently accepting new Masters and PhD students, particularly in the topics of interaction design, digital tools in creativity and innovation, participatory design, design processes, and the interplay between digital and physical phenomena in Human-Computer Interaction. Please email me at dalsgaard[at]cavi.au.dk, sending a CV and a project outline, if you’re interested in supervision or mentoring, possibly in connection to one of our current projects