About me
I have a background in Communication and Digital Media and am currently pursuing a Nordic Master’s in Visual Studies and Art Education. My interests lie in cultural mediation and art education, where I bring together analytical skills, creative processes, and structured dialogue.
background
I was born and raised in the Faroe Islands, where culture, storytelling, and community are central to everyday life. Growing up in this context has shaped my awareness of how identity is formed in dialogue with others, and how shared histories influence the way we see ourselves and the world.
Interest
I care about representation, dialogue, and public engagement, and I am particularly drawn to projects that explore culture, experience and participation. I am interested in how communication can create space for reflection, inclusion, and critical conversation.
My lens
I approach my work with curiosity, empathy, and openness. My lens is shaped by attentiveness to context, power, and perspective, and by a belief that communication and visual culture play an active role in shaping how we understand ourselves and others.
motifs rooted in Faroese landscapes and everyday life
Creative work
I first encountered linocut during an art class in school, and although I returned to it off and on, it wasn’t until I moved away from home that I found space again for creative work in my everyday life. Being far from the Faroe Islands made me more aware of how deeply my surroundings had shaped me. Many of my motifs are rooted in Faroese landscapes and everyday life. Choosing Faroese settings is not only an aesthetic decision, but also a personal one. Living away from home has made my connection to place more conscious, and working with these motifs has become a way for me to stay connected to the Faroe Islands while living abroad.
My work reflects a sense of ecoculture; the ways in which nature and culture are intertwined in our habits, stories, and shared histories. Life in the Faroe Islands has always been shaped by the landscape and the sea, and our culture has grown out of that dependency. The rhythms of weather, fishing, storytelling, and community are all rooted in the natural environment. I am drawn to the way nature is not separate from culture, but something that forms and sustains it. Each piece is carved and printed by hand, and because no print is ever exactly the same, each holds its own subtle variations, making every work both personal and unique.
Being part of Olajudstillingen – National Gallery of the Faroe Islands
In the summer of 2025, I was incredibly fortunate to be included as one of the exhibiting artists in Olajudstillingen at the National Gallery of the Faroe Islands, one of the country’s most cherished annual art events. This exhibition is a long-standing tradition of the Faroese Art Society, first held in 1948, it brings together a wide range of artists from across the islands to show work that speaks to both individual expression and collective cultural life.
Being part of this exhibition was deeply meaningful to me. It placed my linocut work alongside the work of artists I admire, and who interpret Faroese culture, landscape, and visual expression in diverse and powerful ways. Exhibiting at the National Gallery gave my practice visibility within the Faroese art scene and strengthened my confidence in continuing to develop my work.
If interested in seeing more of my linocut work, I have created a website dedicated to my printmaking practice: Leikmansskurður. The website is currently available in Faroese.
Academic work
During my BA in Communication and Digital Media, my work has primarily focused on how individuals make sense of the world around them through communication, digital media, and visual culture.
Throughout the programme, I have explored how meaning is created, negotiated, and expressed across different media platforms and visual forms, with particular attention to representation, interpretation, and audience experience.
This section presents three selected projects that I am particularly proud of.
Copenhagen Pride –
an inclusive community?
Copenhagen Pride –
an inclusive community?
During my third semester of my BA in Communication, I worked together with my project group on an organisational communication project focusing on Copenhagen Pride as a case.
The project examined how the organisation creates meaning and community through the core concepts of inclusion, family, and “volunqueer”, and how these concepts can both include and exclude members in practice.
Using interviews, participant observation, and organisational material, we analysed how shared values and language shape culture, identity, and belonging within a value-driven NGO.
The project highlights the complexities and paradoxes organisations face when striving to balance inclusion, diversity, and collective identity.
Are you for life, or for the woman?
Are you for life, or for the woman?
During my fourth semester of my BA in Communication and Digital Media, I worked with my project group on a media reception study examining how the Faroese pro-choice organisation Frítt Val (Free choice) is interpreted.
The project explored how subjective attitudes towards abortion influence the decoding of activist communication, and how individual experiences, values, and ethical judgments shape the interpretation of a politically charged message.
Through four qualitative media reception interviews, we analysed how different audiences responded to Frit Valg’s visual and textual communication, using Hall’s encoding/decoding framework and Schrøder’s multidimensional model.
We also discussed how ethical perspectives (deontological and utilitarian approaches) affected what informants considered “right” or “wrong,” and how polarisation can shape public debate in a small society like the Faroe Islands.
WHO GETS A VOICE?
WHO GETS A VOICE?
For my BA thesis in Communication and Digital Media, I worked with my project group on a qualitative study of gender inequality in Danish news media, focusing on the underrepresentation of women as expert sources.
Through interviews with editorial staff from four different media outlets, we examined how the concept of “expert” is constructed in practice, and how gendered assumptions about credibility, authority, and competence can be reproduced through language and newsroom routines.
Using Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis as our main framework, supported by gender theory by Judith Butler and mediatization theory by Stig Hjarvard, we analysed how media logics and “neutral” selection criteria can still reflect structural bias. The project highlights a central tension: increasing representation is not only a matter of numbers, but also of challenging the underlying norms that shape who is seen, and heard, as a legitimate expert in the public sphere.
Chairwoman, Students’ Council
Students’ Council, Glasir – Tórshavn College (2019–2020)
I served as Chairwoman of the Students’ Council at Glasir – Tórshavn College, where I represented student interests and participated in advisory and decision-making processes within the institution. The role involved facilitating dialogue between students and leadership, contributing to discussions on educational and institutional matters, and strengthening democratic participation within the school community.
Chairwoman, Humanitarian Aid & aid for developing contries
Fundraising Committee – Glasir, Tórshavn College (2019–2020)
I served as Chairwoman of the Humanitarian Aid and Fundraising Committee at Glasir – Tórshavn College, where I worked with organising and coordinating fundraising initiatives in support of humanitarian causes in developing countries.
Through this work, we raised funds that were donated to both a children’s home and cultural aid initiatives in Bolivia. The project was rooted in collective engagement and responsibility, bringing students together around global solidarity and social awareness.
art as a starting point
Looking ahead
Looking forward, I am drawn towards practices that bring people into conversation with one another. Concretely, I hope to work with cultural mediation and art-educational initiatives where I can design and facilitate workshops, collaborative art projects, and dialogue-based programmes in schools, cultural institutions, or community spaces.
I am particularly interested in developing participatory formats where art becomes a starting point for reflection and exchange. For me, communication is not only about conveying meaning, but about creating space for different perspectives, experiences, and ways of being in the world.
In the coming year, I look forward to continuing my studies in Helsinki and gaining new knowledge. Working on my Master’s thesis will be an opportunity to immerse myself in a specific question and develop a project that connects research with practice. I aim for the thesis not only to be academically solid, but to result in something meaningful beyond myself
Julia Carlsson 