Synne Tollerud Bull
-
- Pro-Dean
- Department of Performing Arts, Film and Media
- Fakultet for samfunn, kunst og medier
Background
Synne Tollerud Bull is a media artist, researcher, and Professor, currently serving as Pro-Dean of Faculty of Society, Arts and Media, and Media at Kristiania University of Applied Sciences. Her work bridges theory and practice to examine how emerging imaging technologies such as drones and AI shape societal structures through mediation in art and visual culture.
She has developed the concept of proxistant vision to describe image forms that combine proximity and distance within a single visual movement. Through this lens, she analyzes how technologies such as drones and digital mapping affect how we see, navigate, and understand space. The concept offers insight into how visual systems shape both perception and power in an era of rapid technological change.
Bull is part of the artist duo Bull.Miletic, whose moving image installations have been exhibited internationally at venues such as the Venice Biennale, WRO Media Art Biennale, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Henie Onstad Art Center. Their work is included in the collection of the National Museum of Norway as well as other international collections, and has received several honors, including the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival (2020).
She has initiated and led international research projects including Urban Ecologies (2020–2025), Media Seas of the High North Atlantic (2021–2025), Re:place (2012–2013), and Cities Re:imagined (2011–2012). Her publications include Urban Images: Unruly Desires in Film and Architecture (Sternberg Press, 2011), Screen Space Reconfigured (Amsterdam University Press, 2020), Proxistant Vision (MIT Press, 2025), and Media Seas and the Blue Humanities (Routledge, forthcoming).
Bull holds a PhD in Media Studies and an MA in Art History from the University of Oslo, as well as an MFA and BFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has been a Visiting Researcher at the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley, and has previously served as Head of the Westerdals Department of Film and Media at Kristiania University College. She has also held professorships at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and the Nordland School of Arts and Film, UiT.