Ringborg holds a master’s degree from Konstfack, the University of Arts, Crafts and Design, and completed his doctorate in curatorial practices at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2019. Since then, he has worked as Artistic Director at the Bonniers Konsthall art gallery and subsequently as Managing Director of the Konsthall Tornedalen gallery. He is now back in the academic world, as Deputy Vice-chancellor for Creativity at Luleå University of Technology.
“It feels exciting to shape a different kind of field at a university,” he says. “Actually, it’s not that different from what I’ve done before. It’s just different subject areas.”
When Universitetsläraren meets him, he has only been in the job for a few weeks, and he has spent much of his time at his new workplace talking to people. He explains that the role requires getting to know people at the university and understanding the infrastructure, systems, routines and procedures. But he also stresses the importance of being close to researchers and understanding their circumstances. What do they need? What do they long for? What would make their work more creative?
However, and he emphasises this point, it is not as though he is going to come in like some whirlwind of creativity and invent creativity where it does not exist.
“People are creative,” he explains. “They have ideas and make great strides in their research. I’ll be working to raise the profile of the research and perhaps strengthen it in other ways. My first few months here have been about that, and then we’ll gradually develop ideas for projects and strategies that we could test to see whether they work or not.”
As he interprets his remit, it is all about boosting and developing creativity across the university. It is a university-wide role and not just limited to the Theatre Academy and the School of Music. He is keen to underline that he will be working to foster creativity among all researchers and students, across all subject areas.
“It’s about finding strategies and methods that have a broad reach,” he says. “For instance, I’ve met with the student unions and discussed creativity with them, what they want to do and what we can do.”
For him to succeed in boosting creativity, the atmosphere in the corridors, at seminars, indeed throughout the university, needs to be creative. That is what he is aiming for. That kind of atmosphere is safe and, as he expresses it, fun-loving.
“People need to feel safe and actually put forward ideas. They need to be able to say what they think. There is nothing as uncreative as an insecure ambiance or an insecure environment. When I say fun-loving, I mean daring to enjoy yourself. Fun means expressing yourself and having a good time, with ideas and thoughts, and being able to brainstorm, push the boundaries a little.”
He is well aware that it is a challenge to design something as vague as an atmosphere or a mood. He also understands that his job title might seem a bit woolly. But for him, it is not vague at all.
“I’ve worked with putting together exhibitions, creating things and supporting people in their artistic vision and desire to create, and following that process. I’m starting to get a fairly clear picture of what Luleå University of Technology can start with in order to be able to take the next step and hopefully see it through all the way to the end. Once we’ve got there, we’ll be confident that people graduating from LTU will have a fundamental capacity for variation and a wide range of original ideas, no matter what they’ve studied.”
This is something that business, industry and the graduates themselves need, Ringborg believes. He is convinced that life is a little more fun if you find a way to think more broadly, think differently and think in new ways.
“My own creativity has probably always been more about the joy of being part of bringing other people’s ideas to life. The original idea, the first one, is rarely mine. My creativity lies in making things happen.”
