Michiel Schwarz is an independent consultant, researcher and producer on contemporary technological culture, based in Amsterdam. Following his PhD in the sociology of technology from the University of London, he has been active in a range of cultural and media and projects as well as policy advice. Activities since the mid-1990s included advisor to the Netherlands Design Institute and co-programmer of two Doors of Perception conferences on design, new media and culture ('Speed' 1996 and 'Play' 1998), policy advisor on digital media, arts and culture (to the then Dutch State Secretary for Culture, Rick van der Ploeg), and  programmer of a series of public events and conference for 'Infodrome' on the social and political challenges of 'information society'.

Since 2001, Dr. Michiel Schwarz has been a Member of the  'Raad voor Cultuur', the Netherlands Council for Culture (the independent statutory advisory body to the Dutch government and parliament on national policy for the arts, culture and media). In his capacity of chairman of the Committee on e-Culture, he prepared the recent Council for Culture advisory report  e-Culture, on 'digitalisation of culture and the implications for cultural policy' (to be found on www.cultuur.nl).
Among his current  activities, Michiel Schwarz is now working with the Amsterdam-based think-tank 'Kennisland' on a conference project on creative industries and cultural innovation, and he recently became (part-time) director of 'Forum' at the Design Academy Eindhoven, concerned with contextualising the design education curriculum.

Publications by Michiel Schwarz include Speed-Visions of an Accelerated Age (ed. with Jeremy Millar, 1998;  developed in conjunction with two major exhibitions on speed and 20th century art in London) and Digital Media in the Technological Culture. (2000).