Original Idea of the Year: When you could disappear

The prize 'Original Idea of the Year' is awarded to Johan Heinsen from Aalborg University. He maps attempts to escape from the state or employers in the period 1750 to 1850 in detail with the help of artificial intelligence, thereby providing new insight into a period that shaped the Danish state as we know it today. The prize is presented by the fund’s patron, Her Majesty Queen Mary.

Original Idea of the Year statuette
Original Idea of the Year statuette

With the help of artificial intelligence, it is now possible to trace Danes who fled from the state or their employers in the 18th and 19th centuries far more effectively than ever before. This opens up entirely new perspectives for understanding the Danish state and its development. The research project – and the mind behind it, Johan Heinsen – has been named Original Idea of the Year by Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Read about Johan Heinsen’s research and the story of Henrik Eilers, who was on the run from the law, here.

Lone Koefoed Hansen, chair of DFF Humanities, gives the following reasoning for the award: 

The idea is as original as it is compelling: The project is an excellent example of the revolution currently taking place in the humanities through the use of digital methods. It offers an original approach to writing history by asking new questions that highlight the breakthroughs occurring in digital humanities, as well as a theme – social control – that remains highly relevant today.

Johan Heinsen, professor at the Department of Politics and Society at Aalborg University, knows the story of Henrik Eilers very well. With the help of technology, Johan Heinsen uses completely new methods to create a picture of how the runaways of the time fled and tried to create a new life for themselves. Specifically, in the period 1750 to 1850. 

»As modern people, we know that we can't just disappear. If people break out of a prison today, for example, they are almost always found again. But at the beginning of the period that I am investigating, it is actually possible to disappear on Danish soil and become someone else. And when the period ends in 1850, it has become almost impossible,« explains Johan Heinsen, and adding:

»So it is during this period that the modern state that we live in today is created. And by that I mean the state where our legal identity kind of binds us, so we can't just wander off. The idea of trying to see what people do when they run away is to try to find out how that development takes place.«

About Johan Heinsen

Johan Heinsen grew up in Skagen as the son of a school teacher and a dock worker. He currently lives in the Aarhus suburb of Egå with his girlfriend and two children.
He is a professor and research group leader in social history at the Department of Politics and Society at Aalborg University, where he also graduated.
In his spare time, Johan Heinsen plays guitar and likes to watch basketball at night while coding data.

Independent Research Fund Denmark's reasoning for the award

The idea is as original as it is compelling: The project is an excellent example of the revolution currently taking place in the humanities through the use of digital methods. It offers an original approach to writing history by asking new questions that highlight the breakthroughs occurring in digital humanities, as well as a theme – social control – that remains highly relevant today.