Research Catalogue

WALKING AS PRACTICE WAP23 was a process-based residency during September-November 2023, where artists using walking as a method delved into each others’ knowledges and things they encountered together at BKN, the Northern Stockholm Archipelago in Sweden. Fieldworks, share sessions and seminars were created jointly to locate and entangle structures, narratives and themes for walking. The residency formed a transformative, dynamic space for art that engaged with life and nature towards critical and poetic explorations, influenced by the immediate surroundings: the forest, lakes, sea and people living in the rural area. Processing how walking is interlocked in our artistic practices, this exposition represents a gathering of texts, visuals and audio from the walking art residency. The selected artists contributed with interdisciplinary practices, primarily drawing, photography, video, performance and dance. They worked both individually, in spontaneous constellations and in group sessions. The dissemination of the program took place in share sessions upon arrival of new artists - including dinners, open studios, walks, workshops etc. In addition, as the program unfolded, each artist developed their own exposition.

This research introduces Psychoformism, an innovative artistic style synthesizing form, emotion, and subconscious energy into a unified aesthetic expression. Positioned within the broader discourse of art history, Psychoformism proposes a fluid, dynamic visual language that transcends traditional bodily representation. The style aims to shift the viewer's role from passive observer to active participant by visually embodying internal emotional states as forms that emerge from subconscious energies. Psychoformism thus provides a conceptual and practical framework for exploring deeper psychological engagement and subjective perception within aesthetic experiences. As proposed by the author, “Form is emotion itself; emotion emerges from within the body and transforms directly into visual form.” (A. Babak, 2025)

This exposition is a documentary project on the artistic research project Neither Fish nor Fowl. The research project consists of theater making, film making, workshops, performances and writing, and explores the wondrous worlds of becoming in theatre for early years. Together with my theater company Teater Fot, I have been investigating the significance of affect as philosophical, emotional, and material inspiration in the creative process, and in relation to young children in Theater for Early Years. Neither Fish nor Fowl was conducted as a performance project from April 2017 to March 2020. During this period, the research process was documented in RC, presenting methods, writings, and reflections along the way. The pre-production performance (for babies 0-2) was shown at the festival Olavsfestdagene in Trondheim, Norway, summer 2017 and at Trondheim Kunsthall autumn 2017. The full production, Begynnelser (for 3-5 years), was presented in april 2018 in co-production with the venue Teaterhuset Avant Garden in Trondheim. Baby Becomings (0-2 years), was presented at festivals and for kindergartens in Trondheim autumn 2018, and the final version Himmel & Hav / Sky & Sea was presented at Rosendal Teater in in March 2020, touring kindergartens for one week. Animalium (2019) was a spin-off production with film making, workshops, visiting exhibition spaces and other public spaces. An exposition in VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research #2 on the theme Estrangement was published in 2020 through RC. In the period 2020-26 Animalium has become a new site specific research project, looking at post humanist approaches to different sites such as kindergarten spaces, libraries and art exhibition spaces, documented as an ongoing research project here. In 2026 a new version of Sky & Sea will be produced for kindergarten touring: Himmelfiskene.

Amazing Patterns presents a practice-based investigation into pattern formation using ASCII and Unicode character systems as generative material. Developed within the broader research context of the ASCII Digital Design Museum (ADDM), founded in 2010, the project operates exclusively in live digital text environments under minimal computational constraints. Treating text not as language but as material, the exposition examines how repetition, variation, and rule-based operations generate complex visual structures from simple symbolic elements. Through sustained, character-by-character construction, the works demonstrate scalability and structural coherence across graphic, textile, and architectural references. Developed through human-authored, rule-based visual systems prior to contemporary AI image-generation tools, the project positions symbolic computing as a methodological precedent and sustainable exhibition model, emphasizing accessibility, durability, and long-term cultural preservation within web-native systems.

This exposition presents a practice-based research investigation into pattern formation using ASCII and Unicode character systems as primary visual material. Working exclusively within live text environments, the project explores how complex visual and architectural structures emerge from rule-based constraints, repetition, and minimal computational resources. Treating text not as language but as material, the work examines generative logic, duration, and modularity as foundations for sustainable, post-material visual research.

Topographies of the Obsolete is an artistic research project conceived in 2012 by
 University of Bergen Professors Neil Brownsword and Anne Helen Mydland,
in collaboration with six European HEI’s and the British Ceramics Biennial.
Emerging through two phases (2012-15; 2015-2020) it has to date engaged
ninety-seven interdisciplinary artists, scholars, cultural commentators and
students from thirteen countries. It has transformed participants’ practices, with
works originating out of the initial research being celebrated on an international
platform. Topographies of the Obsolete has received funding from a variety of
institutions, alongside its core support from the Norwegian Artistic Research
Programme (2013-15 & 2015-17), whose peer review system (2015) rated it
as ‘exemplary… strengthening artistic research and its scope beyond potential
communities of practitioners/researchers’. The project explores the landscape and associated histories of post-industry, with an initial emphasis on Stoke-on-Trent, a world-renowned ceramics capital that bears evidence of fluctuations in global fortunes.