Research Catalogue

The overall purpose of this thesis is to perform and propose diffractive methodology as a means for exploring, reading, learning, and understanding systematic theological discourses beyond binary and oppositional thinking. This methodology is based on performative strategies and feminist new materialist theory, with a specific focus on Karen Barad’s ethico-onto-epistemological agential realism theory; it can also be considered an alternative to a more traditional academic reflexive methodological approach, thus allowing for an infinite number of explorative methods to be developed within its umbrella definition of diffractive methodology. The diffractive analysis in this study is shaped as an intra-active entangled reading of Graham Ward’s Engaged Theology, through Erika Fischer-Lichte’s Performance Aesthetics, and the method I call Voicing-as-Performative-Theology. This thesis is divided into three parts. Part I unfolds relevant terminology. Part II performs the actual diffractive reading analysis. Part III consists of a concluding essay summarizing the outcome of this study’s diffractive reading, as well as opening up suggestions for how diffractive methodology can be applied for developing more performative and diffractive methods as part of future theological research. The thesis will be presented at University College Stockholm (EHS), in January 8 2024.

In this work, I want to show some excerpts from my grandmother's patriarchal resistance. The narrative and the photographs will be at the center. They will clarify Esters Lindberg's attempt to negotiate and renegotiate her position within the usual norm. The narratives and photographs will hopefully give an expanded understanding of what it could be like to live as a woman with a desire for freedom in Sweden during the early 20th century.

With Operative Fiction, we introduce a practice of spatial storytelling driven by the dynamics of prepositions rather than verb-centric narratives. Here, the textual body becomes embedded in the medial spatiality of a printed book, digital interface, or performance space. The physical or virtual site of the text thus becomes integral to the storytelling process. Spatial production methods merge into the texture of the text itself; simultaneously, the text reshapes the unfolding of space, place, and site. The material and procedural qualities of the text actively engage and activate the digital interface as a site of narrative unfolding, intertwining textual and spatial experiences. We begin our first exercise in Operative Fiction with Thomas Ballhausen’s What the Probes Report, transposing the text from the printed page (FLORA, 2020) into the digital interface of a Research Catalogue exposition. The non-human protagonist – emerging through and evolving within the text – disrupts subject-centred narration. It becomes entangled in the linguistic and scenic fabric of its own development, thus, through its procedural logic and function, becoming an active agent in its own staging. A line, speculatively re-enacting the machine's operations, simultaneously traces the topographic texture of the digital landscape. Using a drawing technique typically applied in performance design drafts, we explore the friction between staging and spacing by deploying minimally visible images and textual cues of direction. The operational plasticity of these technical images enables dramaturgical intensities to gather (staging), while also allowing the story to disperse through the digital architecture of the exposition into hyperlinked virtual spaces (spacing). Alongside a linear reading mode, which follows the story’s original chronology, we propose a contingent reading mode activated via time codes. These time codes function both as compositional elements within the drawing and as hypertextual links. They suggest the duration and shape of a staged terrain, occasionally layering multiple time zones within a single topographic entity. In this way, the timelines act as more-than-texts, generating a multiplicity of positions and proximities, and intertwining temporal aspects of space with the speculative grammar of the story.

This research explores the intersection of art and technology through the innovative use of the oscilloscope in musical composition and performance. Originally a tool for scientific and industrial applications, the oscilloscope’s ability to transform electrical signals into dynamic visual patterns offers a unique opportunity for audio-visual expression. This study is motivated by a fascination with the device’s aesthetic and philosophical potential, as well as its capacity to bridge sound and image, creating a multisensory artistic experience. The central research questions guiding this investigation are: How can the oscilloscope be incorporated into compositional practice? Can it function as both a compositional tool and a live performance instrument? Is integration with acoustic instruments feasible, and how does it operate within an ensemble context? Through a combination of historical-theoretical research and practical experimentation, this study researches how the oscilloscope can indeed serve as a tool for composition, a performative instrument, and a collaborative element in mixed acoustic-electronic ensembles. The findings highlight the oscilloscope’s potential to redefine traditional musical practices, offering new dimensions of creativity and interaction, bringing unexplored possibilities along with strict limits and challenges. This research contributes to the growing field of multimedia art, providing insights for composers and performers interested in exploring the translation of sound to image, and technology.

▲ The LGP Apartment as a Performative Box: Eroticism, Ritual, and Desire in Transit explores how a domestic space becomes a stage for embodied performance, blending elements of eroticism, ritualistic acts, and transient desires. This work investigates the intersections between personal and performative identities within the confines of an intimate environment, highlighting the transformative power of space in shaping human experience and creative expression. Oriented to the materialization of creative projects to make them productives. This exposition constitutes the first delivery of a broader research-creation process around the LGP method. It proposes a performative, erotic and ritual-based perspective on space, body, and desire. This fixed publication is intended as an archival moment within an ongoing constellation of artistic and psychoanalytic inquiries. Further works will unfold as complementary explorations. Published in parallel on Zenodo with DOI: [10.5281/zenodo.1562769] ▲ El departamento LGP como caja performativa: erotismo, ritual y deseo en tránsito explora cómo un espacio doméstico se convierte en un escenario para la performance corporal, integrando elementos de erotismo, actos rituales y deseos transitorios. Esta obra investiga las intersecciones entre identidades personales y performativas dentro de un ambiente íntimo, destacando el poder transformador del espacio en la conformación de la experiencia humana y la expresión creativa. Orientado a la materialización de proyectos creativos para hacerlos productivos. Esta exposición constituye la primera entrega de un proceso más amplio de investigación-creación en torno al método LGP. Propone una perspectiva performativa, erótica y ritual sobre el espacio, el cuerpo y el deseo. Esta publicación fija funciona como un momento de archivo dentro de una constelación en expansión de indagaciones artísticas y psicoanalíticas. Los próximos trabajos desplegarán nuevas exploraciones complementarias. Publicado en paralelo en Zenodo con DOI: [10.5281/zenodo.1562769]

"My present is more than I remember" explores the entanglements of word and image and their role in constructing memory and identity. Drawing on my four-year practice at the KABK, it analyses the methods I’ve developed and examines the interrelation between memory, photography, and writing. Delving into personal memories and intergenerational connections within my family, I seek to understand how inherited experiences and stories shape my personal and artistic identity, guided by the act of weaving as a concept and a material. Furthermore, the paper examines the existential role of collective and familial memory in shaping Jewish and German-Jewish identity. Using a range of texts and styles, including sociological and art-historical theories, experimental diary entries, poems, and personal anecdotes, I explore the parallels between the construction of memory and the construction of photographs. Just as photography can never represent the essence of a person, memory will never be able to represent the full truth of the past.