Research Catalogue

Documentation of preliminary steps and collection of musical material and related reflections during the first Term of the Master's Program in Improvisation and World Music. December 2022

We live in an age of Symbolic Misery (Stiegler, 2014). In this era, we listen to the same music, scroll through the same Instagram feeds, and we immerse ourselves in daily lives that are the same as others, gradually losing the 'singularity (Stiegler, 2014)' of individual difference. This homogenized structure of perception continuously reshapes our subjectivity (Simondon, 1958; Hui, 2016), making individual desires no longer emerge from unique experiences or internal generative processes, but are increasingly induced and regulated by external technological and symbolic systems (Stiegler, 2015). In this context, the question is no longer 'What do we produce?' but rather, 'Do our desires still belong to ourselves?'. As Stiegler (2014) pointed out, in order to enter the market more effectively, marketing technologies have developed an industrial aesthetic system centered on audiovisual media. This industrial aesthetic re-functionalizes individual sensory experiences following industrial interests, aiming to produce a replicable and controllable unified taste through the standardized pleasure. This huge 'desire project (libidinal management)' manipulates human drives for externalization through a diversity of apparatus (Agamben, 2009; Foucault, 1977), generating a sense of 'participation' via formalized interaction, restricting the level of perception and expression (Stiegler, 2015). Through daily repetition, this process gradually weakens the individual’s ability for subjectivation, trapping them within a passive structure of desire (Stiegler, 2014). This exposition is based on an artistic research project titled 'I Don’t Know Who I Am', an installation game. It invites players to watch a five-minute monologue, the story of a cow (inspired by, for example, Lacan et al., 2001), to explore the secrets hidden within this cow’s desire. After watching the video, the player will face a plate of real grass with soya sauce, and be invited to make a choice: whether or not to eat the grass. This installation game encourages players to reflect on a critical question: At a time when industrial aesthetics and subjective experience standardize individual desire, is increasingly hollowed out, where do our desires truly come from? Do they still emerge from internal generative processes, or have they long been preconditioned and disciplined by technological objects and symbolic systems?

How can I, as a workshop facilitator, create inclusive, inviting and transformative spaces for sparking moments of joy around diversity? How does my training as an artist, researcher and teacher inform and enable my role as a workshop facilitator, such that I can support radical expressions of self-acceptance? What are the limitations to my role, and what possibilities may lie ahead through continued reflection and practice? I have worked through these questions by exploring the concept of vulnerability through a/r/tographic theories and practices, with the culmination of my research and reflections shared in this exposition. Though I have long hosted workshops in marginalised communities as a means for building resilience and kinship, only in the past year have I begun to analyse, from theoretical and methodological perspectives, how and why certain approaches work. Again and again, my reflective meanderings take me back to a single core concept, namely vulnerability. By being vulnerable, one becomes open and raw, which — in certain conditions — can lead to curiosity, risk-taking and remarkable creativity. With such an open and desiring mind, creative practices like crafting can evoke radical feelings of joy and appreciation around a topic that otherwise may tend to conjure conflicting or undesirable feelings. Vulnerability is particularly important in my work because the primary focus of my workshops has been bodily joy. Largely, I have hosted workshops wherein we have explored positive feelings of one’s gender diverse experiences, expressions or identity through paper crafting. Recently, I have also begun hosting crafting workshops, in which we forest bathe (friluftsliv) then craft on the joy one has felt in communion with nature. Crafting becomes an extension of the self, a temporary reincarnation of our own materiality in which we bring to life an alternative understanding of our own potential. In this exposition, I address the questions above by drawing on two example workshops, Crafting Gender Diverse Joy, and Crafting Joy in Nature -- hosted in April and May 2025, respectively. The organisation of this exposition is inspired by L. Balzi’s ice cracks metaphor (2023), Irwin's rhizomatic walking method (2013), and LeBlanc's The Wake (2019). The workshop process as a whole is a reverberation of impulses rippling outwards without end. I navigate these reverberations through a visual mapping of a rhizomatic system of roots sprawling from a tree in Bymarka. The roots are vast web of connections, largely hidden beneath the ground as points of potential. With our imaginations, we can appreciate the complexity of this web, just as we can trace the multiple invisible processes that lead us to our eventual a/r/tographic choices. I invite you to wander across these knots and walls, encountering the various descriptive concepts, or 'centres of vibration', to borrow from Deleuze and Guattari (1994; in Irwin & Springgay, 2008). The layout is roughly guided by the three stages of the workshop process (planning, workshop, aftercare), sprinkled with key concepts, theories, and practices. I also include documentation from the workshops, such as photos and crafts (with permission granted). Enjoy your own wandering. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

▲ 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.

This study dives into the realms of games and music, examining their history and the recent interest in the intersection of their features. The proliferation of research surrounding these two distinct yet interconnected fields has led to the emergence of new theories, reflections, and applications. While historical perception has commonly conceived "play" as a less serious activity, particularly in academic and artistic environments, this study explores how recent artistic movements have reclaimed its significance. Both games and music contribute to a particular cultural proliferation. Moreover, the technological landscape has further amplified the impact of these artistic endeavors, with entertainment platforms experiencing widespread dissemination and an exponential increase in user engagement. Drawing inspiration from prior research, the study aligns with other analytical frameworks while consciously narrowing its scope to the performer-composer relationship. This intentional focus aims to delve deeper into the intricacies of this dynamic without dismissing the importance of the audience, framing it as a subject of debatable relevance within the study's specific analytical scope. In conclusion, this study offers a comprehensive exploration of the relationship between games and music, shedding light on their shared history, contemporary developments, and the dynamics between performers and composers in the evolving landscape of artistic expression.