Research Catalogue

Insubordinate Costume: Inspiring Performance presents a comprehensive study of historical and contemporary examples of scenographic costume – the type of costume that creates an almost complete stage environment by itself, simultaneously acting as costume, set and performance. This book provides readers with an overview of the costumes, designers, context and theory that have contributed to the emerging field of ‘costume as performance’. Focusing on artists and their creative approach to space, form, materials and movement, the book looks at iconic figures such as Loie Fuller, Oskar Schlemmer and Leigh Bowery, amongst contemporary examples of practitioners that are blurring disciplinary boundaries between fashion, dance, performance and theatre. The book includes chapters by Dr Sofia Pantouvaki, who focuses on performance costume as a means of research; Christina Lindgren, who presents the findings of the four-year Costume Agency project at Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway; Charlotte Østergaard, who discusses the implications of 'Listening with costume' and Felix Choong, writing on 'Contemporary Runways, Contemporary Costumes'. The final part of the volume, 'The Practitioners’ Voice', examines current practice through interviews and contributions from key practitioners.

The Tarot Walk Part of Elinor Rowlands' practice based research in autistic stimming as artistic methodology

This page is under construction It contains material created for and in the context of the research project Gifts from the Sentient Forest at the University of Lapland. See https://www.sentientforestproject.com

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.