recent activities
SELF as OTHER, or: Speaking aut*
(2025)
Brab, Annan
We, Anna N. and Barb/Brab, started an exchange of thoughts about the meaning of "aut" – as in aut/istic and aut/oimmune.
We are interested in what it means to live as auts, to write about it in regard to everydaily life, in regard to the medical discourses about autism and autoimmunity, and in regard to the view of the "others", the not-auts.
In the context of language-based artistic research we seek to develop practices that allow for investigating the meaning of aut on different levels of our existence.
* (Speaking out and at the same time speaking as auts, but also speaking in a language called "aut")
Focaris 2025
(2025)
Laisvie Andrea Ochoa Gaevska, Leon Diana
Focaris parte de la conexión entre el fuego y el hogar como espacios de encuentro, protección y transformación. La obra se desarrolla a través de un diálogo entre la expresión individual y el encuentro colectivo, representado por la reunión en torno a una mesa o una hoguera. Cada bailarín expresa su "fuego interno" en solos apoyados por el grupo, generando conexiones y contrastes a través de la coreografía.
La narrativa de la obra está construida bajo la estructura del teatro griego, donde el coro acompaña, enfatiza y dialoga con las acciones individuales. La accesibilidad está integrada en la dramaturgia, transformando la LSC, la audiodescripción y los elementos visuales en recursos estéticos.
El papel, como material escénico, simboliza la metamorfosis del fuego: puede ser plegado, roto, iluminado y animado, representando los diferentes estados de la llama y la transmisión de energía. A través de la combinación de movimiento, sonido y visualidad, Focaris no solo busca ser una experiencia sensorial envolvente, sino también un espacio de inclusión donde cada espectador, independiente de sus capacidades sensoriales, pueda conectar con la obra de manera autónoma y significativa.
recent publications
Ruce v digitálním obraze: materialita tapisérií v autorském dokumentárním filmu
(2025)
Petr Vasku
In this exposition, I invite you to the process of research carried out in the tapestry manufactory in Valašské Meziříčí. It aims to find out how to convey tapestries' craftsmanship, mediality and materiality through filming and post-production. The theme of transformation is essential: the transformation of the tapestry into a film image, but also the transformation of painting or graphics, which were the precursors of the tapestries woven in the manufactory. I am also looking for ways to use a primarily representational medium to achieve an effect of presence through materiality and corporeality. In my research, I interlace observational passages with stylized ones that emerge from a creative dialogue between the materiality of different media, artistic techniques, or post-production interventions. These methods can deepen not only the viewer's experience but also the documentary testimony and convey an almost tactile encounter with the filmed reality. Finally, based on practical experience, I distinguish working with materiality in film into three analytical cuts.
V této expozici zvu do procesu výzkumu, jak skrze natáčení a postprodukci filmu o gobelínové manufaktuře ve Valašském Meziříčí zprostředkovat řemeslnost, medialitu a materialitu tapisérií a recipročně i filmové technologie. Podstatným je tedy téma proměny. Proměny tapisérie ve filmový obraz, ale i proměny malby či grafiky, které byly předobrazem v manufaktuře utkaných tapisérií. Paralelně hledám možnosti, jak pomocí média, které je primárně reprezentativní, docílit skrz materialitu a tělesnost účinku prezence. Ve výzkumu střídám observační pasáže se stylizovanými, které vzešly z tvůrčího dialogu materialit odlišných médií, výtvarných technik či postprodukčních zásahů. Tyto metody mohou prohloubit nejen divácký prožitek, ale i dokumentární výpověď a zprostředkovat až taktilní setkání s natáčenou skutečností. Nakonec na základě praktické zkušenosti rozlišuji práci s materialitou ve filmu do tří analytických řezů.
A Terceira Mão/ The Third Hand
(2025)
Carolina Albuquerque
Este ensaio tem como objetivo apresentar uma reflexão, em forma de registro de memórias sobre as experiências relacionadas à obra "Terceira Mão", tanto em seu aspecto simbólico quanto em sua materialidade. Esta investigação artística insere-se no contexto do doutoramento em Artes Plásticas na Universidade do Porto.
A primeira mão segura a matéria, o tocável
A segunda mão segura o espírito, o sensível
A terceira mão segura a todos nós, é o que todos temos em comum.
Segura eu, você e o outro, em uma rede de tafetá, ligados à terceira mão e a todos.
Os olhos ligam a percepção do material com o sensível espiritual.
Percepção simbólica visual.
Olhar para o interior.
Ver além do visível.
Toque etéreo.
Gesto de benção.
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This essay aims to reflect, in the form of a memoir, on the experiences related to the work Third Hand, both in its symbolic aspect and materiality. This artistic research is part of the context of my doctorate in Plastic Arts at the University of Porto.
The first hand holds matter, the tangible
The second hand holds the spirit, the sensitive
The third hand holds us all, it's what we have in common.
It holds me, you, and the other in a taffeta net, connected to the third hand and everyone.
The eyes connect the perception of the material with the sensitive spiritual.
Visual symbolic perception.
Looking inwards.
Seeing beyond the visible.
Ethereal touch.
A gesture of blessing.
Warbound: Collective Audio Streaming from Ukraine
(2025)
Olya Zikrata
Russia’s war of aggression is a multidimensional process of conquest that expands its time and space through sound. As Russian forces continue their advance into Ukraine, seizing Ukrainian territories both “horizontally” and “vertically,” as warfare scholar Svitlana Matviyenko (2024) has argued, Ukrainians across the country find themselves living in the sonic expanse of Russian assault. This research paper refers to this experience as one of warbound, of a (sonically) lived relation to war. To explore this relation and situated relationality it may entail, I turn to the work of Ukrainian sound artists and practitioners who participated in collective audio streaming, seeking to recast the Ukrainian testimony of the Russian invasion as a contingent truth claim. The paper examines the 2022 iteration of the audio stream project Listen Live, constitutive to the Land To Return, Land To Care research-creation laboratory. The project is studied in the scope of its testimonial reach and activist pursuit, as well as its humanist and posthumanist performativity.