Research Catalogue

It is a foundational human trait to long for miracles. We yearn for the unexpected, something new to transcend our everyday life. As anyone who has planted a seed might know, the world is already brimming with wonders. Why, then, is this not enough? Why does it sometimes feel like we have lost the connection to something larger than ourselves, something supernatural or more-than-human? In this text I am exploring the human need for miracles through a queer lens. Through my live performance “The Weeping Madonna” (2025) I am investigating alchemy as a method to acquire knowledge about the world, and whether it is possible to use our imagination as a starting point for collective rituals in order to call forth a new reality; a futurity.

Initiated in 2020, Dorsal Practices is a collaboration between choreographer Katrina Brown and writer-artist Emma Cocker, for exploring the notion of dorsality in relation to how we as moving bodies orient to self, others, world. How does the cultivation of a back-oriented awareness and attitude shape and inform our experience of being-in-the-world? A dorsal orientation foregrounds an active letting go, releasing, even de-privileging, of predominant social habits of uprightness and frontality — the head-oriented, sight-oriented, forward-facing, future-leaning tendencies of a culture intent on grasping a sense of the world through naming and control. Rather than a mode of withdrawal, of turning one’s back, how might a back-leaning orientation support a more open and receptive ethics of relation? How are experiences of listening, voicing, thinking, shaped differently through this tilt of awareness and attention towards the back?

What senses arise from sensing? How does sensing affect the processes of sense-making? How can the density of senses be navigated through writing? This exposition retraces a specific sequence of thinking-in-the-making designed to address such questions in a collective workshop setting, where writing and sensing alternate in an iterative process.

In this exposition, I discuss encounters of culture that occurred in art-based action research (ABAR) with Sámi reindeer herder families in the Finnish regions of Sápmi (the Sámi homeland). Five Sámi reindeer herder families joined an ABAR -project to enhance and stabilise the Sámi reindeer herders' position in the majority society. The research project relates to the Department of Art Education's development of art-based action research, the theory of community-based art education and the concept of 'new genre Arctic art' at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland. It is a long-term research project that emphasises participatory and co-research methods. As a researcher, I am in an insider-outsider position, as I live in the same region and share my daily life with a reindeer herder. We started the action by exploring the daily life of the reindeer herders through the Photovoice method. We gathered their photographs in an exhibition called Boazoeallin, a Davvi Sámi (Northern Sámi) word for Reindeer Life. The exhibition inspired the families to continue their visually informative work, and we designed the photographs in a book, also called Boazoeallin. The art-based collaboration with reindeer herders and the Boazoeallin exhibition and book contribute to the 'new genre Arctic art' that embraces participatory contemporary art, emphasising crucial matters of the multicultural Arctic. The Sámi people's history and culture form a destined constitution and obligation for ethical research conducted in Sápmi. The reindeer herders are unfamiliar with contemporary art, which challenged and changed the art education activities. The exposition reflects the challenges for an ethical, participatory, and democratic research approach in ABAR. In the research action, I have sought to frame the terms for which community-based art education best can serve communities of Indigenous cultures, the multicultural northern community, the Arctic, and global interests.

The artistic research project "(un)Romantic / Improvising Interpretation" 2021-2024 was led by vocalist/composer Live Maria Roggen and pianist/composer Ingfrid Breie Nyhus at the Norwegian Academy of Music, funded by the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme. The explorations have concerned creative interpretation and aesthetical language, through improvising together as a duo: What can an interpretation be or become? Where does a story live? What is Romantic and what is unRomantic? Where does the ‘new’ begin and where does the ‘old’ go?

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.