Research Catalogue

This exposition is a documentary project on the artistic research project Neither Fish nor Fowl. The research project consists of theater making, film making, workshops, performances and writing, and explores the wondrous worlds of becoming in theatre for early years. Together with my theater company Teater Fot, I have been investigating the significance of affect as philosophical, emotional, and material inspiration in the creative process, and in relation to young children in Theater for Early Years. Neither Fish nor Fowl was conducted as a performance project from April 2017 to March 2020. During this period, the research process was documented in RC, presenting methods, writings, and reflections along the way. The pre-production performance (for babies 0-2) was shown at the festival Olavsfestdagene in Trondheim, Norway, summer 2017 and at Trondheim Kunsthall autumn 2017. The full production, Begynnelser (for 3-5 years), was presented in april 2018 in co-production with the venue Teaterhuset Avant Garden in Trondheim. Baby Becomings (0-2 years), was presented at festivals and for kindergartens in Trondheim autumn 2018, and the final version Himmel & Hav / Sky & Sea was presented at Rosendal Teater in in March 2020, touring kindergartens for one week. Animalium (2019) was a spin-off production with film making, workshops, visiting exhibition spaces and other public spaces. An exposition in VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research #2 on the theme Estrangement was published in 2020 through RC. In the period 2020-26 Animalium has become a new site specific research project, looking at post humanist approaches to different sites such as kindergarten spaces, libraries and art exhibition spaces, documented as an ongoing research project here. In 2026 a new version of Sky & Sea will be produced for kindergarten touring: Himmelfiskene.

Arts-based-philosophy is an emerging research concept at the cutting edge of the arts, philosophy and the Sciences in which cross-disciplinary research collectives align their research practices to finally stage their investigations in field-performances, shared with the public. Our research explores the significance of the HEART in artistic research and performance philosophy from a cross-cultural perspective, partially based on the concepts of the HEART in the works of two artist-philosophers, in which philosophy already became arts-based-philosophy: Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Aurobindo’s poetic opus magnum Savitri. We generally assume that the works of artist-philosophers are not only engaged in “creating concepts” (Deleuze), but their concepts are also meant to be staged artistically to let them bodily matter in fact. The role of the HEART in respect to this process of “bodily mattering” is the core objective under investigation: Firstly, because we hold that atmospheres trigger the HEART of a lived-body to taste the flavor of things it is environmentally engaged with basically in an aesthetic manner (Nietzsche). In this respect the analysis of the classical notion for the aesthete in Indian philosophy and aesthetics, sahṛdaya––which literally means, “somebody, with a HEART”––becomes crucial. Secondly, because the HEART is said to be not just reducible to one’s manifest Nature, but has access to one’s virtual Nature as well. The creation hymn in the oldest of all Vedas (Rgveda) for instance informs us that a HEART is capable of crossing being (sat) & non-being (asat), which makes it fluctuate among these two realms and even allows its aspirations to let virtual possibilities matter. Such concepts show striking similarities with contemporary concepts in philosophy-physics, e.g. the concepts of “virtual particles” and “quantum vacuum fluctuations” (Barad).

An overview of Elisabeth Belgrano's artistic / performance / research and teaching in higher arts education 2004-ongoing

The Custodian of Consequence: Reframing the Role of the Critic By Dorian Vale In this philosophical essay, Dorian Vale redefines the role of the critic—not as interpreter, judge, or analyst, but as custodian of consequence. Rooted in the doctrines of Post-Interpretive Criticism, the work challenges the traditional posture of critique as commentary and repositions it as a form of ethical stewardship. Vale explores how every act of writing about art either preserves or distorts the original encounter. Through sharp theoretical analysis and poetic argumentation, the essay exposes the critic’s unseen power to shape memory, public reception, and even the afterlife of a work. The true critic, Vale contends, is not the one who explains most eloquently—but the one who bears the most moral proximity to the wound. This piece is a foundational rearticulation of what it means to “respond” to art—offering not just a new lens, but an entirely new ethic. Vale, Dorian. The Custodian of Consequence: Reframing the Role of the Critic. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17075493 Dorian Vale is a chosen pseudonym, not to obscure identity, but to preserve clarity of voice and integrity of message. It creates distance between the writer and the work, allowing the philosophy to stand unclouded by biography. The name exists not to hide, but to honor the seriousness of the task: to speak without spectacle, and to build without needing to be seen. This name is used for all official publications, essays, and theoretical works indexed through DOI-linked repositories including Zenodo, OSF, PhilPapers, and SSRN. This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843) Post-Interpretive Criticism, Dorian Vale, art criticism ethics, role of the critic, aesthetic responsibility, non-interpretive writing, witness-based criticism, philosophy of criticism, contemporary art theory, moral proximity in art, language and power, poetic criticism, ethics of response, conceptual art critique

Language as Custody — Writing Without Harm in Post-Interpretive Criticism By Dorian Vale In this critical essay, Dorian Vale addresses the often overlooked violence of language in art criticism. Drawing from the philosophical core of Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC), this work reframes writing not as interpretation, but as custody—an act of ethical stewardship over what cannot be explained without distortion. Vale explores how clinical, ironic, or overly descriptive language can flatten the moral gravity of witness-based artworks—particularly those dealing with trauma, silence, exile, or the sacred. Instead of attempting to decode or resolve these works, the essay proposes a discipline of linguistic restraint, where words become protective vessels rather than invasive instruments. Through real case studies and comparative language analysis, Language as Custody offers both a conceptual foundation and practical framework for how one might write without harm. The goal is not to say more, but to write in a way that holds what the work cannot say aloud. This is not a guide for translation—it is a doctrine for presence. A refusal to violate what resists interpretation. And in that refusal, it calls for a quieter, more reverent kind of authorship. Vale, Dorian. Language as Custody — Writing Without Harm in Post-Interpretive Criticism. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17077653 This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843) post-interpretive criticism, Dorian Vale, study guide for art criticism, five principles of art ethics, ethical witnessing in art, presence over interpretation, restraint in criticism, moral proximity, viewer as evidence, rejecting performance, contemporary art criticism, poetic criticism, art education resources, museum pedagogy, witnessing trauma in art, art writing without interpretation, anti-interpretation philosophy, critique without harm, non-extractive art writing

Fractured Curation: On the Cost of Discontinuity Author: Dorian Vale In Fractured Curation, Dorian Vale exposes the silent violence of discontinuity in institutional exhibition-making. Drawing from the principles of Post-Interpretive Criticism, this essay critiques not the art on display, but the fragmented and careless curatorial strategies that sever meaning, rupture context, and erode ethical witness. Focusing on spatial logic, visual sequencing, and the absence of coherent narrative threading, Vale reveals how curation can either dignify or disfigure the viewing experience. When works that bear trauma, memory, or moral weight are mishandled—isolated from their context or stitched into spectacle—the institution itself becomes a site of erasure. This essay stands as a manifesto for curatorial reverence. It reclaims the role of the exhibition not as entertainment or aesthetic collage, but as a moral architecture—one that must be approached with continuity, restraint, and care. The cost of ignoring this? A public who walks through beauty without bearing its consequence. Vale, Dorian. Fractured Curation: On the Cost of Discontinuity. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16996506 This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843) Dorian Vale, Post-Interpretive Criticism, fractured curation, curatorial ethics, art exhibition critique, museum responsibility, trauma in curatorial practice, continuity in curation, moral proximity in exhibition design, witnessing through curation, ethical curation, spatial narrative in museums, careless curation, art and erasure, institutional critique, aesthetic sequencing, exhibition as architecture, custodial art criticism, reverent exhibition design, post-critical museum theory, viewer disorientation, discontinuity in art spaces