Research Catalogue

Thesis / Research Document of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2025 BA Interior Architecture and Furniture Design Summary (8968)

Through an artistic research process, I examine the ethical issues that arise in transcultural music composition, a context familiar to the students of the Global Music department at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Through reflexive autoethnography and musical analysis of the composition used for my Bachelor concert, I look at the questions of cultural appropriation vs. appreciation, and imitation vs. plagiarism. In the discussion I use a reflexive and investigative process for navigating these questions, and in the conclusion I expose my reflections and ideas on how to tackle this elusive yet important subject.

Audience reactions such as “Oh, doom is coming” reveal the emotional weight of eco-anxiety and highlight the need for approaches that go beyond fear. During the first year of understanding eco-anxiety, I explored how eco-anxiety manifests in daily life and how it shapes collective processes within a developing neighbourhood. I also explored how integrating qualitative audience research with artistic research can deepen our understanding of eco-anxiety and contribute to the development of artistic coding as a method. The artistic interventions: 1. The Birds, 2. Bring Back the Birds, 3. Omgaan met Water, 4. Stay Safe in the Media Atmospheres, 5. Artist Residency Oba Next Sluisbuurt, 6. Kunstenaarskennis and 7. Participatiewensen, combined with conceptual reflections of them, demonstrated that understanding eco-anxiety involves questioning, prompting and exploring the affect and emotions that emerge in relation to eco-anxiety.

This short essay opens ArteActa’s issue AI (and) Art: Poetics of Prompting by proposing to understand generative algorithms as fundamentally metabolic: a dynamic entanglement of data, energy, affect, attention, and ecology. It argues that, given their ubiquity, generative materials can no longer be understood primarily as representations or discrete outputs. Instead, they function as metabolic processes that devour cultural material, extract planetary resources, and reshape perception below the threshold of consciousness. Prompting itself is always an act of transformation rather than merely a symbolic command, and intentional artistic experiments represent only a fraction of a larger infrastructure. The essay thus advocates for a multiscalar understanding of generative media: every prompt is already an ecosystem; every image is already a node in a planetary metabolism.

The fantasy of the algorithm and, by extension, artificial intelligence imagines that each performs by executing an operational task. Yet, based on its inherent computational structure, the digital performance fails to live up to its instrumental promise. This failure foregrounds an occasion for artistic intervention. “The Wager of the Algorithm: Towards a Performatic Gesture” presents a theoretical statement (illustrated via artwork by the author) in which the overall exposition underscores a dialectic within instrumental reason itself. The “prompt” names are a shorthand for the fulcrum of this problematic.

Cultivating a sense of ownership in beginner music students is important for fostering engagement and self-confidence in their educational journey. This study explores how integrating creative activities into a beginner clarinet curriculum promotes ownership among students aged 9–11. Focusing on three specific activities tested in multiple case studies, the research investigates students' relation with their musical development. Findings reveal that using creative activities as part of a personalized, student-centered teaching approach enhances students' motivation and engagement, ultimately fostering a stronger sense of ownership in their learning experiences. The study also offers practical insights for music educators seeking to creatively teach instrumental skills while creating a meaningful musical experience for young clarinetists.