Research Catalogue

'Diffracting the Copenhagen Interpretation: Toward non-local collaborative art practices' investigates the resonances of concepts from quantum theory in the realm of transdisciplinary practice-based artistic research. Throughout a series of protocols using diffractive methodologies, we intend to translate and embody concepts such as spacetime, entanglement, non-locality, uncertainty, indeterminacy, and superpositionality, and embed them as tools for our artistic practices. These concepts were chosen for their singularity in physics, but also for the ways in which they confront ontoepistemic pillars of ‘Modernity’, such as sequentiality, determinacy and separability. The research is carried out by a transdisciplinary non-local core ensemble formed by Søren Kjærgaard, Amilcar Packer, and Carla Zaccagnini. The cities we inhabit – Copenhagen, Sao Paulo and Malmö – have been our laboratories. Departing from tools and methods learned from each-other's disciplines, we have been creating scores that guide our simultaneous actions while walking on the street –interacting with public spaces and their characteristics– or while lying asleep –in the most private of spheres. On the one hand, in a practice we call ‘non-local walking’, scores conduct our collective experiencing of our cities, involving a diffractive methodology of reading and listening, and the entangled collecting of objects, words and other affections found in the urban terrain. On the other hand, the ‘entangling dream practice’ experiment is an attempt without aiming at success of meeting each other in our dreams. Both investigations are conceived as boundary-crossing transdisciplinary methodologies through which we create a relational, critical consciousness and sensing that stimulates unexpected outcomes, embracing failure. These scored performances have resulted in cartographies, drawings, moving sculptures, audio works and writings. Across these various materializations, unexpected connections, constellations, and coincidences e/merge, unveiling yet unheard polyphonies that give resonance to the urban and mental spaces, as potentized terrains awaiting (re)circuitry, and, as fields of forces that await to be (re)experienced.

Documentation of preliminary steps and collection of musical material and related reflections during the first Term of the Master's Program in Improvisation and World Music. December 2022

We live in an age of Symbolic Misery (Stiegler, 2014). In this era, we listen to the same music, scroll through the same Instagram feeds, and we immerse ourselves in daily lives that are the same as others, gradually losing the 'singularity (Stiegler, 2014)' of individual difference. This homogenized structure of perception continuously reshapes our subjectivity (Simondon, 1958; Hui, 2016), making individual desires no longer emerge from unique experiences or internal generative processes, but are increasingly induced and regulated by external technological and symbolic systems (Stiegler, 2015). In this context, the question is no longer 'What do we produce?' but rather, 'Do our desires still belong to ourselves?'. As Stiegler (2014) pointed out, in order to enter the market more effectively, marketing technologies have developed an industrial aesthetic system centered on audiovisual media. This industrial aesthetic re-functionalizes individual sensory experiences following industrial interests, aiming to produce a replicable and controllable unified taste through the standardized pleasure. This huge 'desire project (libidinal management)' manipulates human drives for externalization through a diversity of apparatus (Agamben, 2009; Foucault, 1977), generating a sense of 'participation' via formalized interaction, restricting the level of perception and expression (Stiegler, 2015). Through daily repetition, this process gradually weakens the individual’s ability for subjectivation, trapping them within a passive structure of desire (Stiegler, 2014). This exposition is based on an artistic research project titled 'I Don’t Know Who I Am', an installation game. It invites players to watch a five-minute monologue, the story of a cow (inspired by, for example, Lacan et al., 2001), to explore the secrets hidden within this cow’s desire. After watching the video, the player will face a plate of real grass with soya sauce, and be invited to make a choice: whether or not to eat the grass. This installation game encourages players to reflect on a critical question: At a time when industrial aesthetics and subjective experience standardize individual desire, is increasingly hollowed out, where do our desires truly come from? Do they still emerge from internal generative processes, or have they long been preconditioned and disciplined by technological objects and symbolic systems?

This research investigates the visual narrative built within artworks that deal with colonial memory in Sapmi, and the heavy layers of history in the Baltics, particularly Lithuania during the Soviet era. The research question is: How can themes of Gulag, colonial history and traumatic transgenerational memory be addressed by the artists and by curators in large-scale exhibitions and art venues? The aim of this study is to examine how visual expression is aesthetically communicated by the artists, how their artworks are presented in exhibitions and media channels, and how they are received by audiences. The study examines four cases: artworks and projects by two Sami artists and two Lithuanian artists. The research is conducted as artistic research, where the author acts as the artist, curator, and spectator of the artworks being analyzed. The author has been actively involved in the creative curatorial processes, including designing the curatorial setup of the Sami artists' artworks for their audience. The comparative analysis of the visual expression is done through the reflexive tools of the author. The study's findings provide an outline of the tools that artists use within their artworks, as well as the curatorial strategies applied when presenting those artworks to audiences.

Exploring how artistic experience can be influenced by mimetic recognition of human motion patterns in non-representative kinetic figures. This project investigates imbuing non-representational kinetic figures with human-like movement patterns and examines how these characteristics can modulate the expe rience of such figure(s). The investigation explores whether these motion patterns may facilitate mimetic recognition of human movement patterns and whether such recognition can intensify onlooker engagement with the figure(s) by eliciting affective and emotional responses. Of particular interest is evoking experiences of kinship and relation between humans and non-humans and proposing that the figures’ actions be experienced as an expression of intent on the part of the figures. These topics are approached as artistic motivation and guiding principles for artistic creation and experimentation.

This exposition explores the concept of speculative utopias within artistic research, offering glimpses into potential futures at the intersection of artistic imagination and futures thinking. Developed as textual concepts, these speculative utopias serve as vehicles for envisioning inclusive and sustainable futures, addressing complex socio-economic, cultural, and environmental challenges. The study employs a multidisciplinary approach by integrating aerial photography of Iceland’s landscapes with futures thinking methodologies and artistic research practices. These photographs function not merely as documentation but as speculative utopias that prompt critical reflection on climate adaptation, socio-political transformation, and public engagement. A unique aspect of the research is the use of artificial intelligence (ChatGPT), which supported iterative narrative development and reflexive inquiry. Through this exploration, the research offers alternative visions for resilient futures catalysing transformative dialogue and deepening reflection on the politics of the present while imagining possibilities for the world to come.