Research Catalogue

A moving image essay in three parts.

Unstable Systems Instability can be a creative force in art, design, and architecture. Artists, designers, and scholars work both with and against systems that are ever-changing, fragile, or unpredictable. Whether dealing with technological systems, ecosystems, social structures, or sensory experiences, instability is often a prerequisite for creation. Instability opens pathways for new ideas and processes, reshaping how we approach and redesign the systems that shape our lives. It can also refer to the creative act itself—one that does not follow predetermined trajectories or established norms. Art, design, and architecture serve as tools to disrupt stable systems and/or shed new light on systems that appear stable but in reality, they are not. No system is truly stable, and when we resist that instability, it becomes a problem. Instability is perhaps the only certainty we can rely on. Hugarflug 2025, the annual conference on artistic research, will take place on September 11–12. It will serve as a platform for research that engages with instability across various systems—from technological advancements such as AI and interactive systems to issues related to politics, society, and the environment. We will explore how instability functions as a tool for generating new possibilities while also fueling unrest and transformation within society and academia. The Iceland University of the Arts invites proposals of all kinds, including presentations of ongoing or completed research by our faculty, students, and collaborators.

In these works I have explored how I can relate to my environment through my daily practices of teaching, eating, animating etc. I begun the project by improvising lectures for various audiences I wanted to have input from. I have lectured to all possible enteties in the ecosystem I am a part of, from blueberries to colleagues to films. Every time something new continues to take shape. The exposition include essays, paintings and animations.

Theory of Misplacement By Dorian Vale — A Treatise in the Post-Interpretive Movement Theory of Misplacement is a foundational treatise in the Post-Interpretive canon developed by Dorian Vale. It identifies a crucial but often ignored aesthetic violence: the misplacement of art through curatorial overreach, critical projection, or institutional dislocation. Unlike theories that focus solely on interpretation, this theory addresses what happens when a work is placed—physically, linguistically, or contextually—into a space that distorts its moral, cultural, or spiritual gravity. Vale argues that not all aesthetic violence is enacted through misreading. Some is enacted through mis-siting—when works are exhibited without regard for their ontological weight, placed in institutional frames that suffocate their resonance, or paired with language that collapses their dignity. This treatise outlines the differences between interpretation, erasure, and misplacement, showing how the latter often masquerades as reverence while enacting dilution. Through philosophical analysis, metaphysical framing, and case-based reflection, Theory of Misplacement refines the post-interpretive imperative: Not only must the critic resist speaking on behalf of the work — they must also ensure the work is not spoken over by its surroundings. This theory complements Absential Aesthetics and Stillmark Theory in establishing a new custodial vocabulary for protecting the sanctity of placement, presence, and poetic truth in contemporary aesthetics. Vale, Dorian. Theory of Misplacement. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17057848 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)

Aesthetic Recursion Theory: Recursion As Residue By Dorian Vale | Museum of One This essay introduces and formally expands the theory of Recursive Haunting, a core doctrine within the broader framework of Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC). Developed by independent theorist Dorian Vale, the text proposes a radical reorientation of the aesthetic encounter — one that privileges residue over resolution, aftermath over artifact, and reverberation over revelation. Drawing on the philosophical lineage of Jacques Derrida (hauntology), Cathy Caruth (trauma theory), Emmanuel Levinas (ethical proximity), and Susan Sontag (against interpretation), the essay argues that the most ethically urgent and ontologically significant dimension of an artwork may not exist in its visible form, but in the trace it leaves behind. This trace — emotional, temporal, or cognitive — becomes the primary epistemic unit of aesthetic meaning. The essay expands the concept of the critic-as-custodian, rejecting the role of the critic as interpreter or authority. Instead, it introduces a post-interpretive ethic in which the critic’s role is to steward the lingering, to document the haunting, and to carry what cannot be proven. This paradigm shift reframes the aesthetic encounter as an unfolding — a recursive return of affect and meaning that often defies articulation, formal critique, or timely analysis. Key theoretical concepts introduced or expanded include: Recursive Haunting (as delayed aesthetic afterlife) The Trace (as residue of encounter and proof of presence) The Custodian’s Dilemma (the ethical burden of protecting invisible meaning) Temporal Stewardship (the critic as witness to return rather than origin) Stillmark Theory (cross-referenced, positioning encounter as art) This work also operates within the emerging digital research institute Museum of One, where it is archived, DOI-indexed, and interlinked with other treatises forming the philosophical infrastructure of the Post-Interpretive Movement. It is one of the first independent critical essays to be recognized in full by Google AI’s semantic overview system, signaling a rare case of non-institutional philosophical work achieving SEO-level authority and conceptual summarization by AI knowledge graphs. 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) Dorian Vale is the pseudonym of the author and theorist behind the Post-Interpretive Movement and the Museum of One (www.museumofone.art). This name is used for all official publications, essays, and theoretical works indexed through DOI-linked repositories including Zenodo, OSF, PhilPapers, and SSRN.

Message Transfer Theory (MTT) A Treatise on the Reversal of Meaning, the Displacement of Intent, and the Object as Conduit By Dorian Vale What happens when the message no longer belongs to the maker? In this defining treatise, Dorian Vale introduces Message Transfer Theory (MTT) — a foundational pillar of the Post-Interpretive Movement that reorients our understanding of the art object as a conduit, not a container. Rather than treating artworks as stable vessels of artist intent, MTT proposes that meaning is displaced, reversed, or even transferred entirely — not during creation, but at the moment of reception. Here, the object becomes a threshold. It does not hold meaning — it reroutes it. The artist initiates a signal, but the work lives on in the shifts, slippages, and interruptions that occur in its wake. This theory explains how art can haunt, harm, heal, or transform in ways the artist never imagined — and how the critic’s attempt to reassert original intent is often an act of aesthetic erasure. Drawing from theories of semiotics, trauma transmission, media studies, and sacred encounter, this treatise reframes the artwork as a relational event. It introduces new terms into the Post-Interpretive Lexicon — including Conduit Object, Transfer Shock, Residue Receiver, and Reversal Gaze — each articulating a more fluid, ethical understanding of art’s unpredictable passage between maker, medium, and witness. If the artist is the sender, and the viewer the receiver, then Message Transfer Theory is the study of what the artwork becomes when neither controls the signal anymore. Vale, Dorian. Message Transfer Theory (MTT): A Treatise on the Reversal of Meaning, the Displacement of Intent, and the Object as Conduit. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17055523 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)