Research Catalogue

a lesson in the shadows of death entangled moment of frozen fragments embodying sacred movements through air, body, mind, mattering, voicing as if NOTHING

The Agenda Group is a research group based at KMD, connecting artistic practices "with an agenda". The group enables crossover methods rather than media specificity, allowing space for different participants. "An agenda" is here understood as an aspect of socially engaged art practices. This relates to people, narratives and history alike and is about our shared values and contribution to society as artists. The engagement relates to issues outside of the artistic context and investigates how these issues might be mediated and moderated with artistic means. The Agenda Group is open for all kinds of artistic practices, but the focus of the discussions will be on artistic practice "as crucial to both individual and societal change and development" (KMD Strategic Plan). The relationality between art and society is never as simple as it seems and these reflections involves the thinking of intensity in addition to formats, translation and displacement. In this sense the agenda of an artistic project is crucial to the understanding of its implications. The Agenda Group is a pragmatic platform to connect various members of staff at KMD (artistic-researchers, post-docs, PhD’s and maybe even MA-students). The main purpose is to meet regularly, presenting and discussing the artistic research of each of the group members. An internal critical agenda. Research group initiator: Professor Frans Jacobi

15 documented artistic works performed by Ellen Ugelvik et al. (solo/chamber/sinfonietta/orchestra)

Post-Interpretive Criticism: Doctrine of Restraint, Witness, and Moral Proximity in Contemporary Art Writing Author: Dorian Vale This doctrinal essay codifies the foundational ethics and philosophy of Post-Interpretive Criticism—a radical departure from traditional art writing that prioritizes interpretation, explanation, and performative analysis. In its place, Dorian Vale introduces a critical framework rooted in restraint, witness, and moral proximity. Rather than dissecting or decoding art, this doctrine teaches the critic to hold space, remain present, and write with reverence. Art, especially that which emerges from grief, trauma, displacement, or sacred silence, is not a puzzle to be solved—but a presence to be honored. This doctrine offers a structured alternative to the dominant critical paradigms. It affirms that the most ethical art writing does not always speak—it listens. It does not clarify—it shelters. It does not interpret—it witnesses. Blending philosophy, aesthetic ethics, and literary rigor, this foundational text establishes Post-Interpretive Criticism as both a movement and a method. It calls for nothing less than a revolution in the way we engage with meaning, silence, and the unseen. Vale, Dorian. Post-Interprative Criticism: Doctrine of Restraint, Witness, and Moral Proximity in Contemporary Art Writing. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17012559 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, art criticism ethics, Dorian Vale, doctrine of restraint, moral proximity in art, witness-based art writing, contemporary art theory, post-critical aesthetics, slow art, minimal criticism, sacred witnessing, aesthetic responsibility, trauma in art, ethical language in criticism, writing without harm, non-interpretive criticism, viewer as evidence, presence in art, philosophical criticism, art and reverence

Dimensions of an Encounter: A Sculpture & Its Shadow explores how sculpture negotiates the opposing forces of gravity and levity, presence and absence, object and support. Tracing a lineage from Leibniz’s theory of individuation to Melanie Klein’s theory of object recognition to various sculptural practices, the essay considers how spatial arrangement mediates psychic projection and self-recognition.

Afterwork explores the shifting relation between human labour and automation through the lens of political imagination and speculative fiction. Building upon new iterations of the live action role-play (LARP) Afterwork, firstly run at Kunsthalle Wien in 2023, it investigates how art-based world-building methods can serve as critical tools for thinking beyond prevailing labour ideologies in the context of rising automation.