Research Catalogue

In this exposition, I present the compositions of "Ørenslyd" as an artistic-phenomenological research practice. More precisely, I will take you through seven of my considerations while composing the four pieces. I show these considerations as dwellings along my winding journey leading from idea to realization, imagined to realized sound, and personal to shared experience. All the four pieces of "Ørenslyd" are written for and performed by Tone E. Braaten (soprano), Emma Rydh (mezzo-soprano), Per Kristian Amundrød (tenor), and Håkon Thelin (double bass). The exposition is published as part of: Edvin Østergaard, ‘Music-in-Becoming’, in Practices of Phenomenological and Artistic Research, (eds.) Alex Arteaga, Emma Cocker, Erika Goble, Juha Himanka, Phenomenology & Practice, [Vol. 17, No.1, Summer 2022], ISSN 1913-4711. See here: url{to be provided later by the journal}

Throughout human history as we know it, there is a range of stories in the arts and the humanities that meet in variations, which shows an old widespread human desire: a wish for as much life as possible, for being immortal or for getting the ability to be everything and to be everywhere- This wish is opposed to the finite nature of the human existence and the knowing about this fact. It has been and can be approached by forms and tools of narration that engage imagination. For the investigation of the ways such practices signify an embodied experience in daily culture, I am approaching the use of language and especially metaphor and its application in therapeutic tools and trauma treatment methods. For this I am exploiting elements from the fields of hypnosis, meditation, neuroscience and lingusitics, along with storytelling patterns in mythology, religion, fairy tales and science fiction, My focus is not on language alone, but on possible combinations with the potentialities of artistic devices. Both, teleportation and transformation can be understood as a three-step processes compiled by: State 1 (before), the in-between moment (the shift) and State 2 (after). Although State 1 and State 2 (before and after teleportation/ transformation) will be respectively studied, a special focus will be given to the middle part of the process, the in-between moment, including time, space, the (technological) device as well as cultural aspects and possibilities. The in-between moment as a moment of trespassing is a point that not much focus has been given in artistic research till now, unlike State 1 and State 2; what exactly happens after Gregor Samsa sleeps as human and before he wakes up as an insect, or what happens right after Alice steps into the mirror and right before she enters Wonderland, what happens while Clark Kent is inside the phone booth (in Greek “thalamus”) are all invisible. The Greek word for the booth is “thalamus”, the same word used for that part of the brain where all senses end up, the relay station for sensory experiences. How to deal with the presence/absence of the body in terms of time and space during the in-between moment and how to stimulate imagination, memory and engage the senses towards the “impossible” using the means that consist a teleportation/transformation device? The aim of my fundamental research-oriented or knowledge-open (erkenntnisoffenen) PhD project is, to proceed without pre-defining the format of the outcome, but letting it evolve through and within the study, investigation and experimentation instead, working on the following groups of objectives and research questions: i. approaching the ‘impossible’, ii. devices, iii. language storytelling) & other media, iv. possible combinations / experiments. Methods used are: reading connected to the main terms, practicing hypnosis, meditation and relevant practices that use language and engage the body, public presentation(s) and interviews with three groups of peers. As peers I consider persons who experience alternative mind sets, indicatively children, people in love and people with schizophrenia. From the very beginning and to this point, the methodology and the format evolve along with the artistic research.

A work-in-progress artistic research project. Initiated by Hanns Holger Rutz and Nayarí Castillo in autumn 2021, it will probably develop into a multiple intermedia object that involves collaboration between different artists. As of this writing, this exposition is very much in flux, trying to capture the meanderings of the process.

As part of the Visual Ethnography master’s at Leiden University, this interactive website invites you to join my interlocutors and me to walk, hear and see with us the Hatertse and Overasseltse fens (near Nijmegen). After four months of fieldwork – I conducted semi-structured interviews, recorded collaborative footage and performed sensory walks – I studied human-nature relationships of educated individuals with extensive knowledge of this area. In presenting the various experiences, I analysed four workable concepts (wind, noise, crowdedness, and pathways) that shape the immersive perception of visitors. This interactive website and creative methodologies used provided me as a visual anthropologist with possibilities to research human-nature encounters within the epoch characterised as the Anthropocene. So, walk with us and experience this extraordinary environment!

Framed by the metaphor of a road trip, this exposition explores the use of participatory performance in building cultural discourse about decision-making during the climate crisis. Using Rancière’s concept of the emancipated spectator, common human experiences such as childhood development of subjectivity (acquired through Lacan’s mirror phase and symbolic order) and image schemas (as discussed in Mark Turner’s The Literary Mind) are explored as possible strategies for co-authoring an artistic landscape alongside spectators. An audio narration accompanies the written work, attempting to explore these theories in the form of a correspondence between the author and her elusive self-awareness. Each track reflects on these individual-but-common experiences as a method for creation. The author concludes that a co-authored artistic landscape may only be accessible to participants who are enticed to set aside limiting social norms in order to explore it, and this is the challenge of the artist.

Approaching Kunstlieder with the background as a jazz interpreter, has challenged me to find, not only, my interpretation of the lieder/songs but to also find my interpretation of my role(s) as the singer on stage between classical music and jazz scenes. Through performing music, the chosen body of work, we are not only repeating and interpreting the music but repeating and interpreting ways of performing it. This research focuses on the role(s) of the singer on stage and the moments between the songs; the open space between one piece of music and another that offers the possibility to communicate and connect with the audience. What happens in these moments? What stories do we tell and how do we tell them? What do I communicate with, through, in - and outside of the lied, the song, the piece of music. What do I perform in the open space between between the songs - my self(s)?