Research Catalogue

Conceived and co-organised by Emma Cocker, Alexander Damianisch, Cordula Daus and Lena Séraphin, this Society of Artistic Research Special Interest Group (SAR SIG) provides contexts for coming together via the exchange of language-based research. The intent is to support developments in the field of expanded language-based practices by inviting attention, time and space for enabling understanding of/and via these practices anew.

In our everyday life, we encounter many objects that do not enter our consciousness. These objects are so much part of the space they are living in, that they become insignificant. Of these objects, I am interested in the artefacts that have had some functionality, or have the appearance of having had some functionality. What this functionality is might be unclear. I call these objects/artefacts “orphans” referring to their lack of relationality to the rest of the space, or the rest of the activities and people in it. By collecting these orphans, analyzing their character, and designing encounters with them, I hope to create more empathy for these objects. I believe this will make the spectator more aware of other orphans that they encounter in their everyday life, and enjoy their presence.

Work in progress

Walking through the old town of Tallinn, where everything is quiet because shops, cafés and restaurants are closed, some permanently because of a lack of tourists due to the pandemic and others temporarily because of the current lockdown, I experience the city in a new way. The city is different and no longer am I drawn in by the enticement of what I could or should buy. I no longer peer in the café window to see if there is an available table, in the expectation of a pastry and a coffee. Art galleries and museums are also closed. I’m closed out but this strange situation means there is time to stop, notice and think, space to walk and an opportunity to see things differently. There is freedom to imagine new worlds, other possibilities, and new ways of seeing and being. I look at shop windows, peer into art galleries, think about my own window exhibition in the context of these other windows, and in the process take in a full experience of visual art in the form of installations, performance art and even participation art. At the same time my thoughts take me to completely other utopian worlds where things are quite different. The walk, though initially purposeful, becomes something more than a walk. It starts to meander and – combined with what I see, remember and imagine – it becomes a meandering text with images and ideas that click in and out of focus.

Elisenvaara-Pieksämäki –hajonnut kone on taiteellinen tutkimus irtikytkennän tilallisuudesta, jonka tapaustutkimuksena on eräs syrjään jäänyt rautatien raunio.Kun rautatien koneellinen kooste kerran hajosi, muodostui kokemuksesta irti kytketty alue, katve, jossa viitteet hajonneeseen koneeseen asettuvat kokemuksen taustalle, kuin aaveraaja, joka säteilee paikantumattomia tuntemuksia menetetystä raajasta. Tässä kokeellisessa tutkimuksessa kehitetyt harjoitteet ovat yrityksiä vastata ongelmaan: kuinka katveeseen jääneiden rautatien raunioiden aistinen ulottuvuus voidaan kytkeä uudelleen, uudeksi yhteiseksi tilaksi. Asetan Gilles Deleuzen elokuvaa luonnehtivan liike-kuvan käsitteen junamatkustamisen kokemuksen ilmaisulliseksi vastineeksi. Toisissa tiloissa kollektiivin jäsenten: Kati Korosuon ja Timo Jokitalon kanssa toteutetussa esityksessä: Elokuva ilman kameraa (2019) resiina valjastettiin alustaksi radan varren asukkaita osallistaville harjoitteille. Näissä harjoitteissa elokuvan käsite laajenee ilmaisemaan irti kytketyn rautatien aistista tilaa. Teemana irtikytkentä muodostaa taiteelliselle tutkimukselle utopistisen perustan, lähtökohdan, joka ei sijaitse missään. Öisellä resiina matkalla läpi takapajuisen seudun paikattomuuteen rakentui hetkellisesti uusi yhteinen tila. Digitaalista valokuvista, videoista ja kirjoituksesta koostuva ekspositio on koottu luettavaksi tietokoneen ruudulta.

This exposition discusses the possibility of embracing an expanded notion of life, a zoe-centred egalitarianism, as proposed by Rosi Braidotti, in order to envision a liveable future on the planet and the utopian potential in the act of calling for an imaginary creature, a dragon, using as examples some video works created in 2012-2013 and retuned to in 2019.