Research Catalogue

Guro Kristin Gjøsdal, A/R/Tography in Theory and Practice in Higher Education (Stockholms konstnärliga högskola, Sweden, autumn 2023). The exposition waves around an interview with Christine Yanco Helland (OsloMet), which is exploring and articulating how she carry out her entangled practice as artist/researcher/teacher. The presentation uses relevant literature to think with. Christine Yangco Helland is an educated drama teacher, director, and dramaturg, with a master’s degree in fine arts with specialisation in theatre from the University of Agder, Norway. Helland has a burning commitment to diversity and inclusion. In addition to working with professional productions, Helland is motivated by involving children and young people, non-professional, and marginalised groups. The exhibition and the interview uses rhizomatic thinking. And so does my own work and production within the methodology and thematics. The work is in progress and will be completed in spring 2024.

Between Freedom and Fixity: Artistic Reflections on Composition and Improvisation is a practice-based research project that aims to highlight the role of freedom and fixity in music and to develop a discourse based on these two concepts. The research suggests a creative approach based on the interrelationship between freedom and fixity, for example their combination, juxtaposition, and tension, and describes them as abstractions or placeholders for musical agents such as rhythm, notes, structure, timeline, and interactive computer systems. Another important notion is the inherent coexistence of the two concepts, and proposing the constant oscillating between them as a creative musical approach. Furthermore, the research aims to establish the use of freedom and fixity as a productive paths for extra-musical disciplines. Four works by the author are used as case studies to examine the integration of the research concepts as tangible musical forms. In each of the case studies freedom and fixity are embodied differently, and the relationships between them develop into distinct paths. This study relies on the author’s experience and experimentation as a composer, performer, improviser, and electronic-music practitioner, and draws inspiration from works by other musicians and scholars.

Only Here to Adore is an artistic research of the interaction between garden owners and plants. It unfolds in three parts. The first part takes place at Landlyst Plantecenter just outside Hjørring in the North of Denmark where Gerner Nielsen interviews garden owners about what they have purchased at the garden center and their hopes and dreams for their summer garden. These interviews form the foundation for developing scores and a choreography for a performance that Gerner Nielsen and another performer will show at Vendsyssel Kunstmuseum in Denmark. The performance is also filmed by Louise Ørsted Jensen and turned into a video work. Curated by Skal Contemporary

From the moment I was born, my grandmother said the following words to my mother about me: “Be careful with this one, this child will be tough as a rock.” My grandmother was not wrong. I was a tough child – I am a tough child. It was not until later during my teenage years that I was diagnosed with the disorders that would completely shift my world. I spiralled down deeper into agony and self-destructive behaviours. My mental health consistently deteriorated, my disorders consuming every bit of me, and I felt insane. In art, I found my escape. Through Edvard Munch, a mastermind who was able to decipher and express his troubles in art, I felt less alone. Unable to cope with my intense emotions, I have always been convinced that I am, in one way or another, insane. And for the first time, through art, I felt somewhat sane.

Abstract: (in Finnish below) THE THIRD WORLD ECOLOGY TRILOGY: Postcoloniality, Embodiment and Ecology By Rania Lee Khalil, University of Arts Helsinki, Theatre Academy The Third World Ecology Trilogy is a moving image performance and artistic research project by Rania Lee Khalil which investigates the harms of colonialism across interspecies habitats in Palestine, Egypt and the continent of Africa more broadly, at a time of widespread anticolonial revolutions in the mid 20th century. This doctoral thesis uses the artists' video and familial archives to remember third world feminist and indigenous movements instructive to ecological thought and artistic research in the present. It outlines the development of the artists' embodied image making methodology central to this research. The Third World Ecology Trilogy is accompanied by three published articles which discuss each section individually. The trilogy consists of Palestinian Wildlife Series: an experimental video performance centering images of African animals shot from a television set in Palestine, to reflect on parallel themes of mediation, displacement and extinction. Its 2016 article in The Journal of Artistic Research chronicles the artist’s research into the plants and people of Palestine via experimental film theory, posthuman and postcolonial thought. The Pan African Asian Women’s Organization, Cairo to Conakry, 1960-1965 chronicles the cofounding of an organization of the same name, by Khalil’s maternal grandmother, Aida Hamdi. Its 2018 article in the journal Performance and Otherness, reflects on the use of personal and political images in performance, recalling obscured histories through her grandmothers’ images and comrades, who included Djamilla Bourhired and Zohra Drif, heroines of the 1962 Algerian revolution. The final piece in this trilogy, Sinai, a story i tell my daughter, is a video essay which considers a parallel dimension to earth where all of its tragedies never happened. Created within the underwater landscape of Sinai, Egypt’s Bedouin ancestral lands, its 2021 article in The Journal of Embodied Research considers endangered marine life in relation to tourism, within the framework of colonial and neocolonial development. Revisiting original outtakes, this video article reflects on disappearing interspecies life and cultures, through the artist’s extensive embodied research. Index: (keywords) Postcolonial; Palestine; Movement; Moving Image; Ecology THE THIRD WORLD ECOLOGY TRILOGY: 
Postcoloniality, Embodiment and Ecology Rania Lee Khalil, Taideyliopisto, Teatterikorkeakoulu Third World Ecology Trilogy on Rania Lee Khalilin liikkuvaa kuvaa käyttävä esityskokonaisuus ja taiteellinen tutkimushanke, jossa tutkitaan kolonialismin aiheuttamia haittoja lajien välisissä elinympäristöissä Palestiinassa, Egyptissä ja Afrikan mantereella 1900-luvun puolivälissä tapahtuneiden laajamittaisten antikoloniaalisten vallankumousten aikana. Työssä hyödynnetään taiteilijan video- ja perhearkistoja kolmannen maailman feminististen ja alkuperäiskansaliikkeiden muistamisessa. Nämä liikkeet ovat nykypäivänäkin merkityksellisiä sekä ekologiselle ajattelulle että taiteelliselle tutkimukselle. Työssä kehitetään myös tutkimuksen kannalta keskeistä kehollista kuvantekomenetelmää.  Trilogiaan liittyy kolme erillistä julkaistua artikkelia. Trilogia koostuu Palestinian Wildlife Series -sarjasta, joka on kokeellinen videoperformanssi, jossa keskitytään palestiinalaisesta televisiolähetyksestä poimittuihin kuviin afrikkalaisista eläimistä, ja pohditaan yhtäaikaisia välittymisen, syrjäyttämisen ja sukupuuttoon kuolemisen teemoja. Siihen liittyvässä, vuonna 2016 Journal of Artistic Research -julkaisussa ilmestyneessä artikkelissa tutkimuksen kohteina olivat palestiinalaiset kasvit ja ihmiset kokeellisen elokuvateorian sekä jälkihumanistisen ja postkolonialistisen ajattelun kautta. The Pan African Asian Women’s Organization, Cairo to Conakry, 1960–1965 kertoo Khalilin äidinpuoleisen isoäidin, Aida Hamdin, perustamasta samannimisestä järjestöstä. Vuonna 2018 Näyttämö & tutkimus -julkaisussa ilmestyneessä artikkelissa pohditaan henkilökohtaisten ja poliittisten kuvien käyttöä esityksessä ja palautetaan mieliin hämärtyneitä tarinoita tutkijan isoäidin kuvien ja ystävien kautta, joihin kuuluivat Algerian vuoden 1962 vallankumouksen sankarit Djamilla Bourhired ja Zohra Drif. Trilogian viimeinen osa, Sinai, a story i tell my daughter, on videoessee, jossa tarkastellaan maapallon rinnakkaista ulottuvuutta, jossa mikään sen tragedioista ei koskaan toteutunut. Artikkeli ilmestyi vuonna 2021 The Journal of Embodied Research -julkaisussa. Sen tapahtumaympäristönä on Siinain, Egyptin beduiinien esi-isien maiden, vedenalainen maisema, ja siinä tarkastellaan matkailun vaikutusta uhanalaiseen merielämään kolonialistisen ja uuskolonialistisen kehityksen puitteissa. Tässä videoartikkelissa käytetään tutkijan kuvaamia videoaineistoja ja pohditaan katoavaa lajien välistä elämää ja kulttuureja laaja-alaisen kehollisen tutkimuksen kautta. Hakemisto: (avainsanat) postkoloniaalinen; Palestiina; liike; liikkuva kuva; ekologia 

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