SUPER(IM)POSITIONS: Subverting Melodramatic Representation Through Personal Unpredictability
(2024)
author(s): Emilio Santoyo
published in: Research Catalogue
This Artistic Research in and through cinema explores the possibilities of using outdated melodramatic elements of cinematic representation in a new way, dissolving the intersection between the personal and the fictional as a tool for creating a redemptive act of filmmaking. "Super (im) positions: Subverting melodramatic representation through personal unpredictability" delves into the transformative potential of these elements within cinematic representation. By dissolving the boundaries between the personal and the fictional, this work engages in a redemptive act of filmmaking that reimagines melodrama. The approach employs a contemporary, polyphonic, and playful film language to propose a new form of melodrama—one that acknowledges its inherent perversity to challenge and deconstruct its toxic narratives.
Rooted in the pervasive influence of telenovelas and melodrama, particularly within Mexican culture, this exploration questions and critiques the genre's impact on cultural and individual perceptions of love and relationships. The research was catalysed by a significant personal and professional rupture, leading to a critical examination of the genre's conventions.
By employing a contemporary, polyphonic, and playful film language, Santoyo reimagines melodrama as a genre capable of portraying complex, personal emotions and generating critical, boundary-pushing narratives. This self-reflective genre deviation, temporarily termed the "New Melodrama," seeks to subvert traditional melodramatic tropes by acknowledging and confronting their perverse nature. Through this approach, Santoyo aims to dismantle the toxic knowledge perpetuated by conventional melodrama, offering a sophisticated and nuanced critique from within the genre itself. His work presents a trojan horse strategy, using the familiar systems of melodramatic representation to question and ultimately transform them, proposing a relevant and self-aware cinematic experience.
Through innovative use of superimpositions and a deliberate deconstruction of melodramatic mise-en-scène, this study aims to create a critical and self-reflective genre deviation termed "New Melodrama." This method seeks to subvert traditional cinematic conventions by integrating multiple perspectives and temporalities, fostering a richer, more complex narrative experience. Ultimately, the research stands as a trojan horse within the film industry, using the very mechanics of melodrama to critique and reinvent it, offering a fresh, introspective take on a genre often dismissed as superficial.
On the Indeterminate Training Technologies of a Reconstructed Bauhaus Choreographer. A Research Practice Between Speculative Historiography, Architectural Invention, and Performative Co-enactment
(2023)
author(s): Thomas Pearce
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
This exposition proposes a method of artistic research that uses (and disobediently misuses) techniques of reconstruction as a mode of performative, artistic, and architectural invention. Our speculative notion of reconstruction challenges inherited disciplinary notions of historiography and simultaneously functions as a propositional and generative tool. The exposition revolves around the discussion of a research and performance project entitled Jakob K., which reconstructs the works of fictional Bauhaus choreographer and gymnastics teacher Jakob Klenke (1874–1941). This reconstruction was the product of a collaboration between performance artists and architectural researchers, involving field work, site-specific re-enactment, 3D scanning, animation, and digital fabrication, and culminated in a series of live performances at Kampnagel (Hamburg) and during the 2019 Bauhaus 100 centennial.
The exposition is structured around a series of multimedia sections, each of which departs from an element of the performance’s architectural and medial framing, describes aspects of the artistic research process, and uses these as a lens for theoretical reflection. In analogy to our working method, which created the project as an ongoing layering of spatial and choreographical ‘evidence’, this method of discussing the project consecutively adds layers and connections to the project-assemblage that is Jakob K. Throughout the exposition, a practice emerges that challenges notions of solely human-authored and human-centred design and performance; proposes a set of techno-speculative training practices while challenging historical discourses on body optimisation; and subverts disciplinary uses of technology, prescriptive logics of representation, and techniques of reconstruction, misusing them instead in disobedient ways and reinventing them as creative affordances that can challenge dominant techniques of power.
Spotting A Tree From A Pixel (With Remote Sensing Researchers)
(2022)
author(s): Sheung Yiu
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
This exposition contemplates the collaboration between me, a photographer, and remote sensing researchers from the Department of Geoinformatics at Aalto University, in an ongoing artistic research collaboration called Ground Truth. Ground Truth is a photography project about ‘seeing something when there’s nothing there’. Based in the research group’s initial intent to overcome the spatial resolution limits of satellite imagery, the project now investigates new imaging techniques such as computational photography and hyperspectral imaging of forests, while also referencing photography’s love affair with natural landscapes. Such a comparative approach to natural photography has allowed me to offer a vision that typically escapes human sight perception.
I open this auto-theoretical text with a personal experience, namely being on a field trip with remote sensing scientist Daniel Schraik. I use this moment to, among other things, articulate my thoughts on the construction of the ‘real’ in different disciplines. I then contemplate the body of interviews and field trips that became a two-year-long interdisciplinary dialogue, and also brought together two distinct ways of looking at the forest: one symbolized by the camera, another by the terrestrial laser scanner. Inspired by remote sensing concepts such as ground truth and the inverse problem, I have come to examine photography through a new analytical framework.
In everyday language, the term ‘ground truth’ refers, in part, to a first-hand experience. In our project, it makes sense, then, that Ground Truth connotes the documentary tradition and the act of witnessing. In the language of science, however, and specifically in remote sensing as a field, ground truth means something different. It refers to data collected on-site, which can then be used to calibrate, to build models, to predict, to interpret, and to decipher information from images; in this case, satellite images. Similarly, our interdisciplinary collaboration functions on another operational layer of photography beneath the immediately visible, one that illustrates an expanded notion of photography across contemporary discourse. Ground Truth interweaves archival imagery, documentary photography, experiment dataset, 3D digital art and conceptual photography. The constellation of employed elements contrasts the representational approaches of drawing and photography with the data-oriented and algorithmic approaches of computer-aided seeing. The two modes together allow for a parallel reading of the forest — one that contextualizes different epistemological regimes that allow for new configurations of the relationship between image and reality.
Ephemer(e)ality Capture: Glitching The Cloud through Photogrammetry
(2021)
author(s): Tom Milnes
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
Ephemer(e)ality Capture: Glitch Practices in Photogrammetry details artistic practice using cloud-based photogrammetry that actively invokes glitches through disturbance of the imaging algorithm by utilising optical phenomena. Reflective, transparent, specular and patterned/repetitive objects were used to confuse the imaging algorithm to produce spikes, holes and glitches in the mesh and textures of the 3D objects produced. The research tests the limits of photogrammetry in an effort toward new image-making methods. It builds upon the research of Hito Steyerl’s Ripping Reality: Blind spots and wrecked data in 3D in which she outlines the errors of 3D scanning media in her work and contextualises amongst thought surrounding the objectivity of photographic media. This research explores the potential gaps in Steyerl’s approach, building upon investigations into 3D scanning’s ‘constructed imagery’ through methods which explore ‘fractional space’ more thoroughly through glitches caused by capturing of optical phenomena. Through practice, the research investigates the possibilities of conducting a ‘media archaeological’ investigation of cloud-based technology using methods akin to ‘Thinkering’(Huhtamo) and ‘Zombie Media’ (Hertz & Parikka). These investigations sought to ‘hack’ technologies through focused technical adjustments or adaptations, centred on media that were ‘local’ or accessible to the artist - artists that have been able to open the machine’s hardware to change circuitry or to access and change the software code. With cloud-based media’s materiality being inaccessible, the investigation utilised techniques which actively disrupt and confuse the image-making process; a form of ‘digital détournement’ which develops techniques which reference Guy Debord’s approach to disrupt the powers of image-making culture. The research is discussed with regards to similar approaches in contemporary glitch practices and aesthetics. Prior (2013) posits that glitch practices form a ‘paralogy’ of the Lyotardian notion of ‘performativity’ of the contemporary techno-economic conditions; acknowledging that paralogy is a method that contributes important critical discourses to culture and research. Previously, ‘local’ glitch practices focused on the internal affordances and functionality of the machine, whereas this research demonstrates practice which is focused externally – through the optical nature of images selected to disrupt the algorithm in photogrammetry rather than through ‘hacking’ the algorithm directly. Through these investigations and a discussion of their methodology, the research encourages a critical reflexivity of the artist/user through use of a dynamic methodology. This is to reflect the issues of technological flux which sees imaging algorithms being updated and refined, forcing techniques and practices into obsolescence.
∂ Topological Landscapes
(2021)
author(s): András Blazsek
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
∂ Topological Landscapes (2015–ongoing) is a multisensory environment that comprises three projects, all based on research into the controversial healing instruments designed by Southern California inventor Royal Raymond Rife (Nebraska, 1888–California, 1971). Rife’s early twentieth-century scientific work involved light microscopy, frequency theory, and the concept of pleomorphism, which he applied to study formal differentiation in viral cells. One of Rife’s aims was to develop methods and mechanisms that would allow him to use frequencies to kill viruses.
∂ (curly d) is the symbol for ‘boundary’ in general topology. In this research, it is employed as a mathematical symbol that links the study of shifting material surfaces with an inquiry into the fluctuating borders between art and science. It posits that abandoned possibilities in scientific error and failed experiments may harbour other futures.
In its three projects, ∂ Topological Landscapes works with different technologies of reproduction using 3D animation, 3D printed sculpture, sonification, and prototype-making to explore findings from various attempts to replicate Rife’s instruments. The necessary information for creating these replications was gathered from the object archive of the Science Museum of London and from the two former sites of the inventor’s research: the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, San Diego, and the Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles.
Reclamation : Exposing Coal Seams and Appalachian Fatalism with Digital Apparatuses
(2020)
author(s): Ernie Roby-Tomic
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
The mountainous geography of Appalachia has been shaped by the coal industry since the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era of the United States. Mountaintop Removal (MTR) is a controversial and highly destructive surface-mining method flattening the mountains of Appalachian since the 1970s. The rise in massive energy consumption correlated to consumer electronics, automation, and technocratic neoliberalism have irrevocably flattened the surface and culture of Appalachia.
Reclamation is the final act in MTR mining in which the mine operator is obligated to ecologically restore the land. Where MTR sites were once hidden away, and even photographing them is considered an act of trespassing, today I can bear witness to the destruction of the mountain topology by connecting to Google's Earth (not to be confused with earth-Earth). Despite the remote locations and inaccessibility of the sites, the data is particularly rich due to the economical advantages of mapping the region for the coal industry.
In this exposition, I make my own reclamation as one in the generation born after the boom of coal production and its inevitable decline. I am reclaiming the 3D geospatial data of MTR and mining disaster sites, extracted from the servers of Google Earth. I recontextualize these geospatial assets to compose a visual prosopography of those surfaces.
Additive Photography
(2019)
author(s): Ives Maes
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
Since the invention of photography, there have been numerous hybrid experiments between photography and sculpture that testify to a continuous influence of sculpture on photography and vice versa. In my own visual work, I am researching the physical, sculptural and architectural aspects of photography. I am analysing a number of historical experiments, from the 16th century camera obscura pavilion to 21st century digital processes, which I apply to my artistic practice. A particularly important example is the photosculpture process of François Willème. In the late 1850s, he aimed at reproducing sculpture with the help of photography, creating a distinctive union between the two media. His method to extrude sculptures from photographs laid the ground principles for the 3D scanner and printer. In this exposition I bring to the fore how the work of Willème propelled its significant influence towards today, and how it inspired me to create new visual work. At the same time, this experience constitutes an exemplary case study on how theoretical research can steer the creation of visual research.
Hinges of correlation: Spatial devices of social coexistence
(2015)
author(s): Espen Lunde Nielsen
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
This project investigates the coexistence of and the correlation between the inhabitants within my apartment building, using artistic practices and my own lived experience. These everyday spaces form the primary interface between the individual and the larger social entity of the city. Consciously, or partly unknowingly, one interacts with others through spatial demarcations, using embedded spatial devices (such as squeaking floorboards, peepholes, mailboxes, etc.) that project life and the presence of other people through sound, light, or matter. Most of these devices are partly unintended, often serve other practical functions, and go unnoticed – but nevertheless hold a latent spatial potential for a recalibration of the social dimension of the city and an architecture to come. This exposition features a combination of photography, 3D laser scans, and creative writing, followed by a written account of the practice.
Brunleire fra Østre Aker vei 25 på Økern, Oslo
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Denne leira og beholderen representerer blåleire som en del av byggeplasser og byggenæringen i prosjektet. Denne lokasjonen er et interessant ikke-sted1 i et trafikknutepunkt på Økern, der det er overraskende å finne leire.
Blåleire og brunleire fra Enebakk leireuttak
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Denne leira og beholderen representerer blåleire som en del av et industrilandskap i prosjektet.
Blåleire og brunleire fra Bryn ved Alnaelva
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Denne leira og beholderen representerer blåleire som en del av et elvelandskap med en teglindustrihistorie i prosjektet.
Leirelandskapet på Bryn består av tre forskjellige leirelandskap.
Om prosjektet Jording med (blå)leire
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
I doktorgradsprosjektet Jording med (blå)leire1 har jeg jobba med kunstneriske prosesser og øvelser som knytter oss tettere på blåleira i landskapet. Gjennom seks års utdannelse innenfor det keramiske kunstfeltet og kunsthåndverk2 ble vi aldri introdusert for leire ute i naturen som en del av undervisningen. Vi lærte å lage forskjellige leirer ved hjelp av råstoffer som kaolin, kvarts, pipeleire og chamotte fra innkjøpt pulver i sekker blandet med vann, men var aldri ute og gravde leire og prosesserte denne selv. Vi jobbet med importerte leirer der sintringsintervall3, grovhetsgrad, farge etter brenning og krymp-prosent var printet på plastpakningen. Leirene var homogene og klare til å modellere med, og man kunne stole på at den alltid var lik fra pakke til pakke. Keramikk- og kunstfeltets gjengse oppfattelse av leire som et stabilt universelt materiale, som er relativt lik uansett hvor man kjøper den fra, blir i dette prosjektet satt i kontrast til det spesifikke og skiftende i landskapet, leira og menneskene involvert. Denne situerte kunnskapsproduksjonen4 i det kunstneriske doktorgradsprosjektet er et av de potensielle bidragene til fagfeltet.
Sosial keramikk
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Sosial keramikk er kopper, beholdere og tallerkener som er laget av blåleire og brunleire fra leirelandskaper jeg har jobbet i som en del av prosjektet Jording med (blå)leire.
Om leire og tegl på Økern
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Arbeidet "Om leire og tegl på Økern" bestod av fire workshopper som gikk ut på å lage tegl fra A til Å.
Utendørs keramikk
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Brent blåleire fra Feiring bruk avdeling Kulmoen, opprinnelig fra Alnabru, blandet med sagflis fra KHiOs treverksted, chamotte og breavsetningssand. Del av relieff til kunst i offentlig rom oppdrag, som feilbrente. Her kuttet igjennom med diamantsag på KHiOs keramikkversted.
Den norske blåleira
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Denne plastposen fra Hana & Holmens potterier med bittelitt blåleire i, fikk jeg av keramikeren Marit Tingleff1 under et besøk hos henne på Hønefoss høsten 2022. Hana & Holmens Potterier var basert i Sandnes der de hadde pottemakeri, men også utvant, prosesserte og solgte blåleire til skoler og keramikere fra før andre verdenskrig til 2012.
Å lese en murstein
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Disse objektene representerer utforskningen jeg har gjort på Senstad gård på Nes i Innlandet, men også utstillingen Å lese en murstein, som har vært formende for den videre utviklingen av prosjektet. Både hvordan jeg ser på det keramiske og leireprosessene i prosjektet, arkivet og kunsten.
Samtale med Kristian Balke og Stine Marie Olaussen fra SKANSKA
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Utdrag fra samtale med Kristian Balke og Stine Marie Olaussen fra SKANSKA på befaring av Østre Aker vei 25.
Dokumentasjon fra midtveisevaluering
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Fotodokumentasjon av midtveisevalueringen og ROM studio i forkant. Utdrag fra spørsmålsrunden i midtveisevalueringen.
Samtale med Arely Amaut og Tatjana Kolpus
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Denne siden har utdrag fra en samtale og er en refleksjon av et samarbeid jeg hadde med Tatjana Kolpus og Arely Amaut fra 24. mai til 7. juni 2024. Vi ville utforske måter å tilnærme oss leirelandskapene med respekt og gode intensjoner, basert på praksiser og kosmologier fra våre forskjellige bakgrunner. Arely og jeg besøkte alle leirelandskapene og ble enige om å konsentrere oss om Bryn ved Alnaelva. Vann og elver og dens betydning for forskjellige lokalsamfunn i Lima er noe Arely jobber med i sin egen praksis, og hun har mange erfaringer og kunnskap å dele.
Koppesamarbeid med Anne Line Sund
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
24.11.2024 og 04.01.2024 Deler av samtale under samarbeid om å lage kopper på verkstedet til Anne Line Sund på Nesodden.
Samtale med jo Gunnar Håkonsen og Tanja Marie Gjerde på Feiring Bruk AS
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Sigrid Espelien
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Intervju av Jo Gunnar Håkonsen og Tanja Marie Gjerde ansatt på Feiring Bruk AS.
Denne leira og beholderen representerer blåleire som en del av byggeplasser og byggenæringen i prosjektet. Denne lokasjonen er et interessant ikke-sted1 i et trafikknutepunkt på Økern, der det er overraskende å finne leire.open exposition comments (0)
Denne leira og beholderen representerer blåleire som en del av et industrilandskap i prosjektet.open exposition comments (0)
Denne leira og beholderen representerer blåleire som en del av et elvelandskap med en teglindustrihistorie i prosjektet. Leirelandskapet på Bryn består av tre forskjellige leirelandskap.open exposition comments (0)
Sosial keramikk er kopper, beholdere og tallerkener som er laget av blåleire og brunleire fra leirelandskaper jeg har jobbet i som en del av prosjektet Jording med (blå)leire.open exposition comments (0)
Arbeidet "Om leire og tegl på Økern" bestod av fire workshopper som gikk ut på å lage tegl fra A til Å.open exposition comments (0)
Brent blåleire fra Feiring bruk avdeling Kulmoen, opprinnelig fra Alnabru, blandet med sagflis fra KHiOs treverksted, chamotte og breavsetningssand. Del av relieff til kunst i offentlig rom oppdrag, som feilbrente. Her kuttet igjennom med diamantsag på KHiOs keramikkversted.open exposition comments (0)
Denne plastposen fra Hana & Holmens potterier med bittelitt blåleire i, fikk jeg av keramikeren Marit Tingleff1 under et besøk hos henne på Hønefoss høsten 2022. Hana & Holmens Potterier var basert i Sandnes der de hadde pottemakeri, men også utvant, prosesserte og solgte blåleire til skoler og keramikere fra før andre verdenskrig til 2012.open exposition comments (0)
Disse objektene representerer utforskningen jeg har gjort på Senstad gård på Nes i Innlandet, men også utstillingen Å lese en murstein, som har vært formende for den videre utviklingen av prosjektet. Både hvordan jeg ser på det keramiske og leireprosessene i prosjektet, arkivet og kunsten.open exposition comments (0)
Utdrag fra samtale med Kristian Balke og Stine Marie Olaussen fra SKANSKA på befaring av Østre Aker vei 25.open exposition comments (0)
Fotodokumentasjon av midtveisevalueringen og ROM studio i forkant. Utdrag fra spørsmålsrunden i midtveisevalueringen.open exposition comments (0)
Denne siden har utdrag fra en samtale og er en refleksjon av et samarbeid jeg hadde med Tatjana Kolpus og Arely Amaut fra 24. mai til 7. juni 2024. Vi ville utforske måter å tilnærme oss leirelandskapene med respekt og gode intensjoner, basert på praksiser og kosmologier fra våre forskjellige bakgrunner. Arely og jeg besøkte alle leirelandskapene og ble enige om å konsentrere oss om Bryn ved Alnaelva. Vann og elver og dens betydning for forskjellige lokalsamfunn i Lima er noe Arely jobber med i sin egen praksis, og hun har mange erfaringer og kunnskap å dele.open exposition comments (0)
24.11.2024 og 04.01.2024 Deler av samtale under samarbeid om å lage kopper på verkstedet til Anne Line Sund på Nesodden.open exposition comments (0)
Intervju av Jo Gunnar Håkonsen og Tanja Marie Gjerde ansatt på Feiring Bruk AS.open exposition comments (0)