HOW LITTLE IS ENOUGH? Sustainable Methods of Performance for Transformative Encounters.
(2024)
author(s): Steinunn Knúts Önnudóttir
published in: Research Catalogue
The exposition is an artistic PhD thesis and contains research outputs in three categories, Performance Archive, Research Publications and Method Development tied together by an essay.
I.Essay:
Testimony of a Pilgrim.
II.Performance Archive:
No Show - exposition.
Island - exposition.
Strings - exposition.
Pleased to Meet You - exposition.
III.Research Publications:
Porous and Embracing Dramaturgy for Transformative Encounters - video article.
A Quest for Existential Sustainability - video article.
Transformative Encounters - podcast series.
IV.Method Development:
ME-THOD.
How-little-is-enough-approach.
Abstract
At the core of this artistic doctoral thesis are four performance projects designed to counter the consumer-driven nature of contemporary performance-making while also addressing the need to develop sustainable methods of performance. Guided by the question: how to construct sustainable methods of performance for transformative encounters? the inquiry transcends the different layers of performance-making to explore the potential of performance as a catalyst for societal change.
As a part of the Agenda 2030 Graduate School, an interdisciplinary research initiative at Lund University, the project focuses on existential sustainability and investigates how performance can enhance participants' sense of meaning and motivation for adopting sustainable lifestyles and increasing sustainable awareness.
The thesis output is presented in three categories; a performance archive documenting, detailing and analysing the performances and their impact; research publications, disseminating findings and key concepts through different public formats; and method development accounting for the methodological approaches that have emerged through the process.
The four performance works of this artistic research are: No Show (2020), Island (2020), Strings (2022), and Pleased to Meet You (2022/2023).
The three publications of the project are: How Little is Enough? Embracing and Porous Dramaturgies for Transformative Encounters, a video article; How Little is Enough? A Quest for Existential Sustainability, a video article; and the podcast series Transformative Encounters.
Utilizing Me-thod, a pluralistic situated methodology grounded in the artist´s personal background and skillset, together with the how-little-is-enough approach, which minimizes production and focuses on essential needs, the project has collected insights into how performative encounters can initiate transformation in participants and foster connections to the world around them, thereby enhancing existential sustainability and nurturing care for the environment. Through repeated cycles of action-based artistic research, employing qualitative materials and autoethnographical approaches, rich data was generated. The findings emphasize the importance of personal engagement, embodiment, and authentic exchange as catalysts for transformation within performative encounters.
Through this investigation, the thesis aims to contribute to the development of sustainable approaches to performance-making that facilitate profound and meaningful human experiences in an era marked by unprecedented societal and environmental challenges.
ISBN:978-91-8104-107-1
Pleased to Meet you
(2024)
author(s): Steinunn Knúts Önnudóttir
published in: Research Catalogue
This exposition is a documentation and dissection of the work Pleased to Meet You, a performative encounter with the more-than-human. The work has been presented in two editions, at Lokal/RDF, Reykjavík, Iceland, November 2022, and at IAC, Malmö,Sweden, March 2023.
The exposition examines the relations specific elements of the work and connects it to the artistic PhD research "How Little is Enough?" Sustainable Methods of Performance for Transformative Encounters in Malmö Theatre Academy at Lund University.
Island
(2024)
author(s): Steinunn Knúts Önnudóttir
published in: Research Catalogue
The exposition is a documentation and dissection of the performance Eyja/Island that was peformed in 2020. The performance is a part of the artistic PhD research "How Little is Enough?" Sustainable Methods of Performance for Transformative Encounters in Malmö Theatre Academy at Lund University.
It contains a video essay about the process of creating the work that describes both motivation and methods, a manuscript, photographs of the performance and a video interview with Gréta Kristín Ómarsdóttir a co-creator of the work.
Island
Eyja is a piece about what it means to belong; what ties a person to a community or a place and what kind of commitment it requires to be a part of something.
The challenges of the island reflect the global challenges of current times. In the performance guests are invited to critically investigate their own ideas on what it means to belong.
The guests are invited to mirror themselves in a staged journey through the life and values of the islanders. Through walks, observations, genuine exchange, symbolic gestures and structured dialogue, topics on quality of life on the ´island´ are contemplated.
Flow on stage
(last edited: 2016)
author(s): Frank Heckman
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Sustainable Performance is about learning how to be a great performer. Giving you the concepts, tools, skills and insights to do so. In that, it is practical and certainly aimed at the professional teacher and young professional.
But it is more than a practice-based guide, for it is about life, the path you take, how you resonate with the environment you are in, the space you share with others, the communities you are part of and the role you (wish) to play in it. In that myriad web of relationships you are ‘alive’, give and take, change and evolve. In short, it is about learning how to continuously re-see and re-hear the world and then re-enter your creative zone to help create and/or inspire another new vision/dream/world.