To be eaten: the constitution of the Transsexual Woman through patriarchal structures
(2024)
author(s): Síofra Augustein
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
[SCHOOL] Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague 2023
[DEPARTMENT] BA Fine Arts
This paper delves into a deep exploration of the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and identity of the transsexual woman, through a deeply personal narrative of self-reflection and critical inquiry. It confronts the societal constructs and power dynamics that shape the experiences of transgender women, particularly focusing on the themes of consumption, agency, and abjection within patriarchal structures. Drawing inspiration from the reflections of prominent transgender theorists and activists like Julia Serrano, Hunter Schafer and Susan Stryker, I navigate through the complexities of transitioning and self-discovery, weaving together philosophical insights with lived experiences. The paper investigates the constitutive nature of language and discourse in the formation of subjectivity, emphasizing the traumatic yet empowering effects of interpellation and performativity. Furthermore, it examines the abjectification of transgender bodies within societal norms and the dichotomy of desire and shame inherent in the construction of feminine identity. By engaging with concepts of transgression and phenomenology, the paper challenges traditional notions of gender and sexuality, offering a nuanced understanding of transgender embodiment as both a site of resistance and reclamation. Through intimate diary notes and theoretical discourse, I invite readers to confront the complexities of transgender existence and the transformative power of self-affirmation amidst societal erasure and increasing marginalization through out the western world. Ultimately, this paper seeks to foster dialogue and understanding surrounding transgender female experiences, advocating for a deeper understanding of the becoming and the constitution of becoming a woman, the sexual and social consequences and I hope the reader discovers parallels to their own existence and the sexualisation and constitution of it oneself.
Queer and Gender-Fluid Artists in the Music Performance Universe of the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries
(2024)
author(s): Brian Lyons
published in: KC Research Portal
In classical music there has been an effort in recent years to bring to light those whose artistic output contributed to their genre or era but were not as well-memorialized as their caucasian heteronormative male counterparts. So, what about artist-musicians, and those adjacent to them, who lived outside the gender constructs of their contemporary hegemony? What contributions did they purposefully or inadvertently make? What is their reception history and how were these histories documented?
Queer Studies in- and outside of musicology has made strides to recognize the existence of historic queer and gender nonconforming individuals. Generally speaking, the aim has been to legitimize the gender spectrum and to make the lives of these noteworthy individuals known. Still it’s impossible for us to know how these gender non-conformists would have categorized their own gender in the Early Modern and Modern Periods were they to have the same terminology as we have today.
In this thesis I will cite figures from plays and broadsheet ballads of the 17th century, the developing opera genre in France in the early 18th century, the “low style” in London society and theater in the early 19th century, through to the Reconstructionist United States. By illuminating queer and gender nonconforming individuals and the performative acts that defined their personal lives, I show that these communities have always existed in some iteration and in many facets of the musical universe. What emerges is a centuries-old artistic lineage between gender non-conforming people that has yet to be fully explored.
Body Hegemonies 2017: An Experimental Transfer
(2021)
author(s): Monica Clare van der Haagen-Wulff, Michael Lazar, Fabian Chyle
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
Body Hegemonies is an artistic project aimed at exploring and making transparent some of the themes of epistemic violence and hegemonic orders resulting from the legacy of colonialism and slavery, as the hidden flip-side of modernity and enlightenment. Our aim was to examine the Eurocentric logic of dehumanization and processes of exclusion from the perspective of bodies and their embeddedness within these hegemonic structures. The goal was to use artistic methods as tools to research topics commonly examined within an academic framework. The project focused on aspects of bodies that have been/are being excluded or made invisible within contemporary and historical discourses. “Body Hegemonies” worked on the trans-disciplinary interface (entanglement) of theorists, performers and everyday practitioners (experts), in an attempt to make possible other forms of knowing and knowledge production. Specifically, we tried to performatively re-inscribe the historically erased body within the production of knowledge. To engage with and explore these questions, a one-week laboratory was held in which six artists/(social)scientists gathered in a secluded location near Cologne Germany to hold video conversations with international experts over three days on the topics mentioned above. Resulting from these conversations, the Cologne participants presented individual performative responses to the group, which in turn were worked into a “performative score” presented to the public on the last day of the laboratory. This was flanked by a mini-symposium with two international scholars on the topic of body-hegemonies to expand the discursive field within which to locate and understand the artistic explorations.
Walking with Soldiers: How I learned to stop worrying and love cadets
(2020)
author(s): Susanna Hast
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
“Walking with Soldiers” examines an auto-ethnographic moment of marching across the city of Helsinki with first-year cadets of the Finnish National Defence University. In a reparative reading, the walk dismantles boundaries of bodies, critiques, and affects. Through a walking methodology and autoethnography, the present exposition demonstrates how the author began orienteering within military structures through an affective investment. The exposition is a researcher’s journey across subjectivities and difference in a female civilian body. Epistemologically, it brings theory closer to the skin; and empirically, it offers insight into the affective world of belonging. “Walking with Soldiers” is multimodal and polyphonic: it consists of a text for reading, three audio tracks for listening and co-walking, as well as illustrations created by Julia Järvelä based on photographs taken by the author. The provided materials can be selectively attended to. The artistic technique used in the exposition is seduction: the reader/listener is invited into an experience. The exposition is a conversation between critical military studies and artistic research: it gives artistic attention to a military march and places importance on the acoustic and vibrating qualities of academic research. The writing itself subverts the practice of authoritative scholarly writing by presenting descriptive work as theoretical work, and by using citations as companions from the outside.
European Female Wind Band Composers and Their Works
(2018)
author(s): Renata Silva Oliveira
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Renata Oliveira
Main Subject: Wind Band Conducting
Research Supervisors: Anna Scott, André Granjo
Title of Research: European Female Wind Band Composers and Their Works
Research Question: Can shedding new light on women composers’ contributions to the wind band and ensemble repertoire via the creation of a catalogue, the preparation of a critical edition, and the commission of a new work, help to encourage more Portuguese women to compose for this medium?
Summary of Results:
In Portugal, as far as it is possible to assess, only two established women composers have written works for wind band or large wind ensemble: Berta Alves de Sousa, who composed Porto Heróico in 1943, and Maria de Lourdes Martins, who composed Rapsódia de Natal, Rondó and Suite de Danças Tradicionais Portuguesas in 1978. In a country with an important tradition of wind band musical practice, it seems strange that so few women composers have used this medium to convey their musical ideas. In order to put the production of female composers for this medium in perspective, I researched relevant works from as many European female composers as possible. Ultimately, the hope was to better understand their outputs for wind band, to promote their works, and to make way for a new composition for wind band from a female Portuguese composer.
This project has three main outcomes: 1) an online and physical catalogue of virtually all European female composers who have written for wind ensemble, including biographical data, a list of their works, and statistical analyses of their personal data (by age, country, type of ensemble); 2) a critical edition of Berta Alves de Sousa's Porto Heróico manuscript; and 3) my commissioned work for wind band O Soldado da Misarela by Anne Victorino d’Almeida. At the end of this project I can answer yes to the question of whether shedding new light on this field can encourage more female Portuguese composers to write for wind band.
Biography:
Renata Oliveira is a Portuguese conductor. She began her orchestra conducting studies with Jean-Marc Burfin and later with Jean-Sebastien Béreau. In conducting masterclasses Renata has worked with: Jose Pascual-Vilaplana, Kenneth Kiesler, Jean-Sebastien Béreau, Ernst Schelle, Robert Houlihan, Felix Hauswirth, Jan Cober and Douglas Bostock. She holds a Masters in Psychology and a Masters in Orchestra Conducting. She is conductor of two Portuguese wind bands, and is responsible for their associated music schools. Renata simultaneously studies Wind Band Conducting with Alex Schillings at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and a Masters in Music Teaching (Wind Band Conducting specialisation) at the University of Aveiro.
XRW (Implicature)
(last edited: 2025)
author(s): Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
50 A3 drawings black and coloured markers, including:
3 A3 collages on paper with newspaper cutouts and printed photos.
12 A4 drawings on paper with coloured markers, glued on A3 paper + 1 A3 with black ballpoint pen and markers, glued on A3 paper.
13 A3 drawings on paper with black marker, and red, pale blue, gold, pink and orange markers +1 A3 two-sided.
17 A3 drawings on paper with coloured markers.
1 drawing on sketchbook cover with red nail polish.
1 text drawing on sketchbook cover inside.
1 drawing on sketchbook cover back inside with black, orange and gold markers.
22 A4 drawings with ballpoint pen.
Some of the above is preparatory work for 4 large prints and 13 paintings. The 12 A4 glued on A3 are preparatory work for a collage on panel.
I made the art between 2023-2024, from the perspective of the observer. Most of the research material came out of crime and fraud reports. I started writing the blog afterwards, from the summer of 2024.
I adopted the visual vocabulary of the graphic novel, which I partly studied and read a lot about looking at different graphic artists' work, when I was attending classes at the University of Malmo, Sweden, in 2012. I mixed this with stylistic elements of the architectural sketch, using heavily the black marker and stick figures. Much of this work is, amongst other, about children. I wanted to emphasise that, by intentionally applying stylistic elements from children's drawings, in a naive and loose architectural composition. Using this visual approach, I wanted to evoke a comically sharp twist to the otherwise dark subject matter.
The text is written like a trip-hop song. Parts of the analysis is inspired by Saul Kripke's interpretation of Wittgenstein's example of mathematical calculation. I used plenty of popular and less popular literary and philosophical references, for the visual art and in the writing. In the style of art, I was inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat's drawings and paintings, which are laden with input from popular media sources, like jazz music and television, recorded in an automatic and naive drawing manner.
Saul Aaron Kripke was the inventor of the possible worlds philosophical hypothesis, which was seminal for philosophers working in the area of contemporary analytic metaphysics, including the theory of counterparts and the theory of names. He died in 2022. Lauren Berlant was a cultural theorist and gender studies scholar. She died in 2021.
For Nikos ('Rama', 'Mr X'), Filip ('Philip'), and Brandon - August, September, and October 2024. For "Daddy G" and 'Eric' ("Paul V.") - January 2025 -. Who are not politicians, but are doing something political.
See also exposition "The Loot", under 'Art and Activism Exposed as Research Blog'.
You Don't See What I See
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Karlijn Karthaus
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Research Paper of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2024
BA Photography
Summary:
You don’t see what I see.
I don’t see what you see.
Eyes as hatches passing through reflections of the world around.
Electromagnetic radiation translated into visuals.
Interpreted by mental processes in the brain.
As a woman who used to work in the corporate world, is a mother and an aspiring photographer, I am interested in the topics of gender equality and feminism, seen as inequality based on power relations that are culturally constructed in society. Regarding these topics, I find mostly written or text-based outings. The nature of the topic results in either stereotype or cliché imagery we see in the media, that are detrimental in acquiring an equal basis for everyone. Using case studies, I analyze photographic work related to the gender inequality and power structures. The theoretical framework applied is from Nicholas Mirzoeff (British-American, 1962), Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at the New York University and is derived from his book ‘An introduction to Visual Culture’ (2023). This theory distinct ‘visualizing’ (what is commonly seen, the ruling power) and ‘visibilizing’ (introducing different perspectives as response to the ruling power). Mirzoeff elaborates on this by comparing the Spanish word for power, ‘poder’, meaning “static, constituted power” with power as ‘potencia’ which according to him has a “dynamic constituent dimension… our power to do, to be affected and to be affected by others.”. To me he connects visualization with exposing what the systemic power wants us to see, while ‘visibilizing’ is exposing the views that are not dictated by that overarching power but that have the freedom to show different perspectives and views.
For the case studies I chose ‘The Table of Power I & II’ of Dutch Photographer Jacqueline Hassink (1966-2018) analyzing economic power and role of women in the higher echelons of companies. A work consisting of board rooms photos of the forty largest industrial multinational companies at the time (1994 & 2009, Table of Power I & II respectively). In ‘Female Power Stations: Queen Bees’ (1996-1998) she reflects upon board rooms of female leadership countered against their dining tables at home, all set up to receive guests. A diptych of power (work) vs. traditional qualities (home). I continue with the work ‘Performance Review’ (2020) of American photographer Endia Beal (1985). ‘Performance Review’ is about fitting into traditional corporate culture layered with outward signifiers of difference, navigating the corporate environment based on unconscious biases.
We are part of the system, whether we like it or not. Me aiming to trigger a change with photographs is what drives me to be a maker. By not taking things as truth or fixed, by challenging the status quo, and by knowing that there are always different perspectives to look at things. I feel I am challenging the visualization of things, and therefore affect people around me. It’s me creating a ‘potencia’, a dynamic constituent dimension, that fights the ‘poder’; it’s within my power to do and my photographs will enable that.
"The Flapper's Fashions: A Secret Magazine for the Modern Woman"
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Mina Calori
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This magazine is inspired by the underground journals of the time highlighting the oppression of women through the fashion world, in this case Caroline Emington a 1920's housewife abandoned by a hard working husband, a prisoner of her own condition, took an intense interest in writing and set about publishing an underground gazette "The Flapper's Fashions: A Secret Magazine for the Modern Woman", in order to free her voice, and perhaps that of all women.
Hands caring with mortars: soundscape regarding caring activities (nourishment) of Extremadura’s rurality from a gender perspective. Ajoblanco Quartett
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Carmen García-Gil Simancas
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This research studies daily experiences of caring activities (nourishment) through sound. The aim is to reclaim their value and place within academic studies and epistemology, as well as to document those customs that are slowly fading away. Specifically, it has been chosen the elaboration of ajoblanco (typical south-Spanish food), as it is traditionally prepared with a wood mortar. This object is also used as a musical instrument in Extremadura’s traditional music, which reveals the curiosity around its sound. Furthermore, this research considers spaces and the way of thinking of them from a sound point of view. In conclusion, rural women’s individuality and subjectivity is studied through different ways of making ajoblanco and its soundcape.
Keywords: soundscape, subjectivity, caring activities, spaces
BETWEEN US
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Doris Ingrisch, Florian Tanzer
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
A scientist invites a choreographer and dancer for a project. “Science and Art in Dialogue. Theoretical Reflection and Experimental Arrangements” is the title of this undertaking, which developed out of an engagement with the connecting lines of science, art, and gender.
The first experimental arrangement is a space of encounter, of getting to know each other.
UNSCHÄRFEN eine art konferenz
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Doris Ingrisch, Andrea Sodomka
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Clarity as a hidden imperative of modernism was useful to
Enlightenment, for demystifying the modern world. Ambiguity, however,
breaks with the notion of a universe of clarity. Opposites blur,
ambiguity is given space – through listening, seeing, thinking. The
relationship to the observed undergoes change. Time is necessary in
order to see something, the intention is to bring out associations.
A scientist invites a choreographer and dancer for a project. “Science and Art in Dialogue. Theoretical Reflection and Experimental Arrangements” is the title of this undertaking, which developed out of an engagement with the connecting lines of science, art, and gender. The first experimental arrangement is a space of encounter, of getting to know each other.open exposition comments (0)
Clarity as a hidden imperative of modernism was useful to Enlightenment, for demystifying the modern world. Ambiguity, however, breaks with the notion of a universe of clarity. Opposites blur, ambiguity is given space – through listening, seeing, thinking. The relationship to the observed undergoes change. Time is necessary in order to see something, the intention is to bring out associations.open exposition comments (0)