The Bloom of Emotions
(2025)
author(s): Alejandra Conrado Carcasona
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023
BA Photography
With the recent cultural emphasis on the pursuit of happiness, the expression of negative emotions seems to be neglected. The impact of not valuing and integrating emotions that can be viewed as negative can be detrimental to one’s well-being. There seems to be a widespread denial or suppression of such emotions that, eventually, can lead to problems such as self-esteem problems, depression, anxiety, etc. This has led to the urge to better understand what this observation is based on.
How do you dress? What parts of your life do you share?
What version of yourself do you show? Do you show the socially acceptable version or the raw and authentic version of yourself?
There seems to be an unspoken rule that dictates how people should behave and portray themselves in front of others, showing only the positive aspects of their life. Taking this concept to a photographic level, I have encountered this scenario many times. You walk up to somebody and ask if you can take a picture of them. Their body tenses up, they rise tall and proud, and their smile stretches from ear to ear. They suddenly seem to be the happiest they have been all day, just for the picture.
This is also the reality of social media. Once you open the app you are sucked into a wonderland. Posts and stories of people seemingly living their best lives, travelling, smiling, flexing, and comparing themselves to a #FAKEBODY. This makes me question what power photography holds in this day and age. In what ways could photography be used as a tool used to suppress our emotions instead of allowing us to express our true feelings?
Through the use of chaptersation and personal stories, this thesis is presented by different emotions. By doing this, my aim is to create awareness and highlight the emphasis of emotions, making the reader question their own feelings and emotions, taking what resonates and helping them to tap into into their own body.
Hani Chladilová_And Suddenly, There Was Light
(2025)
author(s): Onyx Chladilová
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023
BA Photography
This thesis explores personal journey of the author’s healing
from sexual violence trauma through art making when conventional
therapy was not available. It is divided into two parts
where the first consists of descriptive-research-based writings,
while the second one provides the reader with personal writings
of the author.
The research-based part driven by a question How can
the process of art making help facilitate healing after experiencing
sexual violence firstly focuses on understanding trauma and
its causes and symptoms. Secondly, it provides understanding
of sexual violence, the barriers of reporting sexual violence, additionally,
it provides with understanding of how do survivors heal
from sexual violence induced trauma. Thirdly, it investigates releasing
and redirecting traumatic energy inspired by the writings
of therapist Peter A. Levine and outlines benefits of healing
through art making. Lastly, this part provides nine strategies
to avoid re-traumatization and to cope with potential triggers
when seeking to heal from trauma through art making.
The personal writings include thoughts, poems, notes
to self, and excerpts from a personal diary throughout author’s
endeavor to seek closure and become healed from sexual violence
induced trauma.
Overall, the thesis aims to inspire survivors of sexual violence
and other forms of trauma to include artmaking into their
journey of becoming healed.
From the tip of the tongue to the soles of the feet
(2025)
author(s): Laura Palau
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022
Master Photography & Society
'From the tip of the tongue to the soles of the feet' speaks about the processes of healing through the lived experiences of a handful of individuals, including myself. These experiences form the first stitches as we begin to care about our collectives traumas. By embodying grief, lending an ear to a healer and thinking along with nature this book addresses through photography the difficulty of distinguishing between reality and imagination when post-traumatic stress disorder and depression befalls.
the tenderness of silence
(2024)
author(s): Giulia Menicucci
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Research Paper of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague 2024. BA Photography.
This research paper began to investigate photographers and visual artists who use their practice as a coping mechanism to deal and understand family dynamics and events connected to it. Drawing inspiration from personal narratives and correspondence with my father, the research navigates through themes such as generational silence, family, and Italian patriarchal culture.Through a reflective process, I believe that artistic practice can become a way to delve into the traumas that affect the family environment. In this way, it is possible to approach places and people we do not know well, such as our parents. This process not only facilitates healing but has also given me the tools to further develop my practice by using knowledge gained from the practice of other photographers and exploring the combination of different methods of writing. The research paper was the starting point of my collaboration with my father as it gave me the possibility to open a conversation with him and discover the untold things that lay between us. In the process of writing, I’ve used the paper as a way to remember the stories of my childhood and take inspiration for my photography.
The elements that I’ve touched appon the stories came back later in the process of making allowing me to have a clearest idea of my further steps into the project. To understand this, I looked in someone else’s houses, experiencing the tradition of mourning on the Greek island through the photography of Ioanna Sakellaraki and the tenderness of a mother in understanding her children with the project of Sian Davey. I moved to different places, to different generations, entering the house of Larry Sultan, full of kitschy design and colorful wallpaper that sets the scene for a story of discovery.
The driveway of Deanne Dikerman has seen many days and many goodbyes and the loving words and confession of Chantal Akerman who could not give more for her mother. I discovered the work of Tami Aftab in the little post-its stuck in the corners of a house and now part of the outside world. And then between laughter and tears, I entered the complicated house of Richard Billingham, between one glass of wine and another.
Each of these artists showed their intimate space, in which we discover stories that do not belong to us but that can guide us to understanding where we are, what we feel, and what we suffer. There is a lot of vulnerability in being behind the camera while a parent is in front. To ask questions and start seeing them as people and not just as parents. To reveal the stories of pain that lie in the past and are hidden by the passing of time. We hide in the home to escape from what frightens us and then we are called to talk about what is hidden. Photography is a way in which we can reshape what has happened, a way in which we can understand the succession of events and build a home that hides nothing. In doing this research I opened up a conversation and brought the house outside. I broke a silence that had lasted too many years and found a passionate father who wanted to discard the past. And so, in staying in silence while you are willing to say things but don’t know where to start there is some tenderness and there is some strength. In unfolding the memories and breaking the silence I know I have found empathy instead of trauma, creating a common ground where climbing trees is a moment of rest somewhere in the past.
"Investigating the Big Blue": cyanotype workshop in two parts, Amorgos, Cyclades, Greece
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Hannah L. M. Eßler, Micol Favini, Lovis Heuss, Eirini Sourgiadaki, Livia Zumofen, Anna Rubi, Tomer Zirkilevech, Alisha Dutt Islam, Charles Kwong
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
A 2-part module by the MA Transdisciplinary Studies of ZHdK, Department Kulturanalysen und Vermittlung. Held by Anna Rubi & Eirini Sourgiadaki.
Autumn 2023-Spring 2024
Colour perception varies, so do the semantics of colour terminology, for both sighted and blind individuals. The questions around colour perception from ophthalmology or neurobiology perspectives to cognitive and artistic ones, are infinite: Is there a universal human experience of the blue sky, the green grass and the brown soil? How is colour perceived in the brain, how is it translated into a communicable concept and how does it affect our perceived world, our mental and physical state? What is the role of colour in synesthesia? And most importantly, does colour have to do just with vision? In this module we work with the generation of blue colour on print, using the major light source available, the Sun.
The Island of Amorgos is often referred to as “Le grand bleu” after the famous french film was shot at location. Its ancient name is “Melania”. “Melani”, the Greek word for ink, (“Melano” for dark blue, cyan) as it is said that in ancient times the place was covered with dark green flora. Our investigation begins exactly with this deep tint. We pay a visit to the famous monastery and the water oracle, walk the trails to observe the sensual -not only vision-based- shades of blue. In the spring term, we participate in local activities such as beach clean-up initiatives of the remote bays by local fishermen and their boats. We visit bee-hives and herb-distilleries, we work with the most basic bits and pieces of the island to capture its essence.
The Relationship Between the Military, Bodies, and Performance Practice
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Lydia Cardenas
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This map seeks to visualize the relationship between power paradigms that propel the military industrialized complex, the human body, and performance art. I was inspired by interviews with J. and S., both military veterans, and their performance practices. By using the body as a tool for research, performance acknowledges that we know in different ways, thus creating a bridge between the authority of written scholarship with lived experience. So too, veteran artists bridge stratified worlds, constantly recalibrating embodied military training in a civilian environment. By using the cultural capital of art, writing and movement, J. and S. remind audiences of invisible chains of power and authority that connects us to foreign policy and global communities.
Power paradigms : neoliberalism, capitalism, colonialism
Psyche: woundedness, validation, healing, boundaries
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022 Master Photography & Society 'From the tip of the tongue to the soles of the feet' speaks about the processes of healing through the lived experiences of a handful of individuals, including myself. These experiences form the first stitches as we begin to care about our collectives traumas. By embodying grief, lending an ear to a healer and thinking along with nature this book addresses through photography the difficulty of distinguishing between reality and imagination when post-traumatic stress disorder and depression befalls.open exposition comments (0)