University of the Arts Helsinki

2023

Uniarts Helsinki 2023 Publications

Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency - Clew: A Rich and Rewarding DIsorientation (2023) Lauren O'Neal
This exposition examines the curatorial project "Clew: A Rich and Rewarding Disorientation," held at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2017. The project is part of my doctoral research on “Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency.” “Clew” proposes a framework for curatorial dramaturgy and asks: What is the potential of a dramaturgical approach within an open-ended exhibition structure? Who, or what, is the curatorial dramaturg? How do materials and time contribute to unfolding exhibition narratives? [This exposition corresponds to Section Six: Extending Lines in All Directions: Curatorial Dramaturgy in the printed dissertation.]
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Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency - Open House: A Portrait of Collecting (2023) Lauren O'Neal
“Open House: A Portrait of Collecting,” a curatorial project held at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2015, is part of my doctoral research on “Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency.” The "Open House" exhibition was initially about collecting and caring for objects, a traditional function of museums. Curating with a choreographic mindset encouraged me to address other questions, including how objects and collections foster emotional connections. My initial question for the project, “How to do things with objects?” soon became “How do objects arrange spaces of relation between people and ideas?” Themes include community, memory, identity, taxonomy, preservation, accumulation, value, story, exchange, and display. [This exposition corresponds to Section Five: Arranging Spaces of Relation(s): What Can Objects Do? in the printed dissertation.]
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Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency - Being and Feeling (Alone, Together) (2023) Lauren O'Neal
What "moves" in an exhibition, if not the bodies of artists, audiences, and objects? How does conversation move us? What can speculative artistic research offer? This exposition, "Being & Feeling (Alone Together),” held at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2020, is part of my doctoral research project, “Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency.” While some aspects of the project (including the title), were developed before the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the project unfolds in relation to myriad cultural, spatiotemporal, and civic situations that the pandemic produced. This situation required experimental and responsive curatorial methods that encouraged the project to move in unexpected ways. [This exposition corresponds to Section Seven: Letting Things Move in the printed dissertation.]
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Villivirrestä Virsileikkiin: Virren luomisesta luovaan virteen_Tutkielma_videolinkit (2023) Sirkku Rintamäki
Sirkku Rintamäen taiteellisen tohtorintutkinnon tutkielmaan "Villivirrestä Virsileikkiin: Virren luomisesta luovaan virteen" kuuluvat videolinkit. Video links of Sirkku Rintamäki's doctoral thesis "From Wild Hymns to Hymnplay: From Hymn Creation to the Creative Hymn"
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NEPTUNE PROJECT: Transforming Personal Narrative Into Political Statement in an Autobiographical Play (2023) Vera Boitcova
This thesis explores the ways in which personal narratives in dramaturgy can be read as political statements on the example of creating and staging my autobiographical queer play Neptune over the course of two years (March 2021-March 2023). My research questions include: - What circumstances can evoke a creative desire to transform personal into political through art mediums? To what extent performance art can be effective as a tool to convey political messages? - How to convey political messages through personal narratives in dramaturgy\playwriting? What makes a narrative political and what can be defined as a political narrative? What does ‘being political’ mean specifically for a queer artist\dramaturge? - What methodology, aesthetical, directorial and acting choices can be made to further enhance and underline political message of a documentary narrative, specifically in queer context? These questions will be examined in a detailed account of writing my own autobiographical play Neptune in the year of war and strengthening of oppression in Russia, and subsequent staging of this play. My play had three distinct layers: meta-level (where the narrator talked about her recent political experiences in the year 2022), memory level (subjective memories of a lost love), and fictional level (different characters acting in thematically-relevant vignettes). Therefore, I want my thesis to be reflective of the same structure: it will have three main chapters - Meta, Memory, and Fiction – with the overall reflection at the end. Overall aim of this thesis is to trace the process of creating an autobiographical play from its creative conception (and reasons behind it) to turning it into a theatre production, and by doing so, to examine if it succeeded in its initial goal of conveying a certain political message, and if so, how this result was achieved.
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How to stay alive? (2023) Man Huen Christy Ma
This research exposition is part of my MA research in Comparative Dramaturgy and Performance Research in Theater Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki and Goethe University. The other part is the artistic work “how are we still alive here? what about there?” consisting of a performance and exhibition which took place in Studio 1, Theater Academy in February 2023. The research is a response as well as an investigation on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on contemporary dance, how it affects my corporeality and my creative process in consideration to changes in spectatorship in the mediatized post-pandemic society. The literature review is an exploration of how different disciplines of knowledge intersect with my artistic practice, this exposition is best to be viewed along the artistic part for a better understanding.
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