Research Catalogue

A search for new forms of identity programs for places; with emphasis on democracy and non-commercial resources. Research fellow project (2011), the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme.

The project explores expressions found through interactions between performers of early music and composers. This part of the documentation is focused on the collaboration between Ruben Sverre Gjertsen and Ensemble Currentes, parts where the project has moved outside the field of historically informed performance, and into the experimental field.

SYNSMASKINEN: an inquiry into contemporary political crises SYNSMASKINEN is a new artist-group and an inquiry into contemporary political crises. The project will consist of art projects, each exploring a certain aspect or manifestation of contemporary crisis. Together these visions are attempts to unfold a contemporary cosmology; a new political horizon. SYNSMASKINEN is an artist-group in the sense that each production is made in collaboration between a small group of participants. Each art project will be made by new groups of artists and thinkers. In this sense SYNSMASKINEN will probe the concept of the research-group: What kind of insights does artistic thinking provide? How can collectivity address the political issues of topics in a critical manner? The name, SYNSMASKINEN is taken from the Danish and Norwegian translations of Paul Virilio’s seminal book on the techniques of perception, La Machine De Vision. The name SYNSMASKINEN contains the methodological program: SYN=vision / MASKIN=machine SYNSMASKINEN is the third large-scale research-project at Bergen Academy of Art & Design. Following Re-Place and Topographies of the Obsolete the project offers a continuation of and an addition to the new tradition of kunstnerisk utvikling/artistic research at the core the Department of Art. SYNSMASKINEN is organised by professor Frans Jacobi, artistic-research leader Åse Løvgren and research assistant Benedicte Clementsen. www.synsmaskinen.net

Open form is a designation on a type of composition that is in some degree open. It is also a term in relation to understanding a genre. This means that I do not include for example Bach´s Die Kunst der Fuge (circa 1740), but Stockhausen´s Aus den sieben Tagen (1968) could be included. This project, however, is centered around the composers from The New York Scool, and composers related to The New York School: Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman and Cornelius Cardew. An Open form composition is graphic, text- or number-based. It may also be a combination of these three notational techniques and/or in combination with conventional staff line-notation.

Topographies of the Obsolete is an artistic research project initiated by Professors Neil Brownsword and Anne Helen Mydland at Bergen Academy of Art and Design (KHiB) in collaboration with partner universities/institutions in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France and the UK. In 2012 the British Ceramics Biennial invited Bergen Academy of Art and Design (KHiB) to develop a site-specific artistic response to the former Spode Factory in Stoke-on-Trent as a key element of their 2013 exhibition programme. The project explores the landscape and associated histories of post-industry, with an initial emphasis on Stoke-on-Trent, a world-renowned ceramics capital that bears evidence of fluctuations in global fortunes.

(Un-)settling sites and styles: In search of new expressive means. Eight performers (voice, piano, violin, cello), one musicologist and one composer aspired to unsettle their habitual ways of working with musical interpretation of 20th century and contemporary Norwegian composers. By collaborating to develop new perspectives and methods, they investigated questions of style and how different sites influenced their rehearsals and performances. How do performers find new expressive means? How can intersubjective exchange within a research group contribute to articulating tacit knowledge? How can mutual unsettling approaches influence conventional or subjective attitudes of fidelity to a score or a performance tradition? How can novel sounds, musical material and musical meaning emerge beyond prejudiced conceptions or through improvisation? The three-year project was facilitated by the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme and the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (Grieg Academy), University of Bergen, and resulted in texts, sound recordings, videos, and new commented score editions.

- Et kunstnerisk eksperiment

Design in the place of Design Thinking

De siste årene har tilbudet av kurs i «Design Thinking» økt markant. Kursene kan ta form av et par timers seminar med overskriften «Lær Design Thinking». Slike kurs kan gi innsikt i Design Thinking-prosessen, men kan også medføre at Design Thinking fort blir oppfattet som et trendy buzzord. Design Thinking er nemlig ikke en kvikkfiks på ethvert problem. For å kunne gjennomføre en god Design Thinking-prosess trenger du mer enn et introduksjonskurs: Design Thinking er en prosess som krever kunnskap, øvelse, tid og hardt arbeid.

In recent years, “Design Thinking” as an interdisciplinary innovation process has increasingly led trade and industry and the public sector to take an interest in the design profession. While this profession has traditionally been related to the design of products and shaping of surroundings, today design can also concern methods and processes, making the profession relevant for additional areas of society. In this article, we present some key characteristics of the design profession today, and also discuss which expectations and different designer roles newly qualified designers meet and may come to meet in the future.

De siste årene har den tverrfaglige innovasjonsprosessen «Design Thinking» gjort at en større del av næringsliv og offentlig sektor har begynt å interessere seg for designfaget. Mens faget tradisjonelt har vært knyttet til utforming av produkter og forming av omgivelser, kan design i dag handle om metoder og prosesser, noe som gjør faget relevant for flere samfunnsområder. I artikkelen presenterer vi noen hovedkjennetegn ved designfaget i dag, og drøfter også hvilke forventninger og ulike designerroller nyutdannede designere møter og kan komme til å møte i fremtiden.

Topographies of the Obsoleteis an Artistic Research project (KU Prosjekt) initiated by Professors Neil Brownsword and Anne Helen Mydland at Bergen Academy of Art and Design (KHiB) in collaboration with partner universities/institutions in Denmark, Germany and the UK. Our main collaborative partner is the British Ceramics Biennial, who invited KHiB to work at the original Spode Works factory in Stoke-on-Trent, to develop a site specific artistic response as a core element of their 2013 exhibition program. More than 40 international artists and theoreticians have participated in this multidisciplinary project with a program of seminars, publications and exhibitions. Three residencies have accumulated individual artistic projects from which the overriding project has developed. The project focus centres upon the landscape of post-industry, more particular; that of Stoke-on-Trent, a world renowned ceramic capital that bears in its city evidence of fluctuations in global fortunes. The original Spode factory, situated in the heart of Stoke-on-Trent, was once a keystone of the city's industrial heritage which operated upon its original site for over 230 years. Amongst Spode's contributions to ceramic history include the perfection of under-glaze blue printing and Fine Bone China. The factory's industrial architecture dates from the 1760's to the late 1980's, with spaces associated with all aspects of the design, manufacture, retail and administration in close geographical proximity. In 2008 Spode's Church Street site closed, with most of its production infrastructure and contents left intact.