Research Catalogue

an international database for artistic research

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  ∂ Topological Landscapes (2021) author(s): András Blazsek published in: Journal for Artistic Research
  ∂ Topological Landscapes (2015–ongoing) is a multisensory environment that comprises three projects, all based on research into the controversial healing instruments designed by Southern California inventor Royal Raymond Rife (Nebraska, 1888–California, 1971). Rife’s early twentieth-century scientific work involved light microscopy, frequency theory, and the concept of pleomorphism, which he applied to study formal differentiation in viral cells. One of Rife’s aims was to develop methods and mechanisms that would allow him to use frequencies to kill viruses. ∂ (curly d) is the symbol for ‘boundary’ in general topology. In this research, it is employed as a mathematical symbol that links the study of shifting material surfaces with an inquiry into the fluctuating borders between art and science. It posits that abandoned possibilities in scientific error and failed experiments may harbour other futures. In its three projects, ∂ Topological Landscapes works with different technologies of reproduction using 3D animation, 3D printed sculpture, sonification, and prototype-making to explore findings from various attempts to replicate Rife’s instruments. The necessary information for creating these replications was gathered from the object archive of the Science Museum of London and from the two former sites of the inventor’s research: the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, San Diego, and the Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles.
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  Methods of Indirection: a trialogue between Patrizia Bach, Howard Eiland, and Luis Berríos-Negrón about Walter Benjamin and translating The Arcades Project (2020) author(s): Luis Berríos-Negrón, Patrizia Bach, Howard Eiland published in: Journal for Artistic Research, Konstfack - University of Arts, Crafts and Design
  Walter Benjamin deemed his Arcades Project [Das Passagen-Werk (Mit Bindestrich und Werk mit Capital W)] “the theatre of all my struggles and all my ideas.” As a vast accumulation of materials, it had become for him a literary laboratory for testing social, critical, and spatial ideas. The co-authors here present an exposition where they look to reactivate that ‘theatre’ to search, test, and draw from each other alternative recursions for their respective practices. Their respective discourses are intersected through a voluntary 'trialogue' that plays between three different roles aiming to diverge from the traditional form of a Q&A. The exchanges gravitate around ‘greenhouse’ as the historiographic display structure to the Arcades, as well as to Global Warming. But, the format also triggers ‘indirections’ urging unforeseen aspects that may further research and revisions of the Arcades. For the authors, such indirections actualise and translate, yet again, other dormant aspects of each others perceptions about Benjamin. Ultimately, joined by the attitude to share and reactivate that ‘theatre-laboratory’ with you—the reader and exposition visitor—the actors look for cues that encourage further procedures of experimentation and reflexion.
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  Impulsive Incantations - Voicing Migraine (2020) author(s): Mariske Broeckmeyer published in: Journal for Artistic Research
  When migraine arrives, not only the body suffers. The voice too is impacted by a condition that introduces itself with such great force. As a migraine-suffering singer I notice these changes and become fascinated by the aesthetics of a failing voice in a failing body. This exposition reflects upon the relevancy of Migraine Music as an aesthetic phenomenon and by focusing on the specific area of the vocal and the sonant, I project the issue into a broader context of language, speech and communication. First, I find the migraineur’s voice to be missing as it is silenced by society. Then, I study the failing of the voice when constricted by intense physical pain and I turn to the voice as it is transformed by migraine-specific symptoms. I study these deficiencies of the voice on a theoretical level in order to approach them through my artistic practice as a migraining singer. The artistic work accompanying this research is entitled Impulsive Incantations, and aims at voicing the migraine body through evocative text, vocal improvisations and a migrainous singing technique.
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  Exploring and Prototyping the Aesthetics of Felt Time (2020) author(s): Elsa Kosmack Vaara, Cheryl Akner Koler published in: Journal for Artistic Research
  The intention of this research is to investigate how interaction designers may explore felt time through the culinary practice of sourdough baking. In this exposition we share how the physical experience and manipulation/shaping of time in sourdough baking provides an experience of fulfillment and satisfaction. We show our insights on how interaction designers, and possibly many other communities of practice and discourse, may learn from this. The goal is to inspire the audience to engage in a broad and critical discourse around felt time and to emphasize the value of prototyping a felt time repertoire in interaction design. The research exploration is built on the collaboration between an interaction designer/researcher, a culinary connoisseur baker and a sculptor/design researcher and teacher.
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  Soft Robotics and Posthuman Entities (2020) author(s): Mads Bering Christiansen, Laura Beloff, Jonas Jørgensen, Anne-Sofie Emilie Belling published in: Journal for Artistic Research
  Through collaborative media arts practice we explore texture morphing soft robotics as an artistic medium of expression. We present an installation, Homo Viridis, that features a soft robotic interface developed to mediate signals between a vascular plant and a human body. The exposition paper discusses how Homo Viridis stages a situation of hybridity where individual, more-than-human subjectivities are mentally and physically intertwined. In conclusion, the paper reflects on how connecting organisms through soft robotic interfaces can actualize visions of a novel being - a ‘posthuman entity’. We argue that such a being might be physically composed of organic and synthetic elements that come together, but that it can also exist as a conceptual persona that may initiate discussions on what humans can become.
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  31 Days Old - Performance, Family and Ethics (2020) author(s): Sarah Black, Andy Frizell published in: Journal for Artistic Research
  In this exposition, Dr Sarah Black-Frizell and Andy Frizell, discuss the performance installation 31 Days Old (2016). This involved a full-scale installation performance in Sarah and Andy’s family home, in collaboration with Sarah (43) her mother (age 66), her auntie (age 54) and her daughter (age 3). This project highlights domestic photography as a strategic trigger for personal and family narratives and memory work. The work consists of film, live performance and original music and soundscapes. The main part of the exposition focuses on the role of the mother-artist, who initiates an art-making practice with her family and considers the ethical implications that can arise. Sarah begins this exposition by situating her mother art practice and ‘mother ethics’, which guides and activates a theoretical and practical approach to the ethical questions arising when developing a research and artistic practice with family. Andy, a composer, shares his audio recording techniques in the home, and the ways he works sensitively with family narratives to create original sound scores.
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