Research Catalogue

an international database for artistic research

• 9. Publications 2025 KMD Artistic Research
• 8. PHD 2024 phd fellows
• 7. PhD 2023 PhD 2023
• 6. PhD - KMD 2022 PhD - KMD 2022
• 5. PhD - KMD 2021 Thesis under evaluation
• 4. Articles Various articles published in the KMD portal.
• 3. Crisis Collective - contributions to a lost conference Crisis Collective - contributions to a lost conference
• 2. PhD - KMD 2019 Finished thesis. 2019
• 1. Past projects - 2018 and prior Projects KMD

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  In a Place like this (2025) author(s): Johan Sandborg, Duncan Higgins connected to: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen published in: Research Catalogue
  In A place Like This sets out to investigate and expand the issues and critical discourses within Sandborg and Higgins' current collaborative research practice. The central focus for the research is concerned with how art, in this instance photographic and painted image making and text, can be used as an agent or catalyst of understanding and critical reflection. The research methodology is constructed through photography, painting, drawing and text. This utilises the form of an artist publication as a point of critically engaged dissemination: a place for the tension between conflicting ideas and investigation to be explored through discussion. The research question is focused on how the production of the image and the act of making images can communicate or describe moments of erasure or remembering in terms of historical and personal narratives with direct reference to moments of violence and place. This is seen not in terms of a nostalgic remembrance of the past; instead as one that is rife with complicated layers and dynamics where recognition is denied the ability to locate a physical representation. Embedded in this is an exploration of particular questions concerning the ethics of representation: the depiction of ourselves and other? In this sense it brings into question an examination of the act of remembering as a thing in itself, through the production of the image and text, contexts of knowledge and cultural discourses explored through the form of an artists publication.
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  Odd New Spring: Towards Evolving Landscapes and a Reorientation in Design Practice (2024) (2024) author(s): Siren Elise Wilhelmsen published in: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
  "Odd New Spring: Towards Evolving Landscapes and a Reorientation in Design Practice" is an artistic research PhD project that explores methods for designers to engage with local environments, interdisciplinary communities, and professional fields in new ways. The project repositions unwanted plants, specifically Invasive Alien Plant Species, as a foundation for knowledge creation and new local activities. This approach challenges the perception of these plants as strictly agonistic and reframes them in the context of sustainability, production, and resource management. Through the artistic practice, the plants are connected to stories from the past and visions for the future, encouraging reflection on current classifications and relations. The work culminated in the exhibition "Odd New Spring" at the University Museum in Bergen's Natural History Collections. Here, experimental artefacts, storytelling objects, interdisciplinary dialogues, and reflections point towards a new design position. The project envisions the designer as a bridge-builder across disciplines, fostering sustainable practices and coexistence within local landscapes. Supervised by Mette L'orange (architect MNAL and visual artist) and Tim Parry-Williams (Professor of Art: Textiles, KMD). Photo: Odd New Spring 2024, Siren Elise Wilhelmsen
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  Ars Memoriae (2024) author(s): Maarten Vanden Eynde published in: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
  Ars Memoriae, The Art to Remember analyzes the role of art within the larger history and evolution of external memory devices. It looks at material traces of remembering and the invention of an ever-changing body of language expressions, like signs and symbols, to enhance communication capabilities. I followed the process of externalizing emotions, knowledge, and information, starting in the Palaeolithic Stone Age about 3 million years ago, until, in a speculative future, it will be internalized again using artificial wetware, neuro-computers, and DNA coding. > Click on the image to download the PDF.
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  THINGS THAT MIGHT BE TRUE–Artistic Reflection (2024) author(s): Ingrid Rundberg published in: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
  My PhD project, ‘Things That Might Be True’, is based on Carl DiSalvo’s concept of adversarial design (DiSalvo 2012), which differentiates between ‘design for politics’ and ‘political design’. DiSalvo defines the former as design that simplifies and streamlines people’s electoral actions and interactions with municipalities, healthcare, and the government. ‘Political design’, on the other hand, sparks debate, problematises, and suggests new ways of exploring specific themes and concepts. DiSalvo’s concept is built on Chantal Mouffe’s distinction between ‘politics’ and ‘the political’. I set out to question DiSalvo’s dichotomy. Through practical experiments, I expanded and processed adversarial design. My goal was to challenge the prevailing ideas in society on how citizens (should) connect with their inner political lives. My project examined how visual communication design might help devise new methods and tools for the public to approach politics, and, by extension, expand the conversation about democracy on a personal as well as societal level. Through public engagement, dialogue, discussion, and introspection, I explored ways for citizens to listen to and connect with their inner political voice. I conducted four participatory sub-projects: the lecture series ‘Things That Might Be True’; the Voices publication; the Inner Political Landscapes collage-making workshop; and the Political Confession workshop. The findings of these four experiments led to the development and materialisation of a fictional new department: the Stemme Department. The department's activities display the artistic outcome of my PhD project and illustrate how people can come together to reflect and engage in dialogue with their political selves. In early March 2024, the Stemme Department’s activities were presented at Bergen Storsenter and Bergen Public Library during a four-day event, which included an exhibition, a workshop, and lectures. My project expanded the dichotomy of adversarial design by suggesting the concept adopt an additional category: ‘political, political design’. Through an ambiguous and empathetic design practice, this additional category would mirror and borrow characteristics from both design for politics and ­political design.
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  Oceanic Horror or How to Survive the Night in the Haunted Mansion of Absolute Capitalism (2024) author(s): Soren Thilo Funder published in: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
  Søren Thilo Funder PhD in Artistic Research University of Bergen Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design The Art Academy – Department of Contemporary Art Supervisors: Daniel Jewesbury, Darla Crispin, Anne Helen Mydland and Frans Jacobi. Artistic reflection and documentation of artistic result submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) in Artistic Research at the University of Bergen. Date of public defence: 8.12.2023 'Oceanic Horror - or How to Survive the Night in the Haunted Mansion of Absolute Capitalism' is an artistic research project that explores the potentials of utilising the genre of horror fiction to create new narratives in a political and time-based art practice. It is invested in the temporal qualities and entanglements of the horror genre and how these relate in strange ways, not only to our current tempor(e)ality and the modes of financialisation that informs this, but also to art practices using the temporal as material. Framed around the revisiting of the mid-nineties trading firm 'Island' in the advent of high frequency trading and its successor the trading company 'Archipelago', pushing the algorithmic trading systems further into the splash of web 2.0, 'Oceanic Horror' uses the methodologies of Transrealism and Meandering to create new nonlinear narrations revolving around the relationship between the opaque structures of absolute capitalism and the socio-political horror experienced in everyday life. The research project searches for a certain condition found in horror fiction, that relates to its relentless nowness, its proposed prolonging of this now, its relation to eventality and the quasi-event and finally how horror fiction wants to do things to the body - not only in a simple reaction mode but really in the very temporality experienced in and by the body. The artistic result of 'Oceanic Horror' was exhibited at Kunsthall 3.14 in Bergen 21.04.2023 - 04.06.2023, comprising a multi-channel video installation combining digital renderings with fictional cinematic scenes in an immersive total installation of office furniture sculptures forming makeshift sleep stations in the exhibition space. The reflection for 'Oceanic Horror' is presented in this Research Catalogue exposition, including both written material, images and a comprehensive archive of all the video works that make up the entangled narratives of 'Oceanic Horror - or How to Survive the Night in the Haunted Mansion of Absolute Capitalism' Norwegian: 'Oceanic Horror - or How to Survive the Night in the Haunted Mansion of Absolute Capitalism' er et kunstnerisk forskningsprosjekt som utforsker mulighetene i sjangeren skrekkfiksjon til å skape nye utrykk og narrativer i politisk og tidsbasert kunstpraksis. Prosjektet utforsker skrekksjangerens temporale oppbyggning, estetikk og kvaliteter. 'Oceanic Horror' anvender både som kunsteriske metoder og utrykk 'transrealisme' og 'meandering' for å skape nye ikke-lineære fortellinger og kunst som dreier seg om forholdet mellom de ugjennomsiktige strukturene i 'absolutt kapitalisme' og den sosio-politiske 'horroren' som oppleves i hverdagen. Med utgangspunkt i historien om det reelle handelsfirmaet 'Island', som i midten av nittitallet var med i oppstarten av høyfrekvent aksjehandel, og dens etterfølger, selskapet 'Archipelago', som ledte bølgen av algoritmiske aksjehandelssystemer i web 2.0, søker forskningsprosjektet etter en viss tilstand som finnes i horror fiction, som relaterer seg til dens nådeløse nåhet, dens foreslåtte forlengelse av dette 'nå', dets forhold til 'event' og 'kvasi-event' og hvordan horror fiction ønsker å gjøre ting med kroppen - ikke bare i en enkel reaksjonsmodus, men egentlig i selve temporaliteten som oppleves i og av betrakterens kropp. Det kunstneriske resultatet av 'Oceanic Horror' ble vist på Kunsthall 3.14 i Bergen 21.04.2023 - 04.06.2023. Utstillingen besto av en flerkanals videoinstallasjon som kombinerer digitale gjengivelser med fiktive filmatiske scener. Vist i en totalinstallasjon av kontormøbelskulpturer som danner provisoriske sovestasjoner i utstillingsrommet. Den kunsteriske refleksjonen som følger 'Oceanic Horror' presenteres på Research Catalogue og inkluderer både tekster, bilder og et omfattende arkiv av alle videoverkene som utgjør de sammenfiltrede fortellingene til 'Oceanic Horror - or How to Survive the Night in the Haunted Mansion of Absolute Capitalism'
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  Urgent Affairs, Strange Empathy (2023) author(s): Sveinung Rudjord Unneland published in: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen
  In 2018, Kunst- og designhøgskolen i Bergen (KHiB) moved into brand new premises in Møllendalsveien, and at the same time changed its name and organizational affiliation to Kunstakademiet – Institutt for samtidskunst, Fakultet for kunst musikk og design, Universitetet i Bergen. At the same time, Sveinung Unneland began his work on the doctoral project Urgent Affairs, Strange Empathy. In the project, Unneland examines these structural and architectural changes, in parallel with that he explores how we can establish different autonomous spaces and practices within the institutional context as such. Only by insisting on a radical openness about what art is or can be, is it possible, in my opinion, to maintain a meaningful relationship with the concept of art. An important question then becomes how we (as artists, researchers, and teachers) best cultivate and safeguard this openness, in our own practice and within the institutional framework many of us find ourselves in. Urgent Affairs, Strange Empathy places itself in an institutional tradition that in Bergen goes back to the self-organized Vestlandets Kunstakademi (1973). Through practical collaborative projects, Unneland explores how this legacy can be continued within today's institutional framework. Parallel to this, he has worked with painting as an integral part of the research project; a personal practice where he can set up models for possible relationships between the fictional and the real, the personal and the common, the inside and the outside. Bio Sveinung Rudjord Unneland (1981, Farsund) is a visual artist and Ph.D. research fellow at the Art Academy – Institute of contemporary art, at the faculty of art, music and design, University of Bergen. He received his education at the Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen and Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee (2007). Sveinung Rudjord Unneland has worked with Urgent Affairs, Strange Empathy since 2018 under the guidance of Eamon O'Kane and Ane Hjort Guttu.
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