1 This denomination was coined in the framework of the project thinking aesthetic thinking though aesthetic research practices.
2 To this concept see: Arteaga, Alex (2017): »Embodied and Situated Aesthetics: An Enactive Approach to a Cognitive Notion of Aesthetics«, in: Artnodes 20, 20–27, and Arteaga, Alex (2020): »Aesthetic Practices of Very Slow Observation as Phenomenological Practices: Steps To an Ecology of Cognitive Practices«, in: Ruukku 14, accessed February 28, 2024.
3 For a first clarification of the concept of "sense of common self" see: Arteaga, Alex (2025): »An Enactive Approach to Architecture as Intervention«, in: Dimensions 17, 181–195, accessed February 28, 2024.
On February 17 2025, from 9.30 to 11.30 took place a first "collective and experimental research framework". This format of joint inquiry consists in the performance of an organized set of aesthetic research practices—an ecology of aesthetic research practices in action1—as a way of investigating environments. According to the phenomenological-enactivist conceptual framework within which this research unfolds, "environments" are addressed here as proto-phenomenal presence emerging out of the encounter of researchers and their physicochemical surroundings.
The practices performed in this collective and experimental research framework are denominated "aesthetic research practices of reflexive co-involvement" due to the three functions they intend to fulfill. The first is to induce "aesthetic thinking"2; the second, to facilitate the emergence of a variety of togetherness named "common self" by virtue of the interaction these practices propose; and the third is to provide conditions for sensing and notating the sense that the emergent common self enact3.
The practices performed in this collective and experimental research framework are presented here though the scores used for their facilitation.
From the Galleria Hämärä to the spot 13
Walk close to one another, maintaining the group compact.
Walk in silence.
Try to keep your attention focussed on your immediate field.
To the room F4083
Walk close to one another, maintaining the group compact.
Walk in silence.
While walking, let resonate the environemnts you have experienced by practicing.
Don't think about them. Simply let these experiences be present for you.
In the spot 13
Stay where you are now.
Keep your attention focussed on your immediate field and feel the ground under your feet
Open now your attention to your surroundings and notice the sounds you hear. Don't think about them, don't analyze them. Simply notice them.
Keep on being aware of what your hear and ask yourself this question in silence: How do I feel here?
Let the answers appear to you.
In the room F4083
Being now in this inside space, try to reenact the environemnts you have experienced.
Try to inhabit them the same way you did whne you were in immediate contact to them.
How are these nevirnoments?
Without doing any effort, voice qualities of these environments whne they appear to you.
[When single qualities were voiced that framework facilitator wrote them and project the on a screen before all the participants]
[When a set of qualities were notated and distributed in an aleatroy way on the screen:]
Were some of these qualities very prsent or rather minimally?
[If the qualities were very present, their size were increased; if minimally present, theit size were reduced]
Did some of these qualities arise in relation to one another?
[Those qualities relate to one another were situated closed to one another on the screen]
[On the left you find the resulant diagramm]
[[For a detailed descrption of this practice of diagraming, see: Arteaga, Alex, "Auditory Diagramming: a research/design practice". In: The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sonic Methods,. edited by Michael Bull and Marcel Cobussen, 511—528. London: Bloomsbury, 2020]]
How are the environments with(in) which we live?
How do they appear to us through the individual and collective actions we perform?
How do they change if we organize and conduct these actions as practices?
How does this transformation occur if these practices are mainly constituted by actions of hearing and listening?
How do we—our-selves and our environments—unfold if we intensify the performance of our sensorimotor and emotional skills through aesthetic research practices?
To the spot 12
Go back to your attention on your immediate field.
Walk one after the other in a row.
Walk in silence.
In the spot 12
Keep on walking slowly in any direction under the bridge.
Become aware of what you hear. Simply notice what you hear. Don't think about it, don't analyze it.
Keep on walking and being aware of what you hear and ask yourself this question: How do I feel here?
When an answer appears to you, speack it out.
Keep on walking and being aware of what you hear and ask yourself this question: How does it feel here?
When an answer appears to you, speack it out.
To the spot 16
Keep on hearing and being aware of how does it feel here.
Walk in silence and maintain the group compact.
On the spot 16
Stay where you are now.
Choose one orientation, one perspective.
Become aware of what you are hearing now.
How welcomming feels here?
When an answer appear to you speack it out load, so that we all ca hear it.
How natural feels here?
When an answer appear to you speack it out load, so that we all ca hear it.
What do I miss here?
When an answer appear to you speack it out load, so that we all ca hear it.
a. An invitation to practice individually:
Contribution to the exhibition in the Galleria Hämärä
(University of Lapland, January 27 - February 20)
Graphic component included in the exhibition. The QR Code on the bottom led to this exposition which during the exhibition time included only the map and the photos above.
This research cell proposes to address these and related questions through an inquiry into Rovaniemi as a lifeworld or, more concretely, as a meshwork of (lived) environments. To this end we invite you to practice specific aural aesthetic practices on (some of) the spots indicated on the map. The "scores" of some ofv these practices can be found in the exhibiton at the Galleria Hämärä (University of Lapland, January 28th – Febraury 20th).
The pitures show the view form each spot as orientation for practicing.
Click on each picture to enlarge it.
The exhibition brought together four different intersecting and overlapping positions by the artist-researchers. Collecting insights, processes, traces and collaborative explorations, the works are centred around the central topics of relation to sound and environment, co-existence in shared and transferred experiences with the other.
With Alex Arteaga, Angela Bartram, Jaana Erkkilä-Hill, Petri Kuljuntausta, and Jan Schacher.
Practice of sensing an environment
If you have just arrived at a spot for practicing, please allow yourself some time to simply be there. Breathe, look silently around, and let go of your thoughts, your expectations, your experiences before arriving here, and your memories of this place, if any.
If you have already carried out one of these practices in this spot, take some time to let go of this experience and try to reconnect with this place as if it were a new one.
. . .
When you feel ready, begin to concentrate your attention on the single sounds that you hear. Focus on each sound for a short while. If the sounds appear spontaneously with a name, become aware of it.
When you have become aware of some single sounds, begin to listen to them in relation to one another. Are some louder than others? Are they close to you or far away? How are they distributed in the space? Are they continuously or intermittently present?
After a while, in your own time, you are invited to stop thinking about these sounds using words, and to simply enjoy their presence around you. Let yourself simply be embedded in a sphere of sound.
When you feel like it, and without ceasing to enjoy your sonic surroundings, ask yourself this question: How do I feel? Let the answer appear slowly and silently to you without pushing for any words or sentences. Continue enjoying what your hear …
Once you feel at ease with the arising answer, you might address this other query: how does it feel here? Again, allow yourself to savor the quietly emerging answer without making any effort to construct it.
Find an end to the practice in your own time.
As the exhibition flyers where offered with the following scores of three aesthetic research practices to be perfomed individually:
Practice of exploring an environment
If you have just arrived at a spot for practicing, please allow yourself some time to simply be there. Breathe, look silently around, and let go of your thoughts, your expectations, your experiences before arriving here, and your memories of this place, if any.
If you have already carried out one of these practices in this spot, take some time to let go of this experience and try to reconnect with this place as if it were a new one.
. . .
When you feel ready to start, focus your attention on your calm breathing. Perhaps close your eyes to facilitate this.
In your own time, slowly expand the focus of your attention—maybe still keeping your eyes closed, maybe opening your eyes slightly without fully activating them—and begin to become aware of what you hear. Simply become aware—without focusing, without differentiating, without mobilizing words.
Let yourself be immersed in your sonic perceptions. For a while allow yourself to simply enjoy what you hear without making any effort.
In you own time, and without abandoning this atmosphere—without losing awareness of what you hear—ask yourself this question: How is the place I’m now in? Let the answers come slowly to you.
After some answers have appeared to you, take time to consider some of the following questions without losing awareness of what you hear—continuing inhabiting your aural perception. Take enough time for each query.
How big is this environment?
Do I feel any pressure?
Would I like to stay here longer?
Do I feel any desire of change anything?
Find an end to the practice in your own time.
Practice of notating an environment
[For this practice, you will need your mobile phone to record your speaking voice. Before you begin to practice, please be ready to use it for this purpose only.]
If you have just arrived at a spot for practicing, please allow yourself some time to simply be there. Breathe, look silently around, and let go of your thoughts, your expectations, your experiences before arriving here, and your memories of this place, if any.
If you have already carried out in this spot, take some time to let go of this experience and try to reconnect with this place as if it were a new one.
. . .
When you are ready to start, begin to feel your feet on the ground. Feel how you-as-body touch the ground through your feet. Feel how your weight reaches the ground through your feet.
After a while, begin to move slowly, gently. Become aware of yourself as a moving body.
In your own time, become aware of the sounds you spontaneously produce by moving. Do not produce any extra sounds. Just become aware of the sounds that emerge from your movement—without naming them, without analyzing them, just letting them come into being, just enjoying their presence.
When you feel like it, expand your awareness to the sounds of your environment. Enjoy how they coexist with the sounds of your moving body—without naming, without analyzing, just enjoying their presence.
Without abandoning this sonic sphere, without making any effort, begin at your own pace to voice single words expressing qualities of the environment that you are sensing. Let these words arise spontaneously and please record them with your mobile phone.
After a while, if you feel like it, let your words become short sentences. Continue recording.
Find an end to the practice in your own time.
[Once you have finished your practice, you might send your recordings per email to this address: alex.arteaga@uniarts.fi. Your recordings will only be used for research purposes, and only with your explicit permission]