Hugarflug 2025 - Unstable Systems by Sigmundur Pall Freysteinsson

Unstable Systems Instability can be a creative force in art, design, and architecture. Artists, designers, and scholars work both with and against systems that are ever-changing, fragile, or unpredictable. Whether dealing with technological systems, ecosystems, social structures, or sensory experiences, instability is often a prerequisite for creation. Instability opens pathways for new ideas and processes, reshaping how we approach and redesign the systems that shape our lives. It can also refer to the creative act itself—one that does not follow predetermined trajectories or established norms. Art, design, and architecture serve as tools to disrupt stable systems and/or shed new light on systems that appear stable but in reality, they are not. No system is truly stable, and when we resist that instability, it becomes a problem. Instability is perhaps the only certainty we can rely on. Hugarflug 2025, the annual conference on artistic research, will take place on September 11–12. It will serve as a platform for research that engages with instability across various systems—from technological advancements such as AI and interactive systems to issues related to politics, society, and the environment. We will explore how instability functions as a tool for generating new possibilities while also fueling unrest and transformation within society and academia. The Iceland University of the Arts invites proposals of all kinds, including presentations of ongoing or completed research by our faculty, students, and collaborators.

Hugarflug annual conference on artistic research

11. - 12. September 2025

Iceland University of the Arts

Mapping Laboratory

Anna Líndal, Bjarki Bragason, Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir

Thursday, 11. september, 2025 - 13:40 - 15:10

3x20 min Presentation + 3x10 min Discussion

Moderator: Hildur Bjarnadóttir

Room: Bratti

Anna Líndal
Visual Artist

Anna Líndal is a visual artist whose research-led practice explores the intersections

of science, nature, and societal structures. Her work delves into the fragility of

everyday life and examines the dynamic relationship between human systems and

natural processes. Her work investigates how measurement, scale, and temporality shape our understanding of the Arctic, particularly how human and geological time

scales converge in objects and environments.

Bjarki Bragason
Dean of the Fine Art Department at the Iceland University of the Arts.

Bjarki Bragason was born in Reykjavík in 1983. He studied visual art at the Iceland University of the Arts, Universität der Künste in Berlin, and completed graduate studies at CalArts in Los Angeles. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and held solo exhibitions internationally. His work is in collections in Iceland and abroad. Bjarki is Dean of the Fine Art Department at the Iceland University of the Arts.

Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir
Visual Artist

Hildigunnur is known for her nuanced practice, which critically examines the global systems of production and distribution and the bizarre lives of the products they create. Her work calls attention to the objects that exist at the periphery of our vision, often the throwaway accessories of material culture: packing materials, price tags, signage, and systems of display. She looks for the beauty inherent in these objects, which have been shaped through countless aesthetic decisions, material limitations, production conditions, moral codes, deals, desires, and mistakes. Hildigunnur uses these human systems and interactions to create her artworks, harnessing the cultures and capabilities of manufacturers, fabricators, and commercial firms as part of her artistic process. Hildigunnur lives and works in Reykjavík. In 2024, Birgisdóttir represented the Icelandic Pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale in Italy.

Artists Anna Líndal, Bjarki Bragason, and Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir each approach human-made systems in their work and artistic research in different ways, exploring how these systems connect with and intertwine with other systems in the environment. In this panel, they present talks reflecting key themes in their artistic practices. Hildigunnur discusses her art as a method for making sense of the materiality of humanity, the manifestations of late-capitalist conceptual systems, and objects that are often produced to be invisible—supporting other things and easing their journey from producer to consumer. Anna has for years conducted research in and on Surtsey and the Grímsvötn caldera, a natural phenomenon and subject of scientific study. Her talk summarizes the working process and how she translates scientific data into an art practice. Bjarki presents his research project 3009 Years, in which he has followed the gradual abandonment and eventual demolition of a backyard, observing the site become a symbol of broader entropic developments in the environment during the Anthropocene.

Tip

Tip