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

Embodied and Visual Narratives: Kinaesthetic and Photographic Practices for Reimagining Community

Inês Zinho Pinheiro and Izabelle Louise

Join us for an inspiring conference session: Embodied and Visual Narratives: Kinaesthetic and Photographic Practices for Reimagining Community

How can movement and photography challenge traditional structures and foster resilient, inclusive communities? This presentation explores kinaesthetic and photographic practices as tools for collective creation, agency, and social transformation.

The Art of Non-Directive Facilitation examines how movement empowers non-dancers through self-guided exploration, building community beyond rigid instruction. Meanwhile, Reimagining Community through Photography delves into Yuki Kihara’s Paradise Camp (2021), showcasing how Indigenous queer storytelling in the Asia-Pacific resists colonial narratives and reclaims identity.

Together, these researches reveal how embodied and visual methodologies reimagine knowledge production, cultural instability/sustainability, and collective futures. We invite you to think together about social structures through movement, image-making, and transdisciplinary research.

Inês Zinho Pinheiro
Dancer, educator and researcher.

Descendant of Chinese and Portuguese families.

Graduated from the Dance School of the National Conservatory of Lisbon. Danced with CINEVOX Junior Company (Switzerland).

BA in Ballet and Contemporary Dance from the Rambert School amd MA in Dance History and Philosophy from Roehampton University, London.

PhD candidate in Performing Arts and the Moving Image at the Faculty of Fine Arts (University of Lisbon).

Inês has taught dance, choreography, educational practices at the Higher School of Dance (Polytechnic University of Lisbon). Created Sonic Voyaging, a platform for improvisational dance and music and worked with various choreographers/artists.

Friday, 12. september, 2025 - 14:45 - 16:15

3x20 min Presentation + 3x10 min Discussion

Moderator:

Room:

Izabelle Louise
Photographer, filmmaker, researcher and educator.

Descendant of the Tremembé Indigenous people (Ceará, Brazil), she is a PhD candidate in Fine Arts with a specialization in Multimedia Art at the University of Lisbon. She studied at Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (Germany) as part of an academic mobility program. A researcher at the Center for Research and Studies in Fine Arts (ULisboa) and Afecta Lab (UBI/ULisboa). She holds an MA in Contemporary Artistic Creation from the University of Aveiro and a BA in Advertising and Propaganda from the Federal University of Ceará. Her research address Indigenous cinema and knowledge, a concept she defines as "enchanted image."

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