Research Catalogue

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.

In these works I have explored how I can relate to my environment through my daily practices of teaching, eating, animating etc. I begun the project by improvising lectures for various audiences I wanted to have input from. I have lectured to all possible enteties in the ecosystem I am a part of, from blueberries to colleagues to films. Every time something new continues to take shape. The exposition include essays, paintings and animations.

Devices that produce images, such as cameras and microphones, invite their users to engage with the world by enabling a network of relationships. By appropriating the concept of field from certain discourses of sound art and applying it to the moving image, visual artist Ellen Røed explores, in a series of collaborations, how camera based field recordings might operate across experience, mediation and representation. By considering the moving image as a form of site in itself, the activities of the project consider how moving images can manifest as a form of place on its own terms rather than as a mode of representing reality. The project builds on the capacity of video based art for enabling movement, transience, and body, in other words elements of performance characteristic to site. Image as Site is an artistic research project at Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH), funded by The Swedish Research Council and SKH.

JSS Book reviews

The RESONANS festival, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, operates as a comprehensive artistic research project that critically examines the intersections of multimedia arts, community engagement, and cultural diversity. By establishing a dynamic circular process, the festival acts as a platform for multimedia and multicultural dialogue, facilitating meaningful exchanges among artists, scholars, and community members. This exposition aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the festival’s methodology and developmental trajectory, placing particular emphasis on its iterative process and agile project management strategies. These methodologies enable the festival to adaptively respond to participant feedback and emergent artistic expressions, thereby fostering an environment that promotes innovation and inclusivity. In addition, the RESONANS festival addresses significant themes, including humanity's relationship with the environment and the diversification of the Nordic cultural landscape. Through a series of curated events, workshops, and performances, the festival invites participants to engage in critical discussions surrounding ecological consciousness and cultural representation.

Public Positions - looking into the works of MA PPS artists and their Public Spaces. With this new collective online publication, MA PPS curates past and current alumni artistic research processes and practices that encapsulate references and positions of public space discourse. The publication serves as documentation of artists who developed (part of) their research together with the programme, and that shares their valuable contribution to the field of Performing Public Space.