Research Catalogue

Do you need help in creating an exposition for your research project in Research Catalogue? I am an artist and freelancing graphic designer who would happily help you. Contact me for further info! Email: frida.starvid@gmail.com

The EcoSomatics Conversations Series invites sharing of engagement, practices and thinking around environmental awareness through embodiment activities, dance and art. It posits a definition of EcoSomatics as of the body-mind-ecology and takes the form of open public dialogues between two (or more) people: independent artists, practitioners, and academics. The project was conceived by Dr Polly Hudson, (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University), and the conversations are co-convened with Dr Karen Wood, (Birmingham Dance Network and C-DaRE). The conversations took place virtually with a large international audience, and the podcasts are audio recordings of the live events. It is supported by funding from ADM Faculty Research Investment Scheme, Birmingham City University. Image by Ming de Nasty.

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.

Title: Solidifying the Ephemeral: The Alchemy of the Liquid Canvas Artist-Researcher: Giuseppe Rametta Giusirames 1. Professional Biography Giuseppe Rametta Giusirames is an Italian artist and material researcher whose practice lies at the intersection of contemporary art and chemical experimentation. Rejecting standardized industrial media, he develops proprietary material mixes, treating the creation of the "base" as an integral part of the creative act. His most significant breakthrough is a specialized technique designed to "solidify the sea," transforming the fluid and ephemeral nature of marine environments into a permanent, solid canvas. Through his work, he explores themes of environmental memory, the alchemy of matter, and the tension between natural flux and artistic preservation. His studio is a continuous laboratory where traditional aesthetic values meet innovative material engineering. 2. Research Statement This research focuses on the chemical and poetic transformation of natural and volatile elements. The core of the project is the stabilization of fluid environments through a unique technical process. Material Hybridization: Sea, Smoke, and Antisepsis My investigation extends beyond seawater to the stabilization of other volatile and antiseptic substances: * Seawater: Capturing the essence of the ocean to create a structural canvas. * Amuchina (Chlorine-based solutions): Integrating antiseptic elements to explore the tension between hygiene, sterilization, and nature. * Smoke: Attempting to fix the weightlessness of air and fire into a solid surface. By inventing these material compounds, I investigate how artistic practice can "fix" a moment of environmental flux without losing its vital energy. 3. The Poetics of Painting on the Sea For me, painting is not a gesture performed on a surface, but a dialogue with an element. To "paint on the sea" means to accept the fluid’s rebellion before fixing it into eternity. It is a poetic act of translation: capturing the rhythm of waves, the transparency of the water, and the ghost-like presence of smoke within the physical constraints of a canvas. This practice transforms the artwork into a relic of a moment that was, by nature, impossible to grasp. 4. Visual Documentation Per le tre foto che mi hai inviato, usa queste descrizioni: * Figure 1 - Organic Textures: A demonstration of how the proprietary mix creates an organic "skin," allowing pigments to settle in a cellular structure. * Figure 2 - Marine Diffusion: The interaction between color and the solidified sea base, mimicking the natural movement of underwater currents. * Figure 3 - The Molecular Membrane: A macro view of the stabilized material. This transparent, alveolate structure proves the successful transition from liquid/volatile states to a solid artistic medium.

This exposition is an archival gesture emerging from the Dramaturgical Ecologies research-creation collective. Rooted in the entwined inquiries of Blacknesses and Dramaturgy, it gathers the dialogues, encounters and an artistic residency that unfolded through the SSHRC-funded Murmurations project. Between the viscous resonance of okra and the shifting flight of murmuring birds, this exposition shares choreokratic ecologies - a garden of study where movement, thought, and relation co-compose. Here, Blackness becomes a method, a lens, a refrain, challenging the neutrality of the performer-dancer body and inviting modes of collective creation that are relational, porous, and opaque. Murmurations attends to what forms in the formless - like a swarm of birds: a living archive of bodies, voices, and ecologies composing a landscape.

With the artistic research project Costume Dramaturgies we explore the dramaturgy that emerges when performance takes an unconventional starting point: a costume – a thing. By approaching dramaturgy as an assembly of things, we shift perspective from the human to the non-human, giving agency to costume, props, and light in performance. We argue that the dramaturgy of things remains an under-researched area in the performing arts. The one-year project is funded by Stockholm University of the Arts and brings together 12 researchers from costume design, dramaturgy, mime acting, LARP, film direction, theatre studies, scenography, and performance art. This multi-perspective, poly-vocal approach aims to generate a nuanced understanding of dramaturgy of things, and includes workshops based on devising methods—most notably the Costume Jam Session, where participants interact with costumes through chains of action, followed by reflection on the dramaturgy that emerges. The project is a continuation of the artistic research project Costume Agency.