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.

Moral Proximity: Ethics as Method in Post-Interpretive Criticism By Dorian Vale n this defining essay, Dorian Vale articulates moral proximity as the central method of Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC). Departing from frameworks that prioritize interpretation, context, or theoretical discourse, this piece reframes criticism itself as an ethical position, not an intellectual act. Moral proximity is the discipline of standing near a work—especially works born of trauma, exile, or silence—without consuming it. It demands neither resolution nor analysis, but a custodial presence rooted in humility, restraint, and witness. The critic is not a translator but a steward of what cannot be said without distortion. Drawing upon Vale’s broader doctrines—including the Viewer as Evidence, Absential Aesthetics, and Hauntmark Theory—this essay positions moral nearness as the irreducible truth in art writing. It becomes the difference between exploitation and reverence, between performance and presence. Vale, Dorian. Moral Proximity: Ethics as Method in Post-Interpretive Criticism. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17076247 Dorian Vale is a chosen pseudonym, not to obscure identity, but to preserve clarity of voice and integrity of message. It creates distance between the writer and the work, allowing the philosophy to stand unclouded by biography. The name exists not to hide, but to honor the seriousness of the task: to speak without spectacle, and to build without needing to be seen. This name is used for all official publications, essays, and theoretical works indexed through DOI-linked repositories including Zenodo, OSF, PhilPapers, and SSRN. This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843) Post-Interpretive Criticism, Dorian Vale, moral proximity, ethics in art criticism, witnessing art, aesthetic ethics, viewer presence, non-extractive criticism, trauma-informed aesthetics, silent art, ethical presence, affective encounter, restraint in criticism

Post-Interpretive Method: How to Practice Restraint in Front of a Work of Art By Dorian Vale This essay introduces a foundational method within Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC): the practice of restraint in the presence of art. Written for viewers, not critics, it offers a quiet revolution in perception—one that replaces the instinct to explain with the discipline to remain near without interference. Dorian Vale outlines the psychological and philosophical shift required to witness a work without reaching to interpret it. Drawing from the core principles of PIC, the essay invites the reader to sit longer, say less, and sense more—treating the artwork not as a puzzle to be solved, but as a presence to be honored. Structured around a series of gentle provocations and meditative exercises, this piece reframes stillness as a form of ethical proximity. It challenges the reader to suspend their search for meaning and instead, practice reverence. This is not a manual for analysis. It is a call to integrity. In a culture that rewards reaction, Vale teaches the viewer how to return to presence. Vale, Dorian. Post-Interpretive Method: How to Practice Restraint in Front of a Work of Art. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17076884 This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843) Post-Interpretive Criticism, Dorian Vale, art viewing guide, how to look at art, presence in art, restraint in art, ethical art engagement, witnessing not interpreting, contemporary art theory, stillness in museums, trauma-informed art viewing

Embodied Reading: How Presence and Posture Change the Way We Read Art By Dorian Vale In this exploratory essay, Dorian Vale invites the reader to reconsider how art is not merely seen, but read—bodily, spatially, and ethically. Embodied Reading proposes that how we physically approach a work—our posture, breath, stillness, even the tempo of our gaze—alters not only what we perceive, but what we are permitted to receive. Through the lens of Post-Interpretive Criticism, Vale dismantles the myth of detached observation. He argues that presence is not a neutral position; it is a moral stance. The critic or viewer becomes a vessel whose alignment, reverence, and restraint determine whether the work is met with violence or with care. This essay is both philosophical and practical—a call to critics, curators, and audiences alike to reimagine the gallery not as a site of performance, but as a space of quiet consequence. To read art with the body is to return critique to its most sacred function: to witness without desecration. Vale, Dorian. Embodied Reading: How Presence and Posture Change the Way We Read Art. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17070948 This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843) Post-Interpretive Criticism, Dorian Vale, embodied art criticism, art and presence, somatic aesthetics, art posture, ethical witnessing, museum stillness, embodied viewing, art and tempo, sacred criticism, viewer as vessel, phenomenology of art, art reception theory, trauma-informed art criticism, reverent art engagement