Research Catalogue

My practice-based arts research proposes to create a toolkit to decentralize art activism using hand-crafted textiles from an intersectional, feminist, decolonial and anti-capitalist framework. When I say that I want to decentralize art activism, I aim to increase access in terms of location, timing and risk, so that people who do not live in major metropolises, centres of power, who work when most protests happen, or who for various reasons are not able to risk possible arrest that normal protests may present, can still engage in artistic protest. My praxis will embark on a series of art activist actions that utilize various methods of decentralization, creating a handbook that displays and analyses these methods. The ways in which textiles are particularly suited to decentralize art activism, through subterfuge, slow time, and haptic relationship will be explored within the praxis. Answering the seemingly peripheral question of whether or not art activism is compatible within a gallery space imperative for the main theme of my research, which is decentralization of art activism. If art activism harmoniously exists within a gallery exhibition, then the easiest way to decentralize it is to send the art activism to exhibit elsewhere. My initial findings within the research suggest that act activism mostly cannot exist within sanctioned art exhibitions and therefore exhibitions are not an effective way to decentralize art activism. My toolkit is inspired by practical how-to-guides of art activism (Boyd and Mitchell, 2012; Duncombe and Lambert, 2021; Aylwyn Walsh et al., 2022) and through textile practises such as Tanya Aguiñiga (B. 1978-), the Craftivism Collective (2009-), Aram Han Sifuentes (B. 1986-), and Sandra Suubi (B. 1990-). The critique on capitalism’s infiltration into the artworld and art activisms roll because of this that is reflected in Alana Jelinek’s ‘Lifelike art’(2013), Gregory Sholette’s ‘bare art’(Ch(Charnley, 2017)); and Brian Holmes’ ‘Liar’s poker’ (Holmes, 2010) and it helps shape my art activism practise.

A new filigrane sound object (or series of objects) in the making, w.i.p.

Research Paper of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2024 BA Photography Summary: You don’t see what I see. I don’t see what you see. Eyes as hatches passing through reflections of the world around. Electromagnetic radiation translated into visuals. Interpreted by mental processes in the brain. As a woman who used to work in the corporate world, is a mother and an aspiring photographer, I am interested in the topics of gender equality and feminism, seen as inequality based on power relations that are culturally constructed in society. Regarding these topics, I find mostly written or text-based outings. The nature of the topic results in either stereotype or cliché imagery we see in the media, that are detrimental in acquiring an equal basis for everyone. Using case studies, I analyze photographic work related to the gender inequality and power structures. The theoretical framework applied is from Nicholas Mirzoeff (British-American, 1962), Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at the New York University and is derived from his book ‘An introduction to Visual Culture’ (2023). This theory distinct ‘visualizing’ (what is commonly seen, the ruling power) and ‘visibilizing’ (introducing different perspectives as response to the ruling power). Mirzoeff elaborates on this by comparing the Spanish word for power, ‘poder’, meaning “static, constituted power” with power as ‘potencia’ which according to him has a “dynamic constituent dimension… our power to do, to be affected and to be affected by others.”. To me he connects visualization with exposing what the systemic power wants us to see, while ‘visibilizing’ is exposing the views that are not dictated by that overarching power but that have the freedom to show different perspectives and views. For the case studies I chose ‘The Table of Power I & II’ of Dutch Photographer Jacqueline Hassink (1966-2018) analyzing economic power and role of women in the higher echelons of companies. A work consisting of board rooms photos of the forty largest industrial multinational companies at the time (1994 & 2009, Table of Power I & II respectively). In ‘Female Power Stations: Queen Bees’ (1996-1998) she reflects upon board rooms of female leadership countered against their dining tables at home, all set up to receive guests. A diptych of power (work) vs. traditional qualities (home). I continue with the work ‘Performance Review’ (2020) of American photographer Endia Beal (1985). ‘Performance Review’ is about fitting into traditional corporate culture layered with outward signifiers of difference, navigating the corporate environment based on unconscious biases. We are part of the system, whether we like it or not. Me aiming to trigger a change with photographs is what drives me to be a maker. By not taking things as truth or fixed, by challenging the status quo, and by knowing that there are always different perspectives to look at things. I feel I am challenging the visualization of things, and therefore affect people around me. It’s me creating a ‘potencia’, a dynamic constituent dimension, that fights the ‘poder’; it’s within my power to do and my photographs will enable that.

What is the sound of disability? What is the sound of a body that defies and resists normative standards? And further, is disability an instrument and, ultimately, virtuosity itself? For me, these have been everlasting questions. I acquired a disability at the age of seven from a car accident that impaired my left hand. Following the accident, I transitioned from various musical instruments to find one I could adapt to. More recently, this has led to engaging with various music technologies that fit my body. Specifically, I am searching for an instrument that fits rather than resists my body and signals my disability as an asset rather than a deficit in searching for my own virtuosity. Therefore, this article details my interest in reimagining virtuosity through the intersection of disability and digital music technology. I will describe my experience with the MUGIC gestural device (developed by Mari Kimura) and preliminary results from experimenting with the MUGIC. I will include background on the crux of virtuosity and the usefulness of mapping for reimagining virtuosity, as well as musical results and concluding thoughts regarding virtuosity, music technology, and disability. Lastly, I will argue that “cripping” virtuosity involves a widening understanding of what virtuosity can signify, realize, and magnify, cultivating what is curious, authentic, and at the core of art-making -- a fundamental self-expression beyond comparison and not easily replicated and a virtuosity true to oneself.

In this thesis, having introduced my research questions, in Chapter 2 I present a layered analysis of the important contexts of my practice—walking, sound, walking poetry, and place. In Chapter 3 I present and discuss three works that together explore how it is that I know the world as a sensate embodied walker. In Chapter 4 I develop what I came to call replicated walks—walks made more than once in the same place. Begun in order to re-configure time, they also led me to extend my consideration of place beyond that defined by geography, to place defined by biological phenomena or socio-cultural coherence. In Chapter 5 I describe my emerging ideas of human-scale of place and my underlying ideas of island-ness. Initially I worked on real islands, walking circumferential routes and those defined by chance procedures. From this I developed an imaginary island in the foothills of Northumberland’s Cheviot Hills; made from the human-scale of my embodied walking this led to my creation of an imaginary pandemic island of containment, created in a city, in my locale, made, and made real, by the traces of my embodied walking. Together my works constitute a body of work that represents a contribution to knowledge with specific contributions of: the use of Replicated Walks as a method of experimenting with time and place; Walking Words – the presentation of poetic text in forms (concertina-fold books, scripta continua, scrolls) that requires walking to engage with it, and that also function as metonyms for my original walking act; Walking Islands –the use of human-scale walking to imagine an island into existence, and then invoke the island as a lens through which to continue to pursue the idea. My work also contributes knowledge to the methods of how to record the sounds of the world whilst walking through it, over extended distances and time.

Research exposition of Sanne Bakker, as part of her master at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. This research started with the aim of creating a better theoretical understanding and breaking down the creation process regarding the making of performances with lights. Ultimately, it became a reflection on the performative practice of a classical musician and the interdisciplinary collaboration while making an audiovisual performance. In particular, the process of the visualization of music. Through literary research into interdisciplinarity, audiovisual performances (specifically with classical music), and by doing a musical and narrative analysis through a case study of Paul Hindemith’s Sonate für Harfe, a theoretical framework is created for collaborative preparation with a visual artist and live experimentation. This research then shows the working process and the experiments that were conducted. It concludes with a reflection on the collaboration, the final product, and how playing the harp sonata in this audiovisual setting has affected the performance of the music.