Research Catalogue

Illustration as research from within the field is of relatively new practice. The illustrators discourse on representation (Yannicopoulou & Alaca 2018 ), theory (Doyle, Grove and Sherman 2018, Male 2019, Gannon and Fauchon 2021), and critical writing on illustration practice was hardly found before The Journal of Illustration was first issued in 2014, followed by artistic research through illustration (Black, 2014; Rysjedal, 2019; Spicer, 2019). This research project developed as response to a rise in hate crime towards refugees and the targeting of European Jews in recent decade. A pilot project (This Is a Human Being 2016-2019) treated how narratives of the Holocaust may avoid contributing to overwriting of history or cultural appropriation. Asking how illustration in an expanded approach may communicate profound human issues typically considered unrepresentable, this new project hopes to explore representation and the narratives of “us” and “the others” in the contemporary world through illustration as starting-point for cross-disciplinary projects. The participants from different disciplines, have interacted democratically on common humanist themes to explore the transformative role of illustration in contemporary communication. our projects should afford contemplation of illustration as an enhanced, decelerated way of looking; and drawing as a process for understanding - a way of engaging in understanding the other, as much as expressing one’s own needs (McCartney, 2016). This AR project consisted of three symposia and three work packages, and the artistic research unfolded in the symbiosis of these elements. Our investigation of illustration across media and materials continues as dissemination and exhibitions even after the conclusion of the work packages in 2024.

Thesis / Research Document of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023. Master Artistic Research (MAR). Designed by Faina Faigin Reflecting on personal experiences of being part of some groups and excluded from others makes me wonder how we connect when we are already clinging. Communities can be either chosen or forced, or both, which raises questions about how these bonds are formed and when we no longer belong.

This research delves into the enduring human desire for immortality, omnipresence, and boundless existence, contrasting with the finite nature of human life. Employing language tools like metaphor and analogy, the project explores the metaphysical realm embedded in everyday culture, investigating the in-between moment of teleportation and transformation. This moment, often overlooked, is a threshold of change and ambiguity, prompting questions about the body's presence-absence in time and space. The research methodology remains open, evolving organically through exploration, experimentation, and engagement with hypnosis, meditation, storytelling, and somatic practices. In a parallel exploration, the study draws inspiration from the historical origin of the term "Metaphysics," tracing its roots to Aristotle's works beyond the physical world. While acknowledging the dualisms inherent in metaphysics, the research embraces entanglement and recognizes the contemporary relevance of metaphysical inquiries in new materialism. Navigating the nostalgia for the past and the future, the study examines metaphysics as both a connection and a separation, akin to conjoined twins, contributing to ongoing philosophical conversations about existence, agency, and the interconnectedness of the material world.

Abstract This artistic research project focuses on narrative accounts of Norwegians who self-identify with a ‘multicultural and/or immigration background(s)’, to explore how their (hi)stories can be woven into the tapestry of the contemporary Norwegian public memory and story. I set out to interview and collect their narrative accounts, which must also be understood as oral (topical) histories, focusing on (hi)stories of their lived experiences, with a special interest in an event that happened in a public space and has been experienced as a meaningful or life-changing moment. Through a collaborative process, the oral (hi)stories were transformed and used to produce interactive monuments installed on the sites where the narrated events took place. One of the key artistic challenges in the project was to grapple with the question of how not only the collaborators but also the public can be empowered to actively shape and engage with artistic works, becoming co-collaborators themselves. This artistic inquiry led to the development of monu(mo)ments, an artistic concept and initiative that is dedicated to turning stories of Norway’s diversity into interactive, performative works of public art. The monu(mo)ments are not just symbols of collective memory but embody that very concept in how they themselves function. Through an interactive/participatory design, the public is invited to contribute their own narratives, perspectives, and experiences, shaping the monu(mo)ment's meaning and relevance. They invite the public to become co-creators of the narratives embedded within their communal spaces, fostering a sense of ownership and agency, and blurring the boundaries between artist(s) and public, the past and the present. The project strives to illuminate the untold oral (hi)stories of these narrators by allowing them to take over public spaces and infuse them with gripping personal narratives to shift how we read those places and (re)negotiate their past/meaning. This is to create an ‘alternative history’, dedicated to writing and inscribing these voices into public spaces and our broader collective imagination. Other artistic results include a live-action role-playing game (LARP). Furthermore, the larp was modified to serve as a resource for educators, enabling them to address interconnected themes within their classrooms through immersive gameplay. It has been performed in schools, festivals, and conferences in Norway, Austria, and Denmark. Overall, by creating artistic works that (re)imagining public memory as a dynamic and interactive process, this artistic research project foregrounds and contributes to the ongoing efforts to capture and reflect Norway’s multicultural reality and identity.

Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022 Master Interior Architecture (INSIDE)

Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022 Master Interior Architecture (INSIDE) Intimacy is found where the individual feels comfortable expressing, creating and existing. Our home, the domestic environment, teaches us every day, from the moment we are born, how to exist in a place that often functions as a miniature of the social and cultural system that we will later live in. This relationship continues throughout most of our lives if one considers that we spend more than half of our lives within the domestic realm. This of course does not only concern the relationship that is developed between the space and the people who inhabit it, but also all those elements that make up these interrelated relationships and often define them. Standards, values, cliches, traditions, norms and stereotype patterns are often found in a big part of our daily lives within the domestic environment. Meanwhile, each individual creates their own space of familiar interpersonal encounters.