Research Catalogue

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Jenny Sunesson (b. 1973) is a Swedish artist predominantly working with sound. Her practice ranges from field recording and live collages to conceptual sound art and video. Sunesson uses her own life as a stage for her dark, tragic and sometimes comical re-contextualised work where real and invented characters and derogated stereotypes, collaborate in the alternate story of hierarchies and normative power structures in society.

Photography with sound and net art, drawing, found folk sculpture with digital drawing, readymades, 2012, 2020, 2021. Accompanied by archival material. The exposition exposes the question of what is artistic research. Usurping the mini-essayist format, which is traditionally associated with research in say the area of philosophy, the exposition formally operates on different levels. I selectively included visual art research material from my own artistic archive, as well as anonymous material that's readily available from the internet and in film archives. In this way, I wanted to emphasise the role of archiving and using archives in the artistic process, as an element of artistic research and artistic production that might involve remediation. Taking that we live in a largely theoretic culture, which means that we use external information systems for storage and retrieval of written, visual and other material, the implication is that art is part of this theoretical system. Moreover, I specifically problematise the notion of value in relation to the visual arts by using the popular media figures of the counterfeit and the impostor, with reference to the so-called "impostor syndrome", correlated with being a minority of some sort in one's field: "A different thought is that two people may be answerable to the very same standard of success or competence, yet be subject to different epistemic standards for reasonable belief in their respective success or competence. This would be an example of pragmatic encroachment." (Katherine Hawley, "What is Impostor Syndrome?", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 93, 2019). I use visual art and figurative examples as illustrations, adapting from methods, such as the example, used in analytic philosophy. I suggest that some artworks operate as philosophical provocations of the archive: "The artwork just exists", as Frank Stella argued. Artworks and archival artistic material are offered for aesthetic contemplation; they don't possess any "magical" qualities, they don't cause any phenomena or events in the world. In this view, I ordered this exposition as a design proposal for two independent, yet interconnected exhibitions: one for the final artistic exhibition show; and one as a general overview for the artist's studio, set up as a stand alone, if parallel, exhibition.

O presente ensaio visa fomentar uma discussão acerca da intersecção entre a arte, a espiritualidade e a imigração, temas que se revelam notórios nas expressões culturais contemporâneas sociais e pessoais. Mais concretamente, analisa-se a forma como a artista navega na sua identidade e experiência, abordando questões sociais e reflexões pessoais sobre a experiência do imigrante. Os elementos contidos nesta obra incluem peças de alumínio gravadas com sigilos de amor e mãos de cerâmica com olhos nas palmas. Os olhos remetem para a Mão de Fátima, um símbolo de proteção, mas as mãos também evocam as chagas em pessoas de cor, sugerindo um vínculo com experiências históricas de dor e sofrimento. Ao evidenciar as cicatrizes de pessoas que realmente viveram essas feridas, esta obra incorpora uma dimensão de memória e resistência. Este ensaio é um registo de histórias e memórias pessoais na produção artística, inserido na investigação do doutoramento em Artes Plásticas da Universidade do Porto. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The present essay seeks to stimulate a discourse on the confluence of art, spirituality and immigration, themes that have become increasingly prevalent in contemporary cultural expressions, both social and personal. Specifically, it will analyse how the artist navigates her identity and experience, addressing social issues and personal reflections on the immigrant experience. The elements of the installation include aluminium pieces engraved with love sigils and ceramic hands with eyes in their palms. The eyes refer to the hand of Fatima, a symbol of protection, but the hands also evoke the wounds on the hands of people of colour, suggesting a link with historical experiences of pain and suffering. By highlighting the scars of people who have actually experienced these wounds, this work incorporates a dimension of memory and resistance. This essay is a register of personal stories and memories in artistic production, as part of the research for a PhD in Plastic Arts at the University of Porto.

This exposition, entitled The Possibilities of Applying Elements of Czech Folk Theatre to Contemporary Street Performing Art, presents the process and conclusions of artistic research that explored the phenomenon of Baroque folk theatre performed in neighbourhood communities in the Czech countryside in the 18th and 19th centuries and the search for the application of its principles in today's theatre activity. For this research, in cooperation with the Diocesan Museum of Brno, two street productions were created in the vicinity of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Brno to test the functionality of the means of folk theatre in today's context. The exposition presents the initial considerations and methodology of the research, followed by a chapter-by-chapter description of the various theatrical principles in their historical context, how they were worked with in the investigated productions, and a summary of the benefits and problems uncovered. Finally, the major contributions of folk theatre to today's work are outlined, which were evident in two of the production forms. An essential part of this exposition is the audiovisual documentation of these two projects, which became the core of the practical artistic research. (CZ) Tato expozice s názvem Možnosti aplikace prvků lidového divadla na současnou inscenační tvorbu pouličního performativního umění prezentuje proces a závěry uměleckého výzkumu, který se zabýval fenoménem barokního lidového divadla hraného v sousedských komunitách na českém venkově 18. a 19. století a hledáním využití jeho principů v dnešní divadelní činnosti. Pro tento výzkum vznikly ve spolupráci s Diecézním muzeem Brno dvě pouliční inscenace v okolí katedrály svatých Petra a Pavla v Brně, na kterých byla ověřována funkčnost prostředků lidového divadla v dnešním kontextu. V expozici naleznete výchozí úvahy a metodologii výzkumu, následně jsou v kapitolách popisovány jednotlivé divadelní principy v historickém kontextu, jak s nimi bylo pracováno ve zkoumaných inscenacích a shrnutí odhalených přínosů i problémů. V závěru jsou naznačeny největší klady lidového divadla pro dnešní tvorbu, které byly na dvou inscenačních tvarech patrné. Zásadní součástí této expozice je také audiovizuální dokumentace těchto dvou projektů, které se staly jádrem praktického uměleckého výzkumu.

HACKING SOUND SENSORIALITY_how to build embodied sound objects for electroacoustic music with lofi techniques Disembodiment is not new and does not only exist because of the current technological reality. It is an experience that various practitioners, in the field of music, experience constantly. The composer/producer/musician/sound designer moves the material. The listener only perceives its virtual representation. How to bridge the gap between the bodily experience of sound creation and its fruition and further (re)creation in the virtual world? By using synesthesia in the creation of an object-based sound method and vocabulary with the use of lofi techniques. A synesthesia of sensory roots to place the body-cosmos at the centre of sound, to make this simulacrum of identity a bridge between the articulate and the inarticulate, between the real and the virtual. Lofi thought, with its techniques for creating and modifying sound, has a new vision of technology, linked to knowledge and memories of the body. The aim is to design a new vocabulary of tools and methods for the creation of sound objects with different degrees of embodiment. These sound objects will be designed to live in two worlds: in the disembodied world of the virtual and in the material world of corporeal sonority. The article explores the use of a practical and philosophical hacking that does not colonise the new virtual sound territories, emptying them of resources and meanings, but amplifies them through the semiotics of the ancient territories of the body, in order to make them habitable and fertile.