Research Catalogue

Circus - posters, programs and other ephemera. Digital material donated by Cirkusakademien.

‘Curating in Context’ addresses the challenges of curating contemporary art beyond curatorial approaches inherited from the visual arts. Tanzfabrik Berlin, Lokomotiva Skopje, Stockholm University of the Arts, and the University of Zagreb co-organised the two-year EU funded Erasmus+ project. It aims to enhance curatorial training focused on social impact by engaging local, regional, and international stakeholders, including cultural organisations. The project uses strategies from the performing arts to develop educational resources for universities and ongoing training for cultural workers and citizens. It fosters critical reflection on socio-political and economic contexts and promotes curatorial methods that connect performing arts with activism and social movements. The project's meetings, public events, and resources will emphasise collaborative learning between politics and art valorisation.

This is the Aurora exposition.

This exposition is part of the series The Sonic Atelier – Conversations with Contemporary Composers and Producers, dedicated to exploring the evolving role of the composer in the twenty-first century. Through a Q&A format, the project investigates how contemporary creators inhabit hybrid identities at the intersection of composition, production, performance, and technology. This interview features Federico Albanese, who reflects on his formation, his approach to integrating sound design and production into the act of writing, and his perspective on the transformations of today’s recording industry and streaming platforms. His insights shed light on central issues such as hybridity, authorship, and the value of craftsmanship in contemporary music-making.

This practice-driven PhD developed a body of art in response to the question, ‘what is it like to be a bird?’ The motivation was towards ethical action in an ecologically damaged world. Following Tim Ingold, the study sees the environment as a meshwork of multiple lines of becoming (or flight), along which the lives of creatures unfold and interconnect. In my detailed bird studies, my question acted as a lure towards a tantalising, but ultimately unreachable goal. In this way line of flights developed between me and birds, stimulating the creation of artworks. These aimed to enchant viewers and encourage a rethinking of the human/bird relationship. I used multiple media and methods informing each other synergistically. Ultraviolet photography revealed a hidden world, visible to birds, hence questioning the hegemony of the human view. Attaching a video camera to my dog disclosed, not just a stream of images from a new perspective, but the life of a being inhabiting the world bodily, full of energy, desires, fears, and movement. In the spirit of Donna Haraway’s speculative fabulations, I constructed a Birdsong-to-English translator. This produced intriguing phrases such as ‘future earth scream now!’, challenging the reductionist ‘fighting or flirting’ understanding of birdsong and reimagining the nature of human and animal language. Building on extensive observations, field notes and recordings, I developed a range of creative writing, resulting in a radio play, a gallery installation, and a poetry pamphlet. In the culminating work, Harrier Diaries, I combined text, photography and drawings, juxtaposing subjective and objective views to highlight lines of flight between birds, their environment and the observer. Despite aiming to know a bird’s view, I concluded that what matters is not knowing, but instead an intense wonder at the unknowable. I argue that this disposition is a vital prerequisites for ethical action.

This research investigates the active role of light as a core compositional element in contemporary music performance by exploring the integration of light, sound, and movement in real-time environments. Traditionally, light has been treated as a secondary aspect of performance, primarily serving as a means of illumination or visual enhancement. However, this study examines how light can function beyond this conventional role, actively shaping musical structure and influencing perception. Through the analysis of live performances and hands-on experimentation with analogue oscillators, photoresistors, and DMX systems, this research explores how these elements function as both medium and material within a piece. My compositions, alongside works by composers such as Viola Yip and Hugo Morales Murguía, serve as case studies, illustrating light’s transformation in performance from a passive visual aid to a structural force. These works highlight how light, when treated as a compositional element, reconfigures performer agency and audience perception. By challenging conventional notions of light in music, this research contributes to ongoing discussions on multimedia composition and performance aesthetics. It proposes an alternative perspective in which light is not merely an accessory to sound but an integral component of musical structure, expanding the possibilities for interdisciplinary performance practice.