Research Catalogue

Abstract In the evolving landscape of contemporary art, the value of failure and experimentation plays a central role in reshaping artistic research. This paper explores an artistic residency where the focus shifted from traditional practices of ink on canvas to performance art using the human body as a medium of expression. This residency emphasized uncertainty, experimentation, and emotional expression as the core of the process. Through collaboration between a calligrapher and a visual artist, the performance engaged themes of seduction, silence, and the transition between reality and abstraction. In alignment with experimental art practices, the process itself became the artwork, embracing moments of failure and disruption as key components of creative exploration. This research integrates theories from neuroscience, psychology, and artistic failure, drawing on the insights of thinkers like John Cage, Samuel Beckett, and Cornelius Cardew to further contextualize the residency’s impact. Introduction: The Heart of the Experiment John Cage once said, “I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I’m doing,” encapsulating the essence of experimental art practices where uncertainty is the driving force. In artistic research, experimentation is often at the heart of the process, and the outcome remains unknown. This lack of a predetermined result transforms both the journey and the final product into a continuous exploration, where failure is not only inevitable but desirable. In this residency, we embraced the unknown, shifting the artistic dialogue from ink on canvas to ink on the human body, creating a living, breathing artwork where emotions were the palette and failure became a method of discovery. Many artistic research projects require clear outcomes, often restricting experimentation. Yet, experimental art seeks to remove these boundaries, allowing failure to become an integral part of both the process and the work itself. This paper explores how this residency’s focus on performance, movement, and emotional interaction met these ideals, revealing how experimentation—through silence, seduction, and the transition from refusal to acceptance—became the heart of the artistic expression. Methodology: Embracing Uncertainty and Failure The artistic residency functioned as an experimental laboratory where failure was not feared but embraced. Drawing on Cage’s philosophy of unfamiliarity and Beckett’s notion of “failing better,” the process allowed the artists to abandon the need for perfection and instead explore the limits of emotional expression, communication, and embodiment. The performance was set in a dark room, with a single spotlight illuminating the artists—a calligrapher and a visual artist. The calligrapher’s body, inscribed with ink, represented a departure from traditional practices, while the visual artist used his camera to document the unfolding emotions and moments. Silence and movement were central to the performance, creating a tension that invited the audience to engage with the vulnerability of the process. This mirrored Tom Johnson’s *Failing* (1975), a piece that requires performers to confront inevitable failure, resonating with the uncertainty of the residency’s artistic outcome. Experimental art theorists, such as Cornelius Cardew, posit that failure is intrinsic to artistic exploration because it reveals the gap between human goals and nature’s indifference to success or failure. In this residency, the focus on human emotions, embodied through movement and silence, underscored the natural disruptions in communication, problem-solving, and artistic interaction. Each failure—a misstep in movement, a hesitation in gesture—became an opportunity to delve deeper into emotional layers, ultimately enhancing the collaborative experience. The Neuroscience of Artistic Failure and Emotional Expression Experimental art is inherently tied to the exploration of emotion, failure, and cognitive engagement. Neuroscientific research highlights how emotional engagement in art can trigger neural pathways associated with empathy, problem-solving, and emotional regulation. According to Damasio’s (1999) theory of embodied emotion, our bodies are active participants in emotional processing, and failure in art allows for deeper emotional introspection. The calligraphy inscribed on the skin in this performance transcended words, representing not only artistic expression but emotional communication. The transitions between silence and song, refusal and acceptance, echo research on how art can stimulate emotional engagement in both the artist and the audience. Mirror neuron studies by Rizzolatti and Craighero (2004) suggest that observing others’ actions and emotions can activate the same neural circuits in the observer, allowing the audience to “mirror” the emotional journey of the artists. As the performers navigated their own emotional responses to failure, the audience was drawn into a parallel experience, deepening the emotional resonance of the performance. Failure as Method: From Artistic Process to Product In this residency, failure was not a negative outcome but an integral part of the creative process. The artists’ uncertainty about the outcome mirrored the audience’s experience, where emotional and cognitive engagement with the work continuously evolved. This aligns with the notion of failure as a method in artistic research. Cardew’s reflection on Buster Keaton’s comedic failure—where success is not the goal but the continual striving for success—is a fitting metaphor for the residency’s performance. The collaboration between the two artists was based on trust, yet their movements, gestures, and interactions often led to unexpected outcomes. These moments of “failure” created space for new interpretations and understandings of the artwork. Failure in experimental art, as argued by de Duve (1996), can create productive disturbances, altering our perception of the artwork and allowing us to reconsider its boundaries. In this residency, each failure—whether in movement, coordination, or communication—became an opening for growth, creating a dialogue between the artists and the audience that highlighted the unpredictability of the creative process. Mindfulness and the Role of Emotional Intelligence in the Residency A key element of the residency was the mindfulness required to navigate emotional states and mental wellbeing. Artistic collaboration demands a high level of emotional intelligence, as noted by Goleman (1995), who emphasized the role of empathy, self-awareness, and emotional regulation in interpersonal relationships. The performance, in which two artists had to communicate silently and through movement, was an exercise in mindfulness—each artist had to be acutely aware of the other’s mental and emotional state. This process reflects Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) concept of “flow,” a psychological state in which individuals are fully immersed in a task that challenges both their emotional and cognitive capacities. The artists’ ability to adapt to failure, manage stress, and maintain trust throughout the performance highlighted the importance of emotional regulation and problem-solving in creative collaboration. Conclusion: Experimentation as a Living Art Form This residency exemplifies how experimental art transforms failure from a flaw into a tool for discovery. Through the collaboration between a calligrapher and a visual artist, the performance embodied the core principles of experimental art, where the outcome was unknown, and the process itself became the artwork. The interaction between movement, silence, and emotional expression invited the audience into an experience where failure and success were no longer opposites but part of the same continuum. In line with the ideas presented by Cage, Beckett, and Cardew, this artistic residency demonstrated that failure is an essential part of artistic experimentation. It is through failure that the artists and audience alike are able to push beyond the familiar, creating new pathways for emotional communication, artistic expression, and cognitive engagement. The residency thus becomes a living experiment in both art and human connection, with failure acting as the pulse of its creative heartbeat.

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

A cross disciplinary artistic research project that departs from, and investigates several encounters and alignments between Contemporary Art and Archaeology. Its primary goal is to create a broad selection of autonomous and collaborative artistic, poetic and scientific expressions and responses to Prehistoric Art and its contemporary images. It will seek to stimulate a deeper understanding of contemporary and prehistoric artistic expression and the contemporary and prehistoric human condition. The participating artists and archaeologists will create autonomous projects, but also interact with each other in workshops, seminars and collaborative artistic projects. The secondary goal of Matter, Gesture and Soul is to establish an international cross disciplinary research network at the University of Bergen and strengthen the expertise in cross disciplinary artistic and scientific work with artistic research as the driving force. The project is financed by DIKU and UiB and supported by Global Challenges (UiB)

This artistic PhD project is based on the author’s practice as a recorder player and chamber musician in contemporary Western art music. Through an initial study of the embodied and tacit knowledge of chamber musicians and how it is articulated through gestural interaction during performance, the perspective of the thesis widens to explore how such qualities can be used as a creative resource in interdisciplinary collaboration. At its core, the PhD work has explored long-term collaborative processes in projects where a series of chamber music works have been brought to a staged context, but always keeping the qualities of chamber music at its centre. The research questions that emerge from these conceptual and artistic aims are: – How can I understand and transfer the communicative and embodied qualities inherent in chamber music playing to staged interdisciplinary contexts? – How can the concept of the gestural-sonic object, and the multimodal understanding of human perception which it implies, constitute both an analytical tool and a source for artistic experimentation? – How can musical interpretation be applied in the creation of staged interdisciplinary performances? The method and design of the project builds on collaborations with artists from the fields of composition, choreography, dance, theatre and visual arts. In the projects, the participating artists have aimed to explore and develop collaborative methods and staged formats where the artforms at the same time have been considered as autonomous and as part of a compound whole. The results of the artistic work are published online in the Research Catalogue. The project findings suggest that interdisciplinary approaches, such as experimental music theatre, composed theatre and choreomusical practices, may enable the liberation from traditional roles, hierarchies and predetermined formats and can lead to what can be described as a radical interpretation of the original score. Through a study of musical gesture – building on a theoretical framework grounded in embodied cognition and phenomenology – the thesis presents examples, both artistic and theoretical, of processes through which boundaries between artistic disciplines have been consciously blurred, thereby providing novel creative opportunities for the classical music performer.

This research aims to combine my two artistic identities as a Chinese zither (古筝) player and as a classical singer. After researching, interpreting and analyzing two art song cycles from the 20th century, 5 Poems of Ancient China and Japan by Charles Griffes and Songs of Autumn (秋之歌) by Zhongrong Luo (罗忠镕), I integrate Chinese traditional music forms, ornamentation and instrumentation into my vocal performance. The methodology includes literature review, expert interview, internet media review, score analysis, language analysis and experimental music practice. The outcomes highlight my approach of incorporating inspiration from zither music and folk singing styles into the art song cycles, while also addressing the ethical considerations encountered throughout the research process.

When sounds meet in space, they interact with each other, they diffract, change, and create new ones - these artefacts are always present, have always been heard, but here they become the music itself. Creating a space of both extreme clarity and overwhelming complexity, they lay bare a music that exists within our perception of steady sounds, a music that listeners create themselves through listening in space. What forms of creating, performing, and listening can be developed by making the phenomenon of wave interference my main musical material? And what implications can this phenomenon have as a figuration for the entities involved in performing and listening?