Research Catalogue

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.

Schedule, updates and resources for the Working Group Performance and Pedagogy at PSi 29: Assembly, London, UK. Organized by Vanessa Damilola Macaulay, Leigh Anne Howard and Adelheid Mers (coordinator)

An artistic Postdoc project intended to create an environment for musical innovation, to explore the design of new physical and electronic instruments and to host the international NIME conference 2011. This interdisciplinary artistic research project was a collaboration between the composer Ivar Froundberg, Music Technologist Aleksander Refsum Jensenius and percussionist Kjell Tore Innervik. A project to enhance the possibilities of music performance for the many and for the few located at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

In this lecture I reflect on recent artistic work relating to perception, technology and bodily awareness. The lecture was part of the Digital Narratives Network Conference held at UiB in 2019. The Digital Narrative Network Conference and Exhibition was a cross-faculty initiative at UiB/KMD with a keynote by N. Katherine Hayles on literature and AI, a series of presentations by scholars, artists and authors, and an exhibition of digital narratives, including a sample of my "Twilight Apparatus" sculpture-series. In my sculpture-work I have taken eyesight and optical phenomena as a starting point for mechanical installations that engage the senses and serve as metaphorical depictions of the relationship between human and technical cognition. My presentation will track the development of recent projects and the role of imaginative awareness.

This research project explores South African Art Music through collaborative practice and the classical saxophone. It begins by investigating the discourse surrounding South African Art Music through testimony collected from various conversations with South African composers, musicians and academics such as Dr Kevin Volans, Dr Antoni Schonken, Professor Hendrik Hofmeyr, Dr Cara Stacey and Arthur Feder. I began collecting the scores of South African saxophone compositions which led to the development of an online catalogue system to document these works -The South African Saxophone Catalogue. This catalogue forms the base - as well as the network - for how this research was developed. To further investigate the South African repertoire, I embarked on creative journeys with four South African composers through performer-composer collaboration. I decided to use this means of investigation as the relationship formed between myself and these composers shows a different level of engagement with this music, first-hand experience in the creation of this music as well as creating an open space for discourse. These collaborations were documented through reflections, audio and video recordings and are investigated in the form of case studies. The final artistic product was a concert featuring these new compositions in Cape Town, South Africa. The data collected was organised through an amalgamation of critical reflection and thematic analysis. Through this collective music-making, I discovered the variety in thought surrounding South African Art Music and paradoxically those who vigorously deny this term. I discovered the complexity both politically and socially that the term South African Art Music implies. In conjunction with my personal reflections, this exposition explores the ideas, opinions and art of individuals in various fields in the South African classical music scene who represent a variety of South African cultural backgrounds and generations.