The Research Catalogue (RC) is a non-commercial, collaboration and publishing platform for artistic research provided by the Society for Artistic Research. The RC is free to use for artists and researchers. It serves also as a backbone for teaching purposes, student assessment, peer review workflows and research funding administration. It strives to be an open space for experimentation and exchange.

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NEITHER FISH NOR FOWL / VERKEN FUGL ELLER FISK (2025) Lise Hovik
This exposition is a documentary project on the artistic research project Neither Fish nor Fowl. The research project consists of theater making, film making, workshops, performances and writing, and explores the wondrous worlds of becoming in theatre for early years. Together with my theater company Teater Fot, I have been investigating the significance of affect as philosophical, emotional, and material inspiration in the creative process, and in relation to young children in Theater for Early Years. Neither Fish nor Fowl was conducted as a performance project from April 2017 to March 2020. During this period, the research process was documented in RC, presenting methods, writings, and reflections along the way. The pre-production performance (for babies 0-2) was shown at the festival Olavsfestdagene in Trondheim, Norway, summer 2017 and at Trondheim Kunsthall autumn 2017. The full production, Begynnelser (for 3-5 years), was presented in april 2018 in co-production with the venue Teaterhuset Avant Garden in Trondheim. Baby Becomings (0-2 years), was presented at festivals and for kindergartens in Trondheim autumn 2018, and the final version Himmel & Hav / Sky & Sea was presented at Rosendal Teater in in March 2020, touring kindergartens for one week. Animalium (2019) was a spin-off production with film making, workshops, visiting exhibition spaces and other public spaces. An exposition in VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research #2 on the theme Estrangement was published in 2020 through RC. In the period 2020-26 Animalium has become a new site specific research project, looking at post humanist approaches to different sites such as kindergarten spaces, libraries and art exhibition spaces, documented as an ongoing research project here. In 2026 a new version of Sky & Sea will be produced for kindergarten touring: Himmelfiskene.
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Unofficial Maxlab Archive (2025) Janna Beck
Maxlab was a research group at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (01/01/2013–19/12/2025), coordinated by Janna Beck, that explored how digital tools could actively shape artistic practice. Unofficial Maxlab Archive offers an overview of its many endeavours, developed in collaboration with researchers, artists, students, and a wide range of partners, framing technology as a co-worker and infrastructure as a space for encounter. The archive brings together collective projects alongside distinct artistic research trajectories. Large-scale collaborative formats—such as projection environments, digital drawing platforms, and transnational studio practices—coexisted with research projects rooted in personal authorship and specific artistic questions. These trajectories were linked through a shared vision on digitalisation in the arts, grounded in adaptability, digital autonomy, and an active understanding of technology as material and condition. The projects collected here demonstrate how lightweight, flexible setups can enable artistic processes across locations and time zones, while leaving room for singular focus and situated inquiry. Digital autonomy is central: technology is neither spectacle nor end goal, but something to be understood, adjusted, and appropriated in order to keep artistic agency open. Rather than operating as a fixed structure, Maxlab functioned as an evolving ecosystem that designed situations for collaboration, circulation of authorship, and productive friction. Openness, simplicity, and adaptability were not merely technical choices, but ethical and artistic positions. Through this lens, the archive documents how research practices emerged in unexpected contexts—rooftops in Havana, community centres in Durban, deserts, planetariums, and festivals—wherever people, technology, and place intersected. The archive captures this way of working and the energy generated when a laboratory exists primarily as a method rather than an institution.
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The Opener - sharing the performer’s process (2026) Einar Røttingen
The Opener - sharing the performer’s process was a one-year artistic research pilot project (March 2024 - March 2025) funded by strategic funds at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Music and Design, University of Bergen. It was part of the Grieg Academy Research Group for Performance and Interpretation (GAFFI) together with external members from The Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. The project consisted of 8 sub-projects and educational activities, involving different instruments: piano solo, violin, duos with voice and piano, clarinet, accordion and guitar. The term opener can in this project proposal symbolize a three-fold meaning connected to the music performance field. This project seeks to - see the performer as an opener of musical meaning in a performance (interpretation of musical intentions in scores and improvisation) - challenge ourselves as performers as openers that share his/her artistic work (getting insight into the creative process and methods) - finding openers as tools to reveal and show the creative process of performers (ways of showing the artistic process)
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THIS IS IT (2026) Federico Federici
“Objects under investigation” is a collection of separately conceived works addressing the problem of the text as medium and, more broadly, mediality in art from an experimental perspective. The term object[s] functions as a neuter reference to the text both as a phenomenon and as a product in itself. It evokes the idea of something that can be physically handled, without implying a necessarily physical object.
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Safe Ocean: Artistic and Autoethnographic Explorations of Music and Sound as Vessels for Finnish Kosovar Second-Generation Identity (2026) Merve Abdurrahmani
Abstract This study investigates the role of music and sound in shaping a sense of identity among second-generation immigrants in Finland, with a particular focus on Finnish Kosovar experiences. As Finland moves from a historically homogeneous society toward a more multicultural landscape, understanding how musical engagement influences identity formation becomes increasingly significant. Through autoethnographic reflection and artistic practice, this research explores how listening, performing, and creating music mediate the negotiation of cultural heritage, integration, and hybrid identities among individuals navigating multiple cultural worlds. Central to this exploration is the master concert Safe Ocean, which serves as both a personal and academic articulation of the study’s core themes. The concert integrates multilingual expression, traditional Albanian and Turkish musical materials, and hybrid compositional methods that also incorporate Nordic musical elements such as modal melodies, open-voiced harmonies, and timbral aesthetics characteristic of the region’s contemporary folk and art music practices. By combining solo, small-group, and full-ensemble arrangements, the project presents both intimate and collective expressions, engaging instruments and musical influences from Kosovar Albanian, Turkish, Nordic, and Middle Eastern traditions. Through the interweaving of autoethnographic insight, artistic creation, and scholarly inquiry, this study demonstrates how music evokes memory, supports emotional processing, and supports dialogue between multiple cultural worlds. Findings indicate that engagement with sound and musical practice contributes not only to personal identity formation but also to the creation of social belonging and spaces for intercultural dialogue. This research contributes to broader discussions on music, diaspora, and identity, offering insight into how artistic practices can mediate complex cultural experiences and support the integration of second-generation immigrants within multicultural societies.
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