Research Catalogue

In the softness of the belly… There is a war on women is a testimony to the lived stories of abortion from a perspective which transcends time and national borders. This research paper is structured around two intertwined trajectories with varying text formats and writing styles. This structure merges the personal with the political and explores their relationship as it reveals how they can’t be separated in a society with deeply rooted structures of patriarchy and misogyny. The first trajectory chronologically tells the story of the author's own experience with abortion integrated with the personal stories from friends and family members. The process of dealing with abortion is gradually laid out starting from childhood memories, proceeding into the practical turmoil and the contradicting emotions surrounding the experience itself, moving onto the mental and physical aftermaths, and lastly processing the experience and slowly healing. In the second trajectory the topic is explored from a more external perspective rooted in history, politics, culture, and society. Through research on the history of reproductive rights and procreation, the permeating role of patriarchy from the past to the presence is addressed. The investigation of patriarchy dives into the misogynist history of witch-hunts, hysteria, capitalism, domestic labor, and into the present where reproductive rights are both improving but also continuously being tightened or removed. This trajectory further explores several socio-cultural aspects of abortion through research-based text and more sporadic and poetic writings. The topics that are addressed are shame, guilt, religion, gender roles, depiction both visually and written, the public discussion, and the perception of blood, violence, and war in relation to women and reproductive rights. The aim of the research paper is to break down and reveal the patriarchal structures which compromise women's reproductive rights, and to state the importance of reclaiming the personal narratives as well as the autonomy over one's own body, narrative, and life.

reposition Journal of reflective Positions in Art & Research - support project for research documentation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna Initiated by Alexander Damianisch, reposition brings together the wide variety of research at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and reflects on an ongoing culture of editorial structures for research in Arts and Sciences. reposition collects positions from ongoing processes. It offers researchers of all disciplines and departments at the University of Applied Arts Vienna the opportunity to publish their work according to peer-review principles. Colleagues of any level and doctoral students in arts and sciences are invited to share their work. This series showcases their diverse approaches to project-oriented research work and presents current insights, captivating research processes, and ongoing projects from a deeply personal perspective that courageously unearth the work-in-progress.

New creation - Sign Language and Dance - Video Projection and dance

The following research observes the artistic creative process of a cross-disciplinary theatrical dance and percussion performance, called “Inseparable”. It discusses and analyses the process and methods behind the creation of the piece; the pros and cons of dance-percussion collaboration, and of working as a team of performer-creators; the involvement of a director; the creation of the final performance with a technical crew (light & sound); and the emergence of a mutual artistic language. The cast includes Zaneta Kesik and Matija Franjes - two dancers (doubling as choreographers), and Joao Brito and Kalina Vladovska - two percussionists (doubling as composers), creating the narrative, dramaturgy, choreography and (some of the) music on their own. The director, Renee Spierings, was invited to be an external coach. Teus van der Stelt and Maurits Thiel - light and sound artists - took care of the final presentation. The four performances took place during and thanks to Muziekzomer Gelderland 2023 and were produced by Jarick Bruinsma. Furthermore, in the research I discuss the social impact of the project's themes – technology addiction and human communication - and I examine a number of reactions and feedback from audience members. The chosen form of presentation is a research exposition.

This exposition examines the curatorial project "Clew: A Rich and Rewarding Disorientation," held at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2017. The project is part of my doctoral research on “Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency.” “Clew” proposes a framework for curatorial dramaturgy and asks: What is the potential of a dramaturgical approach within an open-ended exhibition structure? Who, or what, is the curatorial dramaturg? How do materials and time contribute to unfolding exhibition narratives? [This exposition corresponds to Section Six: Extending Lines in All Directions: Curatorial Dramaturgy in the printed dissertation.]

How can one learn to improvise convincingly within the context of the nineteenth-century piano repertoire? And why is it important to improvise on this repertoire in the twenty-first century? Taking the music of Robert Schumann (1810−56) as a departure point, Playing Schumann Again for the First Time proposes an answer to these questions through methods towards a pianistic practice that is driven by experimentation and strives to continually find more layers where improvisation can take place, both in sounding musical practice and in notation. These practice-based methods are contextualized by a discussion of the presence of improvisation in Western classical musical practice in the nineteenth century. They are then substantiated by an argument to use improvisation as a tool for rethinking the current performance practice of nineteenth-century music. Improvisation itself and the concepts driving this term will also be addressed: improvisation in musical performance will be described as a process guided by a feedback loop between mimesis and morphosis with which the practitioner engages using his or her individual cognitive and embodied approach to listening, forgetting, and conceptualizing; the results of which bear his or her own sonic signature. The knowledge gained in this project lies within the realm of what will be described as improvisation as practice, a category of improvisational behavior that circumvents the need to be presented as art and is rather intended for the development of one’s own music-making.