Research Catalogue

Performance philosophy is still something of a ‘wild frontier’ where fundamental questions can be re-posed concerning the nature of wisdom and love, life and truth. For if love and wisdom are not co-extensive with verbal communication, then philosophy may be legitimately pursued by performative means. In this session the participants aim is to enact and unfold a set of trajectories rather than describe or 'define' their work in words alone. Passion and grief are disruptive currencies. Passion and grief not only seem un-necessary for biological life, they frequently threaten it. Yet a life lived without them would seem impoverished. Whether one views these turbulent affects as parasites, invaders, or as the engines of higher culture, they inhabit philosophy as an ineradicable black-market haunts all states and empires. We aim to consider this under-zone on its own terms, weaving theory with demonstrations of transferable techniques for cross-disciplinary research.

CONFERENCE, UNIVERSITY OF PORTO. October 16, 17, 18th, 2024 :: Drawing Across :: Along :: Between University Borders considers the epistemological and transformative potential of drawing research to connect divergent areas in the university today. The conference focuses on drawing-based collaborations between art, science and society to tackle artistic, educational and societal challenges. We invite artists, scientists, educators, students, university policymakers and persons interested in inter-transdisciplinary practices across academia, research, and society to contribute and join the discussion in three possible directions: ACROSS - In what ways are drawing practitioners challenging the disciplinary strictures that often constrain thinking and acting across divergent areas in the university? ALONG - How can drawing activities be an ally of STEM education in the university, and how can STEM practices be an ally of drawing education? BETWEEN - How can drawing-based practices and STEM disciplines collaborate to address the urgency of societal challenges?

In progress Dorsal Practices is a collaboration between choreographer Katrina Brown and writer-artist Emma Cocker, for exploring the notion of dorsality in relation to how we as moving bodies orientate to self, others, world. How does cultivation of a back-oriented awareness and attitude shape and inform our experience of being-in-the-world? The dorsal orientation foregrounds active letting go, releasing, even de-privileging, of predominant social habits of uprightness and frontality — the head-oriented, sight-oriented, forward-facing, future-leaning tendencies of a culture intent on grasping a sense of the world through naming and control. Rather than a mode of withdrawal, of turning one’s back, how might a backwards-leaning orientation support an open and receptive ethics of relation? How are experiences of listening, voicing, thinking, shaped differently through this tilt of awareness and attention towards the back?

Sophie Luger (Institute of Architecture) and Lenia Mascha (Institute of Architecture) address the increasingly important issue of urban noise pollution. "SoundCape. Combating Environmental Noise in Urban Areas" explores how sound and noise prevention can be incorporated into architectural design. To develop building structures for noise control in urban environments, the authors examine contradictory historical approaches from architecture and acoustics to learn about the relation of sound and material. Their approach focuses on geometry; experiments with Chladni patterns show that geometrical and material properties of architectural façades have an impact on spatial acoustics and result in the design of ornamental elements that can reduce unwanted noise in cities.

Conny Zenk (Center Research Focus, PhD candidate PhD in Art), Bianca Ludewig (researcher and journalist) and Magdalena Scheicher (researcher) are interested in taking not only unusual paths but also using vehicles in different ways. In their contribution "A Collective Cycling Body Of Sound", they reflect on the bicycle as a medium for art and sound and present activist strategies of collective cycling to open up queer-feminist, solidarity-based perspectives on the city. In doing so, they explore the possibilities of public space as a sound space and discuss insights from Zenk’s activist practice. Inviting Ludewig and Scheicher for interviews, Zenk discusses bikefeminism and counterpublics, and approaches soundrides as a form of empowerment.

In his contribution "Post-Digital Angst – The Direct Experience", Mong-Sum Joseph Leung (Center Research Focus, PhD candidate PhD in Art) explores anxiety in the post-digital age, examining it as a basic anthropological condition in relation to concepts such as hollowness, nullity, and the unknown. Leung intertwines personal experiences from daily life with his artistic practice and ontological reflections on the human condition, working with Heidegger’s notions of Sorge and Angst, to reflect on affective experiences in a digitalized world.