Research Catalogue

Photography with sound and net art, drawing, found folk sculpture with digital drawing, readymades, 2012, 2020, 2021. Accompanied by archival material. The exposition exposes the question of what is artistic research. Usurping the mini-essayist format, which is traditionally associated with research in say the area of philosophy, the exposition formally operates on different levels. I selectively included visual art research material from my own artistic archive, as well as anonymous material that's readily available from the internet and in film archives. In this way, I wanted to emphasise the role of archiving and using archives in the artistic process, as an element of artistic research and artistic production that might involve remediation. Taking that we live in a largely theoretic culture, which means that we use external information systems for storage and retrieval of written, visual and other material, the implication is that art is part of this theoretical system. Moreover, I specifically problematise the notion of value in relation to the visual arts by using the popular media figures of the counterfeit and the impostor, with reference to the so-called "impostor syndrome", correlated with being a minority of some sort in one's field: "A different thought is that two people may be answerable to the very same standard of success or competence, yet be subject to different epistemic standards for reasonable belief in their respective success or competence. This would be an example of pragmatic encroachment." (Katherine Hawley, "What is Impostor Syndrome?", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 93, 2019). I use visual art and figurative examples as illustrations, adapting from methods, such as the example, used in analytic philosophy. I suggest that some artworks operate as philosophical provocations of the archive: "The artwork just exists", as Frank Stella argued. Artworks and archival artistic material are offered for aesthetic contemplation; they don't possess any "magical" qualities, they don't cause any phenomena or events in the world. In this view, I ordered this exposition as a design proposal for two independent, yet interconnected exhibitions: one for the final artistic exhibition show; and one as a general overview for the artist's studio, set up as a stand alone, if parallel, exhibition.

Although it is virtually impossible to formalize what ‘best practice’ on the Research Catalogue might be, it harbours by now numerous examples of expositions that ‘work.’ In this session, I want to introduce a small set of diverse expositions from JAR as a way to highlight successful choices people have taken. With a short explanation of expositionality and virtual witnessing, I aim to support an understanding of the effect that those examples have as a way of describing how media-rich articulations can productively engage with both academic and artistic expectations.

"New ideas might be conceived and developed more rapidly in disciplines that are more abstract. The inductive methods of experimental innovators in painting makes their enterprise resemble the more empirical disciplines considered by psychologists, while the deductive approach of the conceptual innovators makes theirs resemble the more abstract disciplines." David W. Galenson, "The Life Cycles of Modern Artists", NBER Working Paper Series, 2003. Artists and architects have been at times captivated by visionary ideological viewpoints, which they used as inspiration and to make suggestions for applications with their artworks and designs. My use of the diagram and the image aims to convey the simple message that art strives for evolution; meaning to strengthen the mind, to research capabilities, to communicate a disinterested, though not necessarily apolitical, view of social changes, to overcome banality and offer an alternative way of looking at the world. For many artists, this motivation has traditionally often gone hand in hand with political goals and motivations. The decline of the commercial art market in the 1980s gave rise to artists working mainly, but not solely, with ephemeral installations, including the ubiquitous video art, performance, and the broader range of conceptual art. Painting remained as an established fine art practice, with a renewed interest to conceptualism. The portrait is of the artist, myself, at a young age, dated 1993, when I was a student at the NTUA. Betty Nigianni is my name known as (aka), which I also used as my artistic pseudonym.

This artistic research project reflects a deeply personal exploration of the ritualistic and symbolic aspects of music, from the perspective of my own practice a soloist. It touches on the idea that the act of creating sound is not merely a technical or performative endeavor, but a sacred, energetic exchange. The fingertips, as the primary point of contact between the musician and their instrument, are seen as a portal—an interface between the inner world of the musician and the outer world of sound, music, and the present moment.

O presente ensaio visa fomentar uma discussão acerca da intersecção entre a arte, a espiritualidade e a imigração, temas que se revelam notórios nas expressões culturais contemporâneas sociais e pessoais. Mais concretamente, analisa-se a forma como a artista navega na sua identidade e experiência, abordando questões sociais e reflexões pessoais sobre a experiência do imigrante. Os elementos contidos nesta obra incluem peças de alumínio gravadas com sigilos de amor e mãos de cerâmica com olhos nas palmas. Os olhos remetem para a Mão de Fátima, um símbolo de proteção, mas as mãos também evocam as chagas em pessoas de cor, sugerindo um vínculo com experiências históricas de dor e sofrimento. Ao evidenciar as cicatrizes de pessoas que realmente viveram essas feridas, esta obra incorpora uma dimensão de memória e resistência. Este ensaio é um registo de histórias e memórias pessoais na produção artística, inserido na investigação do doutoramento em Artes Plásticas da Universidade do Porto. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The present essay seeks to stimulate a discourse on the confluence of art, spirituality and immigration, themes that have become increasingly prevalent in contemporary cultural expressions, both social and personal. Specifically, it will analyse how the artist navigates her identity and experience, addressing social issues and personal reflections on the immigrant experience. The elements of the installation include aluminium pieces engraved with love sigils and ceramic hands with eyes in their palms. The eyes refer to the hand of Fatima, a symbol of protection, but the hands also evoke the wounds on the hands of people of colour, suggesting a link with historical experiences of pain and suffering. By highlighting the scars of people who have actually experienced these wounds, this work incorporates a dimension of memory and resistance. This essay is a register of personal stories and memories in artistic production, as part of the research for a PhD in Plastic Arts at the University of Porto.

This exposition, entitled The Possibilities of Applying Elements of Czech Folk Theatre to Contemporary Street Performing Art, presents the process and conclusions of artistic research that explored the phenomenon of Baroque folk theatre performed in neighbourhood communities in the Czech countryside in the 18th and 19th centuries and the search for the application of its principles in today's theatre activity. For this research, in cooperation with the Diocesan Museum of Brno, two street productions were created in the vicinity of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Brno to test the functionality of the means of folk theatre in today's context. The exposition presents the initial considerations and methodology of the research, followed by a chapter-by-chapter description of the various theatrical principles in their historical context, how they were worked with in the investigated productions, and a summary of the benefits and problems uncovered. Finally, the major contributions of folk theatre to today's work are outlined, which were evident in two of the production forms. An essential part of this exposition is the audiovisual documentation of these two projects, which became the core of the practical artistic research. (CZ) Tato expozice s názvem Možnosti aplikace prvků lidového divadla na současnou inscenační tvorbu pouličního performativního umění prezentuje proces a závěry uměleckého výzkumu, který se zabýval fenoménem barokního lidového divadla hraného v sousedských komunitách na českém venkově 18. a 19. století a hledáním využití jeho principů v dnešní divadelní činnosti. Pro tento výzkum vznikly ve spolupráci s Diecézním muzeem Brno dvě pouliční inscenace v okolí katedrály svatých Petra a Pavla v Brně, na kterých byla ověřována funkčnost prostředků lidového divadla v dnešním kontextu. V expozici naleznete výchozí úvahy a metodologii výzkumu, následně jsou v kapitolách popisovány jednotlivé divadelní principy v historickém kontextu, jak s nimi bylo pracováno ve zkoumaných inscenacích a shrnutí odhalených přínosů i problémů. V závěru jsou naznačeny největší klady lidového divadla pro dnešní tvorbu, které byly na dvou inscenačních tvarech patrné. Zásadní součástí této expozice je také audiovizuální dokumentace těchto dvou projektů, které se staly jádrem praktického uměleckého výzkumu.