Research Catalogue

Jenny Sunesson (b. 1973) is a Swedish artist predominantly working with sound. Her practice ranges from field recording and live collages to conceptual sound art and video. Sunesson uses her own life as a stage for her dark, tragic and sometimes comical re-contextualised work where real and invented characters and derogated stereotypes, collaborate in the alternate story of hierarchies and normative power structures in society.

'Empowering Collective Performing Arts: A Facilitator’s Toolkit for Overcoming Language Barriers' is a practice-led research project that explores the ways to encourage group connection through non-textual, embodied communication within diverse communities. Drawing on work experience with immigrant children, refugees, and deaf/hearing collaborators—as well as recent research residencies with ASSITEJ Norway, The Flying Seagulls and Red Nose Emergency Smiles—the project contains a growing body of facilitation strategies as an open-source toolkit. Rooted in my personal experience of linguistic displacement and background in voice and dance, this project proposes a shift away from text-centric facilitation models toward approaches that prioritise emotional intuition and situational awareness. The project is underpinned by critical frameworks around embodied knowledge, power, and positionality, aiming to challenge colonial and exclusionary norms around communication. Ultimately, it seeks to empower facilitators and communities alike to trust in the expressive potential of the body and encourage inclusive, trust-based spaces for collective performing arts experiences.

SWEAT - YoNoSudoBrillo Two weeks workshop held in Benidorm, Spain, in August 2024. In the context of EASA, European Architecture Students Assembly 2024 event. Tutored by Diana Ferro and Angelo Ciccaglione. 𝐼𝓉’𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝑒𝓂𝒷𝓇𝒶𝒸𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓇𝑒𝓁𝒶𝓍𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃. 𝐿𝑒𝓉'𝓈 𝑒𝓂𝒷𝒶𝓇𝓀 𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒿𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓃𝑒𝓎 𝑜𝒻 𝓌𝑒𝓁𝓁𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓉𝑜𝑔𝑒𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇. In a sauna, people meet strangers and exchange stories while absorbing heat being naked and sweaty. In this workshop we brought the sauna to a step further: we absorbed heat, stories, gestures, words, objects, skills, dreams and sweat them out to other people, re-enacting what we have learned. Also naked, why not. We learnt how to live, how to breathe, how to make a kebab, how to embody old wisdom, how to tie shoes the proper way. All you need is a fan, a towel and a body. A kebab stick, a drink, some snackies. Participants developed a deeper perspective on what it means to operate within a complex identity such as the city and gained skills to open their own kebab shop.

This thesis explores how late-diagnosed autistic individuals and their close circle can redesign their relationship after their diagnosis through communication that aligns with autistic ways of being. Grounded in the neurodiversity paradigm, the social model of disability, and the double empathy problem, the research combines interviews, co-creation sessions, and visual storytelling to uncover emotional and relational dynamics during post-diagnosis identity shifts. Through a neurodivergent lens—rooted in sensory awareness, pattern recognition, and visual thinking—this work challenges deficit-based narratives and proposes a compassionate, co-created communication framework. The goal is not assimilation but mutual understanding: enabling autistic individuals to embrace their authentic selves while guiding loved ones to meet them with compassion and openness. Ultimately, the project reimagines design as a tool for creating connection, not correction—honouring difference, restoring balance, and building inclusive systems where all ways of being are valid, visible, and valued.

This exposition investigates the potential of a/r/tography as a methodological framework within an artistic context characterized by improvisation in movement, dance, and theatre. Through a small-scale exploratory study, theory, practice, and reflection are integrated to examine how knowledge and understanding are generated within and through improvised artistic processes. The exposition includes documentation of practical components, reflective writings, and theoretical perspectives, and illustrates how a/r/tography can operate as a dynamic and responsive research methodology within the field of performative arts. This exposition is part of the peer-reviewed article: Østern, T. P., Reppen, C., O’Connell, S., & Daneberg, M. (2025). Choreographer/researcher/teacher - developing a/r/tography as an approach to dance pedagogy at Stockholm University of the Arts in a professional learning community of teachers. Nordic Journal of Art & Research, 14(2).

This visual essay explores images generated through AI-based expansion of a simple photographic composition. Without commands or prompts, the system infers human gestures, shadows, and presences — inventing what was never there. The project questions authorship, visibility, and the power of symbolic residue when language no longer mediates creation. It is not about representation — it is about refusal, inference, and the unsettling persistence of images beyond intention.