Research Catalogue

Beröringspunkterna mellan språk och musik har intresserat många genom historien och i denna exposition står sambanden mellan muntligt berättande på dialekt och musikalisk interpretation samt komposition stå i fokus. Ann Elkjär är flöjtist och doktorand i musikalisk gestaltning, och i doktorandprojektet utforskas en nyfikenhet på muntligt berättande: Vilka musikaliska element går att hitta i muntligt, dialektalt, berättande och hur kan de omformas till kompositoriska och interpretatoriska redskap? Frågorna utforskas i ett samarbete med tonsättaren Ida Lundén, och expositionen bygger på en analys av videodokumentation av den kollaborativa kompositionsprocessen. Arkivinspelningar av värmländskt berättande utgör ett centralt material, där fragment av äldre berättares röster processas och spelas upp med rullbandspelare i dialog med soloflöjtstämman. Genom rullbandspelarna ges möjligheter att skapa loopar som även återspeglas i flöjtstämman, och på detta vis utforskar verket hur element i muntligt berättande kan omformas till musikaliskt material. English: The intersections between language and music have long intrigued scholars, and this exposition centers on the relationship between oral storytelling in dialect and musical interpretation. Ann Elkjär, flautist and PhD student in musical performance, explores the reflective spaces that emerge in the interstice between language and music. The research questions guiding the PhD project are: What musical elements can be identified in oral storytelling in dialect, and how can these be transformed into compositional and interpretative tools? To investigate these questions, Ann Elkjär collaborates with several composers. This exposition presents the collaborative compositional process between Elkjär and composer Ida Lundén. Archival recordings of storytelling in the Värmland dialect serve as a central material, where fragments of an elderly narrator’s voice are processed and played back via reel-to-reel tape recorders in dialogue with the solo flute part. The use of tape recorders enables the creation of loops, which are mirrored in the flute part, thereby exploring how elements of oral storytelling can be transformed into musical material.

This exposition or archive is a work in progress, under construction, for gathering material of encounters with junipers.

Exploring methods of connecting thinking to space and embodiment in a research that looks at the connection between mental images, language and the body through felt experience.

Formal Defence of Post-Interpretive Criticism By Dorian Vale Philosopher of Aesthetics & Founder of the Post-Interpretive Movement This treatise offers the first formal philosophical defense of Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC) as a distinct and necessary alternative to both traditional interpretation and its later reactionary forms, such as Post-Criticism. Dorian Vale articulates the foundational divergences between PIC and its predecessors, positioning it not as a negation, but as a restorative framework—one that centers restraint, reverence, moral proximity, and the ethics of witnessing. While Post-Criticism often celebrates ambiguity, play, and the dismantling of authorial intent, PIC counters with a sacred custodianship: refusing to exploit the unspeakable, flatten the traumatic, or aestheticize grief. It champions an art criticism that stands beside the work, rather than extracting from it. This defence establishes PIC as a rigorous intellectual position grounded in ontology, ethics, and the philosophy of presence. It is both a doctrine and a declaration—staking its claim in the contemporary critical field as a movement of radical restraint, critical mercy, and aesthetic consequence. Dorian Vale is a chosen pseudonym, not to obscure identity, but to preserve clarity of voice and integrity of message. It creates distance between the writer and the work, allowing the philosophy to stand unclouded by biography. The name exists not to hide, but to honor the seriousness of the task: to speak without spectacle, and to build without needing to be seen. This name is used for all official publications, essays, and theoretical works indexed through DOI-linked repositories including Zenodo, OSF, PhilPapers, and SSRN. Dorian Vale, Post-Interpretive Criticism, PIC doctrine, post-criticism response, contemporary art theory, moral proximity, restraint in criticism, ethical aesthetics, art criticism philosophy, sacred presence, viewer as evidence, ontology of art, witnessing in criticism, custodial criticism, non-extractive theory, aesthetics of mercy, trauma and art writing, art ethics manifesto, contemporary criticism debate, art as presence, art and ontology This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843)

A Philosophical Departure from Post-Criticism By Dorian Vale — A Treatise in the Post-Interpretive Movement A Philosophical Departure from Post-Criticism is a pivotal treatise that distinguishes Dorian Vale’s Post-Interpretive Criticism (PIC) from the broader and more diffuse field of Post-Criticism. Where Post-Criticism often aims to relax or abandon evaluative frameworks, Vale’s work insists on restraint, reverence, and ethical responsibility in the act of reading art. This departure is not merely stylistic—it is ontological. Post-Criticism, as commonly practiced, often flattens interpretation into ambivalence, collapsing the critic’s task into a commentary of gestures. By contrast, Post-Interpretive Criticism is a call to presence over analysis, silence over spectacle, and custodianship over commentary. In this treatise, Vale dissects the shortcomings of Post-Criticism—its lack of moral proximity, its addiction to cleverness, its occasional nihilism—and presents Post-Interpretive Criticism as a re-sacralization of the critic’s role. It is a return to witnessing as method, anchored not in detachment, but in moral and metaphysical alignment with the unspeakable truths embedded in art. This work is a formal clarification of genre boundaries, philosophical ethics, and aesthetic posture. It enshrines Post-Interpretive Criticism as a new discipline, separate from—and more rigorous than—the interpretive loosening that preceded it. Vale, Dorian. A Philosophical Departure from Post-Criticism. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17057756 Dorian Vale, Post-Interpretive Criticism, Post-Criticism, philosophy of art, ethics of criticism, witness-based aesthetics, moral proximity, silent criticism, aesthetic restraint, art theory treatise, post-structural criticism, new art movements, metaphysical aesthetics, art and presence, slow criticism, reverent art writing, non-performative critique, theory of witnessing, art and ontology, contemporary aesthetic movements, departure from postmodernism This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843)

Post-Interpretive Criticism: Doctrine of Restraint, Witness, and Moral Proximity in Contemporary Art Writing Author: Dorian Vale This doctrinal essay codifies the foundational ethics and philosophy of Post-Interpretive Criticism—a radical departure from traditional art writing that prioritizes interpretation, explanation, and performative analysis. In its place, Dorian Vale introduces a critical framework rooted in restraint, witness, and moral proximity. Rather than dissecting or decoding art, this doctrine teaches the critic to hold space, remain present, and write with reverence. Art, especially that which emerges from grief, trauma, displacement, or sacred silence, is not a puzzle to be solved—but a presence to be honored. This doctrine offers a structured alternative to the dominant critical paradigms. It affirms that the most ethical art writing does not always speak—it listens. It does not clarify—it shelters. It does not interpret—it witnesses. Blending philosophy, aesthetic ethics, and literary rigor, this foundational text establishes Post-Interpretive Criticism as both a movement and a method. It calls for nothing less than a revolution in the way we engage with meaning, silence, and the unseen. Vale, Dorian. Post-Interprative Criticism: Doctrine of Restraint, Witness, and Moral Proximity in Contemporary Art Writing. Museum of One, 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17012559 Dorian Vale is a chosen pseudonym, not to obscure identity, but to preserve clarity of voice and integrity of message. It creates distance between the writer and the work, allowing the philosophy to stand unclouded by biography. The name exists not to hide, but to honor the seriousness of the task: to speak without spectacle, and to build without needing to be seen. This name is used for all official publications, essays, and theoretical works indexed through DOI-linked repositories including Zenodo, OSF, PhilPapers, and SSRN. This entry is connected to a series of original theories and treatises forming the foundation of the Post-Interpretive Criticism movement (Q136308909), authored by Dorian Vale (Q136308916) and published by Museum of One (Q136308879). These include: Stillmark Theory (Q136328254), Hauntmark Theory (Q136328273), Absential Aesthetic Theory (Q136328330), Viewer-as-Evidence Theory (Q136328828), Message-Transfer Theory (Q136329002), Aesthetic Displacement Theory (Q136329014), Theory of Misplacement (Q136329054), and Art as Truth: A Treatise (Q136329071), Aesthetic Recursion Theory (Q136339843) Post-Interpretive Criticism, art criticism ethics, Dorian Vale, doctrine of restraint, moral proximity in art, witness-based art writing, contemporary art theory, post-critical aesthetics, slow art, minimal criticism, sacred witnessing, aesthetic responsibility, trauma in art, ethical language in criticism, writing without harm, non-interpretive criticism, viewer as evidence, presence in art, philosophical criticism, art and reverence