Research Catalogue

We, Anna N. and Barb/Brab, started an exchange of thoughts about the meaning of "aut" – as in aut/istic and aut/oimmune. We are interested in what it means to live as auts, to write about it in regard to everydaily life, in regard to the medical discourses about autism and autoimmunity, and in regard to the view of the "others", the not-auts. In the context of language-based artistic research we seek to develop practices that allow for investigating the meaning of aut on different levels of our existence. * (Speaking out and at the same time speaking as auts, but also speaking in a language called "aut")

This is the landing page for Rhythmic Music Conservatory's portal on Research Catalogue.

Conceived and co-organised by Emma Cocker, Alexander Damianisch, Cordula Daus and Lena Séraphin, this Society of Artistic Research Special Interest Group (SAR SIG) provides contexts for coming together via the exchange of language-based research. The intent is to support developments in the field of expanded language-based practices by inviting attention, time and space for enabling understanding of/and via these practices anew.

My PhD project, ‘Things That Might Be True’, is based on Carl DiSalvo’s concept of adversarial design (DiSalvo 2012), which differentiates between ‘design for politics’ and ‘political design’. DiSalvo defines the former as design that simplifies and streamlines people’s electoral actions and interactions with municipalities, healthcare, and the government. ‘Political design’, on the other hand, sparks debate, problematises, and suggests new ways of exploring specific themes and concepts. DiSalvo’s concept is built on Chantal Mouffe’s distinction between ‘politics’ and ‘the political’. I set out to question DiSalvo’s dichotomy. Through practical experiments, I expanded and processed adversarial design. My goal was to challenge the prevailing ideas in society on how citizens (should) connect with their inner political lives. My project examined how visual communication design might help devise new methods and tools for the public to approach politics, and, by extension, expand the conversation about democracy on a personal as well as societal level. Through public engagement, dialogue, discussion, and introspection, I explored ways for citizens to listen to and connect with their inner political voice. I conducted four participatory sub-projects: the lecture series ‘Things That Might Be True’; the Voices publication; the Inner Political Landscapes collage-making workshop; and the Political Confession workshop. The findings of these four experiments led to the development and materialisation of a fictional new department: the Stemme Department. The department's activities display the artistic outcome of my PhD project and illustrate how people can come together to reflect and engage in dialogue with their political selves. In early March 2024, the Stemme Department’s activities were presented at Bergen Storsenter and Bergen Public Library during a four-day event, which included an exhibition, a workshop, and lectures. My project expanded the dichotomy of adversarial design by suggesting the concept adopt an additional category: ‘political, political design’. Through an ambiguous and empathetic design practice, this additional category would mirror and borrow characteristics from both design for politics and ­political design.

Imagining Liberation is an artistic research project with the aim of investigating methods in speculative nonfiction. This project begins with a question: What kind of cinematic images can arise from imagining a liberated Palestine? Dalia AlKury’s interest in staging simulated pasts in her earlier documentaries and then staging speculations of futures during her PhD research stems from a deep frustration with the lack of art imagining a world that she hopes is possible. Both practices—staging in documentary and speculative fiction—are rooted in posing the question “What if?,” to offer another possible world or narrative. Her work combines these approaches in the realization of her own method in speculative multitemporal nonfiction. Dalia AlKury approaches documentary filmmaking not as a way of documenting reality, but as a way of constructing an alternative one. Her final artistic results are informed by a long legacy of politically poetic Palestinian aesthetics and by grievances over the historical and present day witnessing of the violent ethnic cleansing of her people. By committing to framing her vignettes in a fictional liberated Palestine, an emancipatory art making process starts to take shape. The process excavates an often-oppressed critical rage and pushes it up to the surface through different narrative tools. Imagining Liberation traces the filmmaker's confrontational journey while experimenting with staging, subverting, futuring, abstracting, and decolonizing to reach a type of catharsis in the face of a continuously fragmented diasporic existence. By staging her own return to a liberated Palestine in different modes from writing to filming, Dalia AlKury runs into ethical dilemmas questioning her self-censorship, representation of “others” and the elusive role of cinematic catharsis. This book encompasses her critical reflection on the short films , narrative experiments and video diaries created throughout her research. The three main audio-visual works that will be shared and analyzed are Congratulations on Your Return, Levitations, and What if a Tree, What if a Crow?

The artistic development project Radical Interpretations investigates two iconic works for solo percussion and re-composes these. The goal of the project was to develop new creative and transdisciplinary research in interpretation of musical works. Participants: percussionist Kjell Tore Innervik, Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH), composer Ivar Frounberg, NMH, designer Maziar Raein, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, experience designer Ståle Stenslie, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, and music recording producer Morten Lindberg. During the 3 years project, the team engaged with the music of Morton Feldman and Iannis Xenakis. The solo percussion pieces The King of Denmark and Psappha were the point of departure. The cd [UTOPIAS ](http://www.2l.no/pages/album/141.html)(2L) contains the pure audio version of the pieces in high definition and immersive sound.-><- On this site you will find other interpretations and iterations of the music made by the team.