Research Catalogue

This research project examines antiracist ideas and approaches presented by the likes of Ibram X. Kendi and Ijeoma Oluo with the goal of finding out if they can be effectively applied into modern music production pedagogy. The study is conducted by using the approach of qualitative research, and reflects on the themes of representation, infrastructure, and power dynamics. Keywords: Antiracism, equity, justice, empowerment, representation, white fragility, white privilege, white supremacy, caste, race, CRT (critical race theory), music production, pedagogy

Do you need help in creating an exposition for your research project in Research Catalogue? I am an artist and freelancing graphic designer who would happily help you. Contact me for further info! Email: frida.starvid@gmail.com

Unstable Systems Instability can be a creative force in art, design, and architecture. Artists, designers, and scholars work both with and against systems that are ever-changing, fragile, or unpredictable. Whether dealing with technological systems, ecosystems, social structures, or sensory experiences, instability is often a prerequisite for creation. Instability opens pathways for new ideas and processes, reshaping how we approach and redesign the systems that shape our lives. It can also refer to the creative act itself—one that does not follow predetermined trajectories or established norms. Art, design, and architecture serve as tools to disrupt stable systems and/or shed new light on systems that appear stable but in reality, they are not. No system is truly stable, and when we resist that instability, it becomes a problem. Instability is perhaps the only certainty we can rely on. Hugarflug 2025, the annual conference on artistic research, will take place on September 11–12. It will serve as a platform for research that engages with instability across various systems—from technological advancements such as AI and interactive systems to issues related to politics, society, and the environment. We will explore how instability functions as a tool for generating new possibilities while also fueling unrest and transformation within society and academia. The Iceland University of the Arts invites proposals of all kinds, including presentations of ongoing or completed research by our faculty, students, and collaborators.

The Arrangement of Objects examines the intersection of functionality, aesthetics, and artistic practice through experiments with glass and metal. Central to the project is the notion of burden, understood both physically, as pressure or weight, and metaphorically, as imprint, deformation, or trace. This theme is expressed in layers, grooves, and perforations that evoke landscapes or the life cycles of objects. The work situates itself between design and fine art, emphasizing material research as a driver of innovation and interdisciplinarity. It also highlights the role of conceptual thinking and autoethnographic reflection, integrating personal experience into the creative process. Through layering and transformation, the project questions the porous boundary between utilitarian and artistic objects while expanding the expressive vocabulary of glass and metal.

Through drawing, installation, and handmade objects, the exposition explores popular culture, spectacle, and visual symbolism. It uses the duality between physical materiality and virtual environments as a framework to construct and analyze fictional realities, often reflecting states of exhaustion, overload, and alienation as symbols of contemporary culture. The low-budget materials and do-it-yourself methods create tension between craftsmanship and intentional “amateurism,” subverting capitalist logics through the recontextualization of its visual language, and referring not only to an aesthetic experience but also to a critical lens on everyday consumer routines, media-shaped reality, and processes of personal self-reflection.

The act of waiting, which refers to the public transport stop as a metaphor for the condition of migration, is used in this research to explore the temporal and emotional aspects of migration. Bus stop serves as both a physical site and a symbolic threshold, a space of transition, suspension, and projection toward an uncertain future. Within this context, the project traces the transformative phases experienced during emigration, emphasizing the temporal dimension of waiting, expectation, and the tension inherent in moments of immobility. The outcome of the project is a site-specific installation, situated directly within the public space, specifically at bus stops, where the object destabilizes the everyday rhythm of transit. By oscillating between staged intervention and authentic environment, the project foregrounds the paradoxical beauty of stillness, alongside the latent unease of anticipation.