Research Catalogue

'Empowering Collective Performing Arts: A Facilitator’s Collection of Voice and Dance Scores to Overcome Social Barriers' is a practice-led research project that explores the ways to encourage group connection through performing arts activities within diverse communities.

The EcoSomatics Conversations Series invites sharing of engagement, practices and thinking around environmental awareness through embodiment activities, dance and art. It posits a definition of EcoSomatics as of the body-mind-ecology and takes the form of open public dialogues between two (or more) people: independent artists, practitioners, and academics. The project was conceived by Dr Polly Hudson, (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University), and the conversations are co-convened with Dr Karen Wood, (Birmingham Dance Network and C-DaRE). The conversations took place virtually with a large international audience, and the podcasts are audio recordings of the live events. It is supported by funding from ADM Faculty Research Investment Scheme, Birmingham City University. Image by Ming de Nasty.

Wang Xiyao (1992) is a leading abstract Chinese painter based in Berlin, whose complex account of intercultural abstraction sees Eastern tradition deep in dialogue with contemporary Western language. It has replaced vivid, multilayered-meanings, deep personal experience, cultural memory, and common history, which have traditionally formalist postulates. Under the mentorship of Werner Büttner and Anselm Reyle and also inspired by Cy Twombly, Joan Mitchell, and Julie Mehretu, she began to elaborate a dynamic practice based on rhythmically interplaying color, line, and space. Many works are inspired by poetic and philosophical tradition, employing concepts such as Chinese Liu Bai (留白, intentional blank space) and moving into physical expression through dance and martial arts. In this respect, Wang's working process in creation corresponds to the concept of bodily perception in Maurice Merleau-Ponty and experiential aesthetics in John Dewey, considering immersion in the multisensory approach rather than pure visual contemplation. By an original synthesis in manifold aesthetic and sensory modalities, she thus develops multidirectional experiences, which are fascinatingly active and dialogic in the sense that they stir her viewer into an incessant questioning about form, culture, and consciousness.

Below in English Ekspositio pyrkii vastaamaan tarpeeseen uudistavan kasvatuksen (regenerative education) tavoitteissa taiteilijapedagogisesta lähtökohdasta. Ekspositio pohjautuu paikkasidonnaiseen interventioon ja kuvailee taiteilijapedagogisen oppimisprosessin. Ekspositio tunnustelee taiteilijapedagogiikan suhdetta ekologisiin kysymyksiin kestävyysajatteluun sitoutuneen taiteilijapraktiikan ja taidepedagogian solmukohdassa. Kirjoittaja arvioi vahvan kestävyyden käsitteen avulla, millaisia ristiriitoja kestävyysajattelun ja oman praktiikan välille ilmaantuu interventioprosessin aikana, ja millaiset olosuhteet johtavat konflikteihin. Ekspositio tarkastelee aihetta ”myötäsyntyisen” metodin avulla yhdistäen taiteellista, agroekologista ja posthumanistista tutkimusta poikkitieteisesti. Päälöydöksenä on, että uudistavan kasvatuksen tavoitteet sotkeutuvat yhteiskunnan odotuksiin, päämääriin ja moraalikäsityksiin. Tämä johtaa neuvotteluun kestävyysajatteluun sitoutuneen taiteilijapraktiikan arvoissa suhteessa taiteilijapedagogiseen toimintaan. Kirjoittaja väittää, että taiteellisessa työssä ei ole erivapautta toimia ekologisesti kestämättömällä tavalla, koska taide on yhtä riippuvaista ekologisista suhteista kuin muukin elo. Hän väittää, että vahvan kestävyyden käsitteeseen sitoutumalla on mahdollista perustaa uusia arvostamisen paikkoja ja kehittää uudistavaa pedagogiikkaa. The exposition aims to meet the need for the aspiration of regenerative education from an artist pedagogical practice. The exposition is based on a place-specific intervention and outlines the artist pedagogical learning process. The exposition explores the relationship of artist pedagogy to ecological issues. Exploration happens at the intersection of artist practice committed to sustainability thinking and art pedagogy. Reflecting the concept of strong sustainability, the author assesses what kind of contradictions between sustainability thinking and one’s own practice emerge, and what kind of circumstances lead to conflicts. The exposition takes place with “innate” method, combining artistic, agroecological and posthumanist research in an interdisciplinary manner. The main finding is that the goals of regenerative education are entangled with the expectations, goals and moral concepts of society. This accompanies a negotiation of the values of artist practice committed to sustainability thinking. Negotiation takes place in relation to artist pedagogical activity. The author argues that there is no waiver to act in an ecologically unsustainable manner in art practice, because art is as dependent on ecological relationships as any other concept of life. She argues that by committing to a concept of strong sustainability, it is possible to establish new places of appreciation and develop innovative pedagogies.

Duodji refers to Sámi handicrafts and design. I reflect on the knowledge base of duodji thinking, how duodji is learned within the community, and how I have developed the teaching and research of duodji according to the principles of duodji and art. I also contemplate the essence and presentation of duodji in public spaces through the pedagogical-artistic practice, LaavuStudio."

This exposition takes as its departure the systemic inertia identified within Western Higher Music Education (HME), where education is driven by skill acquisition in a master–pupil format. Such approaches may hinder the growth of adaptable and reflective musicians. We propose an alternative: student-centred learning inspired by artistic research methods. To explicate this, we draw on findings through our own artistic research practices. Our hypothesis is that the model of the artistic, embodied research laboratory, as developed within the field of artistic research, may serve as a potent tool for renewal. By analysing our work as artist-researchers and educators, this exposition offers insights that support rethinking both institutional structures and pedagogical approaches in HME. Our aim is to strengthen student agency in learning situations and set them off on a path of lifelong learning. This research demonstrates that artistic research laboratories can provide practical frameworks for transforming HME pedagogy, offering educators concrete methods for fostering playful, inclusive, and sustainable learning environments whilst empowering students as active agents in their musical development.