Research Catalogue

This exposition contains a database of materials resulting from the artistic research "Phytopoetic Creation: An artistic and ecological intervention", within my doctorate studies in Performance at the Department of Comunication and Art (DeCA) of University of Aveiro (UA), Portugal. As these results were mostly documented through video, audio and photographs, I decided to use this platform as a medium to share these moments that were central to this artistic research, also containing a published article. The form of relationship established between these materials, with mutual connection and sharing of information and resources, was similar to a network that was developed throughout this research, through practical experience and application. This network, here refered as "Plant Wide Web", contributed crucially to the creation of the final artistic product of this research, "Intertwined Paths: an embodied journey of connection with plants" (2024).

It Will Be Fine, is engaging in the language of visual representation through the combined mediums of painting, photography and artificial intelligence (Ai) together with images held in the Special Collection picture archive in Bergen. To reflect on the ways in which meaning and memory is constructed and conveyed through visual forms and knowledge systems.

This exposition reflects on how machine learning can be integrated with algorithmic composition and live coding to expand digital music creation. The research examines how ML-driven sound analysis, training data, and interactive models reshape compositional workflows. By viewing machine learning as an interpretative and generative process rather than a mere tool, this project challenges conventional boundaries between data gathering, system design, and artistic practice. The discussion is framed through experimental approaches that merge sound synthesis, live coding, and model training, questioning how algorithmic systems can act as both agents of composition and reflective mirrors of musical intention. Through the interplay of structured data, generative models, and exploratory workflows, the study situates machine learning within a broader conversation about creativity, computation, and the evolving role of the composer-programmer.

Editorial: Sounding the Contradictions in and of the (Post-)Soviet Realm

In the early years of the Soviet era, the music of two Russian faith traditions was forced into the shadows. Siberian shamans preserved chants and folk knowledge despite intense persecution, and Russian Orthodox monks preserved early forms of plainchant in remote monasteries away from the watchful eye of the government. Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931), herself a member of the richly-historied and often-marginalized Tatar people, became a practicing Russian Orthodox Christian in the 1960s. During the 1970s, she began performing improvisations with her ensemble Astraea, familiarizing herself with many instruments used by Siberian shamans. Her references to shamanism continued to increase among her concert-hall compositions over the following decades. As a new generation began to embrace the freedom to part from state-sponsored atheism during the 1990s and 2000s, shamanic chanting and Russian Orthodox Znamenny chant experienced a renaissance of practice and scholarly interest. Gubaidulina responded with her music: in her 2005 flute concerto …The Deceitful Face of Hope and of Despair, Gubaidulina’s flute soloist takes on the role of chanter. Drawing on Tia DeNora’s research in the sociology of concerto forms, Kofi Agawu’s framework of musical “topics,” and the composer’s own reflections on the concerto metaphor, this article analyzes how Gubaidulina frames the solo flutist as Siberian shaman and Russian Orthodox cantor within subsequent episodes of this concerto. In this way, the soloist “speaks” through the music of these faith traditions that remained underground for much of Gubaidulina’s adult life. …The Deceitful Face of Hope and of Despair is a flute concerto deserving of its title, demonstrating the dynamic potential of works by post-Soviet composers to contend with the sociological tensions that affect any individual whose cultural, ethnic, or spiritual identity has been the target of discriminatory policies.

Maria Vilkovisky is a poetess, musician, artist, and curator born in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She graduated from the Kazakh State Conservatory as a violist, worked in the opera house orchestra, studied at the “Musagethes” literary school for writers in Almaty and at the curatorial summer school in Moscow. She is co-founder of a long-term para-institutional project called Krëlex zentre (together with Ruthia Jenrbekova), and from 2011–2014 she ran an art space in Almaty. She lives and works in Almaty and Vienna. Ruthia Jenrbekova is an artist and researcher from Almaty, Kazakhstan. She holds an MA in ecology and works as an intermedia cultural organizer. She is co-founder of Krëlex zentre together with Maria Vilkovisky. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and lives and works in Almaty and Vienna. Her fields of interest: queer ecology, material semiotics, arts-based methodologies, transfeminism. Krëlex zentre is a paranormal art institution that builds on cultural traditions of intermixed planetary diasporas, develops inclusive aesthetics, and promotes queer cosmo-politics. This interview by poet and Sound Studies scholar Vadim Keylin took place from March to April 2024 via Google Docs and has been edited for clarity. Literature references were added during the editing process.