Research Catalogue

Arts-based-philosophy is an emerging research concept at the cutting edge of the arts, philosophy and the Sciences in which cross-disciplinary research collectives align their research practices to finally stage their investigations in field-performances, shared with the public. Our research explores the significance of the HEART in artistic research and performance philosophy from a cross-cultural perspective, partially based on the concepts of the HEART in the works of two artist-philosophers, in which philosophy already became arts-based-philosophy: Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Aurobindo’s poetic opus magnum Savitri. We generally assume that the works of artist-philosophers are not only engaged in “creating concepts” (Deleuze), but their concepts are also meant to be staged artistically to let them bodily matter in fact. The role of the HEART in respect to this process of “bodily mattering” is the core objective under investigation: Firstly, because we hold that atmospheres trigger the HEART of a lived-body to taste the flavor of things it is environmentally engaged with basically in an aesthetic manner (Nietzsche). In this respect the analysis of the classical notion for the aesthete in Indian philosophy and aesthetics, sahṛdaya––which literally means, “somebody, with a HEART”––becomes crucial. Secondly, because the HEART is said to be not just reducible to one’s manifest Nature, but has access to one’s virtual Nature as well. The creation hymn in the oldest of all Vedas (Rgveda) for instance informs us that a HEART is capable of crossing being (sat) & non-being (asat), which makes it fluctuate among these two realms and even allows its aspirations to let virtual possibilities matter. Such concepts show striking similarities with contemporary concepts in philosophy-physics, e.g. the concepts of “virtual particles” and “quantum vacuum fluctuations” (Barad).

A collaboration between multi media artist Tina Douglas and composer/performer Magda Mayas funded by Musikfonds

The title of this project is inspired by geological specimens collected by the Apollo 11 astronauts during their historic lunar landing in 1969. These so-called contingency samples were gathered quickly and somewhat at random, ensuring that at least one specimen would return to Earth should the mission encounter unforeseen difficulties. Before embarking on their journey into space, the astronauts trained in Iceland, learning to identify minerals and geological formations in preparation for their work on the Moon. Both this training and the very idea of a contingency sample invite us to reflect on our own planet: as we confront what many see as the end of times, what might be Earth’s contingency sample? At the same moment that the Moon landing was taking place, a new industrial era was beginning in Iceland and Jamaica. Aluminum, long celebrated as a symbol of the future, was becoming central to the country’s economic and political landscape. Through a triangular relationship connecting Jamaica (bauxite ore export) Greenland (cryolite export), Iceland (aluminium smelters), and through the colonial and decolonial histories embedded in the aluminium industry, we propose to consider aluminium itself as a contingency sample: a material holding the potential to catalyze alternative futures. In this reimagining, the conventional narratives of progress and futurity surrounding this metal give way to a more urgent question: Who holds the right to produce the future? Within the project, we will use artistic methods such as sculpture, video, poetry, and dance to explore how aluminum interlinks geologies, alters landscapes, disrupts environments, and shapes social and cultural histories in the three islands. The artworks created will serve as material manifestations, containers holding the knowledge gained during the research. To share our methods and learn about how aluminum affects communities and the environment, we will invite local children to workshops where they can both practically engage with the material and explore its world-building potentials, creating their own contingency samples and imagining the futures they wish to strive for. The research, artworks, and outcomes from the workshops will come together in an exhibition, which will be presented in Iceland.

This exposition is an archival gesture emerging from the Dramaturgical Ecologies research-creation collective. Rooted in the entwined inquiries of Blacknesses and Dramaturgy, it gathers the dialogues, encounters and an artistic residency that unfolded through the SSHRC-funded Murmurations project. Between the viscous resonance of okra and the shifting flight of murmuring birds, this exposition shares choreokratic ecologies - a garden of study where movement, thought, and relation co-compose. Here, Blackness becomes a method, a lens, a refrain, challenging the neutrality of the performer-dancer body and inviting modes of collective creation that are relational, porous, and opaque. Murmurations attends to what forms in the formless - like a swarm of birds: a living archive of bodies, voices, and ecologies composing a landscape.

With the artistic research project Costume Dramaturgies we explore the dramaturgy that emerges when performance takes an unconventional starting point: a costume – a thing. By approaching dramaturgy as an assembly of things, we shift perspective from the human to the non-human, giving agency to costume, props, and light in performance. We argue that the dramaturgy of things remains an under-researched area in the performing arts. The one-year project is funded by Stockholm University of the Arts and brings together 12 researchers from costume design, dramaturgy, mime acting, LARP, film direction, theatre studies, scenography, and performance art. This multi-perspective, poly-vocal approach aims to generate a nuanced understanding of dramaturgy of things, and includes workshops based on devising methods—most notably the Costume Jam Session, where participants interact with costumes through chains of action, followed by reflection on the dramaturgy that emerges. The project is a continuation of the artistic research project Costume Agency.

The Opener - sharing the performer’s process was a one-year artistic research pilot project (March 2024 - March 2025) funded by strategic funds at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Music and Design, University of Bergen. It was part of the Grieg Academy Research Group for Performance and Interpretation (GAFFI) together with external members from The Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. The project consisted of 8 sub-projects and educational activities, involving different instruments: piano solo, violin, duos with voice and piano, clarinet, accordion and guitar. The term opener can in this project proposal symbolize a three-fold meaning connected to the music performance field. This project seeks to - see the performer as an opener of musical meaning in a performance (interpretation of musical intentions in scores and improvisation) - challenge ourselves as performers as openers that share his/her artistic work (getting insight into the creative process and methods) - finding openers as tools to reveal and show the creative process of performers (ways of showing the artistic process)