Research Catalogue

Artistic research project: "Resisting Gentrification: In-situ Performative Protests in Trešnjevka Neighborhood"

My Bachelor's project investigates the spellbinding Sufi music practices by questioning and comparing its origins and traditions in two culturally significant locations: Syria and Morocco. It is interesting in the various but spiritually connected manner of two prominent Sufi orders—the Qadiri Boutchichi Tarika in Morocco and the Naqshbandi Tarika in Syria. These orders not only serve as spiritual guides but also play a central role in preserving and disseminating the unique art of Sufi music. This artistic research consisted of different steps. I interviewed two Sufi musicians, the first one from Morocco and the second one from Damascus. The questions were focused on the differences and the similarities between the two cultures, instruments, melodies, and rhythm. I studied Sufi music from Arabic sources as well, so I had to translate many important historical facts, taking into account the ethics of the research. I relied on my musical background in this research as part of the Syrian Sufi music and on my tours during Sufi music festivals, where I met Sufi musicians from different countries. Being a seasoned Sufi music practitioner myself, I tried to add a personal touch to this work based on my experience. I found many cultural differences between the two Sufi music styles, but I found many similarities at the same time. Two countries in different places far from each other have wide cultural diversities, but the same rhythm is the key to making the conversation with the divine. Dhikr is a mutual element as well, even though it has some special details related to the geographical region. Keywords: Sufism, Sufi music, Morocco, Damascus, Universal, History

Visual communication for ARMADIO ANTI-BORGHESE, Elisa Nicoloso's fashion collection. “With perhaps a somewhat radical spirit I want to destabilize the boring bourgeois schematic. For my collection, the starting point was the typical garments that characterize the bourgeois wardrobe of a classic bank employee. Double-breasted jackets, shirts, pleated trousers and trench coats are broken down into their component simple elements and then reassembled through a different scheme that introduces an unpredictable conflictual element. Garments that try to reconstruct their integrity will fail. So I attempt to annoy composure and morality through the same means they adopt, the scheme.” Elisa Nicoloso In the same way the box in which this display project is contained has been sectioned to his structural elements, attached to the same white cotton fabric the designer used for the collection and reassembled. The integrity however has been lost as the box collapses and dismounts as it gets opened. Not even when it’s closed it restores its initial integrity. The box alters his shape at every use as the overflowing fabric can’t be contained. It’s up to the user to decide whether to try to contrast this incomposture or accept it in the performative act of closing the box. Gloria Furlan

The essays and expositions in this issue of HUB delve into the concept of Metabolic Media, exploring the interconnections between biological, technological, cultural, and ecological systems. Together, they offer a rich tapestry of perspectives, illuminating how processes of exchange, transformation, and interaction underpin the idea of media as metabolic and metabolising. Through this metabolic mosaic, this special issue of HUB presents a dynamic and interconnected view of metabolic media, celebrating how media processes reflect and influence the metabolic flows of life itself. Each contribution invites readers to rethink how artistic, scientific, and technological practices can illuminate the entangled systems that sustain and shape our shared existence. Against a background of shifting, strained or even pathological metabolic relations across scales, forms, zones and bodies, these reflections and interventions intersect with media techniques and technologies as traditionally conceived and emergent, immanent and immediate metabolic flows systems and processes.

Traces from the Anthropocene: Working with Soil Research Pavilion #3, Venice, Italy 2019 The video documents the artistic research project Traces from the Anthropocene: Working with Soil, that explores the relationship between humans and soil through a study of soil contamination in the Venice Lagoon area. In this research, ceramic artists collaborate with soil contamination experts focusing on the current state of the local soils and sediments, linking them with the anthropogenic impact in the area. The group of artists, researchers and MA students studied the soils and sediments of the Venice Lagoon using ceramic art and methods of soil contamination research. The video follows the artists on their sediment sampling fieldwork and documents the research environment, also recording the artists’ work at the Research Pavilion where they coiled large clay pots from local brick clay, and painted them with the contaminated soil. Working with Soil group: Maarit Mäkelä (PI), Riikka Latva-Somppi, Özgu Gündeşlioğlu and Catharina Kajander and students Tzuyu Chen, Pauliina Purhonen and Hanna Kutvonen. The project was led by Empirica research group of Aalto University’s Design Department and done in collaboration with the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE. The local brick factory Terreal SanMarco provided local brick clay for the artworks.

This project explores the theme of human fragility, examining its many dimensions through sculpture and painting. Fragility is not approached as weakness, but as a fundamental aspect of existence — a space of vulnerability, yet also of sensitivity, transformation, and creative potential. The works emerge from an intimate dialogue with the body, memory, and time: delicate or weathered materials — such as wax, plaster, paper, and fluid pigments — give shape to ephemeral figures, incomplete or transforming bodies, and marks that evoke the instability of identity and the constant interplay between resistance and collapse. Through this process, art becomes an act of listening and bearing witness — to what breaks, but also to what, in breaking, reveals a new possibility of presence.