Crafting Material Bodies – exploring co-creative costume processes
(2024)
author(s): Charlotte Østergaard
published in: Research Catalogue
This exposition is the submitted PhD thesis for the doctoral degree in artistic research in Perfroming Art at Malmö Theatre Academy, Lund University December 2024. This artistic research was carried out between 2020 and 2024 and financially supported by Malmö Theatre Academy, Lund University, Sweden.
Main supervisor: Sofia Pantouvaki
Secondsupervisor: Camilla Eeg-Tverbakk
The exposition is in three parts:
FRAMEWORKS – contextualization the artistic research including description of the artistic method in the research.
PROJECTS – containing descriptions and analysis of the three artistic projects "AweAre – a movement quintet", "Community Walk" and "Conversation Costume".
CONCLUSION
Abstract:
At the heart of this research are relational encounters between people and textile materials. As the title, Crafting Material Bodies, indicates, the research explores how human bodies are crafted by material bodies (costume) and vice versa. In the research textile materials and people are my co-creators and as co-creators they are invited to relate to, affect and become affected by other human bodies and more-than-human materials. As the subtitle, exploring co-creative costume processes, indicate the main quest is to explore how we (humans) co-create with textile and costume materials and to explore how textile and costume materials become equal co-creating partners.
In the artistic projects I invite fellow artists like performers and designers to explore specific connecting costumes (that connect two or more people) with me. As co-creators I invite them to engage, respond, inform, influence and/or interrupt our costume explorations in ways that matter to them and to critically reflect on our explorations. In the projects I study how listening become instances of relational acts between humans and more-than humans that evoke curious embodied and conversational dialogues Such dialogues are invitations to listen with the textile and costume materials, with (human) bodies, to share embodied experiences, to co-create and to elaborate on the various creative perspectives. During the artistic projects I act as more than an observing designer/researcher. I am the host that have crafted the connecting costumes in collaboration with the textile materials and as host I also actively take part in exploring what the costumes evoke and provoke. The goal is to explore how being a participating host affects the explorative costume situations.
The research has four focal themes – crafting, listening, hosting and co-creating – which are explored though three artistic projects. The artistic project AweAre, a movement quintet, explores the act of listening, Community Walk explores the act of hosting and Conversation Costume explores the act of co-creating, while all three projects explore different aspects of crafting. As the themes are entangled, all three projects contain aspects of the four themes.
With this research I suggest that it is critical that in co-creative situations we cultivate our listening abilities with human and more-than-human others, and I argue that textile and costume materials is a medium that enable us to do so. With this research my ambition is to formulate ideas on co-creative methods that value material-discursive listening and where the hosting attitude is orientated towards communal doings. The aim is that listenings and communal hostings become tools for designers to gain a deeper understanding of how costume affects performers, and the boarder scope is that the research contributes to discussions on how teams can collaborate with humans and more-than-humans in more generous and inclusive manners. One example is that we acknowledge that our different disciplinary perspectives are creative possibilities in our common doing and that we recognise that how we share and exchange our differences has an impact on how we flourish co-creatively with our human and more-than-human co-creators.
ISBN: 978-91-88409-39-3
testing Y1 RC function
(2024)
author(s): Hoai Tran
published in: Research Catalogue
This is a playground to explore RC function. I would like to use Abstract as a into/ summary for this expo.
Heaven on Earth: Revelation of the 10th Avatar
(2024)
author(s): Bradly Couch
published in: Research Catalogue
"Heaven on Earth: Revelation of the 10th Avatar" makes connections between ancient myths and Earth's topography that correspond to Hinduism's ten incarnations of Vishnu, resulting in visual evidence of the prophesied return of Kalki to usher in the Golden Age of Satya Yuga.
Picturing Clouds of Unknowing: Photography, Lostness, and Cognitive Decline
(2024)
author(s): Lucy Carolan
published in: Research Catalogue
The central premise of this doctoral project is that the progressive cognitive ambiguity that is dementia can be creatively apprehended by way of lostness. As defined by Rebecca Solnit, ‘lost’ holds “...two disparate meanings. Losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing.” The initial hypothesis of this research was that in certain neurodegenerative conditions the familiar and unfamiliar can confoundingly combine, and that it’s through the lens of this particular combination that some comprehension of dementia as lived experience may be approached. The disorienting misperceptions most commonly encountered in cognitive decline are visual in nature. Given, then, that dementia reveals the importance of vision to perception, how may the photographic, with lostness as optic, be used to illuminate cognitive decline? In what ways can creatively visualising aspects of neurodegeneration in dementia inform understandings of its existential ambiguities?
Deciphering Persian Music: A Systematic Approach Through Modal Classification and Synthesis
(2024)
author(s): Bamdad Khoshghadami Hosseini, Soroosh Ghahramanloo
published in: Research Catalogue
This research aims to develop a comprehensive notation system for Persian music that supports improvisation, composition, and analysis of its modal aspects. By drawing parallels to how chord symbols function in jazz, the study introduces a system to denote pitch classes (maqām) and melodic contours (māyeh). Utilizing historical methodologies from Safī al-Dīn al-Urmawī's "Kitāb-i Advār", the research presents an innovative framework to represent modal cycles and microtonal nuances. As a case study, the 'Radif' of persian music is decoded and presented using this new system, demonstrating its practical application. The outcome is a detailed, practical guide that enhances the understanding and performance of Persian music, illustrated through examples of Setar improvisation and comparative analysis of melodic figures.
Keywords: Persian Music, Modality, Radif, Dastgah, Maqam, Improvisation
10 - 10 - 10 Edgelands:
(2024)
author(s): O'Brien & O'Brien
published in: Research Catalogue
Operating at the intersection of fine art walking practice, psychogeography, critical animal studies and ecology, the practice of Deep Canine Topography seeks to reframe the humble act of the ‘walkies’ as a co-authored act of ‘making’ or ‘performing’ together.
As part of the practice based element of my PhD thesis, Deep Canine Topography, 10 - 10 - 10 Edge-lands, is a further investigation of the methodologies of Deep Canine Topography (O'Brien & O'Brien 2018). This series operates as a visual and sonic essay for each walk and explores memory, deep topographical imprints, and entropy between wild and post-industrial spaces and sub-urban sprawl, on the edge of the city of Leicester and the county of Leicestershire. During the 2020 Covid 19 pandemic lockdown, as part of permitted exercise, we undertook 10 Walks, of up to 10 miles, within a 10 mile circle of our home, just outside of the city centre. Covid 19 restrictions, remained in place in Leicester longer than in any other UK city or region.
Each title will take you to a different walk.
Click return to return to the title page.
Click Base Map to open a GoogleMap of the walk locations and GPS tracklogs (in a new window).
Clicking on the round MAP circle, on the title page, will take you to the central exposition of my PhD: Deep Canine Topography.