Humans & Soil is an artistic platform committed to decolonizing academic practices and revitalizing our ancient indigenous relationship with the Earth. The project’s vision grew out of northern Sámi and Japanese Ainu perspectives. Conceived by choreographer and researcher Marit Shirin Carolasdotter in 2017, Humans and Earth and has since grown into a platform that dynamically balances performance, research and activism across international partnerships.
A really strong urge to do projects that are meaninful and nourishing are what inspires and activates Marit-Shirin to connect her roles as performer, facilitator and researcher, to provide space to the voices and narratives of her community, or those communities she collaborates with, as well as the narration of her own journey. Continue reading here…
Located in the heart of Stockholm, Hallwylska museet / the Hallwyl museum is a time capsule containing almost 60,000 objects, catalogued in all sorts of collections, from fine art and objects, to design and fashion, daily life objects, and various items such as postcards, poems, bookbinding tools and more.
Wilhelmina von Hallwyl (1844-1930) was one of Sweden’s great collectors of art and applied arts at the turn of the century. She supervised the cataloguing process throughout her life, and designed the exhibition of each room. The von Hallwyl couple donated the house and the collection at No. 4 Hamngatan to the nation in 1920, but they remained in residence there until their death. The museum opened to the public in 1938, and today, it has been named Stockholm’s favorite museum.
In this interview, Frida Bowallius, one of the curators of the museum, speaks about the current collaborations with researchers and artists, who benefit from this large archive, to link narratives to our present and predict tendencies of the future. Continue reading.
“It’s a place to underline things… It’s a place to stick to stuff. And not just say ‘yeah, yeah, we know there’s something about, for instance, sustainability, but we’re in a hurry and we need to do this play very quickly because, whatever, premier on Sunday’… research allows you to dig deeper, and also to ‘stay with the trouble’ or at least stay with the need or the urge to tell whatever it is you need to tell”.
Rikke Lund Heinsen is a producer, essayist, artistic researcher and associate professor at Den Danske Scenekunstskole, where for the past few years she’s been sharing with me and my peers of this MFA in Performing Arts, her knowledge on artistic entrepreneurship and on artistic research. She is also, by my very specific request, the supervisor and mentor of this project. This is because there’s few things more contagious and exciting than listening to her speak about these subjects, and her approach to the field has allowed me to feel comfortable entering the blank, unknown spaces of my own investigation.
Ahmed Zaidan is a poet, journalist and artistic researcher, originally from Iraq and currently residing in Turku, Finland, where he works combining artistic research and poetic journalism to discuss the subjects of displacement, adaptation, and self-reliance.
The Abstract Concept of Endings is an artistic research project supported by the Kone Foundation which Zaidan is now embarking on, along with the migration institute of Finland. The project requires him to transfer scientific materials into poetic prose, with a focus on endings, from the endings of refugee journeys, their previous lives in other countries, the ending of your status as an asylum seeker, the moment you receive a new citizenship, and so… every moment, and every ending, brings a new life… to me, it is also a new beginning”. Continue reading.
Daniel Malpica is a Finnish-Mexican writer, graphic designer, publisher and multimedia artist. His work involves the exploration of cross-narratives, transmediality, design and literary arts. As an artist and curator, Malpica has developed multiple transdisciplinary literary projects across Europe, the Nordics, and Mexico. Malpica was editor and designer of Radiador Magazine and, between 2019-2022, a member of the board of directors of the Finnish PEN.
His most recent books, ‘Se escribe con X’ and ‘Manuke Libre’, have received support from the Finnish Arts Council (TAIKE) and the Kone Foundation.
For this interview series, “The Ecology of Artistic Research”, we meet at Suomenlinna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located a 15-minute ferry ride away from the centre of Helsinki, Finland, where Malpica is currently one of the artists in residence of HIAP (Helsinki International Artists Programme).
Tehdas Teatteri is the most important independent theatre in Turku, an exciting hub for new work and one of the main stages for new Finnish puppetry. The wild and daring Tehdas was founded over 20 years ago and is based in Manilla, on the eastern bank of the river Aura near the Föri. It is here that Venla Luoma, director of the theater, welcomes me to speak of Artistic Research, outside of the academia and directly connected to the circular processes of investigation and production that make of Tehdas Theater such a unique place. Read more here…
Concerned with the subjects of space, community and possibilities of meeting, interacting and existing in different environments, I meet Andreas Liebmann in Tårnby Park, location of his artistic practice and research, which involves performing workshops, an arts festival, artistic residencies, and his own artistic responses to the work he’s been developing in this area.
Listen to the podcast, read the article, and learn more about Liebmann’s work HERE.
Welcome to “worldthreading”, the online homebase of my artistic investigation project “The Ecology of Artistic Research”, which lately I’ve been referring to as an introductory, interdisciplinary investigation.
This is the starting point of a project in progress, and ideally an ongoing investigation that will expand through time, but in its first phase, what I envision is a submersion in the field of artistic research through conversations with those currently involved in the field, both for the purposes of acquiring this knowledge for my own skillset, as well as to serve as a “mapping” of sorts, which will allow for the visualization of current trends, practices, terminology, methods and concerns in the field, concretely in the Nordic countries, but in the future possibly expanding to other parts of Europe and the world. This project is done with the support of Den Danske Scenekunstoskole and the International Center for Knowledge in the Arts in Denmark, Bokens Hus in Finland, and Kultivera in Sweden.
To give you a bit of background of why we find ourselves here, I can share with you that I’m a multimedia artist, writer and cultural organizer, often documenting the communities around me through my arts & culture magazine Red Door, my arts & culture podcast Red Transmissions, and my activities in the Nordic countries with various organizations, where I help with the curation of festivals, book publications, workshops, talks and other activities… all of which often feeds back into my artistic practice, self-actualizing my writings and other art projects. This means that a great part of my artistic practice is often closely related to the gathering of intel and feedback of the communities around me. Which is why artistic research felt like such a natural next step in my practice. Although the field is quite modern and “in”, a search online will show that there’s not much to facilitate the understanding of artistic research, who it serves, its mechanisms, structures and purposes. So my attempt, with this project, is to visualize the learning structures, put together a glossary, and identify the systems and creative mechanisms, as well as the patterns that are common in the field, so that artistic research becomes a relatable territory for myself and others interested in the field but not directly connected with academia.
WHAT I AM SEEKING:
I am also always interested in mental wellness and sustainability, (environmental means also our own creative ecosystem) especially when it comes to our art practice, because I do not believe in chain-line production of art, but in purpose and matter, in circular processes, in interconnectedness, so I will be focusing my interviews on two subjects:
1- Embodiment of knowledge: What shifts, expands, is modified, in the creative process of those doing the research.
2- Sustainable practices: How artistic research influences / benefits / affect an artistic practice.
3 – The circular processes that allow for those communities researched to benefit from the artistic research taking place in each project.
This project has received Erasmus support, and counts with the supervision of Rikke Lund Heinsen Sarah Woods, but otherwise it is quite an underfunded, DIY investigation (which is already uncommon in artistic research, from what I hear) so if you’d like to give your support as I embark on this investigation, please join my PATREON.
In the following links above you will begin to find videos, podcasts, articles and documentation of the process as I evolved into it. If you are an artistic researcher in the following areas: Helsinki, Turku, Fiskars, Malmö, Stockholm, Tranås, Copenhagen, please contact me so I can come to you and learn about your project / institution / artistic research. If you’re not in these areas but interested in collaborting, please write via the contact form.
HOW THIS LOOKS:
The output from this project manifests itself in 3 forms:
DOCUMENTATION:
-A series of short film interviews with artistic researchers, which you can enjoy on this website as they appear, as well as on my youtube channel.
-A series of audio interviews, which you can listen to as they’re released, through Red Transmissions Podcast. You can subscribe via Spotify, Apple, Deezer and most other podcast providers.
-A series of articles, which you can enjoy on this website.
ARTISTIC RESPONSE:
-My artistic response is always multimedia, which results in poetry / performance / film, music and visual arts combined together to create immersive installations that allow my audience to “feel” and “embody” the subjects I am investigating. If you’d like to learn more, please visit the PERFORMANCES link on this website. I am always open to collaborations, so feel free to contact me if this subject is of interest to you.
REFLECTIONS:
-A series of talks on the subject online, via this website and a youtube channel.
-A book publication. (TBA)
Looking forward to embarking in this voyage with you,
Natural Response 