Artistic Research Week 2025: Now Listen Deep – Now Speak Up

Time: 09:30-11:00
Venue: Vrimla

09:30 – 10:00 - Doors open in Vrimla. Welcome with coffee, croissant & fruits
10:00- 11:00 – Opening KUF-Uke by Prorector & Rector. Key note speech Prof. Bojana Cvejic & guest

Time: 11:15-13:00
Venue: Vrimla

Description TBA

Time: Monday 11:00 (start) to Wednesday 16:00 (presentation)
Venue: Vrimla

Time: 13:00-14:00

Time: 14:00-16:00
Venue: Black box

This lecture will cover the general ideas found in Carla Lonzi's work both as an art writer and feminist and the implications they have for us as artists today. The lecture will focus on Lonzi's use of the written word and publishing to promote alternative artistic practices that ran directly opposed to the ways of many of her contemporaries. This lecture will propose methods of using translation and archival study as ways of actively listening to and engaging with lesser-known lineages while at the same time producing new and original works.

Bio: Allison Grimaldi Donahue

Time: 16:00-16:30

Time: 16:30-18:30
Venue: Scene 4

In the spirit of the proposal for the research week the PhD fellows of
the dance department want to explore a format of sharing that moves beyond talking about the individual research proposals, but rather aspires to investigate commonalities and differences in their respective research projects and ask how those can sit and move in the bodies of the attendees of the sharing. Within the given format we will engage in a listening and moving correspondence of bodies were we shamelessly throw out questions; perhaps aiming to preliminary answer some, whilst collectively cheer on the pending responses to others. This is a participatory format (open for all, and no previous dance skills needed) led by the PhD fellows of the dance department inviting the attendees to be with questions that have emerged in the respective research projects. Deltakere: Dragana Bulut, Solveig Styve Holte, Benjamin Pohli og Helle Siljeholm.

Bio: Dragana Bulut is working with choreography and performance. She regards the theater as a public forum: a place of social gathering for critical investigation of the various structures and intersections of aesthetics, economics, and emotions. By appropriating established formats, she creates performances rooted in the tension between the material and the immaterial realms, between tangibility and affect, to explore the space between reality and fiction. These social choreographies bring to light the, often, overlooked shifting processes that choreograph our behaviors as a society. Her work has been presented in various contexts (including: HAU Hebbel am Uffer Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Tanzquartier Vienna, InTransit festival Berlin, Pact Zollverein Essen, Museum Folkwang Essen, Sophiensaele Berlin, euro-scene Leipzig, Akademie
Schloss Solitude etc.).

Solveig Styve Holte is a dancer, choreographer and research fellow at Department of Dance at Oslo Academy of the Arts (2019-2025). Holte`s recent work is Frå Form til Famling (2023) Henie Onstad Art Center, Sixteen Dances (2023) Rosendal Teater, HORDE (2021/22/23) MUNCH, Kilden and KIASMA and “Undying- a handwork” (2022) National Museum Oslo. Holte is situated in Oslo and Folkestad, establishing YKS, a choreographic centre at her farm.

Benjamin Pohlig is a choreographer, dancer and researcher originally from Berlin. He studied contemporary dance both in England and Belgium. In his choreographic work, he explores the theatre as agora, a place in which social and political behaviours are not only practised, but are also experienced physically. This concept appears across his works, including the participatory solo "dance yourself clean", and his collaborations "5 seasons" and "A Farewell to Flesh". As a dancer, he has worked internationally with amongst others Martin Nachbar and Isabelle Schad. From 2019 to 2022 was he an ensemble member of Cullberg. As a researcher he continues to investigate both the concept of social choreography and how to speak about climate change through dance.

Helle Siljeholm is a fine artist and choreographer based in Oslo. She holds a Bachelor's degree in contemporary dance from London Contemporary Dance School (2003), and a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo (KHIO) (2016). Siljeholm works with film, installation, sculpture, choreography and performance. She also carries out curatorial assignments. Her artistic work often involves extensive collaboration across a range of artistic and academic disciplines. She exhibits and performs nationally and internationally.

Time: 18:30-20:30
Venue: Scene 4

Filmer

Sommerspiele (2023),25:41 min., film

Reappearance (2022), 37 min. Film

Bio: Eszter Salamon

Time: 19:30-21:30
Venue: Black box 

This lecture performance by psychoanalyst Damir Arsenijević and artist Saša Asentić explores the intersections of art, trauma, and transitional justice in post-war, post-genocide Bosnia and Herzegovina. It critically examines how victimhood is produced through local ethnic authoritarianism and international trauma management by assembling memories and curating them through commemorations as ethnicized memories.

Drawing from Asentić’s two performances—one reflecting on the collapse of social order in the 1992 Čardak settlement and the other interrogating art’s role in protests and revolutions—the lecture raises questions about society’s responses to trauma. Arsenijević presents two artistic interventions: his public reading of poetry at the 2010 Spaport Biennale and Emir Hodžić’s disruption of a commemoration in Omarska. Both works challenge the dominance of ethnic victimhood narratives and propose ways to move beyond melancholic identifications.

Using the “partisan method” (Arsenijević et al., 2017), the performance reclaims survivors' testimonies from victimhood economies to emphasize the realization value of survival. The event reflects on the transformative potential of art in navigating trauma, with a focus on love, accessibility, and the ethics of care and responsibility.

Duration of the event: 90 - 120 minutes
Language: English

Bio: Saša Asentić (stipendiat) and Damir Arsenijević

Time: 10:00-13:00
Venue: Seilduken 1

10:00 - 10:05 Welcome and Introduction Merete Røstad, Reserch leader

10:05 - 10:20 Shawn Dler Qaradaki, En Aura av fornedrelse

10:20 - 10:35 Oliver Hambsch, Material Memory

10:35 - 10:50. Merete Røstad, MEMORYWORK

10:50 - 11:05 Tiril Schrøder

11:05 - 11:20 Franz P. Schmidt, Beyond Heritage. Material - Making - Meaning

11:20 - 11:35 Gunhild Vatn og og Trude Westby Nordmark, 1+1>2

1:35 - 11:50 Sara Yazdani, Sensing Bodies and Other Ecologies

11:50 - 12:00 Exhibition Opening Speech by Dean Markus Degerman

Time: 13:00-14:00

Time: 14:00-15:00
Venue: Auditorium

Ornament has been my passion subject since I was introduced to it as a student in the early 80ties. “Looking for Patterns” I have done ever since. The dedication to Ornaments has led me to all kind of experiences as an artis and as a pedagogue. I intend to sum up tell and show form this source of impressions. Sentral aspects; How do we percept nature? What is a rhythm? Why is Ornament often combined with the word just decoration? Repetitive work, to do, makes Ornaments! Math’s and structures. Philosophy and eternity.

Bio: Karen Disen has a broad interest of visual language and her main subjects in the field of drawing are composition, improvisation with a specialization in ornaments, a key to understand complexities in structures. She has her artistic practise within the contemporary metal and jewellery area.

Time: 14:00-15:00
Venue: Formsalen

This session will give insight into the current state of «Against Typography», research conducted as part of the DIKU-funded project "Formskifter" at the department for Graphic Design and Illustration. It investigates the technological, aesthetic and societal interrelationship of lettering and type as two distinct modes of letter (re)production. Description TBA

At this year’s Artistic Research Week, Ellmer Stefan will practice a form of «public soliloquy» consisting of poetic interventions as well as visual and textual reflections, with potential audience participation.

Bio:  Stefan Ellmer (Austria, 1982) is a type designer, lettering artist, visual poet, lecturer and researcher based in Oslo, Norway. In recent years he was involved in several
research projects at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts on the intersection of language and typography, writing and drawing. More info: thepytefoundry.net

Time: 15:00-16:00
Venue: Black box

Prosjektet Formskifter er et kunstnerisk utviklingsarbeid som undersøker hvordan endringer i publiseringspraksis påvirker fagfeltene grafisk design og illustrasjon, som har publisering som sitt kjerneområde. Denne presentasjonen vil introdusere prosjektets utgangspunkt og gi en rapport om utviklingen i prosjektets første år, av totalt tre.

Deltakere: Andreas Berg, Ane Thon Knutsen, Lotte Grønneberg, Rune Helgesen, Siri Dokken, Stefan Ellmer, Eirunn Marie Margaret Kvalnes og Martin Lundell.

Prosjektet involverer hele den faglige staben innen grafisk design og illustrasjon: Andreas Berg, professor i illustrasjon; Ane Thon Knutsen, førsteamanuensis i grafisk design; Lotte Grønneberg, førsteamanuensis i grafisk design; Rune Helgesen, høgskolelektor i grafikk; Siri Dokken, professor i illustrasjon; Stefan Ellmer, høgskolelektor i typografi; Eirunn Marie Margaret Kvalnes, PhD-kandidat; og Martin Lundell, professor i grafisk design og prosjektleder for Formskifter.

Time: 16:00-16:30

Time: 16:30-17:20
Venue: Scene 2

For the Artistic Research Week 2025 actor Petra Fransson and scenographer Gunhild Mathea Husvik-Olaussen join in an investigation of materialist approaches to text, body, space and objects. Of particular interest is the notion of time as a materiality fundamental in performing arts as well as being in the world. The presentation will be a reading/performance (in Swedish) with a following talk.
This collaboration is part of the ongoing research project Desperate Matter – The Actor and the Posthuman at Teaterhøgskolen.
Desperate Matter – The Actor and the Posthuman departs from a wish to bridge the understanding of traditional action- and text based acting with contemporary research based theatre and performance. At the methodological center is the development of the practice and training of the text based actor through readings of contemporary philosophy as well as the intention to articulate the actor as an artist in the intersection of craft and creation. More specifically the purpose is to investigate an understanding of text work and the speaking act in the breaking point of the linguistic turn and the posthuman and thus develop stances, strategies and methods for the actor in a paradigm where the human mind and psychology is no longer at the center of the universe. By placing Karen Barads understanding of matter as a performative ontology in dialogue with action- and text based acting methodologies, the project wishes to both challenge and deepen the understanding of the dramaturgy of the actor, but most importantly develop artistic methods sensitive and sustainable in relation to the desperate matter of performance and being in the world. Of particular interest is Barads notion on the history of time and timebeeing as a matter of touching. This is investigated through interpretations of dramatical works where the distance in time and space between body and text open up for meaning created in the intra-activity of the materials.

How can body and text be understod as matter rather than representations?

How can timebeeing, the notion of the desperate and the question What is the Matter? work as methodological concepts in actors training and interpretations of dramatical works?
How can the work of the text based actor offer understandings of what it means to be human in posthuman times?

Bio: Petra Fransson is an actor, researcher and Associate Professor in acting at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. With a background both in the institutional theatre and independent groups she was the first actor in Sweden to complete an artistic PhD at Lund University in 2018 with the thesis Renegotiations: Body, Line, Ethics. The potential in the relationship between the body and the text and thus the ethical implication of acting is central to her work.

Gunhild Mathea Husvik-Olaussen, is an interdisciplinary artist, associate professor in scenography and research leader for the Theatre department at the Oslo National Academy of Arts. She holds a PHD in artistic research from the Norwegian Theatre Academy where she was conducting an in-depth research project into the interrelationship between us and our surroundings. Her artworks can be described as large scenographic installations which blur the lines between visual art, performing arts and sound art. She is currently member of the editorial committee of VIS – Nordic Journal for Artistic Research and Metode (Rom for Kunst og Arkitektur).

Time: 17:40-18:30
Venue: Scene 2

This presentation delves into the evolving role of dramaturgy and artistic research in contemporary theatre education, using the Master’s programme in Theatre at Oslo National Academy of the Arts as a case study. Building upon theorists' perspectives like Richard Jochum and Maaike Bleeker, the discussion highlights the challenges and potentials of integrating artistic research within a theatre curriculum. Key questions include: How can we create frameworks supporting theoretical and practice-based knowledge production? And how can artistic research enhance the reflective and collaborative capabilities of theatre students? The session offers insights into working with methodologies that bridge traditional theatre methodologies with the experimental approaches of contemporary dramaturgy, advocating for a model that enables students to investigate, create, and critically engage with their artistic processes.

Bio: Mads Thygesen, PhD, is a Professor of Dramaturgy at Oslo National Academy of the Arts and an Associate Professor in Theatre Practice and Production Dramaturgy at Aarhus University. His expertise spans dramaturgy, artistic research, and theatre education. Mads previously served as Rector at The Danish National School of Performing Arts and the Danish School of Playwriting. He is a board member for Dramaten (The Royal Theatre, Stockholm) and Oslo National Academy of the Arts. 

Thygesen participate with the 2nd-year MA Theatre students.

Time: 18:30-20:00
Venue: Resepsjonsgalleriet

Frå Form til Famling / From Form to Fumbling[1] (FFtF) premiered on the 2nd of November 2023 at Henie Onstad Art Centre, outside of Oslo. After the premiere Magdalene Solli and Solveig Styve Holte has presented one of the solos they created together in the performance and written out a reflection together that will be published in the upcoming issue of Nordic Journal of Dance. For the artistic research week Magdalene Solli will perform this solo followed by a conversation between Holte and Solli were they open different aspects of the process making visible the creation both from a choreographic and performative perspective. How does the material we encounter inform and transform how and what we create? How does the process of transformation, transmission and transpositioning potentially change the understanding of the material we started off working with, both to us, the audience and potential a broader cultural memory. How has the relation to the archive developed and transformed in our bodies and perception during our long-lasting process, and how has the quality of time and being with the archives affected us and the overall choreographic decisions in the performance?

Bio: Solveig Styve Holte (b. 1984) is a dancer, choreographer, and PhD fellow in the Department of Dance at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. She works extensively in collaboration, creating performative works for museums, galleries, theater spaces, public spaces, as well as poetic texts and publications. Recent works include From Form to Fumbling (2023) at the Henie Onstad Art Center, Sixteen Dances (2023), Rosendal Theater/DansiT, Undying - a handwork (2022) at the National Museum, HORDE (2021) at the CODA dance festival/MUNCH. Together with Venke Sortland and Ann-Christin Kongsness, she initiated and was part of the editorial team for the three editions of the anthology KOREOGRAFI/CHOREOGRAPHY (2016/2018/2021). Her works have been presented at KIASMA Helsinki, Kilden Kristiansand, Dansens Hus, Black Box Theater, Galleri Golsa, Podium, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Dramatikkens Hus, Dansehallarne, Kunsthall Trondheim, Weld, and others. Holte is based between Oslo and Folkestad, where she works on developing YKS, a choreographic center.

Magdalene Solli (b. 1993) is an Oslo-based dancer, performer, and dance maker. In 2022 she has worked on the dance piece dølge, which premiered at Nynorskens Hus, together with scenographer Kjersti Alm Eriksen, sound artist Simon Daniel Tegnander Wenzel, dancer Synne Elve Enoksen, and Dansens Hus, Oslo. Magdalene has also co-initiated the performing arts collective Montebøllo (2019), where she now serves as artistic director together with Rina Rosenqvist. In recent years, she has worked for and with Solveig Styve Holte, Ingri Fiksdal, Theater F, Rina Rosenqvist, Geir Hytten, Goro Tronsmo, the Oslo-based artist group Inφopsin, and more. She also engages in dance-related text work: in the winter of 2020, she attended the Danish writer's school, Gladiatorskolen, and in the fall of 2020 she began working as a freelance writer and dance critic for the Norwegian Shakespeare Journal. In 2021, Magdalene had co-editorial responsibility for the dance artistic online publishing platform Montebelloseminarene (2021). Magdalene has a master's degree in dance from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (2019), a practical-pedagogical education in dance (KHiO, 2017), a bachelor's degree in contemporary dance from the University of Stavanger (2016), and the Academy of Performing Arts Bratislava (2015). 

Time: 19:30-20:30
Venue: Scene 4

Description TBA

Time: 09:30-10:25
Venue: Scene 4

Marius Holth underviser i sang på Teaterhøyskolen, KHIO. Han er sanger, komponist og sangpedagog med utdannelse fra Complete Vocal Institute i København og bakgrunn fra Roy Hart Theatre i Frankrike. Han driver også firmaet Stemmekraft der han underviser sangere, kor og artister i sang, vokalteknikk, låtskriving og improvisasjon. Marius er aktiv med flere musikalske prosjekter i samarbeid med profilerte norske musikere og produsenter. Hansiste album Wild Poem ble spilt på hele 182 radiostasjoner i USA og har over ½ million avspillinger på Spotify. Han har hatt mange kurs for Norges Korforbund og er en ettertraktet foredragsholder for alle som er interessert i sammenhengen mellom stemme, kreativitet, kropp og selvutvikling.

Time: 10:35-11:30
Venue: Prøvesal 1

Description TBADenne én-times workshopen gir et innblikk i hvordan bindevevet (fascie) påvirker kroppslig uttrykk og tilgjengelighet for scenekunstnere. Gjennom en introduksjon til prinsippene fra Anatomy Trains og Slings in Motion vil deltakerne få et glimt av hvordan arbeid med fascie kan øke kroppsbevissthet og frigjøre bevegelsespotensialet.
Workshopen vil inneholde en kort introduksjon til fasciesystemet samt praktiske øvelser for å styrke kroppslig tilgjengelighet. Gjennom disse aktivitetene vil deltakerne oppleve hvordan disse prinsippene kan støtte deres tilstedeværelse på scenen.
Bli med og oppdag nye dimensjoner av kroppslig uttrykk gjennom en kort, men inspirerende introduksjon til bindevevets betydning!
Antall deltakere: 15-20 stk

Bio: Sylvi Fredriksen er utdannet dansekunstner og pedagog fra Statens balletthøgskole (Khio). Hun har jobbet som dansekunstner, pedagog og koreograf i over 20 år. Sylvi er ansatt som emneansvarlig i bevegelse på Teaterhøgskolen.

Time: 11:15-13:00
Venue: Scene 4

(Part 1): TBD

(Part 2): Dramaturgy at Work

(Part 1)
Dinna Bjørn will share insight from her ongoing work on the Danish choreographer August Bournonville (1805–1879), a central figure in both international ballet history and Danish cultural life.

(Part 2)
Over the past two decades, various experimental practices in the field of dance, theater, performance art, and expanded choreography in a global context have converged on dramaturgy, an investigation of the interests and problems, capacities and working cultures, as well as politics involved in the creation of a performance. Starting from her experience as a practicing dramaturg having collaborated with an array of choreographers and theater directors since 1999, Cvejić embarked on research for a book in 2022 (for Routledge) that traces perspectives and concepts of dramaturgy at work in the process of the creation. While writing Cvejić organized seminars and workshops with dance and performance ‘people’ to test her insights, observations and dramaturgical tools. In this talk, she would like to share a few key questions and turning points in her research. 

Bio: Dinna Bjørn is a ballet dancer, choreographer, Bournonville expert, and professor II at Oslo National Academy of the Arts. She was formerly ballet director at the National Ballet in Norway (1990–2002) and at the Finnish National Ballet (2001–08).
Bjørn is currently Bournonville consultant for the Royal Danish Theatre’s Ballet School in Copenhagen. She is a regular Bournonville teacher and instructor at the European School of Ballet in Amsterdam. In 2023, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Cattolica, Italy, for her work in communicating the Bournonville tradition to younger generations.

Bojana Cvejić is author of several books a.o. Choreographing Problems (Palgrave, 2015), and Toward a Transindividual Self: A Study in Social Dramaturgy (co-written with Ana Vujanović Archive Books, 2023). Since 1996, she has made, performed or collaborated on numerous works of opera, dance, dance video, and theater in Europe as co-director, dramaturg or performer. Her research in social choreography and transindividuality, and practical dramaturgy drives her politically to co-organize collective platforms of self-education and experimental production (PAF St. Erme). Since 2017 she divides her time between Oslo, where she is Professor of Dance Theory (Oslo National Academy of Arts) and Brussels, where she teaches as P.A.R.T.S.

Time: 13:00-14:00

Time: 14:00-16:00
Venue: Prøvesal 1

Hva skjer når operaformen åpner seg mot publikum og inviterer tilhørerne med inn som medskapere og medspillere? Den internasjonalt anerkjente mezzo-sopranen Adrian Angelico utforsker operaens interaktive potensial.

Bio: Adrian Angelico

Time: 16:00-16:30

Løpende kollektivt prosjekt i Vrimle.

Time: 16:30-18:30
Venue: Black box

Description TBA

Time: 18:30-20:30
Venue: Scene 5

In this performance Eszter Salamon revisits John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing (1949), a piece she initially engaged with in 2010 through her solo performance Dance for Nothing, which paired Cage’s words with her movement. This time, Salamon experiments with the modulation of physical movements, focusing on the sonic aspect of this seminal lecture on nothingness, void, and composition. She adds depth by listening to one of her past performances in which she repeated the text after a slowed-down recording by the American cellist and composer Frances-Marie Uitti, creating an auditory exploration of transmission and transformation. Salamon’s fusion of body, voice, and score sets the framework for a meditation on the simultaneity of movement and sound, and on interpretation.

Bio: Eszter Salamon

Time: 10:00-11:00
Venue: Prøvesal 1

Med utgangspunkt i spørsmålet hva vi det si å være - inviterer musikkviter, filosof og professor Henrik Holm publikum med på en musikkfilosofisk utforskning av operaens evne til å vekke vår tilstedeværelse i eget liv.

Time: 11:15-13:00

Venue: Scene 4

Background and Purpose: Digitalization pushes teachers and teacher educators worldwide to consider if, and when, traditional educational practices might benefit from implementing technologies in developing new practices. In our practical-aesthetic subjects, where embodied learning take place, there is a great need to develop professional digital competence (PDC) among both teachers and students. The Learning avatar project presupposes that it is not only the subjects that should adapt to technology and existing technology uncritically. The technology must also be adapted and made relevant and meaningful in a subject-specific way. We have used the lenses of Posthuman theories and Transformative learning theory. Learning that is transformative in nature takes place when adults encounter situations (often referred to as disorienting dilemmas) that cause them to question currently held frames of reference and, as a result, alter them to reflect their acquisition of understanding, knowledge, attitudes, and practice (Mezirow, 1994). Hence, the aim of the project is to explore the transformative processes and experiences that unfolded through the interdisciplinary Learning Avatar project in teaching education programs within Physical Education and Performing Arts.

Methods: This Action Research project consist of three sub-studies that together examines pre-service teachers and teacher educators’ experiences with piloting and integrating a 3D motion capture app (the Learning Avatar) in hybrid teaching and learning designs —offered at two Norwegian teacher education institution. A qualitative reflective thematic analysis was used to analyze data from both the student- (N = 80) and teacher educators (N = 6) perspective, consisting of reflection notes, teaching plans- and reports, observation notes, and focus groups interviews with both student groups and teacher educators.

Results: The results show that there exists a lot of ambivalence and tensions in the relationship between technology and the respective embodied movement subjects identified as a disoriented dilemma. The results show that both the pre-service teachers and teacher educators reported an increased awareness of and positive attitude towards the role of technology in teaching and learning, that they developed their PDC competence through the project, but that they kept a critical view of the implementation of technology and digital tools in relation to their embodied subjects. Lastly, the results identify factors that inhibits or promotes transformation processes. The implications of these findings for teaching and learning in Performing Arts are discussed.

Bio: Heidi Haraldsen og Oda Julie Hembre

Time: 11:15-12:15
Venue: Modell og protoype (wood box)

Har bærekraft en estetikk?

Historisk sett har samtidens utfordringer vært med på å forme våre omgivelser. I mange tilfeller har designere og kunstnere fungert som sentrale aktører, ikke bare ved å reflektere sin tid, men også ved å påvirke og prege fremtidige generasjoner. Gjennom menneskets historie har utfordringer blitt møtt og overvunnet gjennom innovasjon og kreativ tilpasning. I dag står vi overfor flere store utfordringer, hvor mange betrakter den globale oppvarmingen som den mest presserende. Som en respons har bærekraft blitt etablert som et ledende prinsipp i vår søken etter løsninger.

Dette forskningsprosjektet undersøker hvordan samtidsestetikken gir uttrykk for bærekraft, samtidig som han arbeider med å utvikle en objektiv forståelse av egen smak. Gjennom arbeidet med prototyper utfordrer Grung sine etablerte oppfatninger og normative antakelser om skjønnhet, og utforsker hvordan bærekraftens visuelle og materielle aspekter kan tolkes og vurderes i lys av dagens estetiske diskurs.

ENG Does Sustainability Have an Aesthetic?

Historically, the challenges of each era have significantly shaped our surroundings. In many cases, designers and artists have served as central agents—not only reflecting their contemporary moment but also influencing and leaving an imprint on future generations. Throughout human history, challenges have been met and overcome through innovation and creative adaptation. Today, we face multiple pressing challenges, with many regarding global warming as the most urgent. In response, sustainability has emerged as a guiding principle in our quest for solutions.

This research project examines how contemporary aesthetics express sustainability, while simultaneously working toward an objective understanding of personal taste. Through prototype work, Grung challenges his established perceptions and normative assumptions about beauty, exploring how the visual and material dimensions of sustainability can be interpreted and assessed within the framework of today’s aesthetic discourse.

Bio: Patrick Grung

Time: 11:15-12:15
Venue: Theory Room

Ways of Writing is a PhD project that looks into how designerly approaches might be used to explore and reflect upon the interconnections between language, writing and new digital technologies. The project is situated within the field of graphic design, but seeks to experiment with tools, methods and frameworks from other fields, such as creative code, linguistics, machine learning and natural language processing.

As a point of departure, the project investigates different experimental gestures of writing through hands on explorations with small-scale machine learning models, archives and datasets.

This session will introduce materials from the initial phase of the research, and use these as a starting point to reflect upon central themes and questions.

Bio: Eirunn Marie Margaret Kvalnes Kvalnes is an Oslo based designer and a PhD research fellow at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, at the department of Design. Working across different formats and media, and moving in between the analogue and digital, her work celebrates exploration, rooted in an interest in language, materiality, writing, new digital technologies and typography.

Time: 11:15-12:15
Venue: Library

The term re/pair here determines a method of bringing together two kinds of research activities—artistic investigation and action research—to round up and continue a process intended to cap a project called Connecting Wool. Artistic investigation is here understood as unfolding ways of growing, developing and explaining insights gained by engaging environmentally with materials.

Connecting Wool started with a visit of a Norwegian and Japanese delegation of art-school professionals to a farm producing Spæl-wool in Norway. We wanted to conclude the project by returning to a Norwegian sheep-farm. The Hauge farm in Lærdal. The farm keeps an ancient breed of sheep, on the lush bed of the Lærdal valley w/its steep walls rising up to the mountain pastures.

Pairing up at KHIO in Oslo and Hauge in Lærdal (zoom) we are also pairing up methods: Kirsti and Jens both work with artistic methods (Kirsti a professor in clothing, Jens a photographer with a long track record on the Norwegian art scene); Theo and Bente, as professionals in organising people with a cause. They have in common a notion of social activism extending from artistic investigation.

frameworks—artistic investigation and action theory—are not functionally integrated, they are environmentally inter-operable. And that this inter-operability makes it possible to combine analogical and analytical thinking (collaborating w/Connecting Wool).

Action Research was developed by Kurt Lewin after WWII, in response to “frozen” war-memories in bodies, minds, psyches. He developed a method of learning in groups based of defreeze-change-refreeze. The key to change was learning in groups. In our time it is a framework of social pedagogy allowing to grow, develop and explain in the wake of the pandemic (as a frozen trauma).

Our question is how artistic investigation paired up with action research can pair up human and natural environments in badly needed ways, and to see whether it possible to progress by running a process similar to one we had in August 2024, in the ARW 2025. This learning theatre is designed to host exhibits combined with audience interaction. It is based in the design department.

The collaboration between KHiO and Hauge has generated positive energy. The intuition that we have been acting on is that if the two

Bio: Jens Hauge—is a Norwegian fine art photography artist from Lærdal, where he lives and also keeps sheep on the old family farm Hauge.Born in 1953, Hauge has been an active artist throughout his adult life. At the farm, he has also built his own studio.

Hauge is known for his photographic works that capture the essence of the Norwegian landscape. His projects often explore themes of nature, human traces, and surrealistic staging. One of his notable series, "Viewpoint and Hiding Place," features captivating images of children's tree-houses or play forts.

Originally a black-and-white photographer, Hauge has embraced digital colour photography in recent years. His work has been exhibited both in Norway and internationally since his debut solo exhibition in 1976. Hauge's art is included in numerous public and private collections.

In addition to his artistic pursuits, Hauge continues to work as a sheep farmer, maintaining a deep connection to the land that inspires his creative work.

Bente Øien Hauge—is former teacher, graphic designer and social activist from Lærdal, Sogn og Fjordane. She is married to artist Jens Hauge and works as his assistant and secretary as well as taking her part in the work with the sheep on their farm. She is involved in the local history association that publishes a 100-page issue yearly, with the title Are tie (Other times).

Øien was born in Oslo in 1956 and studied in Bergen before she moved to Lærdal. Øien was a pioneer in "desktop publishing" when she started a small business in 1987, working mainly with design and layout for printed matters on cultural heritage, local history and tourism.

In the 1990's, she was on the board for EFK, female entrepreneurs in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, advocating for the use of the internet for marketing and organising qualifying courses for female entrepreneurs.

In 2003, Øien started a campaign to preserve the local hospital in Lærdal and for many years she served this cause also on a national level as a coordinator for the network of activist groups from all over Norway. As a socialist, Øien has also served as a member of the Lærdal municipal council.

Since 2019, Øien has been a certified forest therapy guide and is a board member in the Norwegian Association of Forest Therapy Guides (Skogsterapiforbundet).

Theodor Barth Theodor Barth—is a professor of theory & writing based at KHiO’s dpt. of design. His chief activity at school is to host artistic investigation in collective learning situations, working in groups and celebrating individual growth, development and explanatory affordances hatched in a space dedicated to this purpose: the learning theatre.

The learning theatre has been invited to host course modules at other departments at KHiO: e.g. dance and theatre. He has also served in a tutorial capacity in group critiques at the Art and craft dpt. He has also been involved in student participatory art projects, across KHiO, which—over time—has also included the Academy of Fine Arts.

He has been involved w/Rector Marianne Skjulhaug in initiating strategic collaboration with the National Library of Norway (NLN). Achieved: a walkabout at KHiO exploring the art-school as a production village. Upcoming: a seminar series on materiality, media and machines at the NLN.

Recently, he has been asked to act as editor of the DAC-journal for two issues to appear in 2026 and 207. DAC is short for Design Arts Culture. The issues will be dedicated to the same topics as the seminar series with the NLN. Hopefully conveying a sense among the contributors of writing with the journal. Theodor Barth has developed research archive from his work at KHiO.

He holds a Dr. Philos. from the University of Oslo in social anthropology. His is professionally trained in generative analysis. His interest in growth, development and explanation as unfolding from learning (Gr. anaptúxis) is inspired by Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalysis.

Time: 13:00-14:00

Time: 14:00-16:00
Venue: Library

Description TBA