This essay is a personal exploration of my artistic practice in relation to my bachelors exhibition “Olivlunden”, where material memory, trauma and cultural erasure is embodied in a series of works made out of charcoal. The essay contemplates the significance of focusing on minor details as a method to narrate one's work, but more importantly as a coping mechanism amid a landscape of violence. In the essay, charcoal as a medium to narrate arson attacks on olive groves is discussed in the framework of de-linking, which at its core involves a deliberate disengagement from the structures and systems that perpetuate colonial legacies. The essay will discuss the intentionality behind choosing materials and the symbolic meanings that materials carry for my artistic practice. Furthermore, the essay explores how art can be a form of resistance and a means to challenge dominant narratives rooted in Western imperialism. The essay weaves together microhistory and materiality, arguing that the minor details hold the capacity to activate otherness and bring marginalized stories into the narrative. The body of work that was presented for the exhibition are discussed as pieces of landscape art that hold the possibility to offer a nuanced understanding of resilience, adaptation and symbiosis at both the smallest and grandest scales. 

My interest in Going Offline was twofold. (1) I wanted to investigate how the entrance of a new (virtual) space had affected our understanding of the concepts of space, time and body, and what this could entail for the sole individual. (2) I wanted to, in a really hands on manner, create a small bug in an otherwise well functioning, fast and effective system of communication. In other words to intervene the course of events in my everyday life to affect myself and others connected to it. Like the small stone thrown into the water creating rings (movements) on the surface, where the closest one, which is the most vigorous, influences the next one and so on. Overall I aimed to explore the sole individual’s connection to social structures and a global phenomena.

In 2009, the Swedish artist Katja Aglert embarked on an artistic residency research trip to the Arctic. This became the starting point for her project 'Winter Event - antifreeze'. Five years on it has, using repetition and reiteration as its main artistic methods, turned into a complex multi-branched structure, of which this book forms a part and constitutes the finale. The project proposes a different narrative of the Arctic, dissects clichés of romanticism and mysticism related to this context, and deconstructs heroism and so-called discoveries from a norm-critical perspective. The book is the result of a collaboration between Aglert and the curator Stefanie Hessler and includes documentary images by the artist, reference material from a variety of other resources, an extensive introductory essay by Hessler, as well as specially commissioned texts by renowned theorists Lisa Bloom and Sabeth Buchmann.

In recent years I have been working on topics related to Post-colonialism in South America, as well as the conditions of immigrants in Europe. The main interest of my work involves questions about my roots and personal stories of migration. This situation has been the engine of my art for the last ten years. Through my installations, I have tried to express or represent some certain facts, that have marked the post-colonial situation in Latin America and Europe over the last years. 

The slavery and exploitation of illegal labor are common working conditions for many people in South America, especially for those located in the jungles and slums. The Indigenous culture -its languages, values and traditions- have begun to disappear and been displaced by Western culture. Here in Europe, on the other hand, I feel 'alien' to the territory of my ancestors, due to the fact that my family comes from European immigrants in Argentina. Illegal labor has been also a part of my life, having experienced the condition of 'otherness' in Europe. Therefore, this project reflects upon my personal experience in relation to the unfair conditions of labor in autochthonous communities, researching the concept of 'otherness' taken from Post-colonial theories. It is for this purpose, that my methodologies include self-reflection, parallelism and metaphor.

One of my purposes is toreveal those 'fake stories' used by the European acculturation in South America. I called these fake stories 'strategies', as they were used by the Colony for the reconstruction of a new National Identity in those countries. Therefore, convincing the Indigenous culture to adopt Western culture.

The parts of my essay are a metaphor of different stages of narcotic's production, best called 'mobile labs' of the Amazon jungle.I have taken this concept to tell my story and to build up the laboratory as final representation. The first stage of this process is to weigh and measure the ingredients, followed by a mixture of substances and chemicals. Once mixed, it proceeds to three stages of filtering and purification. Then it is subjected to a press for semi-solid consistency and introduced into the oven to reach the compact state. The blocks will finally be packed with plastic film and adhesive tape, protecting them from adverse environmental conditions during transport and storage. Each chapter of this essay is also connected to the 'machines' constructed for my solo exhibition, following the same steps of Purification.

Through this essay, I wanted to broaden my concept relating three main aspects: the colonial strategies of domination in South America, my personal work experience in Europe, and finally the unfair working conditions in marginal societies. Each of the 'machines' constructed for my installation is functional, ready to be activated according to the different parts of the cooking process and as a representation of a 'production line' in the system of labor. I also have chosen to wrap my body, as well as carefully chosen representative objects of the popular culture of South America, to finally pack them in cling film. As a result of this process of Purification, I have produced the 'final products' ready to be consumed here in the Western European countries.

In this artistic research Swedenborg´s world of dreams is investigated. The aim of the project is to observe and reflect upon dreams potential and impact on the practical artmaking.

Several tools were used for this purpose: I Ching, a Tarot deck, a selfmade Dream deck, Oblique Strategies and C.G Jungs method Active Imagination.

The final outcome is a performance in Swedenborg´s Summerhouse in Stockholm.

The idea emanates from the story that Swedenborg served meals to the spirits in his summerhouse.

The performance unfolds in three parts: Cooking show, Talk show and Ritual. Emanuel Swedenborg´s spirit is invited together with the spirits of Carl Gustav Jung and Isabelle Eberhardt.

The text consist of two parts. One with selected dreams from both The Dreambook of Swedenborg and the authors dreamdiary. The other part is a text that invite the reader to follow the process.

A meal in the summerhouse is an attempt to raise conciousness about how dreams actively can be used in and form the artistic work.

Om tecknandet som en metod av förståelse.

This text is about the psychological life of the pataphysical character (Aeiou) and the drawing.

Since the documented history was and still mainly is viewed as autonomous, this essay attempts to challenge history’s formal disciplined approach with a narrative from slaves’ own history rather than seeing slavery as an event. The Indian Ocean slavery has not been documented as much as Atlantic slavery history, in which led to a gap within the history of the Persian/Arabian Gulf countries. Moreover, the essay looks specifically at my own family history, as an artist, the interest of documenting such history was to find ways to relate and understand the afterlife of slavery. I raise questions regarding reflecting on the remembrance and presentation of slaves’ history as an amendment process and as an attempt to fill in the gaps in order to understand history and the socio-political positioning of Afro-Emiratis. The essay unfolds with its suspension then release, in three main narratives titled: Fairuz, Dalma, and Zar, that took place in the last century. The methodology was mainly focused on weaving narratives, events, and heritage of Afro Emiratis into a steppingstone to further document and present of an unspoken history.

RECONSTRUCTION is a conversation that shifts between analyzing and locating the artist’s position in their society. Especially the power of the majority in the society over the individual. Reconstruction is a way of resistance, or the only way of resistance, at least for me. 

In these pages I will talk about reconstruction as a tool in my art, and find connections between my experience and others, people who share one or several of the identities that I have, as an artist, asylum seeker, or queer. Illustrating the different use of the concept of reconstruction that I’m working on, I will introduce the artist Leileh Babirye, a Ugandan artist, living in New York. She works in a multidisciplinary practice that transforms everyday materials into objects that address issues surrounding identity, sexuality and human rights. I will also discuss the work of Miriam Cahn, through the book “I as Human'', proposing new perspectives on her writing, and her paintings based on her personal experiences, from other writers like Poul Preciado, a Spanish writer, with a long history of writing about trans struggle and rights through his own experience. 

In this essay I want to try to explore and discuss the relationship between the artwork (with it’s why, when, what etcetera), the artist and the audience. For me, they are connected, and I want them to be so. My ideal, or at least what engages and interests me, is when we let art be a communication. When the work is facilitating a conversation. I see the art piece as a connecting point, with different points outside it, that exchange their reflections and communicate. I want to make this connection clear and obvious. It’s a multiple way conversation, everyone both receiving and reaching for the other. I see the artwork as a communication channel, which should have a shape that conveys the concept to make the conversation possible. That means that the artwork is a material. 

That was one of the things that I tried to research in the past two years in my master studies at Konstfack. I did an experiment around this at my solo exhibition. I didn't include an art statement to explain about the work, instead I was in the space to make a conversation with the audience and tried to listen first to what my artwork was telling them. I saw how my concept was perceived, got their reflections and reflected back. And through the conversations arose the issues I’m trying to talk about through the installation. At the same time I didn’t try to “correct” anyone, didn’t try to remove the abstract, or the dramatic stories people told about the piece. The balance, the sides, the unequal power dynamics: all this I got the opportunity to discuss with my audience. In person. 

I also address a number of questions connected to my work. Like: When is art private? is art always political? Does my existence in this field have to be a political statement? Making art as a minority: how the position as artist makes the art political, and how the audience makes the context political. I’m questioning how we read and engage with the artwork, the visual output and the concept of the work, how they work together to convey the artist's conclusion of a process, is it convenient to address the environment that surrounds the artwork. This is a process of discovering and digging and revealing whether it is just about the work itself or also the way it is read depending upon its context. Everything that comes spontaneously and makes it a statement. 

This essay by Andrew Allen-Olivar uses the film script form to present scenes that follow a fictional town where each scene follows different inhabitants – from the new kid, to the tree, to the fish, to the undead locals that inhabit the town. The work is inspired by magical realist writers, poets and philosophers such as Jorge Louis Borges, Alejandro Zambra, Anne Carson and Franz Kafka. Through these scenes, the author's intentions are to convey a place that shifts – between time and place; between memory and exaggerations; between narrative and documentation.

There are many different strategies for worldbuilding, and many types of worlds to build. This text will give the reader a brief introduction to some of these methods, with the world in focus being Rosarium, an interdisciplinary project consisting of physical installations, soundscapes, smells and performances, created by me and Villiam Törngren González during the year of 2023. 

In this world, we have encountered beauty, myths and life, as well as control, violence and care. Through two acts, we have explored this world's transformative qualities, and its potential to show us the duality of being. What lies in the glass sphere, and what lies beyond. 

An essay using philosophical and poetic language to describe the process of the Henriksberg industrial area, about to be demolished in Stockholm. When buying or establishing a home. What are we looking for? A place to live, eat and sleep? In a mine you dig for metals or minerals underneath the surface of the earth, when extracted they will later be refined into products. Moving from the ground to the surface, translating meaning and purpose. In a city we have invisible powers, refining value from land. An alchemical process is activated in city planning, using buildings and its inhabitants to create value as a commodity, establishing the home as an object of desire. 

Jag började intressera mig för konst i tron att samhället snart skulle rasa samman. Detviktiga blev att göra något roligt men samtidigt få en chans att påverka eller säga något. Imin tro har detta "snart" nu förflyttats många år framåt i tiden och perspektiven hardärmed förändrats. I min konstnärliga praktik undersöker jag relationen till naturen ur ett västerländskt perspektiv. Fokuset hamnar på frågor om makt, om behovet av att på olika sätt kontrollera naturen. Ofta intresserar jag mig för saker där kontrollen brister eller går för långt. En tydlig röd tråd i mitt konstnärsskap har varit en vilja att skapa förlängt liv. 

This essay is a companion piece, which consists of texts and images situated outside of a particular artwork, relevant to its thematics and the process. For me, that means inspirational material, theory, explanations, and images. Some give it a clarifying quality, but I consider adding more complex than that. The text is written as a poetic journal of my research. In some ways presenting the theory behind certain features but foremost undressing my process. Giving it the truer foundation of hard work, rather than ideas of flow and artistic inspiration. The artwork I’ve chosen is a video installation entitled ”we’re all motherfuckers”, where I raise questions of responsibility and guilt in environmental engagement. Because of this, the research circulates around activism, language and theories about environmental conditions.

This essay embarks along the ancient Nile River with a radical, but not entirely bizarre, claim. Through a puzzling together of a small piece of papyrus deriving from the place and time, we have gained a clearer picture of the city at the foot of Pharaoh Khufu's Pyramid. Those there to build it might have been content, happy even. My, perhaps escapistic, fantasy of being able to travel back to an early brewing of our high culture, a time before something was lost, leads the text on to reflections on work, craft, art, and architecture. The essay is an associative and personal study that flows through the works of artists and thinkers such as Ann Hamilton, Robert Rauschenberg, Marcel Duchamp, Susan Sontag, Guy Debord, Milan Kundera, and others. And towards the end of it, through my own six paintings that became my master's degree work. I hope the nature of this essay offers an understanding of how and why those paintings are what they are and look the way they look, without me disclosing a vacant truth. Herein is a mournful yearning for the little that endures, as well as an insistent clinging and defense of that which is elusive, experimental, spontaneous, and disheveled.

Mitt examensarbete har bestått av två delar - en gestaltande och en skriftlig. Den förstnämnda resulterade i utställningen Kung Minos hjärna som löst kretsade kring den grekiska myten om Minotauren och labyrinten. Utställningen bestod av tio tusch- och akrylteckningar (dessa föreställde bland annat djur, människor och skelettdelar i olika rum och landskap) samt en kort text om det gamla Grekland, den bestod mest av gissningar eller kanske en slags önskningar. Den gestaltande delen var alltså också den delvis skriftlig. 

Examensarbetets andra del, Världarnas gråvatten, är den här uppsatsen. Jag har skrivit om mitt liv (inte i sin helhet utan noggrant utvalda delar) och om hur jag tänker på min och andras konst. Jag driver linjen att bilder existerar mitt emellan den fysiska världen och betraktarens inre samt att till synes statiska konstverk förändras innehållsmässigt över tid. Uppsatsen innehåller också ett avsnitt om fiktionens ursprung, jag försöker reda ut det hela från början. Allt avslutas med en beskrivning av hur jag arbetar, hur jag blandar samman olika intryck till en ny helhet. Min skriftliga uppsats är delvis gestaltande. 

Den här texten beskriver hur jag använder mig av känslor i min konstnärliga praktik och varför det är viktigt för mig. I texten skriver jag också om hur lapptäcken länge varit ett sätt att uttrycka sig på genom komposition, hur en kan använda sig av ornament för att kontextualisera ett objekt och agens. Vad lapptäcken och ornament har gemensamt med min konstnärliga praktik är hur känslor har kunnat och kan formuleras i material före dem artikuleras i ord. 

Syftet med essän är att beskriva vilka idéer och referenser som inspirerat mitt konstnärliga arbete. Essän kommer att utforska begrepp som äkthet och mekanisk reproduktion i kontext av konst och lyxvaror. Jag kommer att diskutera hur färg och materialitet inverkar på vår uppfattning av värde och autenticitet. Intentionen är att undersöka hur semiotiska associationer påverkar uppfattningen om lyx och kvalitet. Referenser till bland annat Walter Benjamin, Judith Williamson och John Berger kommer att ges för att utforska gränsdragningen mellan konst, lyx och konsumtionskultur. Essän belyser semiotikens roll i att forma konsumenternas uppfattningar och konstens potential att utmana konventionella föreställningar om värde och autenticitet. 

The project ANTHOLOGY - FEMALE BODY IN LIMITED SPACE examines my own subjective experience of relationships between body and place and the possibility to artistically give form to these. The main focus in the project concerns the female body in limited spaces in exposed situations and how these situations influence self-esteem and identity.

The project starts of from post-colonial and feministic queer-theory and examines the possibility of subjective experience to shed light on normalizing and excluding norms. In the project I work with an artistic method where I use the experiences of the relationships between my own body and three specific places; my own artistic studio, a dance studio and a studio used for the research or perception of light and form. The experiences are given shape through text, photography, performance and video.

The project is published in the publication ANTHOLOGY - FEMALE BODY IN LIMITED SPACE and is available on the national research database DIVA.

Espèces d’Espaces is an artistic research project funded by Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts & Design. 

Its overall focus is the experience of sonic spaces, the intimate relation between body, surrounding space and its exclusive sonic expression. With a practice-based approach, this project pays specific attention to physic acoustics auralisation methods and tools (3D virtual sonic modelling) with an aim to explore in particular how can these processes be transposed to the realm of artistic research. 

As a part of this project, I shared a case study based on a specific space and construction: a XVIIth century cloister preserved today as a central element of the extension of Museo del Prado in Madrid as planned by architect Rafael Moneo in the early 2000s. 

This case study starts thus in the realm of traditional architectural acoustics, for later performing a series of experiments in the form of spatial and temporal variations and displacements. Experiments based on a number of artistic architectural (alternative realities of a space) and sonic/musical practices including improvisation or electroacoustic composition.

Through the research project ‘Playing the space’ we have developed ‘resonance’ as a site-specific method and a theoretical concept. Resonance involves all senses and relations in a space; it manifests the overall experience of daily life within its immaterial, continuous and elusive expression. As an artistic/research method, resonance intensifies an extended listening that takes place between bodies and space in its full complexity. By composing and recomposing the rhythm and the resonance of daily situations through collective improvisations, interventions, disruptions and further out-of-place reactivations, new situations emerge which establish another awareness of urban qualities, limits, forces and meanings.

This paper presents a series of contemporary artistic methods and collective actions based on the pioneering work of the French avantgarde group Art et action (Aea, 1919-1939). Aea actively responded to the fast-changing society of their time through their innovative “theatre laboratory”, an experimental artistic research environment in which actors and audience were invited to investigate together the rhythmic order of urban routines and rituals, through the re-enactment of daily urban atmospheres. Based on Aea’s methods and concepts, atelier Area aims at responding to today’s deep physical, sensorial and social transformation of the city by re-acting contemporary urban routines and rituals through public improvisations and interventions. Three concrete examples will be presented here.

A field experiment was conducted to explore whether water sounds from a fountain had a positive impact on soundscape quality in a downtown park. In total, 405 visitors were recruited to answer a questionnaire on how they perceived the park, including its acoustic environment. Meanwhile the fountain was turned on or off, at irregular hours. Water sounds from the fountain were not directly associated with ratings of soundscape quality. Rather, the predictors of soundscape quality were the variables “Road-traffic noise” and “Other natural sounds”. The former had a negative and the latter a positive impact. However, water sounds may have had an indirect impact on soundscape quality by affecting the audibility of road-traffic and natural sounds. The present results, obtained in situ, agree with previous results in soundscape research that the sounds perceived—particularly roadtraffic and natural sounds—explain soundscape quality. They also agree with the results from laboratory studies that water sounds may mask road-traffic sounds, but that this is not simple and straight forward. Thus sound should be brought into the design scheme when introducing water features in urban open spaces, and their environmental impact must be thoroughly assessed empirically.

My text is about drawing. My artistic practice is a practice where drawing has completedictatorship. I have learnt other techniques too, but none of them can give me exactly what I want,they still leave me unsatisfied. They can't relieve the pressure. I want to adress as well as toemphasize the use of drawing as a process and let this process be a part of the concept of a work ofart. My exam work consisted of a really big woodcut and - this "theoretical" part that i have uploaded as a pdf.

This exhibition item contains a book, “How much for a tree” and a 4 channel video installation. The book investigates a planning process in Malmö, that turns out as a disaster. A hundred year old park is destroyed. The investigation of the process is done in the form of a drama, where all the people involved get to tell their version. The question that is posed is: What are the values that are destroyed by this planning disaster? The video installation tries to give an answer to the question from the authors’ point of view. What are the values of trees? There are numerous ways of valuing trees, from biologic estimation on the value for insects and other plants, from the perspective of the property owner, from the importance for the air quality in the city, etc. For telling the values of trees from non-anthropocentric view, the trees importance for humans is not important. A non-anthropocentric view values what trees are in themselves, as far as it is possible for human beings to identify. The authors, both artists, suggest that through artistic means it is possible to touch upon and communicate the real non-anthropocentric values of trees.

How does film become a political act? That is the question that the artistic research project Sisters! Making Films, Doing Politics revolves around. Taking Hannah Arendt’s ideas about the constitution of the political arena as its point of departure, this dissertation reflects on the aesthetic mechanisms that underlie contemporary strategies for collective and feminist filmmaking. Sisters! Making Films, Doing Politics draws on the particular historical archive of radical filmmaking and film theory that relates to the British film collectives of the 1970s: The Berwick Street Film Collective, Cinema Action and The London Women’s Film Group. Inspired by a Marxist-feminist tradition, these collectives explicitly sought to involve film in the political discussions and events that at that time took place in British society. In the dissertation’s first chapter, which deals with these film collectives, a theoretical, historical and artistic framework is established that is subsequently developed in four chapters that discuss the film productions that constitute the artistic core of the project: Sisters! (2011), Mutual Matters (2012), Choreography for the Giants (2013) and Conversation: Stina Lundberg Dabrowski Meets Petra Bauer (2010). As the dissertation argues, each of these films productions discloses specific aspects of the relation of politics and film aesthetics. It goes on to identify the precise relationships and the displacements that take place between the historical material, Arendt’s concept of the political act and the production of the films. A the centre of the investigation stands Sisters!, a film project carried out in collaboration with the London-based feminist organisation Southall Black Sisters.

Problematiken för mitt projekt kretsar kring existens och tid. Kring hur vi upplever vardagens framfart, i det enskilda, samt hur vi förhåller oss till vår omvärld, i det privata. Genom att vi existerar är vi också del av tidens gång och nuet vare sig vi vill eller inte och i detta faktum finns någonting tröstlöst men samtidigt romantiskt som fascinerar mig och som jag vill utforska. I detta framåtskridande finns integriteten som ett individens skydd mot exponering och den stress över att uppnå någonting med våra liv. Men vad finns kvar efter ett liv som levts utan åstadkomna stordåd? Vad lämnar vi för spår? Tiden är den överhängande problematiken för mitt projekt, och jag närmar mig det genom tre fotografiska verk med titlarna Monument, Fragment och Moment.

koncentration, konstruktion: Fragment, Plasticitet, Konsekvens

Ett Assemblage

I essän koncentration, konstruktion: Fragment, Plasticitet, Konsekvens- Ett Assemblage sammanställs ett urval kritiker, konstnärer och filosofers texter som diskuterar kapitalism, teknologi, plasticitet och affekt. Parallellt med teorierna är mina egna tankegångar och narrativ placerade tillsammans i ett assemblage.

Essän diskuterar mediakritikerns Herbert I. Schillers:​ Culture Inc. The Corporate Takeover Of Public Expression​ (1989), företagens framväxt och ökande dominans i USA efter instifningen av den konstitutionella lagen “Bellotti” (1978); följder av företags rättighet till yttrandefrihet, och den ökade betydelsen av inpaketeringen av kulturella meddelanden för produktionsmedlen. Förenar citat från bland annat Slavoj Žižeks (The Pervert's Guide to Ideology) i detta.

Texten lyfter därefter fram bitar av filosofens​ ​Catherine Malabous bok ​Vad ska vi göra med vår hjärna? ​(2008)​ o​ ch diskuterar ​Plasticitet vs. Flexibiliet,​ och ​“Den neurala världen och kapitalismens anda”.

Andra utdrag från teoretiker (och konstnärer) såsom Donna Harraway, Steven Shaviro, Mark Fisher, Hito Steyerl, N. Katheriene Hayles och Chloé Galibert-Laîné’s essäfilm- The Pain Of Others​ återfinns i essän.

Löpande i texten är mina egna narrativ fördelade längsmed och i kontrast gentemot teorierna som lyfts fram. Som bitar till ett assemblage men som också på olika sätt behandlar det subjektiva och subjektbildandet. Vilket sker i olika textformat under rubrikerna: Interview: Madonna​, ​Skulptur, Fördelning av en tidslinje, Replokalen, Berlin 2019: Nirvana 2019, Selected Songs By Year.

Det här är ett försök att undersöka begreppet lojalitet. Ordet har inga synonymer, de somligger nära ryms alla i sin tur under samma begrepp. Jag undrar vad lojalitet är, dessgränser och förutsättningar. Jag undersöker det här på två sätt, textilt och i text. Text ochkropp ska smälta samman. Med utgångspunkt i toilesömnad, den riktigt nära relationenmellan två människor och Erich Fromms begrepp särskildhet, söker jag ord och textilkropp på det som uttalas, det ordlösa och det som bearbetas i kärleksrelationen. Jagsöker svar på om lojalitet är en förutsättning för att skapa en långvarig relation. Är det visom ska ändra oss eller är lojaliteten formbar. Jag använder mig av mönstret till GustavIII:s bröllopsdräkt, syr en toile, provar den på min man, och gör ändringar så den passarhonom bättre. Det krävs minst tre provningar med tre olika toiler. Detta ärskrädderitekniskt fel sätt att nå god passform. Slutligen gör jag ett nytt mönster utifrånändringarna.

This essay describes part of the process behind the exhibition Almost through the theory of a whole. This includes a short historical background of the subject matter (The hollow earth theory) and certain theoretical frameworks and perspectives that has been used in the process. These theories include Michel Serres theory of noise and C. G. Jungs theory of synchronicity. 

Further the essay looks at conspiracy theory, artifitial intelligence and art making thorugh these theories.

Abstract

This essay is written in parallel to my studio work at the Master in Fine Art’s program at Konstfack 2021-2023. I began to write with the intention that this essay was going to be about the sculptures I made during my MFA. I begin to write, as I work with my sculptures - on impulse - and the essay unfolded as another kind of text. It is a montage, written close to my sculptures, but not directly about them. The text reveals the historic, scientific, linguistic aspects of my sculptures and how they are connected. Memories, anecdotes and dreams are also part of the montage. 

In the essay I refer to Gravity and Grace by Simone Weil, Powers of Horror - An essay on abjection by Julia Kristeva, Complete Stories by Clarice Lisbector and On Freedom by Maggie Nelson and more.

We describe two sculptures from the exhibition made by Nisse Bergman the 14th of November 2019 at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design. We place the production of the sculptures in a scientific as well as artistic context showing that the human brain plastically change through external stimulus.

I present a novel optical device capable of faithfully reproducing arbitrary images and image sequences by utilizing the interplay between mirrors and colored surfaces acting as interactive mosaics. My main contribution is describing a method for pre-computing the mirror lattice configuration and mirror orientation as well as a ways of finding the corresponding diffuse color pattern in the spatio-temporal domain. 

The method is fast enough to allow rapid iteration by enabling physically based light ray simulation ahead of fabrication.I demonstrate the effectiveness of my method in a wide range of image and image sequence scenarios as well as multiple device configuration variants.