The Ghost Machine is a practice-based research project that explores the process of embodiment in animated film. It describes the process of transfiguration from the artist’s/auteur’s point of view and not from an outside position. The dissertation follows the embodiment of a dramatic text, the Ghost Sonata by August Strindberg (1907), into an animated film. The starting point is my experience of the drama, at the age of thirteen, when staged by Ingmar Bergman at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. As a teenager, the world of the grown-ups seemed to be corrupt, twisted and ruled by violent power plays and economic sanctions, and this play confirmed my world view. Was I right, as a thirteen-year-old boy? What kind of world emerges in my version of the Ghost Sonata? In this thesis work, the films and the experimental research process meet the practice and art of writing. Using text, not as “theory” separated from “practice” but as a bodily art practice, creates a shifting border between the results and intentions of art and filmmaking, and the results of writing. At the same time a unity emerges where the results of the research process can be seen and experienced in the interaction between the texts and the artwork. The Ghost Machine is a totality where the text, films and artworks included in the project are equally important and must be seen as a unity. The Ghost Machine is a work journey where travelling, animated film practice, networking with colleagues and collecting data are mixed with experiments using methods from contemporary arts practice, performance, reenactment, appropriation and transfiguration, blended with traditional puppet animation in classic Czech style. In collaboration with actors, mime artists, puppet makers, musicians and a minimal film crew, century old stop-motion animation is combined with computer animation.  The textual part of the work falls into two categories: life stories and work stories. The work stories traces the forming of an artwork in all aspects. The life stories are related to the subject of ghosts. Suddenly, dead friends and dear family members claimed their space. The understanding of the Ghost Sonata came to be a process of sorting out and following lines of memory using an inverted version of the Orpheus myth as a guide. Instead of never turning around, when walking the dead out of oblivion, I chose to look back, again and again, until I hit something and could not write anymore. / https://www.uniartsplay.se/slin

The project has the purpose of designing and developing a wearable haptic device for experiencing music through tactile vibrations on the body, and the result is the product concept BEATHOVEN and a completely new way of experiencing music.  Music is powerful, it touches our soul and gives form to our emotions. It captures the inner landscape of our minds, resonating in endless colours and nuances and shares it with others. Music has been a part of the human species for over 40 000 years and has played a fundamental role in our evolution and society; it is believed that we sang before we even spoke. Music, along with its aesthetic qualities, has throughout history been closely tied to our auditory perception. It was originally created and designed for listeners and has long been considered as something for the hearing. That perspective is starting to get more and more blurred out, however, and music is stepping out of auditory exclusivity. The general view of music today excludes over five percent of the world's population: people with disabling hearing loss. Hearing loss can impact a person’s life in many ways and one major impact is their ability to communicate with others. Music is another form of communication, and it is one where all of these people have thus far been excluded. The goal of this project is to design and develop a product that includes more people in music.  The project is carried out in collaboration with Pariception, a company specialized in research and development of assistive devices for people with deafblindness, and stems from one of their existing products: Good Vibrations. Good Vibrations is a wearable device for experiencing music through vibrations; it is a completely unique product and differs from all other solutions on the market. There are some brands, such as SubPac and Woojer, who have developed tactile music accessories, but these products are focused on enhancing a listening experience. Good Vibrations and BEATHOVEN are unique because they aim to convey the full musical experience and to be used independently from hearing. The current project brings Good Vibrations back to its basic concept idea, to redefine, refine, and design it into a usable, viable, and desirable consumer product: BEATHOVEN.   The project is made up of three main parts; to understand how the vibrotactile experience of music can be designed into a meaningful product, to understand how music can be conveyed through vibrotactile sensations on the body, and to know where on the body the vibrations should be conveyed to optimize the experience. To do this, we have created our own approach, adopting a mix of different design approaches such as design-driven innovation, human-centered design, embodied design, and aesthetic exploration. Research strongly indicates that it is possible to perceive aesthetic qualities within music through other senses than hearing, for example through stimuli such as tactile vibrations. To aid us in the development of the product, and to explore the aesthetic qualities of vibrations, we have defined a new research subject called Vibraesthetics.  The project has resulted in BEATHOVEN, a product concept featuring five vibrotactile actuators distributed to the chest and the neck. The product takes the input from any song or piece of music and transposes its frequencies to fit within 5-1000 Hz, which is the general range of human tactile perception. The music is further divided into three registers and distributed to separate and dedicated actuators. Some of the artist's original intentions with the music may be altered, but the richness of the experience is still there and available to anyone, regardless of their hearing abilities. / Målet med projektet är att utveckla och designa en bärbar haptisk produkt för att uppleva musik genom taktila vibrationer på kroppen. Resultatet av projektet är produktkonceptet BEATHOVEN och ett helt nytt sätt att uppleva musik.  Musik är kraftfull, det berör vår själ och sätter form på våra känslor. Det fångar vårt inre landskap, resonerar i oändliga färger och nyanser och delar det med andra. Musik har varit en del av den mänskliga arten i över 40 000 år och har spelat en grundläggande roll i vår utveckling och i vårt samhälle; mycket tyder på att vi sjöng innan vi ens började prata. Musik, tillsammans med dess estetiska kvalitéer, har genom historien varit nära knuten till vår hörsel. Den skapades ursprungligen och designades för lyssnare och har länge ansetts vara något för just hörseln. Den här synen på musik börjar dock mer och mer suddas ut, och nya sätt att uppleva musiken får ta plats. Genom den allmänna synen på musik vi har i dag utesluts dock över fem procent av världens befolkning: personer med nedsatt hörsel. Hörselnedsättning kan påverka människors liv på flera sätt och en viktig inverkan är på förmågan att kommunicera med andra. Musik är en annan form av kommunikation, en form där alla dessa människor hittills har blivit exkluderade. Målet med detta projekt är att designa och utveckla en produkt som inkluderar fler personer i musik.  Projektet genomförs i samarbete med Pariception, ett företag specialiserat på forskning och utveckling av hjälpmedel för personer med dövblindhet, och grundar sig i en av deras befintliga produkter: Good Vibrations. Good Vibrations är en bärbar produkt som möjliggör upplevelsen av musik genom taktila vibrationer; det är en helt unik produkt i sig och skiljer sig från alla andra lösningar som finns på marknaden idag. Det finns ett fåtal aktörer, som SubPac och Woojer, som har utvecklat taktila musiktillbehör, men de är enbart inriktade på att förstärka upplevelsen för den som redan hör. Good Vibrations och BEATHOVEN är unika av sitt slag då de eftersträvar att förmedla den fulla musikupplevelsen, oberoende av hörseln. I det här projektet tar vi Good Vibrations tillbaka till sin kärna, för att sedan omdefiniera, förfina och utforma den till en användbar, fungerande och åtråvärd konsumentprodukt: BEATHOVEN.  Projektet består av tre huvuddelar; att förstå hur musikens vibrotaktila upplevelse kan designas till en meningsfull produkt, att förstå hur musik kan förmedlas genom vibrotaktila förnimmelser på kroppen, samt att veta var på kroppen vibrationerna ska förmedlas för att optimera upplevelsen. För att göra detta, har vi skapat ett eget tillvägagångssätt, där vi har kombinerat olika designmetoder så som; design-driven innovation, människocentrerad design, embodied design och estetisk utforskning. Forskning visar starkt på att det är möjligt att uppleva estetiska egenskaper inom musiken genom andra sinnen än hörseln, till exempel genom taktila vibrationer. För att hjälpa oss i utvecklingsarbetet av produkten och för att bättre undersöka och förstå vibrationernas estetiska egenskaper har vi definierat ett nytt forskningsämne som heter Vibroestetik.  Resultatet av projektet är BEATHOVEN, ett produktkoncept bestående av vibrotaktila aktuatorer fördelade på bröstet och nacken. Produkten översätter vilken låt eller musik som helst och transponerar ner den till ett område på 5-1000 Hz, vilket är det allmänna omfånget för vår huds taktila uppfattningsförmåga. Musiken är sedan uppdelad i tre register och distribueras till separata aktuatorer. En viss del av konstnärens ursprungliga tankar och idéer med musiken kan förändras eller filtreras bort, men upplevelsens rikedom finns fortfarande kvar och är tillgänglig för alla, oavsett deras hörsel.

[ES] La presente tesis doctoral recoge una investigación basada en la práctica artística propia desarrollada entre 2017 y 2022, en el territorio de la comarca de l'Horta. Los trabajos y procesos que componen dicha investigación se inscriben principalmente en el ámbito de las prácticas en contexto, y presentan especial interés por los relatos, memorias y luchas asociadas a las transformaciones territoriales locales. A través de los proyectos L'Horta, ni oblit ni perdó (2017), Aturem la ZAL, recuperem La Punta (2018), Ara vindran les màquines. Relats subalterns de la València Sud (2018), La Retaguardia (2020) y A hores d'ara. Experiències i memòria de la defensa de l'Horta a través del seu arxiu (2022), esta investigación plantea explorar la capacidad que tienen las prácticas artísticas contextuales y colaborativas de generar rupturas en el relato histórico hegemónico, mediante la producción de dispositivos críticos y situados que posibiliten la visibilización y articulación de memorias subalternas. Asimismo, este trabajo propone investigar si dichas prácticas pueden contribuir a reforzar relaciones de apego y empatía con un territorio dado a través de la consolidación de contramemorias locales propias, así como procesos de afectación, dentro del contexto de la defensa de l'Horta de València. / [CAT] La present tesi doctoral recull una investigació basada en la pràctica artística pròpia desenvolupada entre 2017 i 2022, en el territori de la comarca de l'Horta. Els treballs i processos que composen aquesta investigació s'inscriuen principalment en l'àmbit de les pràctiques en context, i presenten especial interés pels relats, memòries i lluites associades a les transformacions territorials locals. A través dels projectes L'Horta, ni oblit ni perdó (2017), Aturem la ZAL, recuperem La Punta (2018), Ara vindran les màquines. Relats subalterns de la València Sud (2018), La Retaguardia (2020) i A hores d'ara. Experiències i memòria de la defensa de l'Horta a través del seu arxiu (2022), aquesta investigació planteja explorar la capacitat que tenen les pràctiques artístiques contextuals i col·laboratives de generar ruptures en el relat històric hegemònic, mitjançant la producció de dispositius crítics i situats que possibiliten la visibilització i articulació de memòries subalternes. Així mateix, aquest treball proposa investigar si aquestes pràctiques poden contribuir a reforçar relacions d'aferrament i empatia amb un territori donat a través de la consolidació de contramemòries locals pròpies, així com processos d'afectació, dins del context de la defensa de l'Horta de València. / [EN] This thesis presents a research based on artistic practice developed between 2017 and 2022, in the regional territory of l'Horta (València). The works and processes that make up this dissertation are mainly inscribed in the field of practices in context, and present special interest in the narratives, memories and struggles associated with local territorial transformations. The capacity of contextual and collaborative artistic practices is investigated in five different field studies; L'Horta, ni oblit ni perdó (2017), Aturem la ZAL, recuperem La Punta (2018), Ara vindran les màquines. Relats subalterns de la València Sud (2018), La Retaguardia (2020) and A hores d'ara. Experiències i memòria de la defensa de l'Horta a través del seu arxiu (2022). The totality of these projects serve to create generative ruptures in the hegemonic historical narrative, through the production of critical and situated devices making possible the visibilization and articulation of subaltern memories. Correspondingly, this work proposes how such practices can contribute to reinforce relationships of attachment and empathy with a given territory: through the consolidation of local counter-memories, as well as processes of affectation, within the context of the defense of l'Horta de València. / Florin, AMC. (2023). Ahora o nunca. Prácticas artísticas contextuales en torno a la defensa de l'Horta y su memoria [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/192824

Zweck: In den letzten Jahrzehnten hat das Interesse an sozial engagierter Kunst, Art in Action, stetig zugenommen. Bisher fehlt allerdings eine Praktiker-Forschung (practitioner research), welche Fragen aus der Arbeitswelt in den Forschungsmittelpunkt stellt und die glokalen Gegebenheiten praxisrelevant diskutiert. Diese Studie untersucht die Grundannahmen der Kunstgeschichte, welche bisher die Einführung der Praktiker-Forschung erschweren. Die Studie kontextualisiert und diskutiert zudem die Besonderheiten der künstlerischen Forschung sowie der Praktiker-Forschung in anderen disziplinären Feldern. Daran anschliessend formuliert diese Studie die Prinzipien der Art in Action Methodik. Methodik: Diese transformative Studie arbeitet mit dem Global Studies Paradigma. Der konzeptionelle Apparat umfasst die Kaleidoskopische Dialektik, das Konzept der Glokalisierung und die Theorien der Transdisziplinarität und der Meta-Narrativen Synthese. Ergebnis: Diese Studie formuliert die Prinzipien der Art in Action Methodik (AiAR). AiAR stellt Fragen aus der Arbeitswelt in den Mittelpunkt der Forschung, berücksichtigt lokale Gegebenheiten und organisiert den Forschungsprozess in Relation zu den projektrelevanten Partikularitäten (grounded methodology). / Purpose: In the last few decades, there has been a steadily growing interest in socially engaged art, i.e., working with art in socio-cultural settings (Art in Action). What has been missing, however, are art practitioner research methodologies that place issues emerging from art practitioner work environment at centre stage. This study explores the critical assumptions of art history, which have so far hindered a practitioner-driven research approach. It contextualises and discusses the specificities of artistic research and practitioner research. On this basis, the study formulates an Art in Action research methodology. Methodology: This transformative research applies a global studies paradigm. Its conceptual apparatus includes the kaleidoscopic dialectic, the concept of glocalisation, and the theories of transdisciplinarity and meta-narrative synthesis. Result: This study formulates principles for an Art in Action research (AiAR) methodology that places the issues emerging from the art practitioners’ work environments centre stage instead of an artwork-centred approach. It postulates that AiAR works with grounded research procedures.

Listen. If I ask you to listen, what is it that I ask of you—that you will understand, or perhaps obey? Or is it some sort of readiness that is requested? What occurs with a body in the act of listening? How do sound and voice structure audio-visual-spatial relations in concrete situations? This doctoral thesis in fine arts consists of six artworks and an essay that documents the research process, or rather, acts as a travelogue as it stages and narrates a series of journeys into a predominantly sonic ecology. One entry into this field is offered by the animal “voice” and attempts to teach animals to speak human language. The first journey concerns a specific case where humanoid sounds were found to emanate from an unlikely source—the blowhole of a dolphin. Another point of entry is offered by the acousmatic voice, a voice split from its body, and more specifically, my encounter with the disembodied voice of Steve Buscemi in a prison in Philadelphia. This listening experience triggered a fascination with, and an inquiry into, the voices that exist alongside us, the parasitic relation that audio technology makes possible, and the way an accompanying voice changes one’s perceptions and even one’s behavior. In the case of both the animal and the acousmatic, the seemingly trivial act of attending to a voice quickly opens up a complex space of embodied entanglements with the potential to challenge much of what we take for granted. At the heart of my inquiry is a series of artworks made between 2012 and 2016, which constitute a third journey: the performance Limit-Cruisers (#1 Sphere), the praxis session Limit-Cruisers (#2 Crowd), the installations Therapy in Junkspace, Fluorescent You, and “Then, ere the bark above their shoulders grew,” and the lecture performance Articulations from the Orifice (The Dry and the Wet). The relationship between what is seen and heard is being explored and renegotiated in the arts and beyond. We are increasingly addressed by prerecorded and synthetic voices in both public and private spaces. Simultaneously, our notions of human communication are challenged and complicated by recent research in animal communication. My work attempts to address the shifts and complexities embodied in these developments. The three journeys are deeply entwined with theoretical inquiries into human-animal relationships, technology, and the philosophy of sound. In the essay, I consider as well how other artistic practices are exploring this same complex space. What I put forward is a materialist and concrete approach to listening understood as a situated practice. Listening is both a form of co-habitation and an ecology. In and through listening, I claim, one could be said to perform in concert with the things heard while at the same time being changed by them. / <p>Avhandlingen är även utgiven i serien: Malmö Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts, Lund University: DoctoralStudies and Research in Fine and Performing Arts, 16. ISSN: 1653-8617</p>

In search of, the current and urgent, accompanied with our guiltless but potentially not agencies, we fight for the intelligence of reality. A zeitgeist that we try to ghostbust, that we hope to understand. A pandemonium circulated around the event, the now, the branches of time that flicker the possibilities and variations of expressions, that we as trajectories might solidify into a reality.  "So, one can start from a simple question, at which one does not care to conclude  with an answer: "why do we mark/trace a surface? Or for that matter, sculpt, think,  animate etc." What is the inclination behind it? And more importantly, why do we  cling to a specific preference?" In this essay I attempt a brief brush through from a number of familiar questions about art. And attempt to provide my own understanding, of art, creativity, society, and the ever newer intentions of the human expressive trajectories, that provide variations of possibilities and potentialities.

Hur skapar och utvecklar jag metoder för en filmprocess som värnar mitt eget och mina medarbetares mentala och känslomässiga välbefinnande när vi gör film om svåra frågor? Hur tar jag hand om mina medverkande? Hur ser min film ut som är sprungen ur en sådan arbetsprocess? Hur har arbetet med terapeuten Cilla Holm, tidigare filmproducent, bidragit till en hållbar filmprocess? Filmbranschen präglas av högt tempo och utmattningssyndrom är inte ovanligt. För fyra år sedan blev jag utmattad och efter att ha sörjt mitt gamla jag och min nya stresskänslighet kom jag fram till att jag inte tänker acceptera att jag inte ska kunna arbeta med det jag älskar, film och skrivande. Jag tänkte att det måste finnas andra sätt att arbeta med film och fortfarande få må bra. En text om skapandet av min dokumentärfilm Om sorg (2022) och metoden som jag kallar för Den emotionellt hållbara filmprocessen. / How do I create healthy working methods that benefit my own and my team members mental and emotional wellbeing while making film about difficult subjects? What does a documentary sprung out of these methods look like? How has the collaboration with Cilla Holm, film therapist and former film producer, contributed to make the process emotionally sustainable? The film industry is fast paced and burnout is not uncommon. Four years ago it happened to me and I had a total identity crisis. After grieving my old self, my ability to multi-task and my newfound stress intolerance, I came to the conclusion that I will not accept that I have to leave the film industry. I wanted to keep working, I just had to find another way to do it. A text about the creation of my documentary About Grief (2022) and the method that I call The emotionally sustainable film process.

This dissertation, titled Interactive Music Composition, is a practice based Ph.D. thesis in the field of Musicology. The purpose is to explore if and how one can compose computer based interactive music, that is musically satisfying for an interacting audience, consisting of both laymen and skilled musicians. The text describes the design and reflection in two interactive music installations: Do-Be-DJ, open-air installation in a public park, and, Mufi, with modular and moveable interface. Based on methods and per­spectives in Musicology and Interaction Design, a composition model for interactive music is developed. The model investigates the experience di­mensions listen, explore, compose and collaborate. It also investigates the design dimensions of interaction, narrative structure, composition rule and sound node. The conceptual approach is to apply improvisation and composition methods from jazz, pop and groove based music on interactive music. It also uses the concepts of openess in musical structures and interpretation, musical mediation of actions and meaning and everyday use of music, when composing interactive music. The dissertation contributes to an understanding of how to create composition techniques for interactive music, such as: Direct, varied and shifting response. It reflects on the change in meaning of the musicological terms composition, improvisation, musical work, listener, musician and audience. And on the interaction design terms interaction, gameplay, system and user. The term co-creator is used to describe an actively, interacting and collaborating person, to complement traditional terms like audience, performer and user. / <p>Ljudfiler till avhandlingens bilaga 1, http://musicalfieldsforever.com/dobedj_more.html; Videodokumentation av Do-Be-DJ, Interaktiv installation, http://musicalfieldsforever.com/dobedj_more.html; Videodokumentation av Mufi I och II, Interaktiv installation, http://musicalfieldsforever.com/mufi_more.html; Doktorandtjänsten finansierades av Interactive Institute; Musikinspelning finansierades av Framtidens Kultur genom Skiften på Malmö högskola</p> / Interaktiv musikkomposition / Interactive Music Composition / Interaktiv ljuddesign / Interactive Sound Design / Musik och Hälsa / Music and Health

This essay reflects a particular method and way of working that I employ when undertaking artistic research. My artworks are rooted and develop from the situation I find myself in as an artist, the very context I exhibit the work within. I do this by trying to understand this position, both on the micro and macro scale. As an artist currently studying at—and subsequently exhibiting in relation to— Konstfack, I base my research with the physical manifestation of the school. An imposing building that was part of a huge headquarters and factory site for the telecommunication company, Ericsson, in south Stockholm. The title of my essay is from the translation of a unique German cipher machine, the Geheimschreiber, made known to me through enquiry into this site. Throughout the Second World War the German army used this machine to send highly encrypted military messages across Swedish telephone cables. Following one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of cryptography, a Swedish mathematician broke this German code and subsequently assisted in designing a deciphering machine on behalf of the Swedish Intelligence branch. This device, known as the App, was secretly developed and manufactured by Ericsson, possibly where I now study. In exploring the theme of secrets, this essay originates from an underpinning desire and subject of my work to reveal what is concealed or overlooked. Through researching and writing this essay I attempt to have a better understanding on the notion of secrets, in both the private and public realms. Introducing the artistic process and situation I am working from, I explore the central role that secrets play within society. In order to understand secrecy today I introduce the intertwined and associated contemporary debates of privacy, (both private and public) and transparency through such subjects as Google’s new privacy policy, mobile phone hacking, WikiLeaks and offshore banking.

Reality isn’t what it appears to be. Contexts are not always clear and visible. People don’t always say what they really mean. And they don’t always mean what they say. When life is your stage manager, anything can happen. I often say, life is hard, my head is harder. Making documentaries is not for the faint-hearted.This PhD project explores creative processes and parallel realities in documentary film, and discusses and conceptualizes the artistic practice of documentary filmmaking. The project consists in part of artistic works and essays that are critical reflections on the creative process and how that process can be conceptualized. The cinematic centerpiece of the thesis is entitled Images and the Worlds of Being (2011–2016). Previous subprojects are A Shift Between Worlds (2013–2015) and an essay book entitled In Real Life (or Elsewhere) (2013). Between 2013 and 2017, more essays were written, some of them translated to English. All the Swedish essays are available in PDF format. All of the works in the PhD project explore creative processes and parallel realities in two different ways: A Shift Between Worlds (2013–2015) explores identity and parallel realities in the gendered world. These works are based on two workshops led by Diane Torr, “Man for a Day” and “Woman for a Day.” They resulted in several component works, including two video essays, two audio works and two large-format photographic works, the latter in collaboration with photographer Johan Bergmark, as well as a short commentary film entitled Diane Speaks Out (2016). Images and the Worlds of Being (2011–2016) – a VR Classic Style film – explores what happens when documentary images are shown on four screens forming the walls of a room. This work also focuses on the view through the camera lens through which the filmmaker meets the world, in a hypnotic tapestry of parallel realities in a tenderly portrayed, runaway present. A sort of logical reasoning about the illogic of our era, in search of elusive reality (to paraphrase Jean Baudrillard) – the presence in the act of seeing. An experiment in the forms of visual knowledge, outside the traditional display windows. Shooting location: The World.