AR@K25 symposium: Truth, reality and artistic invention

Date: 17 & 18 March

Venue: Fjerdingen, Chr. Krohgs gate 32, Oslo

Registration is free of charge and opens at the end of January

The full program will be published here in February

AR@K25 runs parallel to the Artistic Research Spring Forum.

“Artistic Research at Kristiania" - AR@K - is an annual, cross-disciplinary, international symposium for artistic research hosted by Kristiania University of Applied Sciences in Oslo. 

AR@K25: Truth, reality and artistic invention

The tension between art and reality has been a topic of intense debate ever since Plato and Aristotle’s famous dispute on the subject. The former warned citizens against the inherent falsity of all representations of reality; the latter stated that humans have an innate need for them, introducing the concept of mimesis as an essential condition for our wellbeing.

By necessity, art feeds off reality; yet artistic invention is at the heart of all creative work. In transforming reality through craft and imagination, artistic expressions may offer diverse forms of truths, be they affective, poetic, or metaphorical. While the imagination is a central tool for any artist, it is also in its nature a potential instrument of deception.

How does the tension between truth, reality and artistic invention manifest itself in present-day artistic practices in film, performing arts, literature, visual arts and music? In our current ‘post-truth’ condition, manipulated facts and invented truths compete with the arts in the formation of imagined realities artists once held exclusive ownership to, generating a perplexing new paradigm.

AR@K 25 is informed by recent cultural and political developments and for the upcoming symposium we encourage participants to reflect upon how reality, truth and art collide, interact and feed off each other in their work. We invite artists, artistic researchers and academics from the fields of film, theatre, music, dance, literature, visual arts, media arts, design, and cultural studies.

The program schedule will be launched in February.

Keynote sessions

• 17 March: Michael Bentham - Filmmaking the past: Navigating the intersection of fact and fiction, truth and the real in authoring the contemporary biographic fiction film
• 18 March: Espen Ytreberg

With contributions from:

(may be subject to change)

• Agnete G. Haaland (Universitetet i Oslo, Senter for Ibsen-studier)
• Aline Braun (University Mozarteum, Salzburg): Navigating Constraints: The Hybrid Role fo the Freelance Choreographer in the Reality of Artistic Systems
• An van Dienderen and Hugo DeBlock (Ghent University): How to KOPIRAET ethics in documentary film?
• Ana Barros (University of Aveiro): "Poetic truth" and experimentation in the recreation of songs by Portuguese women composers
• Ana Teles (University of the Arts, London / Cardiff Metropolitan University): Fearing the loss of personal significance: the practice of copying
• Carly Wijs (RITCS School of Arts, Brussel)
• Carolina V. Lio (Istituto Marangoni, London): The Politics of Truth in Socially Engaged Art: Agenda or Authenticity?
• Claus Sohn Andersen (Kristiania, Oslo): 'This is really (sur)real!' - Spatial (non-)realism as a compositional element in music
• Eirini Sourgiadaki (Zurich University of the Arts): A simple guide to Teleportation & Transformation
• Elin Festøy (Kristiania, Oslo / Teknopilot): Wholly artificial, yet true
• Erik Eger-Schøyen (Kristiania, Oslo): Bak fengselsmurene: Sannheter i arkitektonisk dramaturgi
• Guro Von Germeten and David Fielder (Kristiania, Oslo): Authenticity and the Gendered Singing Voice
• Hilde Rustad (Kristiania, Oslo), Siri Jøntvedt (independent) and Torunn Helene Robstad (Oslo National Academy of the Arts): 'the real' and dance improvisation
• Irene Velten Rothmund (Kristiania, Oslo): Imagining the unreal - imagery as an artistic tool in contemporary dance practice and education
• James Wen (Molde University College): Understanding how art can save us from an AI-controlled reality
• Jeppe Kristensen (University of Agder): Dramaturgies of necessity. Invention a new theatrical language through 'the Real' in the performances Love Theater, Welcome to Twin Peaks and Cleo's Future
• Julia Heurling (Plymouth University): Representation and counter representation -– on repetition as method to critique visual experience through photography
• Kjell Andreas Oddekalv (University of Oslo, RITMO): Manifesting the rapping chimera
• Kristina Dziedzic Wright (University of Leicester): How We Got Here: Ethics of representation and co-created art exhibitions
• Liv Vester Larsen (National Danish Academy of Music (SDMK)): The Liminal Space - The condition for creating in the transition space between nature and culture
• Lorenzo Orsenigo (University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz): Standard and truthful, or alternative and creative...? - Artistic Hacking as a method to challenge "one-truth" approaches to (music) interpretation
• Márcia Nemer (Stockholm University of the Arts): Representing absence. Exploring documentation through a representational performance of absence
• Marianne Nødtvedt Knudsen (University of Agder): Gatelangs Inkluderende Scenekompani - reality and performative strategies working with real people
• Marie Dahlén (Kristiania, Oslo): Eco Aware Narratives in Performing Arts
• Marie Macneill (Falmouth University): Beyond Story: how lies illuminate thematic truths in stories and screenplays
• Marius Dybwad Brandrud (Stockholm University of the Arts): Learning to say we - creating filmic conversations in the classroom
• Maxine Gee (Bournemouth University): Making the Object a Subject: Exmining Realities of Motherhood through an Object's Perspective in my short horror story The Nature of Care
• Nicholas Cornia (Royal Conservatoire, Antwerp) and Viktor Lazarov (independent): "Echos du temps passé": plurality, authority and taste in historical performance practice of the pre-Urtext era
• Nina F. Grünfeld (University of Inland Norway): Alexia alone
• Nora Rinne (University of the Arts, Helsinki): Performing childhoods in the intersection of gathering and creating
• Ole Christian Solbakken (Kristiania, Oslo): 'To do' - Making empathy
• Olivier Chateau (Kristiania, Oslo): Exploring Historical Realities through Card Games: Teaching Video Game History
• Otto Banovits (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest): Truth is not absolute, it is a mere question of perception
• Renata Ferraz (University of Beira Interior): Imagination and reality in Rua dos Anjos: Ethics, Truth, and Shared Creation in a Documentary Production
• Siri Senje (Kristiania, Oslo): Ways of Lying - discoveries about truth and invention in a biographical screenwriting process
• Soudhamini (Deakin University, Melbourne): The Real and the Virtual
• Synne Tollerud Bull (Kristiania, Oslo): Time To Reflect Reality
• Thomas Ballhausen 
  (University Mozarteum, Salzburg)
   and Elena Peytchinska (University of Applied Arts, Vienna): Hybrid Authorships: Exploring Porous Realities through the Models of Synthetic Fiction and Posthuman Friendships
• Thomas Brennan (Stockholm University of the Arts): Puppet Hospital: signals of embodiment, augmentation, and materiality
• Tõnis Jürgens (Estonian Academy of Arts): A Practice for Surrender
• Toon Leën (Hasselt University): Irresistible Images and the Sceptical Eye
• Tore Teigland and Arve Furset (Kristiania, Oslo): Creating reality in music production (TBC)
• Trond Klevgaard (Kristiania, Oslo): Truth (and truthiness) to materials: 21st century print in Britain
• Vincent Thornhill (KU Leuven): Rendering Reality: Posthuman constructions of reality in computational photography