Five research projects under the supervision of our academic staff recently received grants from the IUA’s Research Fund. This is the fourth time funding has been allocated from the University´s internal fund for research.
The role of the IUA Research Fund is to support research activities of academic staff and to promote the generation and development of knowledge in the fields of the arts. The board respects different approaches to projects and research methods, subjects, and presentations. Public dissemination of the project is a necessary criterion for grant allocation.
The following projects received funding from the 2022 allocation:
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Performing is composing; composing is performing Empowering the performer, supervised by Berglind María Tómasdóttir, professor in music department.
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Dieter Roth: Graphic Design, supervised by Birna Geirfinnsdóttir, professor in graphic design.
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The use of fishskin in the past and the future, supervised by Katrín María Káradóttir, associate professor in fashion design.
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THIS GRACE - SALON. Choreography of shared tenderlust, supervised by Saga Sigurðardóttir, associate professor in performing arts department.
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Building Bridges Through Participation: Impact and Approaches of Socially Engaged Music Projects under the supervision of Þorbjörg Daphne Hall, Associate Professor and Programme Director for Theory.
Berglind‘s research project is a practice based research, based on her practice as a creative performer. At the core of the research is her journey as an artist, from experiencing creative restrictions as a specialized contemporary music performer to working simultaneously as a performer and composer across different mediums. The research questions are:
How can the performer be empowered as a creative musician? How can the performer be redefined as a creative artist who simultaneously composes and performs music? What is achieved by an approach where traditional roles within contemporary music are deconstructed in this manner?
The research is in three parts and all of its aspects seek to answer the research questions:
Interviews with musicians who work as composers and performers. The interviews will be broadcast at Iceland National Broadcasting Service, Radio 1. At the end of the research, the interviews will be published in a book.
A piece collaboratively composed under Berglind‘s supervision by international artists, Skerpla - IUA music department's experimental sound lab and the assistant researcher. The outcome will be presented in an interdisciplinary piece composed by all participants.
A conference where the main topic is the creative performer. The conference also serves as a book release event for the book that will be published featuring articles by participants of the research as well as the before mentioned interviews.
Birna’s project is a timely research on the graphic works of Dieter Roth. Although he worked in various mediums in his career he was educated as a graphic designer and worked as a designer from 1957 in Iceland. Research into his achievements as a graphic designer is long overdue and it's influence on graphic design in Iceland. The project aims to gain a detailed overview of D. Roth’s career as a graphic designer, by conducting interviews from his contemporaries and experts. As well as looking in to private collections. The research will appear as an exhibition in Hönnunarsafn Íslands and in a book chapter in the publication The Anatomy of the Book, edited by Brad Haylock and Fraser Muggeridge, published by Valiz.
Katrín’s project is about research and development of fish leather as a sustainable raw material for clothing and accessories. The focus is on dying and printing methods, sewing teqniques the many possibilities in use of fish leather. I look to the masters that have preserved knowledge and knowhow of the past, in Iceland and abroad place in context with contemporary culture and technology in my own art work. Developing Fish Skin as a Sustainable Raw Material for the fashion industry or FISHSkin is an international project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 innovation and research program. It is created to develop and promote the use of fish leather in the fashion industry. Within it there is a network of designers, scientists, technologists and traditional craftspeople from academia and the industry to explore the possibilities of innovating fish skin leather as a sustainable alternative and putting fish skin leather on a new level of excellence.
Saga‘s interest with THIS GRACE – SALON is to present a performance event inspired by a psycho-physical practice devoted to pleasure and dreaming. With the work Saga explores pleasure as a playful, tender, imaginative and interactive space, and brings that practice to the familiar frame/structure of a club/cabaret night - to make use of elements and behavior of Club/Bar setting to explore and play with space, sound, aesthetics, visuals, atmosphere, actions, performativity and somewhat to tease/blur/play with the roles of performers and guests. Collaborating partners are Reykjavik Dance Festival and Dansverkstæðið and THIS GRACE – SALON will be preformed at Iðnó on November 19, 2022
Finally, in her research project, Þorbjörg Daphne intends to build on current musicological scholarship on the social impact of music making, music education/therapy, social issues and policy. Various socially engaged and participatory music projects work with diverse communities, such as people in detention and health care settings, and with people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. These projects can be seen as a testament to the belief that music and music making can bring about positive experiences, impact and even a change to people’s lives. The aim of the current project is to critically examine whether adults in recovery and Higher Music Education students participating in socially engaged and participatory music projects together experience empowerment to become socially active makers of and in society, and We will investigate three bands in Iceland and the UK (created and run by MetamorPhonics) as case studies and use a mixed methodology, including participant observation, qualitative interviews, surveys, Practice as Research approach and film-as-research. Project outcomes include scientific journal articles, public lectures and conference presentations, workshops for partitioners, a report and symposium with stakeholders, and a research film aimed at stakeholders and the general public.
The board members of the IUA’s Research Fund 2021 were Anna Líndal, artist, Steinunn Ketilsdóttir, head of performing arts department and Tryggvi M Baldvinsson, head of music department.