Kroppar under träd – en miljö för konstnärlig forskning

Doctoral thesis, 2010

This dissertation in the field of artistic research is an articulation, in words and images, on the experience of working with a notional environment for artistic research. It is not a reflection on or a description of the process which the work has involved, but above all an articulation, characterisation and development, in words and images, of the conceptual and pictorial world constituted during, through and in the course of the actual work on an environment for artistic research in Vasaparken, Göteborg. The work is the design of a design process or, in the words of Aristotle, a form of poetic, in which great importance has been attached to making the special relationship between the concrete project and the text as clear as possible. Underlying this concrete work is an interest in the fundamental issue of the dynamic relation between activities (people), environments (buildings) and outward circumstances in perspectives of change. These issues are of a general nature but are especially relevant in relation to the emergence of new fields and practices, as in the case of artistic research. That is to say, fields, activities and practices which are more open by nature and more amenable to change than is usually the case with established fields, activities and practices. This work can also be viewed as a form of travel report, both general and specific, in the hope that it can be used as a form of guide book, to be read by those similarly interested and wishing to undertake corresponding journeys, but it can also serve as travel literature for those interested in the places or in travel as such.