fbpx MFA Student Dami Kim Attends ‘Material Strategies’ Seminar in Oslo, Norway — PCA

MFA Student Dami Kim Attends 'Material Strategies' Seminar in Oslo, Norway

Material Strategies - Per Roar
Material Strategies - Per Roar

MFA Transdisciplinary New Media class of ’19 student Dami Kim attended the ‘Material Strategies’ seminar in Oslo, Norway on February 28, 2019.

Read about her experience:

From 28th February – 1st March, 2019, I attended an artistic research seminar “Material Strategies ” in Oslo, Norway. When I had first read the introductory text before attending the seminar I expected to learn how the body as material could change our perception (which, relates to my artistic practice.) During the seminar, I realized that the range of materials could be expanded broader to include: voice, territories, light, object… etc, in relation to body.

Summerized below are two presentations which were particularly interesting to me:

1/ Dr. Rick Dolphijn – Necropolitics and the Arts: Rethinking Sound and Matter from the Present

Investigated the meaning of contemporary art. It described quasi-objects which are pre-human, possibly showing blindness we have with regard to life. This brings us to end the current life and to live a new life socially, economically, and politically: the present.

2/ Prof. Per Roar – Stumbling Matters

During the performance, he drew his daily life path on the floor with tapes and objects. He then marked where he had stumbled due to stumbling stones of Holocaust victims in Oslo. This act of the everyday body reminded him of the Holocaust history, recreating history in the present moment.

Beside presentations, there was time for discussion where the panel and audience raised issues and questions around the particular themes.

The most debated topic was the meaning of object – how an object functions to us, could it have a meaning independent from humans?

For me, this experience raised questions of: which body I would have during my life, dichotomy of doubt and trust in academia’s impact on society, and being connected to professionals in different but interlaced disciplines.