#thisishdk-valand

In OhiO Wednesday’s May 2020, Ram Krishna Ranjan took us on a journey into his PhD project in Film where he is creating methods for inquiry – research and film alike– to interact and take care of stories of the subaltern classes. His project with its departure point of the 1943 Bengal Famine is a project of listening, practicing reflexivity and methods of mediation. During the short presentation a small clip from the film+phd-in-progress was showed. In the showing captured conversations plus an uncovering of the blurriness within the tense relationship of being hungry, living in an oppressed class and colonial policies was activated. As a maker and a researcher, a triangulation method is used where Ram balances his role by strategically collaborating with local Patchitra artists, and the villagers. Together they create conversations and capture oral stories through painted scrolls, performance and film.

The presentation was followed by a discussion where an appreciation was relayed by the audience for the honest approach of attempting to actively listen instead of merely representing subordinate societies in film. Perhaps, the power differences can never be undone but at least there are modes to work towards a more equal positioning. Also, Ram revealed that there is a blurriness in time presenting itself in the project – 1943 reminds the villagers of famine in1985 and more. This blurriness of these flowing histories is highlighted but, also, is present inside the action of mediation.  

Stefan Jensen presented “Den Svenska Linjen” (The Swedish Policy) which is a project in its early stages dealing with photographic production using an investigative approach. The content of this project was about the hidden-in-plain-sight program of the mining and the handling of Uranium in Sweden in the 1950s. Currently, the project consisted of a site visit, tour, and interview that was visualized through photographs and archival studies. 

The OhiO Wednesday moderated discussion connected to the roles and ways of Jensen’s inquiry-based project. The group opened up and discussed what it takes to ‘read’ a site and reflected about the role of the artist in a journalistic research project. 

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Fristående kurs ÄTA - Matkultur, Materialitet och Design på HDK-Valand - Högskolan för Konst och Design. Kursen går Hösten 2020, ansökan öppen mellan 16 Mars - 22 April 

Naima Callenberg presented her on-going city-planning exhibition project with Röhsska Museet, which will open in the fall of 2020. Unfortunately for OhiO, she could not get into details on content and participating architects but she shared her process of curating and the process of her exhibition design. Her project was circling around her the notion of “discursive architecture” and she was mulling over the question: “how does one communicate a speculative project?”. 

After the project was presented a discussion around the question Naima posed became alive as the group delved into communication platforms from the on-the-site exhibition as well as websites or beyond. Another notable discussion was around the role of the architect as being both a draftsperson, a visionary, and a discursive architect. 

Björn Renner took the risk and launched a new project at OhiO Wednesday in October. The work is an investigation of the statement from a long-time client: “Just make it look expensive.” This statement inspired Björn to investigate just what are the aesthetics of “looking expensive” and how can he take artistic freedom within these aesthetics. It was also revealed that he will work with VR, dancers moving with abstracted bodies and utilizing patterns found in luxury design brands.   

After the project was presented a lively discussion around the provocation of actually taking on the statement “look expensive” within the creative process came about. Through this discussion, the crowd really got into a constructive feedback session of the work-in-progress presented by Renner plus a self-critical conversation of what we, in the School of Design, tend to believe is “taboo.” or “unspoken”. Renner even received several interesting departure points for the projects further research and development such as considering the question: “how might one move expensive?”