Sensuous operate in the intersection of performance art, research, activism and curation.

In Sensuous we share our visions on what we term a Sensuous society. A vision, or rather a sense, that has been haunting us in our sleep for times and times... Sensuous society

Transformative impact

I currently work on the research project Transformative impact.

The project is based on the following five observations and hypotheses:

1)    According to Critical Theory, the economic system has governed our mode of being since the Industrialization. This project suggests that the current economic crisis comprises an opportunity to establish a different paradigm. Furthermore, the project suggests that the aesthetic sphere, where the world is experienced through senses and emotions, may come to govern our mode of being after the crisis. Thus, one aim of the project is to explore this sensuous mode as an alternative approach to being in the world, an approach I call ‘the sensuous society’. This society is no utopia, but a radical example of an alternative world order that I explore through a series of performance experiments.

2)    Sisters Academy is one such experiment, and is the proposed school in this imagined sensuous society. The educational setting was chosen because of its vast potential for societal change.

3)    The applied performance method, ‘live and relational fictional universes’, is a relatively new method, and the present project will expand our knowledge of the method’s transformative potential and possible errors.

4)    The project will combine a phenomenological and a discourse analytical approach in order to answer a range of questions, including:

  1. Is the transformation real or just as imaginary as the spaces?
  2. Will it end with the imaginary universe?
  3. If the imaginary universe is merely an escape from everyday life, can the transformative potential be more than an illusion? Or will the Academy in fact have a lasting transformative effect on the participants?

5)    As the project is art- and practice-based it will also involve a methodical examination and discussion of my own position both as a practitioner and a researcher, as well as the possibilities and challenges of this dual position. The key to realize the innovative potential of the sensuous mode of being, however, is that the data is collected while the participants are in that mode – which presupposes that the researcher is present in the situation. Thus, in order to be able to collect the data, the researcher must also be in the mode. This calls for the development of an analytical tool that can operate from within, and transport data out of, the fictional universe.