Disputation: Charlotte Østergaard

Den 15 januari 2025 är det dags för Teaterhögskolans doktorand Charlotte Østergaards disputation med forskningsprojektet Crafting Material Bodies – exploring co-creative costume processes. 

På Bryggeriteaterns scen kommer Charlotte Østergaard under januarieftermiddagen gå upp för att försvara sin doktorsavhandling Crafting Material Bodies – exploring co-creative costume processes, där Østergaard undersöker de relationella förhållanderna mellan textil och människa. Läs mer om forskningsprojektet här nedanför.

Disputationen är öppen för allmänheten. 

Information

Datum: 13.00 den 15 januari, 2025   
Adress: Bryggeriteatern, Bergsgatan 31, Malmö      

Forskningstitel: Crafting Material Bodies – exploring co-creative costume processes   

Opponent: Dr. Donatella Barbieri, University of the Arts London   
Ordförande: Sven Bjernstedt, Teaterhögskolan i Malmö   
Betygsnämnd: professor Henrik Frisk, dr Anne Louise Bang, dr Rachel Hann and dr Madeline Taylor.    

Main supervisor: Dr Sofie Pantouvaki – scenographer and Professor of Costume Design at Aalto University, Finland.    
Second supervisor: Dr Camilla Eeg-Tverbakk – dramaturgue and Professor at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.

Crafting Material Bodies – exploring co-creative costume processes   

At the heart of this research are relational encounters between people and textile materials. As the title crafting material bodies indicates the research explores how human-bodies are crafted by material-bodies (costume) and how we (humans) in explorative and co-creative situations relate to, affect and become affected by other human and more-than human bodies.       

The research has four focal themes – crafting, listening, hosting and co-creating – which are explored though three artistic projects. The artistic project AweAre – a movement quintet explores the act listening, Community Walk explores the act of hosting and Conversation Costume explores the act of co-creating and all three projects explores different aspects of crafting. As the themes are entangled all three projects holds aspects of the four themes.       

In the artistic projects I invite fellow artists like performers and designers to explore specific costumes (that connect two or more people) with me. As co-creators, I invite the fellow artists to engage, respond, inform,influence and/or interrupt our co-creative costume explorations in ways that matter to them and to critically reflect on our explorations. In the projects, I study how listening can become embodied and relational acts that evoke curious conversational dialogues between us. Such dialogues are not about directing or crafting convincing arguments but are invitations to listen with the costume with our bodies, to share our embodied experiences, to co-create and elaborate on each other’s creative perspective. During the artistic projects, I act as more-than an observing designer/researcher. I am the crafter (of the costumes) and the host who partake alongside fellow artists and the goal is to explore how my hosting orientation(s) affect or go together with being an active participant.

With this research I suggest that it is critical that we in co-creative situations cultivate our listening abilities towards human and more-than human others and I argue that costume is a medium that enable us to do so.With the research, my ambition is to formulate ideas on co-creative strategies that values material-discursive listening and where the hosting attitude is orientated towards communal doings. The aim is that that listenings and communal hostings become tools for designers to gain a deeper understanding of how costume affects performers, and the boarder scope is that the research contributes to discussions on how teams can collaborate in more generous and inclusive manners. For example, to acknowledging that our different (discipliner) creative perspectives and expectations are something that we can offer to the common doing and that we at the same time must recognize that how we share and exchange of our differences has an impact on how we can flourish co-creatively.

Läs mer om Charlotte Østergaard och hennes forskning här