Gothenburg Studies in Art and Architecture

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Editor: Karin Wagner
ISSN 0348-4114
Theses and other studies by members of the Department of Art of the University of Göteborg

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Audiovisual Constructions: Material Interrelations in Live Rock Performances
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2019-05-24) Nikolaeva, Olga
This dissertation examines and analyzes the material interrelations in audiovisual constructions of live rock performances. It explores the interrelations that take place among four key modes of a live rock performance’s material modality, namely: the musicians’ bodies, screens, screen visuals, and sounds. According to the analysis conducted in this dissertation, an audiovisual construction is understood both as a process that describes the confluence of a performance’s modes and as a momentary result of their interrelations that creates the performance as a whole. Rather than exploring the ways audiences perceive performances, the central focus in this dissertation is to investigate the relations and potentialities of the performance’s modes by focusing on the assemblage and display of the audiovisuality of three selected case studies. The three case studies that form the empirical material for this research study each consist of a song performed by a rock music band. The specific performances are: “Angel” by the British band Depeche Mode, “The Handler” by the British band Muse, and “Óveður” by the Icelandic band Sigur Rós. Relying upon the concepts of performative materiality (Johanna Drucker), the vitality of materials (Jane Bennett), and an understanding of a live rock performance as a scenographic spectacle (Joslin McKinney, Scott Palmer), this study explores the perspective of the materiality’s performative potentialities, which emerge and develop in the audiovisual construction. The analysis of each particular case study reveals that processes of audiovisual construction create conditions under which a performance’s modes continuously activate and renegotiate each other’s individual material potentials, while creating new forms of scenographic assemblages of vital materialities. Furthermore, understanding the material potentials of modes gives rise to new considerations of the roles these modes play in live rock performances.
”Fullständigt otillförlitlig, men absolut oumbärlig”. En historiografisk undersökning av projektet Svensk Stad
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2018-03-19) Dahlgren, Anders
This dissertation is a historiographical study of the research project Svensk stad (Swedish Town). The project, lead by the professor in Art History Gregor Paulsson (1889-1977), included about 20 members and was conducted between 1940 and 1953. The interdisciplinary studies ot the Swedish towns of the 19th and early 20th century combined methods and perspectives from art history, sociology, cultural geography and european ethnology. The dissertation has two main lines of inquiry: interpretation and mapping. The interpretation of Svensk stad is related to a a hermeneutic tradition (Hans-Georg Gadamer) and psychoanlytic theory (Sarah Dillon) and aims at investigating the theoretical and methodological perspectives that were integrated in the project. The mapping, uses perspectives and methods from the field of sociology of science (Bruno Latour, Andrew Pickering, Susan Leigh Star och James Griesemer). A third line of inquiry of the dissertation combines the two main lines and analyses the project’s paths to knowledge using concepts from visual studies. The primary empirical material consists of the published work Svensk stad, and preserved archive material from the project.
Temporalitet i visuell kultur. Om samtidens heterokrona estetiker
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2016-08-15) Sandahl, Ann-Louise
In contemporary society temporalities in different scales coexist, cooperate and collide. Clock time serves as a main reference for time, although a lot of processes have nothing to do with clock time and can’t be measured by its scales. One of the dissertation’s points of departure is that temporal narratives is a key factor for affecting how people act and think, and therefore there is a need for visualizations, conceptual figurations and cognitive objects for complex forms of time. The dissertation evolves around art works, visualizations and theories that deal with today’s multiple temporal forms and narratives. One of the questions the dissertation sets out to answer concerns how temporality is visualized in contemporary art and visualizations. It also aims to demonstrate the relevance of visual studies in the new field of environmental humanities. A number of temporal concepts are explored in relation to art works. One such concept is heterochrony, a term referring to a multifaceted temporality, that art theorist Nicolas Bourriaud claims is common in contemporary art. Another is timescapes, a term for an entangled temporality, described by sociologist Barbara Adam, and chronoscopy coined by philosopher Paul Virilio, referring to an extremely short-termed perspective. Space of flows and space of places are concepts formulated by sociologist Manuel Castells, denoting the spatiotemporal logics that have emerged in the network society, where citizens simultaneousley can exist in physical and virtual spacetimes. Also two concepts for a vast time span are discussed: anthropocene, a suggested new geological era, and the long now, a perspective formulated by the artist and musician Brian Eno. One conclusion is that complex and sensous understandings of temporality can be accomplished through art works and visualizations. Artistic expressions have the potential to inspire, worry and affect viewers and produce narratives of the multiple temporalities embedded in climate changes. Multiple forms of temporality can be found in the discussed works, and the narratives that emerge are entangled and heterogenous and speak of heterochrony, chronoscopy, and anthropocene, that is, of temporal forms that cannot easily be related to a human lifetime or to everyday understandings of time.
Tecknad tomboy – kalejdoskopiskt kön i manga för tonåringar
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2012-08-22) Sommerland, Ylva
In-Between: Contemporary Art in Australia. Cross-culture, Contemporaneity, Globalization
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2011-09-23) Persson, Beatrice
This study emerges from the question: what is contemporary art, and mainly what criteria constitute contemporary art in a globalized art world in general? Thus, the focus of this dissertation is on the postcolonial context of Australia and the fact that the contemporary art scene in Australia is divided into Australian and Aboriginal art respectively. This is a division originating from the colonization of Australia that began in the 1770’s, resulting in an Australian art descending from a Western art practice, where there is further focus on two categories within this art. The first category is a so-called “young” Australian art created by young artists who are returning to skills of, for instance, woodcarving and bronze casting, emphasizing the techniques of creation, and the finish of the surfaces in a do-it-yourself-aesthetic. The second category is called Asian-Australian art, featuring diaspora artists, a category pointing to the fact that Australia is situated in the Asia-Pacific region and has a large Asian population. Aboriginal art, on the other hand, is regarded to be an unbroken tradition dating back some 40,000 years, featuring art created by indigenous artists living on ancestral land in remote communities, often being called traditional Aboriginal art, and city-based Aboriginal art produced by indigenous artists who have grown up and are living in Australian cities and have been educated in Western art schools. These four categories are represented by four artists whose artworks are analysed and interpreted from a cultural semiotic point of view in order to be used in practical examinations of the viability of the two theoretical concepts cross-culture and contemporaneity, as well as an investigation of whether the contemporary global art scene is truly global or still tends to emanate from a Western perspective. In this context the concept of cross-culture is examined through the history of how primitive art and primitive artists, and non-Western art and artists in general, have been apprehended, indicating that the crossing of cultures, making transformations and influences possible in the arts, have taken place from a Western perspective, thus demonstrating power relations deriving from colonization. Contemporaneity should be understood as an inquiry into how various artistic expressions with different time conceptions appear when produced simultaneously in different, closely connected, yet mutually incomparable cultures. This is art that communicates across the divide between cultures and as such grasps the driving spirit of the contemporary.
Knut Ströms scenografi och bildvärld. Visualisering i tid och rum
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2010-11-24) von Rosen, Astrid
A pioneer in his field, Knut Ström (1887–1971) was a Swedish scenographer and director, who became the first professional scenographer in Sweden. He had an early international career in Düsseldorf during the 1910s but later worked in Göteborg for 41 years. He made visual revolution in Swedish scenography putting his name at stake to navigate between technology, critique and audience. There are thousands of visual statements left from Ström’s extensive production, such as scenographic sketches, costume sketches, scenographic models, photographs and posters. Earlier studies have not to any great extent taken an interest in visual material of this kind. This thesis presents a model for how to deal with such an extensive visual material in relation to the long period of time encompassed by the study. The aim is to expose, understand and explain Knut Ström’s scenography and visual world. Three questions – who was Knut Ström, what did he strive for and what did he do? – have helped in the work.The thesis, with its ten chronological chaptersis geographically grounded. Case studies with scenographic angles are alternated with analyses of Ström’s personal experiences, professional positions and staging of himself. A selection of Ström’s scenographic work at Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, Lorensbergsteatern and Göteborgs stadsteater is examined. Gordon Craig’s and Adolphe Appia’s theories about dramatic art and a formal analysis based in art history have been used as methodological tools in combination with a semiotic approach in the exposure and analysis of these. Theoretically the study has been carried out using the idea of a translating place inspired by Jacques Lacan’s concepts the symbolic, the imaginary and the real. Ström’s theatrical works are related to their contextual connections in a stepwise historically based process. It has been essential to illuminate political, aesthetic, economic, media, and class factors. In the concluding discussion some signifiers, such as film, technology, and visualization, are used to develop the scenography and visual world of Ström.
Old Testament Apocryphal Images in European Art
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2010-01-04T09:46:02Z) Philpot, Elizabeth
This dissertation deals with representations in European art from the Old Testament Apocrypha. The OT Apocrypha are books of the Bible which are not part of the Hebrew Canon. Four Books from the Apocrypha have been chosen for an in-depth study - The Book of Tobit, the Book of Judith, Additions to the Book of Esther and Additions to the Book of Daniel with the stories of the idol Bel, the dragon god, Susanna and the Elders, the Three Men in the Fiery Furnace and Daniel in the Lions’ Den. The main aims are to trace the different developments of Apocryphal images in both Roman Catholic and Protestant parts of Europe from one century to another, beginning with the catacombs in Rome, and to see to what extent the biblical and apocryphal texts have influenced or inspired artists, sculptors, printmakers and other artisans. This process of change moves from the typological during the medieval period, in the case of Judith and Esther to the civic and historical during the Renaissance, especially in Florence, and then to the gruesome and horrific images in the case of Judith during the Baroque period, the more restrained images during the Rococo and then finishing with the more realistic depictions during the nineteenth century when much of the religious content had been lost. The main emphasis, however, is on representations from before, during and after the Reformation when the greatest number of images were produced. Consideration is also given to apocryphal images, especially to wall paintings, broadsheets, bonader, bonadsmålningar and dalmålningar in three of the Scandinavian countries – Norway, Sweden and Denmark, including an assessment of why there are so few images from the Apocrypha in Scandinavia, whereas in the rest of Europe there is a superfluity of images. These four books have been chosen because these have attracted the greatest number of paintings. The main focus of discussion centres, therefore, in the first instance, around paintings and then draws on representations of stained glass, illuminated manuscripts woodcuts, prints and church woodcarvings. The reasons for the different functions of Apocryphal images in both the Roman Catholic and Protestant worlds are discussed. The thesis is made up of seven chapters. The first chapter gives an explanation of the Old Testament Apocrypha and sets out an account of Bibles containing the Apocrypha. The second chapter looks at prints and illustrated Bibles and the use which artists might have made of these in formulating their images. Chapters three to six discusses representations from the books outlined above and chapter seven focuses on the paintings of Dalecarlia (dalmålningar) from the period 1750-1870. These images are examined and analysed from a art historical and theological perspective.
Doft i bild. Om bilden som kommunikatör i parfymannonsens värld
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2009-09-11T08:41:27Z) Kjellmer, Viveka
This study evolves around advertising and image communication, especially concerning the image of scent, as in perfume. The image of scent is discussed from the perspective of how fragrance is depicted in advertising. Since the product itself, the scent, is invisible, the marketing has to communicate through metaphors. The advertisement has to depict the desired effect of the scent, rather than the scent itself, as the only visible object is the bottle. The study also explores the connection between consumption and status, and discusses image strategies that are used to enhance product status in the examined advertisements. The theoretical part of the study deals with scent, as in perfume, and image, as in advertisements. In the first part, the cultural history of perfume, fragrance production and the connection between perfume industry and fashion industry are discussed. The second part of the study deals with image communication and the role of images in advertising. This is also the empirical part of the study and it is based on perfume advertising during the twentieth century (1900-2000) and a closer analysis of the images in contemporary perfume advertisements from 2000-2005. Perfume advertisements in Vogue magazine, from the American, French and British editions are studied. The study is also an inventory of main theories concerning the function of perfume both on a psychological level as well as in a social cultural context. The motif and the message in the images are analysed, together with their interaction with the text and the fragrance name/brand in the advertisements. The aim is to map out contemporary advertising imagery, viewed in relation to an historical background, and study in what ways the image of scent may present itself today, and how it has changed since the beginning of the 20th century. The differences between the communicated message and the characteristics of the advertised product (the scent itself), as they appear in perfume criticism and systematic scent systems, are examined. Based on this material, images and their role as means of communication are discussed.
Den romantiska postmodernismen. Konstkritiken och det romantiska i 1980- och 1990-talets svenska konst
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2008) Arvidsson, Kristoffer
Through a study of the reception that art critique gave the exhibition project Ibid. ( Stockholm 1982 1983 ) and the oeuvres of the artists Ola Billgren, Dick Bengtsson and Max Book, this thesis examines the way art critics dealt with the romantic in Swedish art during the 1980s and 1990s, the time when post-modernism was debated in Swedish cultural life. I reconstruct reviews on art as situated in a cultural field, with Pierre Bourdieu s terminology, where a battle on authority of interpretation is taking place. With focus on the romantic, characterised as an anomaly in post-modernism, it is possible to reveal, not only what the critics disagree on but also the common ground, that discursive horizon which they share. Using Michel Foucault s theory on discourses I study Swedish art criticism in the 1980s and 1990s as a discursive practise. I choose to focus on the romantic for two reasons. Firstly references and allusions to romanticism occur repeatedly in Swedish art during this time. The second reason is that post-modernism has an ambivalent, and therefore, from a discourse-analytical perspective interesting, relation to romanticism. On one hand post-modernism is anti-romantic in distancing itself from a romantic modernism, the latter including the idealisation of the authentic and original, on the other hand, romanticism is repeatedly referred to in post-modernism. Other aspects than those inherited by modernism is then being highlighted. Among them we find the fragment and the romantic irony. Critics influenced by post-modern theory, mainly post-structuralism, like Lars Nittve and Lars O Ericsson, define the art of Billgren, Bengtsson and Book as pictorial deconstructions of romantic notions of the creative self, the transparent sign, the immediate expression. In their eyes, the romanticism of these artists is not authentic but simulated. Billgren, Bengtsson and Book are using a romantic style with irony for the purpose of an immanent criticism of the artistic medium, of signification and subjectivity. Other more existentialist-modernist oriented critics, like Douglas Feuk, Mårten Castenfors and Ingela Lind, remark that stressing the deconstructive aspect of the work of these artists has resulted in a neglect of existential themes. According to these critics Billgren, Bengtsson and Book do not just refer to romanticism but are themselves romantics. The dispute on whether Billgren, Bengtsson and Book are authentic romantics or just using romanticism for another purpose extends beyond these particular artists. It gives us a picture of the positions vis-à-vis post-modernism in Swedish art criticism during the 1980s and 1990s. Romanticism is revealed as the denied other of post-modernism, something extraneous which it defines itself in relation to, besides modernism. However romanticism is also revealed as something internal in post-modernism, impossible to expel. By acknowledging the role played by romanticism in post-modernism, the notion of modernism and post-modernism as absolutely opposed terms is being challenged.Keywords: post-modernism, romanticism, modernism, art criticism, romantic landscape, romantic irony, fragment, deconstruction, simulation, quotation, collage, painting, Implosion, Ibid., Ola Billgren, Dick Bengtsson, Max Book, Lars Nittve, Lars O Ericsson, Ingela Lind, Douglas Feuk, PierreBourdieu, Michel Foucault.Kristoffer Arvidsson, Department of Art History and Visual Studies,Box 200, SE-405 30 Gothenburg.
Manifestation och avancemang. Eugen: konstnär, konstsamlare, mecenat och prins
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2008) Wistman, Christina G.
Acta Universitatis GothoburgensisGothenburg Studies in Art and Architecture nr 26Manifestation och avancemangEUGEN: KONSTNÄR, KONSTSAMLARE, MECENAT OCH PRINSFil. mag Christina G. WistmanAkademisk avhandling för avläggande av filosofie doktorsexamen vid Göteborgs universitet kommer att offentligen försvaras i Lilla Hörsalen, Humanistenfredagen den 28 mars 2008 kl. 13.15.ABSTRACTWistman, Christina G., 2008. Manifestation och avancemang. Eugen: konstnär, konstsamlare, mecenat och prins (Manifestation and promotion. Eugen: artist, art collector, patron of the arts and royal prince). With an English summary. Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, Gothenburg Studies in Art and Architecture, nr 26, 388 + 32 sidor (pp.), 81 ill., Göteborg ISBN 978-91-7346-608-0 ISSN 0348-4114The Swedish Prince Eugen (1865-1947) was not only a royal prince and a culturally involved artist and patron of the arts but also an art collector. His art collecting has mostly been considered a matter of course and has not yet been discussed thoroughly. Stereotypes of the Prince as an art collector have flourished and disseminated. Eugen has been looked upon as a patron of the arts who mainly supported his artist friends and less fortunate younger artists in need of financial support. The abundant art collection at the museum Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, left by bequest to the Swedish government and today State-owned, supports the theory of a different force behind the prince s art acquisition. In this study art collecting is examined in terms of social promotion. The main focus is put on Prince Eugen and some of his roles on the domestic art scene and in particular Eugen the art collector. The Prince s personality was full of nuances and questions are posed regarding autonomity and heteronomity, legitimacy and approval in the Swedish art life of the time. Prince Eugen collected art for 60 years. The Prince s art collection is described and interpreted as well as its growth. What Eugen bought and how and where he purchased art are of importance in this study. This starting point illustrates the Prince s social radius of action as an art collector and highlights his relations with artists and the art world. Also the opening of the museum Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde after Eugen s death has been considered a matter of course and this study illustrates how the museum developed. Eugen was financially independent and did not have to worry about the state of the market or having to dispose of his art collection. The collection being privately owned made it possible for Eugen to sell it if he wanted to, but he made a conscious choice to keep his collection.Prince Eugen s royal position in combination with his chosen career as an artist invites to further discussions. Prince Eugen s favorable position as a member of the Swedish royal family did not always work in his favor. Through the collecting process, the dissertation discusses how one can become an active participant of the Swedish art scene and how a seemingly fulfilled person still needs to work hard to earn a position. The theoretical basis has been the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu s conception of habitus and capital and parts of his extensive field theory. Prince Eugen s position on the Swedish art scene did improve without a doubt and this dissertation will illustrate how and in what way the Prince s collecting contributed to his promotions on the Swedish art field from his period of training in Paris in the late 1880 s up to his death in 1947. Eugen s prospects of promotion might have been better than many other agents on the art field, but there are no short cuts, not even for a royal prince. The ultimate result of such a reading allows for a clearer picture not only of Prince Eugen s different roles and achievements in Swedish art life, but also of the art field in itself and Swedish art life and its agents in general. KEYWORDS: Prince Eugen, Swedish art, art collecting, patronship, art life 1887-1947, historiography of art, museology, Pierre Bourdieu, field theory, habitus, capitalChristina G. Wistman, Department of Art History and Visual Studies, Box 200, SE-405 30 Gothenburg.
A Chinese Word on IMAGE. Zheng Qiao (1104-1162) and His Thought on Images
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2008) Si, Han
Gothenburg Studies in Art and Architecture nr 25Acta Universitatis GothoburgensisISSN 0348-4114Editor: Lena JohannessonDoctoral dissertation at Göteborg University, 2008ABSTRACTSi, HanA Chinese word on imageZheng Qiao (1104-1162) and his thought on images.Göteborg, 2008ISBN 978-91-7346-607-3Zheng Qiao (1104-1162) was a Chinese historian who lived during the Song dynasty (960-1279), and the author of the comprehensive history of China Tong zhi (General history), which includes a special treatise on images called Tu pu lüe (Treatise on images and tables). Image-related comments and practices can also be found in several other parts of Tong zhi, as well as in other remaining texts of Zheng Qiao. This study focuses on Zheng Qiao s thought on images. His image-related texts are translated, commented, and analysed; his life and works are outlined; the influence of his thought on images in Chinese history is exemplified; and his concerns on images and the study of images are connected to traditional Chinese thought, as well as to some of our contemporary discussions concerning images. In his texts on images, Zheng Qiao expounded the equal importance of images (tu), by comparing them with writings/words (shu); characterized what an image (tu) is and the function of different types of images; explained why images are indispensable in various solid learning , such as astronomy, geography, architecture, historiography and linguistics; analyzed the reason for the loss of images and the tradition of using images during the dynasties; blamed the traditional bibliographers whose methods suited only preserving books with pure texts but not images and who caused the loss of images; criticized the current scholarly trend that emphasized words but despised images; advocated tu xue (image studies) as a fundamental scholarship of all learning; and contributed to the domain of images not only in theory but also in practice. In this study, a brief account of Zheng Qiao s life and works as a general background is provided. Zheng Qiao s major text on images Tu pu lüe is translated, interpreted and analyzed, and his other comments on images shown elsewhere in Tong zhi are collected and summarized thematically. His influence on later Chinese scholars and their image theories and practices in using images is exemplified, which relates Zheng Qiao to a wider context and historical background. Since this study is written in English and classical Chinese texts are interpreted and translated, conceptual premises need to be established. Hence, problematic English terms such as image and its cognates are discussed by examining some current Western image theories. Chinese terms, such as tu and xiang, are also discussed, with the focus on how they were generally used before and after Zheng Qiao. Zheng Qiao is the first scholar we know about who, at length, expounded the importance of images and propagated the image studies, to its essence very close to our view today. His words on images deserve to be looked at as a milestone in the ongoing process of establishing a genealogy of the history of images and image studies.KEY WORDS: Zheng Qiao, Tu pu lüe, Tong zhi, Tu, Xiang, Chinese image history, Picture theory, Tuxue, Tu pu zhi xue, Image studies, Image science, Bild, Bildvetenskap, Chinese art history, Zheng Xuecheng, Iconology, Domain of images, Phenomenology, Imagery, Appearance, Table, Diagram, Chinese writings and characters, Word and image.www.sihan.infoCopyright © Han SiPrinted in Sweden by Docusys Intellecta, Göteborg January 2008Distribution: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, Box 222, SE-405 30, Göteborg
Barns estetiska läroprocesser. Atelierista i förskola och skola
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2007) Häikiö, Tarja
Kvinnliga arkitekter. Om byggpionjärer och debatterna kring kvinnlig yrkesutövning i Sverige
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2006) Werner, Helena
"Fosterländska bilder". Den svenska historien i 1800-talets illustrerade läromedel, historieböcker och romanfiktion
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2006) Nodin, Anders
Den digitala konstens aktörer. En studie av datorintegrering i svensk konstundervisning
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2005) Vipsjö, Lars
Beundrad barbar. Amasonen i västeuropeisk bildkultur 1789-1918
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2004) Stahre, Ulrika
Föreningen Original-Träsnitt. Grafik och grafiker på ett tidigt modernistiskt konstfält
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2004) Wallin Wictorin, Margareta
Fotografi som digital bild. Narration och navigation i fyra nordiska konstverk
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2003) Wagner, Karin
Memphis och den italienska antidesignrörelsen
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2003) Kristoffersson, Sara
Frida Kahlos bildspråk - ansikte, kropp & landskap. Representation av nationell identitet
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2003) Zetterman, Eva

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