Public defence in Contemporary Art, MA Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen

Title of the thesis: The Intensity of Matter – The Inhuman Affects of Geological Performance

Thesis defender: Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen
Opponent: Prof. Catarina Pombo Nabais, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Custos: Prof. Helena Sederholm,Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture

The doctoral thesis The Intensity of Matter – The Inhuman Affects of Geological Performance is an artistic research monograph which unfolds itself around an idea of geological performance, and asks how the intensive and affective experience of such performance encounters can facilitate a meaningful relation towards awareness. Madsen focuses on contemporary urgencies and climate issues and includes a deeper look at meetings with geological matter, considered as machinic and queer; and introduces the concepts "matter-as-collaborator" and "event-bodies" to move further beyond human experience, to uncover, for example, extractivist paradigms.

The topic is approached in an immanent discussion with philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari’s thinking, individually and collectively, grounded in the ethico-aesthetic paradigm, and how the world consists of inseparable registers. Madsen uses fieldwork (movement, touch, impact field recordings, and listening) as important components in an activation of Deleuze's idea of the problematic and the eventness of bodies, where, in this thesis, performance art and sonic performativity and the (pre)affective temporality of geology make transformative experiences possible, as learning. This includes, among others, composer Pauline Oliveros’ method of Deep Listening, and the inhuman potential of geology discussed by geographer Kathryn Yusoff. Through this, Madsen contributes to the fi eld of artistic practice and how performance art is extended, as well as philosophy, e.g taking Deleuze and Guattari to the fi eld (as refrain), and emphasizes productive failure in art as a minor and hesitant practice, crucial for affective relations.

As a result, Madsen demonstrates a deep connection between artistic practice and embodied philosophical writing exemplified in their proposed “practical-philosophical essays,” as foundational for the processes and fieldwork of the thesis. The idea of the body is expansive in the meeting with the geological, as event, in Madsen’s formulation of the artistic outputs as “practised problems” as a method of affective enunciation which includes two preliminary examined performances: Matter-as-Collaborator Lab (2022) and event-bodies [folding] (2024). Madsen research shows how, via (geological) bodies, the presence of vibration in matter carries experience from the field into performances, as relational remembrance, and activates the potential of listening scores as collective assemblages.

Keywords: affect studies, embodied philosophy, queer posthumanities, geological performance, performance art, sound studies, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, extractivism, artistic research

Contact: tinamarianekrogh.madsen@aalto.fi

Thesis available for public display 7 days prior to the defence at Aaltodoc.