https://adamkaasa.xyz Adam Kaasa Sat, 01 Mar 2025 15:23:17 +0000 https://adamkaasa.xyz en https://adamkaasa.xyz/Index Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:05:31 +0000 Adam Kaasa https://adamkaasa.xyz/Index Adam Jovanović KaasaInterdisciplinary scholar, facilitator, musician and performance artist. Their artistic and research interests span archives, cities, space [urban and outer], feelings, sound, voice, critical dialogue, facilitation and performance. Holding degrees from the University of Alberta, the London School of Econonics and Political Science and Trinity College London, Adam co-founded and Directed Theatrum Mundi, an international research center on the visual/performing arts in urban culture. Current research examines queer and feminist archival explorations of ‘Andromeda,’ through histories of myth and astronomy, engaging performance, sound, and archival materials. Recent shows: Matt’s Gallery (2024), Swedenborg Hall (2023), PAF (France, 2023), Gallery Augusta (Helsinki 2023). They have published widely in journals like AA Files, Design Issues (MIT), and edited collections like Queereal Secretions and Stories of Cosmopolitan Belonging. Adam co-founded the research network Fiction Feeling Frame (2020) and curated RELAY, a 24-hour durational performance commissioned by the Venice Biennale (2021). Adam leads on research at RCA like Sites and Situations, _SPACE, and Sound@RCA. Previously a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto, Adam has curated numerous international exhibitions (London, Berlin, Rio, Athens). Select collaborations include Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Museu de Arte do Rio and Museu do Amanhã, University of São Paulo, NYU, Columbia, MIT, Harvard, the Southbank, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Whitechapel, Tate. Adam writes, records and performs music as Bliss Carmxn.&nbsp; Read more... https://adamkaasa.xyz/About-1 Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:05:36 +0000 Adam Kaasa https://adamkaasa.xyz/About-1 About <img width="2599" height="2599" width_o="2599" height_o="2599" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5ab20d4ea9b0958f90f953ef8bb3b884f3e31e5a6be6cb7a1b8e78e11f672183/Facetune_04-09-2023-12-50-08.jpg" data-mid="227347894" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5ab20d4ea9b0958f90f953ef8bb3b884f3e31e5a6be6cb7a1b8e78e11f672183/Facetune_04-09-2023-12-50-08.jpg" /> Bio Dr Adam Jovanović Kaasa is an award winning and widely-published interdisciplinary scholar, performance artist and institution builder with over 15 years of experience in higher education. Their artistic and research interests span archives, cities, space, feelings, sound, voice, critical dialogue, and performance. In 2012, Adam co-founded and later directed Theatrum Mundi, an international research centre exploring the arts in urban culture. Adam holds a PhD in Sociology focused on architecture at text, power, modernity, coloniality in Mexico City and an MSc Geography focussed on queer cultural geographies in Canada, both from the London School of Economics and worked for a decade at LSE Cities.&nbsp;Before moving to the UK, Adam completed a BA(Hons) Sociology with a focus on cultural and critical theory, and Latin American Studies at the Universtiy of Alberta. Adam also holds an Associate in Speech and Drama from Trinity College London. Currently Adam is studying to become a Somatic Experiencing (TM) Practitioner with SOS Internationale (2025-27).&nbsp; Adam’s current research project is a speculative archival exploration of ‘Andromeda’. Methodologically, the project explores the interaction of performance, specifically sound and voice, and public engagement in relation to archival materials from art and scientific histories, suggesting new modes of making public art historical debates. Both a monograph and an 8-part song cycle are being developed, exploring speculative fiction and collective song/singing as possible modes of resonant belonging. Recent performances of ‘Andromeda’ include Matt’s Gallery London (with Trans Voices UK June 2024), Swedenborg Hall London (September 2023), and the Performing Arts Forum France (August 2023). Adam has led workshops on sound, performance and the archive at Boston University, the Royal College of Art, and PAF.&nbsp;Recent publications on their practice-led research ininclude the journal article ‘How to Relay Relay; of to Follow Andromeda is to Follow the World’ (AA Files, vol. 73, 2023), the book chapter ‘Singing with Soot’ in the edited collection Queereal Secretions (Glasgow School of Arts 2023), and ‘Feeling Bodies of Architecture’ in The Routledge Companion to Architectural Pedagogies of the Global South (Routledge 2022). Adam was awarded an arts research residency with Nicky Coutts and Jess Weisner at UniArts Helsinki in spring 2023, and had a subsequent group show presenting a collective work ‘Weather. Stop. Fiction. Stop.’ combining speculative fiction, performance and voice on issues of climate, identity and grief at Gallery Augusta, Helsinki (June 2023). &nbsp;Uncommon Building (Spirit Duplicator, 2017), Adam's most recent book, documents a collaborative exercise in speculative fiction as a methodology for thinking critically and across disciplines about space, site and the urban. In 2020 Adam co-founded the Research Collective Fiction Feeling Frame with Dr Thandi Loewenson and Dr David Burns at the Royal College of Art, and was commissioned by the Director of the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture to produce RELAY, a 24-hour durational and dialogic performance. Funded through successful research funding and private funding procured from WePresent, the project involved over 60 participants from around the world in a single durational conversation spanning the world’s time zones and presented at the Teatro Arsenale in Venice, July 2021. At the RCA, Adam co-leads the MFA in Arts and Humanities with Dr Joanne Tatham where Adam leads the ‘Spatial Feelings’ studio, exploring queer and feminist approaches to affect and emotional geography. Partnering with producer Jen Bulcraig (Rookes), experimental trans artist ILĀ, choreographer Stefan Jovanović, and Martin Hargraeves, Director of the Rose Choreographic School at Sadler’s Wells East, the unit explores ‘sonic belonging’ through archives, sound, movement and place. Previously Adam led the Critical and Historical Studies and the MRes Programme in the School of Architecture where in 2020 they led the ‘Architecture of Loss’ studio, exploring rituals and performance for collective grief in the city. This culminated in a public presentation on ‘Architecture and Loss’ with the Architecture Foundation. Adam is a founding Steering Committee member of the Sites and Situations research cluster in the School of Arts and Humanities, which considers the way in which art practices operate in the public realm for community cohesion and how artistic interventions have the potential to generate a sense of belonging across differences. Adam is co-founder and co-director with Dr. Barbara Brownie of _SPACE the RCA’s outer space research network, and a founding member of SOUND@RCA, a research cluster exploring sound across performance, moving image, design and space. &nbsp; Previously Adam was Visiting Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto (2016). Adam led the Designing Politics international design competitions (2014-2017), curating the exhibitions in London (LSE) and Rio de Janeiro (Museu do Amanhã), and co-curated Structures of Revenge with the Onassis Cultural Center in Athens. Adam is a contributing author to The Quito Papers (Routledge, 2018), a joint project between New York University and UN Habitat for Habitat III, and co-produced the subsequent short film with the Kaifeng Foundation (Beijing) with screenings and roundtables in Paris, London, Beijing and Edinburgh (2016–17). Select collaborations include the Venice Biennale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the Museu Oscar Niemeyer, the Museu de Arte do Rio and Museu do Amanhã, the University of São Paulo, New York University, Columbia University, MIT, Harvard GSD, the Southbank Centre, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Whitechapel Gallery, Tate Britain, and the Foundation Maison des sciences de l’homme (Paris).Adam is particularly invested in collaboration and co-authorship as an intellectual ethic, and in exploring the possibilities of radical facilitation for collective thought and action. <img width="2048" height="1365" width_o="2048" height_o="1365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/21937e15937598a7d260bb5495f6f5a379301d51e4944e24ece4853bb50327f2/Bliss-Carmxn_Andromeda_28-June-2024_1.jpg" data-mid="227347916" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/21937e15937598a7d260bb5495f6f5a379301d51e4944e24ece4853bb50327f2/Bliss-Carmxn_Andromeda_28-June-2024_1.jpg" /> <img width="1156" height="826" width_o="1156" height_o="826" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6523c1f067297793a8b37c8ce0e9e0bed0aa736035d35eb268c36408a914c444/3be56ade-646b-4319-a72d-b927c9ee966b.jpg" data-mid="227347897" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6523c1f067297793a8b37c8ce0e9e0bed0aa736035d35eb268c36408a914c444/3be56ade-646b-4319-a72d-b927c9ee966b.jpg" /> <img width="2599" height="2599" width_o="2599" height_o="2599" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5ab20d4ea9b0958f90f953ef8bb3b884f3e31e5a6be6cb7a1b8e78e11f672183/Facetune_04-09-2023-12-50-08.jpg" data-mid="227347894" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5ab20d4ea9b0958f90f953ef8bb3b884f3e31e5a6be6cb7a1b8e78e11f672183/Facetune_04-09-2023-12-50-08.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1282" width_o="1920" height_o="1282" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/27aed04ea8e3741af46ac08e381cec34ffca6a31158785b02cc18e33bb7627a7/Bliss-Carmxn_Jovanovic-Constellations-July-2019.JPG" data-mid="227347917" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/27aed04ea8e3741af46ac08e381cec34ffca6a31158785b02cc18e33bb7627a7/Bliss-Carmxn_Jovanovic-Constellations-July-2019.JPG" /> Nam semper semper ex In porttitor pellentesque sapien https://adamkaasa.xyz/Moon-Bound Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:05:32 +0000 Adam Kaasa https://adamkaasa.xyz/Moon-Bound Moon Bound Outer SpaceMoon SoundPerformance Moon Bound I am one of 48 contributors to Moon Bound, an artists’ book created by the Moon Gallery Foundation that will launch to the Moon’s south pole in late 2025 and land there in 2026. My contribution, When I Was You, is an original song — a duet between Earth and Moon, and between mother and child. The piece begins from contemporary science, which tells us the Moon was once part of the Earth, cast off and made separate. It transforms this cosmological history into song, imagining the intimacy of a dialogue between two bodies that were once one. At the same time, it carries the tenderness of a mother–child duet, an echo of love and separation, connection and transmission. This work grows directly out of my wider practice of singing with archives: engaging with glass-plate astronomy photographs at Harvard Plate Stacks (@harvardplatestacks) and Carnegie Observatories (@carnegiescience); researching the phonautograph, the first known recording of a human voice traced in soot; and creating performances on voice, recording, and belonging. In 2024, at Glasgow School of Art (@glasgowschoolart) for the Queer Materialities conference, I performed a live electronic duet that wove together interviews with my mother about her own history of singing — an exploration of the ways voice, memory, and recording act as fragile but powerful forms of inheritance. When I Was You brings this thread full circle. This autumn I will record the track with my mother as the artist Bliss Carmxn (@blisscarmxn), working with my longtime collaborator and producer ROOKES (@iamrookes). The recording will be released publicly alongside the lunar landing in 2026. One tiny book. Forty-eight voices. A journey beyond Earth. Photos by Art and Such Evan (@artandsuchevan). <img width="3001" height="1876" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6a5f26c94934d490f49cd8d6af172a3e92ba25895174d61d44e1d472b6cf2047/horizontal.svg"> <img width="3001" height="1876" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6a5f26c94934d490f49cd8d6af172a3e92ba25895174d61d44e1d472b6cf2047/horizontal.svg"> <img width="1536" height="1920" width_o="1536" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ee5652592e059f6cc4266a0404b68815d25074c1acde1230f2ee1392721f14dd/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_022.jpg" data-mid="238529135" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ee5652592e059f6cc4266a0404b68815d25074c1acde1230f2ee1392721f14dd/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_022.jpg" /> <img width="1177" height="1472" width_o="1177" height_o="1472" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3da644eabc874b6eb4f35ad4eca1b718c9e18a3d2749b675d5f3a9dda3324e78/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_002.jpg" data-mid="238529132" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3da644eabc874b6eb4f35ad4eca1b718c9e18a3d2749b675d5f3a9dda3324e78/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_002.jpg" /> <img width="1536" height="2048" width_o="1536" height_o="2048" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/85eaa638ea0bda9b43d6c2dfbcbf5bc0a54d2c048de711fda2ae4eeea82c9cdb/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_026.jpg" data-mid="238529137" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/85eaa638ea0bda9b43d6c2dfbcbf5bc0a54d2c048de711fda2ae4eeea82c9cdb/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_026.jpg" /> <img width="1284" height="2127" width_o="1284" height_o="2127" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1214db72fa140fee71826eccf6305683604576fc3d89025e9d3af6477acd7274/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_037.jpg" data-mid="238529138" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1214db72fa140fee71826eccf6305683604576fc3d89025e9d3af6477acd7274/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_037.jpg" /> <img width="1330" height="1663" width_o="1330" height_o="1663" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d19fcaf423ccc2137941187bda7ebed92c2465db19e7c3ecdf6c9fec387e01e5/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_025.jpg" data-mid="238529136" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d19fcaf423ccc2137941187bda7ebed92c2465db19e7c3ecdf6c9fec387e01e5/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_025.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="981" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2d461f9515a6dcc56a7ad4c6ada4c9764cdebf952bbda3acb6daee95654cb05f/Boyden-Observatory-Arequipa-Peru.jpg"> <img width="1284" height="1926" width_o="1284" height_o="1926" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e3a7810b528afcd51dea0024c4df7afe0f267bb8b3ff0a071bfcce9ac5e29b59/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_039.PNG" data-mid="238529139" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e3a7810b528afcd51dea0024c4df7afe0f267bb8b3ff0a071bfcce9ac5e29b59/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_039.PNG" /> <img width="1360" height="1699" width_o="1360" height_o="1699" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d4798d7a750490055369ec7d47fe194e8ee0aeb2c872722801e2a1fdfac5cc4/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_013.jpg" data-mid="238529134" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8d4798d7a750490055369ec7d47fe194e8ee0aeb2c872722801e2a1fdfac5cc4/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_013.jpg" /> <img width="1284" height="1605" width_o="1284" height_o="1605" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/759b17f1cbb808a05694b7014cb6ff64c7aae41d07cc7bba8feb57a57fc728aa/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_040.PNG" data-mid="238529140" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/759b17f1cbb808a05694b7014cb6ff64c7aae41d07cc7bba8feb57a57fc728aa/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_040.PNG" /> <img width="1284" height="1926" width_o="1284" height_o="1926" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4f4ed49c6736ff97f795b5a2f036de0a7b73a98c6c0de0a8169da925a9e02ed4/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_041.PNG" data-mid="238529141" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4f4ed49c6736ff97f795b5a2f036de0a7b73a98c6c0de0a8169da925a9e02ed4/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_041.PNG" /> <img width="1284" height="1926" width_o="1284" height_o="1926" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f6e45c5ee3d15b2f0a98c415826a5509ccc1349a1bf823cf86158526b10f5fa/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_042.PNG" data-mid="238529142" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2f6e45c5ee3d15b2f0a98c415826a5509ccc1349a1bf823cf86158526b10f5fa/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_042.PNG" /> <img width="1272" height="1591" width_o="1272" height_o="1591" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e05b166924697fe8234f6417d947dc9e67a72260f1654ee1791833f084dfce9b/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_005.jpg" data-mid="238529133" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e05b166924697fe8234f6417d947dc9e67a72260f1654ee1791833f084dfce9b/Moon-Bound-Process_Evan-Lorenzen_005.jpg" /> Moon Bound book and process Photos by Art and Such Evan (@artandsuchevan) https://adamkaasa.xyz/RKE-Research-Award-RCA-The-Matter-of-the-Sky-Carnegie-Huntington Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:05:32 +0000 Adam Kaasa https://adamkaasa.xyz/RKE-Research-Award-RCA-The-Matter-of-the-Sky-Carnegie-Huntington The Matter of the Sky: Glass Plate Photography and Colonial Data in the quest for Andromeda; Carnegie Observatories, Mt Wilson Observatory, Huntington Library, Harvard Plate Library Outer Space Andromeda ResearchArchives RKE Research Costs Award £1000, Feburary 2025 Reserach Trip: The Matter of the Sky: Glass Plate Photography and Colonial Data in the quest for Andromeda Los Angeles and Boston, 27 March - 5 April 2025 Funding to visit Carnegie Observatories, Mt Wilson Observatory, Huntington Library, Harvard Plate Library This reserach award is for travel to conduct archival research at four sites in the USA central to my ongoing research project ‘Andromeda’ – and specifically around the data stream of glass plate photography from around the US and the world (Peru, then South Africa) for star classification at the Harvard Observatory by women like Henrietta Leavitt, and then using that data, the discovery of the Andromeda galaxy by Edwin Hubble at the Mount Wilson Observatory. First, I am seeking to visit the Carnegie Science Archives in Pasadena, the Huntington Library in Pasadena, and the Mount Wilson Observatories. Working with resident Archivist Kit Whitten at Carnegie Science, we have mapped out a plan to access the glass plate photographic archive and papers at Carnegie Science, the Hubble Papers at the Huntington, and access to the Mount Wilson Observatories historic premises between 27 March and 2 April. Mount Wilson is where the glass plate photograph collection concerning Andromeda (galaxy M-31) are held. Next, I’ll travel to the Harvard College Observatory to work with Thomas Burns, Curator of the Astronomical Plat Collection. There I’ll explore more plate photography, and working archivally with the papers and correspondence of Edward James Pickering (director of the HCO between 1877-1919) whose leadership led to the development of the Boyden Station in Arequipa Peru (named after philanthropist Uriah A. Boyden who bequeathed a $238,000USD donation to the HCO on his death in 1879). <img width="1024" height="651" width_o="1024" height_o="651" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f3b616c646bf4d8a8ef5dcaaa599a8ed1ba175a5e9bb124c6ce9fb0dfc134e70/100-inch-telescope-dome-mt-wilson-observatory-641c9a-1024.jpg" data-mid="227293808" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f3b616c646bf4d8a8ef5dcaaa599a8ed1ba175a5e9bb124c6ce9fb0dfc134e70/100-inch-telescope-dome-mt-wilson-observatory-641c9a-1024.jpg" /> <img width="1024" height="656" width_o="1024" height_o="656" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/42c3335f8c04e2f22f3ca8cdb4b6cab50d85a90847854f5d07af6588c7de2ef6/giant-100-inch-telescope-mt-wilson-observatory-california-5782df-1024.jpg" data-mid="227293809" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/42c3335f8c04e2f22f3ca8cdb4b6cab50d85a90847854f5d07af6588c7de2ef6/giant-100-inch-telescope-mt-wilson-observatory-california-5782df-1024.jpg" /> <img width="1024" height="654" width_o="1024" height_o="654" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8b0bae5f0f54641b3b8211ab31b112d7e0d91dbf1c1d3bebcc2798cb081ee54f/dome-of-the-100-inch-hooker-reflector-mount-wilson-observatory-california-266428-1024.jpg" data-mid="227293807" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8b0bae5f0f54641b3b8211ab31b112d7e0d91dbf1c1d3bebcc2798cb081ee54f/dome-of-the-100-inch-hooker-reflector-mount-wilson-observatory-california-266428-1024.jpg" /> Postcard images of Mt. Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles, USA. https://adamkaasa.xyz/Spatial-Feelings-Studio-RCA-2024-25 Sat, 01 Mar 2025 14:53:53 +0000 Adam Kaasa https://adamkaasa.xyz/Spatial-Feelings-Studio-RCA-2024-25 Spatial Feelings StudioRCA advanced masters elective2024-25 Space Feeling Architecture ResearchSoundPedagogyThe 2024-25 Spatial Feelings studio Royal College of Art London Dr Adam Kaasa Winter Term (Jan-April 2025) (elective offered to advanced masters student cross-college at teh RCA: MFA Arts and Humanities, MFA Communications, MDes Design Future, MEd Creative Education, Master of Research (MRes), and MArch Design Practice) Guest Lecturers: Jen Bulcraig, Ilā, Stefan Jovanović, Martin Hargraeves, The Bata Heritage Centre ***2024-25 FocusIn 2025 students are working with sound, noise, field recordings and the sonic to explore the layers of emotion, feeling, and affect within, across and beyond spaces. To ground the work, students were introduced to Sadler’s Wells East in the Olympic Park, London, and connect a space within or beyond its boundaries to consider labour, pleasure, performance, and urban change.&nbsp; Students are tasked with creating a 1-min sound piece in response to a place of their choosing within a 15 minute radius of Sadler’s Wells East. They receive DAW training by producer Jen Bulcraig, explorations of quantum computing, and cutting edge quantum synth plug-ins from sound artist Ilā, an introduction to expanded choreography from Martin Hargraeves, and a drift score from Stefan Jovanović. The project culminates with a collective in-situ performance of some 31 sound pieces on 21 March 2025.&nbsp; We will joined for the performance by current cohort members of the Rose Choreographic School, and the sound pieces will form one-half of the first of three mix-tapes commissioned by SOUND@RCA, the first cross-college research cluster at the RCA focussing on sound (forthcoming summer 2025). Description This unit explores spatial feelings as emotional geography. The unit works across scale tying feelings to affective economies like the large of election campaigns or protest movements, to the vastness of the experience of shared grief or loss and the optimism of ambition, or to the minor of the monotony of the everyday. We consider how the terrain of emotions – amplified through art and humanities practice, spatial practice, media and the urban – not only move us but move the world. Approaching emotions through the speculative, the fabulated and the structure of new forms of narration, or through interruptions, glitches and ruptured registers this unit reveals the history and present of how spatialised art practice frames and forms the feelings that shape our contemporary social life, intergenerational relations and equalities. Feelings matter. This unit interrogates this in a literal sense. Feelings matter because they emerge from a relationship to the material worlds around us. And they matter because they have an effect on those same material worlds. Feelings are bound to place - and so what we feel about a place - matters. How we feel about it can be conditioned in language and in aesthetics. And how these land on our bodies changes dramatically based on a multitude of factors. There are emotional geographies that we live in and these geographies are unequally distributed across intersectional factors of race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, geography and other factors. This matters in profound ways: what we feel in a city or a site organises spectacle, connection, capital, demolition, 'regeneration' and so much else. While emotions may be democratic in the sense that many of us can feel a wide range of them a question remains both of how they end up 'mattering' in the world - what effect these have on the bodies that feel them, how often they come to feel them. This unit is organised around situating work in relation to structures of feeling. Over the course of the unit, work in progress will be re-sited in various locations, and in relation to various structures across the city - physical and social. The affective encounter between site and situation will organise an ongoing discussion of the work in relation to shifting emotional geographies and demonstrate the ways in which art, space and feeling are co-constituting. A final group presentation of works will act as the assessment for this course and will present the affective journeys of the work creating narratives of spatial feeling. <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/02e0507da07040e3b555d2a38392d7fcc7f147a300744f10497190febae1b3a0/IMG_6792.JPG" data-mid="227432468" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/02e0507da07040e3b555d2a38392d7fcc7f147a300744f10497190febae1b3a0/IMG_6792.JPG" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/988918b36dc65d73d0a48eb6a715f494f761c4586a8b7ab59721bcafe8fa883b/IMG_6796.JPG" data-mid="227432475" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/988918b36dc65d73d0a48eb6a715f494f761c4586a8b7ab59721bcafe8fa883b/IMG_6796.JPG" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" 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height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/73ecbb62d83febafe4f24a4601ada606bda4de97902e5444e69c21b2c34c570d/IMG_6877.JPG" data-mid="227432471" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/73ecbb62d83febafe4f24a4601ada606bda4de97902e5444e69c21b2c34c570d/IMG_6877.JPG" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eff866f8c140fe642b196512cb8c1b9618e56f90e6b0e09a0807975e0674d6ab/IMG_6887.JPG" data-mid="227432470" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eff866f8c140fe642b196512cb8c1b9618e56f90e6b0e09a0807975e0674d6ab/IMG_6887.JPG" /> <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ca06ef3af632d77efcfe9dfab74193a6b00dba72cdf7af83e48bc1fd7a06f455/IMG_6891.JPG" data-mid="227432469" border="0" 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data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a46e0d719c6c959e7e535c652485adce12b697f33989098214382ad37f52f42c/IMG_7068-2.JPG" data-mid="227432383" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a46e0d719c6c959e7e535c652485adce12b697f33989098214382ad37f52f42c/IMG_7068-2.JPG" /> <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8bd2a8f4520342db289c2a0d2e2b38bd7523a13452539ff97bfe100017f87987/IMG_7076.JPG" data-mid="227432384" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8bd2a8f4520342db289c2a0d2e2b38bd7523a13452539ff97bfe100017f87987/IMG_7076.JPG" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7e049cec45626344073a2622f11b35d8af43b6f810bbb25689d8b26ebdf44483/IMG_7086.JPG" data-mid="227432385" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7e049cec45626344073a2622f11b35d8af43b6f810bbb25689d8b26ebdf44483/IMG_7086.JPG" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2af8a0a2e4790ece9a733504b34d3fa0404cb1b03b5fe71344ddc82d30c939f2/IMG_7098.JPG" data-mid="227432387" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2af8a0a2e4790ece9a733504b34d3fa0404cb1b03b5fe71344ddc82d30c939f2/IMG_7098.JPG" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9036b5ad869817b92abc65d1800c7ff4e74db6f03151fa1c23280a67d4137719/IMG_7126.JPG" data-mid="227432388" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9036b5ad869817b92abc65d1800c7ff4e74db6f03151fa1c23280a67d4137719/IMG_7126.JPG" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/597bf7e381f5d14777b5914e056a9b77c0e30b96c02ea230fb541bb85ba40d10/IMG_7160.JPG" data-mid="227432381" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/597bf7e381f5d14777b5914e056a9b77c0e30b96c02ea230fb541bb85ba40d10/IMG_7160.JPG" /> Images from the Spatial Feelings studio, RCA, 2025.&nbsp; https://adamkaasa.xyz/Separation-Anxiety-RCA-x-Guildhall-October-2024 Fri, 28 Feb 2025 18:14:10 +0000 Adam Kaasa https://adamkaasa.xyz/Separation-Anxiety-RCA-x-Guildhall-October-2024 Separation Anxiety: How can we overcome separation to create community?Guildhall School for Music and Drama, Barbican Centre, London8 October 2024 &nbsp; Architecture Outer Space Andromeda Relay PerformancePublic Talk Sites and Situations Research Cluster at the RCA Adam Kaasa and Amy Blier-Carruthers How can we overcome separation to create community? Two buildings stand apart. A myth and a star stand separate, but connected. Pedagogic traditions and hierarchies converge with layered histories and disciplines. Stories and sounds defy their boundedness. The score:AcrossUnderConvergence Pt. 1Convergence Pt. 2ThroughOut In some places (like the Barbican) people either feel that they really belong or they feel kept out, partly because they can’t find their way around. It takes work to feel like you can operate in an estate like the Barbican. In what way is this a purely physical experience, or can it be mapped as a metaphor for hierarchies of culture and education in 21st-century London? In this walking performance lecture, Amy and Adam stage a spatial and conceptual relay as they pass the baton between their projects, while walking through, and being guided by, the shapes, divisions, histories, connections, and sonic atmospheres of the Guildhall and the Barbican. <img width="3024" height="4032" width_o="3024" height_o="4032" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/98e261c1bca0281ee51e0492e79552b5a2616391c6f0a8273cd7fe7e6913c3b2/IMG_59661.jpg" data-mid="227398376" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/98e261c1bca0281ee51e0492e79552b5a2616391c6f0a8273cd7fe7e6913c3b2/IMG_59661.jpg" /> <img width="1512" height="2016" width_o="1512" height_o="2016" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0f176a6ab735f3bef947f782555b52257067c33600f8864538f4999215abbd3c/image3.jpeg" data-mid="227399246" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0f176a6ab735f3bef947f782555b52257067c33600f8864538f4999215abbd3c/image3.jpeg" /> <img width="2016" height="1512" width_o="2016" height_o="1512" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a232d4b060c8ab679b55fe56d5add627a7417829386758eadc99a9ef63d5e3ca/image2.jpeg" data-mid="227399248" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a232d4b060c8ab679b55fe56d5add627a7417829386758eadc99a9ef63d5e3ca/image2.jpeg" /> <img width="1776" height="1052" width_o="1776" height_o="1052" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cab4026b80347534da92e3a1ae896d128b636a5d216049492ee098f9d7434808/image4.jpeg" data-mid="227399245" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cab4026b80347534da92e3a1ae896d128b636a5d216049492ee098f9d7434808/image4.jpeg" /> Separation Anxiety, Public Talk, Sites and Situations Research Cluster, RCA with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. https://adamkaasa.xyz/When-the-Clarion-Came-to-Call-Sound-Design-Matt-s-Gallery-London-2024 Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:05:33 +0000 Adam Kaasa https://adamkaasa.xyz/When-the-Clarion-Came-to-Call-Sound-Design-Matt-s-Gallery-London-2024 ‘When the Clarion Came to Call’, Sound Design Matt’s Gallery, London13 September 2024 Sound Performance ‘When the Clarion Came to Call’ Written and Directed by Stefan Jovanović Performed by Stefan Jovanović Original composition and sound design Adam Kaasa Original composition and sound design for work in progress sharing of Stefan Jovanović’s new dance-theatre piece ‘When the Clarion Came to Call’. Commissioned as part of Anne Duffau’s series ‘Always Coming Home’ for Matt’s Gallery London. Funded in part by the Royal College of Art.&nbsp; Link to event <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/958e431c1b578b26410221e9521871a8a1e79fe4c5cc4f47842562897f4a7697/Bliss-Carmxn-Sound-design-for-Jovanovic-Clarion-Sept-2024.JPG" data-mid="227293272" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/958e431c1b578b26410221e9521871a8a1e79fe4c5cc4f47842562897f4a7697/Bliss-Carmxn-Sound-design-for-Jovanovic-Clarion-Sept-2024.JPG" /> Nam semper semper ex In porttitor pellentesque sapien https://adamkaasa.xyz/Andromeda-Work-in-Progress-Performance-with-Trans-Voices-UK-Matt-s Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:05:33 +0000 Adam Kaasa https://adamkaasa.xyz/Andromeda-Work-in-Progress-Performance-with-Trans-Voices-UK-Matt-s Andromeda, Work in Progress Performance Matt’s Gallery, London28 June 2024 Outer Space AndromedaPerformanceBliss Carmxn ‘Andromeda’ Music and Lyrics by Adam Kaasa Performed by Bliss Carmxn&nbsp;with Trans Voices UK co-founders ILĀ and Coda Nicolaeff Art Direction by Stefan Jovanović Link to event Watch full performance ‘Andromeda’, a first sharing of the historically grounded song-cycle by Bliss Carmxn performed with Trans Voices UK co-founders ILĀ and Coda Nicolaeff. ‘Andromeda’ touches on explorations of love and longing, of connection out of time, and of the return of a collective galactic love letter.&nbsp; This performance was commissioned by Anne Duffau for Matt’s Gallery London as part of the series ‘Always Coming Home’ <img width="2048" height="1365" width_o="2048" height_o="1365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d2af59656a51da215c6f763bb8d6b9803d83acb30e4117ee708ca8772dbf27bb/Bliss-Carmxn_Andromeda_28-June-2024_1.jpg" data-mid="227292303" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d2af59656a51da215c6f763bb8d6b9803d83acb30e4117ee708ca8772dbf27bb/Bliss-Carmxn_Andromeda_28-June-2024_1.jpg" /> <img width="2048" height="1365" width_o="2048" height_o="1365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/550522d755d3b1224c774fcc5bda6e39c45b9eac88c33913198b6bbbe58ea3cd/Bliss-Carmxn_Andromeda_28-June-2024_2.jpg" data-mid="227292298" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/550522d755d3b1224c774fcc5bda6e39c45b9eac88c33913198b6bbbe58ea3cd/Bliss-Carmxn_Andromeda_28-June-2024_2.jpg" /> Nam semper semper ex In porttitor pellentesque sapien https://adamkaasa.xyz/Hold-My-Hand-And-I-ll-Hold-Yours-Bliss-Carmxn-EP-Release Sat, 01 Mar 2025 15:23:17 +0000 Adam Kaasa https://adamkaasa.xyz/Hold-My-Hand-And-I-ll-Hold-Yours-Bliss-Carmxn-EP-Release Hold My Hand And I’ll Hold YoursEP Release5 June 2024 Bliss Carmxn Music Sound Performance Bliss Carmxn unveils vibrant debut EP ‘Hold My Hand And I’ll Hold Yours’ Out 5 June 2024 LISTEN HERE // SEE PRESS PICTURES HERE FFO: Perfume Genius, Daft Punk, Paul Simon, Caroline Polachek <img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcnDxluG6RGUUd3iive8R8I2DgXIjSQhGbUe-PDmli_baRCCJB28gZAz_GMAIv7Ky6umqf4AHBQ8I-CbzDpHEac2LCS57yWhbtd2AzCwiJMGHOqEaR_oBuHL3_1MeUoyvh4unbAbvYZEWhHJe6HixLOCFGh?key=-g4m2QuYjs7A8rcWOMHi1g" width="484" height="323" style="width: 457.146px; height: 305.079px;">Photo by Oli Raptor (@oliraptor) Instagram // YouTube // TikTok Previous coverage for Bliss Carmxn: “A delicate piano-driven ballad that showcases the tender side of Bliss Carmxn’s sonic vision.”Plastic Mag “An intoxicating and engrossing package that packs a poignant and powerful punch”CLOUT “Another musician we’ve been following closely of late, Bliss is an artist who explores themes of love, loss, desire, and ambition”mesmerized After enticing audiences with expressive electro-folk teasers in the lead-up to the project, Bliss Carmxn has now unveiled their debut EP ‘Hold My Hand And I'll Hold Yours’, the artist bringing together glowing pop aesthetics in an ethereal alternative atmosphere, and drenching it all in spellbinding dynamism that combines the drive of Erasure, the gravity of Perfume Genius, the simplicity of a Simon and Garfunkel, and the warmth of a Kacy Musgraves. Beginning a journey of energetic moments and deeply evocative writing, the doorway is opened to the sounds of ‘Hey Oh Hey’, a track brimming with plucky synths, crisp snare hits and soaring vocal melodies. Released from the sparkling first outing, next to arrive is ‘Hear’, rooted in a bouncy piano melody and infectious singalong qualities. ‘Big Enough’ then crafts a more reserved soundscape, allowing Bliss to show the emotional side of their songwriting as the rich arpeggios and swelling strings invoke a sense of melancholy. Finally, the new track ‘Side’ leads listeners out with a bright, breezy, electro-pop anthem, filled with vivid kaleidoscopes of synth design and life-filled vocal layers. Explaining the charismatic and stirring nature of the four-track, Bliss shares, "The EP acts like a relationship in reverse. We start at the end and end at the beginning. It’s a vulnerable, fierce, soft and joyful set of tracks that reminds us there’s always a new beginning when we draw a line in the sand." The artistic team is made up of female, queer and gender non-conforming artists. The EP is performed by Bliss Carmxn, music and lyrics by Adam Kaasa, produced by Rookes, with support from Engineer Ary Maudit and mastered by Katie Tavini at Weird Jungle. It was recorded on location at Ten87 Studio and Strongroom Music Studios in London, with artistic direction by Pati de Souza Leão Müller and photography by Oli Raptor. Bliss Carmxn is the project of writer and academic Adam Kaasa. Canadian-born, Adam was classically trained in piano and spent their childhood singing in choirs. After their move to the UK in 2017, Bliss Carmxn emerged, an opportunity to be proudly queer and make their debut on the Berlin-based label Wicked Hag. Featured in the award-winning television series ‘Sunshine Eyes’ and appearing on an album fundraiser for LGBTQ Earthquake Solidarity in the early days of their career, Bliss has gone on to interview for BBC London Radio, invited by presenters LionHeart and Salma El-Wardany and garner acclaim from Berlin In Stereo’s ‘Tracks of the Week’. Further lauding from the likes of Siegessäule, Queen City Sounds and Art and The Rose Hill has hailed Bliss’ sound as “a powdery-sweet piece of pop”. In October 2020, the London-based artist launched the music video for their single ‘Powder’ working with producer Jenifer Shahin, DoP Roux Malherbe and featuring dance artists Stefan Jovanovic and Gareth Gavin. Since launching the video has been watched over 12,000 times. EP Launch Live Date: June 25th - The Waiting Room, London (tix here) <img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdFBQnO3BHeCenR94Egb8h55RX0r4LXN0QXXkVIT9rxXRmUzaMMYt1iogCkCoaxWVluYyhqf_TDUmxZnTzPovuL9VUILznE7eePecn-1VcHa56tqr9upVZ_CKNHreHzhwfhwnnmbfY_Nw4776eOUu1kSGA?key=-g4m2QuYjs7A8rcWOMHi1g" width="238" height="238" style="width: 238px; height: 238px;">Photo by Oli Raptor (@oliraptor) Art Direction and Design by Pati de Souza Leão Müller (@patidesouza) <img width="3691" height="3691" width_o="3691" height_o="3691" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/71dc3824fa889cdf0c679c3a2964bf7921f09c7ba6d5e7aacbf76e18eac80b91/Bliss-Carmxn_Hold-My-Hand-and-I-Will-Hold-Yours_Cover-Art.jpg" data-mid="227432733" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/71dc3824fa889cdf0c679c3a2964bf7921f09c7ba6d5e7aacbf76e18eac80b91/Bliss-Carmxn_Hold-My-Hand-and-I-Will-Hold-Yours_Cover-Art.jpg" /> Nam semper semper ex In porttitor pellentesque sapien https://adamkaasa.xyz/Andromeda-s-Howl-Relayed-History-and-a-Song-Cycle-as-Method-for Fri, 28 Feb 2025 16:54:43 +0000 Adam Kaasa https://adamkaasa.xyz/Andromeda-s-Howl-Relayed-History-and-a-Song-Cycle-as-Method-for Andromeda's Howl: Relayed History and a Song Cycle as Method for Collective ImaginationTwelfth Conference on the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena, Corfu, Greece 20-24 May 2024 WritingAndromeda ConferencePerformanceKaasa, Adam, 2024, Conference or Workshop, ‘Andromeda's Howl: Relayed History and a Song Cycle as Method for Collective Imagination’ at Twelfth Conference on the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena, Corfu, Greece, 20-24 May 2024. Andromeda’s Howl is a piece of research that explore new methods in historical research as a creative practice. It traces and follows 'Andromeda' as a word, name, myth, constellation, galaxy, as frescoes, paintings, sculptures, as archetype. The project acts as a relay, connecting moments in time otherwise unrelated. Think the classical myth, along with a 19th Century sculpture at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, a medieval mystic and translator of Arabic texts into Latin, glass plate photography at the Carnegie Archive in Pasadena of Edward Hubble's 'discovery' of the Andromeda galaxy, an iron forgery in Shropshire, and on and on. Beyond stories captured in text, Andromeda’s Howl is also an 8-part song cycle, whose performance, over time, connects with, records and captures the voices of audience members, public participants, workshop attendees and more into a collective composition, a love letter to Andromeda.Andromeda is a myth that has been a relay of oral histories, material sources, images, representations and morality. Andromeda has been papyrus paper at one point in time and an iron sculpture at another, cast by John Bell and bought by Queen Victoria at the Great Exhibition in 1851. The language, the word, the semantics and the etymology of Andromeda is like an anniversary. Each time it is repeated, it reinforces some origin. Conference website. <img width="1130" height="807" width_o="1130" height_o="807" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/239260f2aa8139dfb2426bec4df9e67a8aa91bfc0a84cf10ce8d5840203963c0/IMG_0270-2.jpg" data-mid="227397082" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/239260f2aa8139dfb2426bec4df9e67a8aa91bfc0a84cf10ce8d5840203963c0/IMG_0270-2.jpg" /> Andromeda through the Sky Guide App, on a cloudy night, in Portugal, 2023.