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Volume 15
Issue 3
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Arts, Volume 15, Issue 3 (March 2026) – 23 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): The image of a choral conductor is commonly recognized as the person who stands before a group of singers, using a set of gestures to direct them in performance. In order to arrive at this moment of shared musical experience, however, an extensive journey of preparation must take place. In this article, two artistic projects are juxtaposed: a live concert project, titled, Natural History, and Ghost Songs: Contemporary Music and Words from Ireland, a recording project comprising a 35-track multi-genre album. Through structured reflections on these distinct projects, two experienced conductors highlight considerations, goals, and inspirations for choral leaders in designing artistic programmes as a basis for impactful collective musical experiences and in enacting these experiences in a spirit of co-creation with choir members. View this paper
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14 pages, 256 KB  
Article
Cruel Optimism and Gender Identity: A Case Study of Jawani Phir Nahi Ani and Oye Motti in Contemporary Lollywood
by Muhammad Sohail Ahmad, Amina Malik and Rana Yassir Hussain
Arts 2026, 15(3), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030064 - 20 Mar 2026
Viewed by 507
Abstract
This paper examines how Pakistani popular cinema reproduces a cruelly optimistic attachment to gender identity and thinness, where weight loss is imagined as the key to love, success, and social acceptance. Rather than surveying the entire industry, this study focuses on two emblematic [...] Read more.
This paper examines how Pakistani popular cinema reproduces a cruelly optimistic attachment to gender identity and thinness, where weight loss is imagined as the key to love, success, and social acceptance. Rather than surveying the entire industry, this study focuses on two emblematic case studies—Jawani Phir Nahi Ani (2015) and Oye Motti (2021)—to show how Lollywood normalises fatphobia through comic ridicule, makeover tropes, and exclusionary casting practices. The analysis reveals how fatness is framed not as an identity but as a flaw to be corrected, rendering overweight characters undesirable despite their talents or personalities. Thus, fatness is usually treated as an obstacle to social acceptance, marriage, and personal happiness; the very hope of inclusion becomes an instrument of exclusion, exemplifying Berlant’s concept of cruel optimism. In Berlant’s terms, cruel optimists always struggle to achieve unattainable fantasies of a better life that promise upward mobility. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue On Screen Arts—the Arts of the Past in Contemporary Mass Media)
26 pages, 6527 KB  
Article
Differentiating Spaces: Exploring Epistemic Qualities of Film Scenography in The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
by Margret Nisch
Arts 2026, 15(3), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030063 - 20 Mar 2026
Viewed by 299
Abstract
Film scenography often suffers from a dual problem of invisibility in academic theory and hypervisibility as mere ‘spectacle’ in popular reception. This study addresses the lack of integrated theoretical frameworks that connect scenographic design to its emotional and narrative functions. Utilizing a reception-focused [...] Read more.
Film scenography often suffers from a dual problem of invisibility in academic theory and hypervisibility as mere ‘spectacle’ in popular reception. This study addresses the lack of integrated theoretical frameworks that connect scenographic design to its emotional and narrative functions. Utilizing a reception-focused analytical approach, this research applies Peter Wuss’s model of film perception to Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). Analyzing the broad range of the film’s scenographic methods, this article investigates how high degrees of scenographic visibility operate as affective mechanisms rather than just stylistic signatures. The analysis identifies specific epistemic qualities of film space that facilitate emotional engagement and narrative movement. By examining scenographic elements across multiple scales, this study reveals how these design choices operate simultaneously across concept-guided, perception-guided, and stereotype-guided cognitive structures. Ultimately, the research demonstrates that scenographic visibility is intrinsically motivated by affective function. This challenges conventional film theory dichotomies and repositions scenography as fundamental to understanding cinema’s epistemic operations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Technology and Scenography in Film and Television: Crafting Visual Worlds)
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28 pages, 9309 KB  
Article
Finding a Way Back: Reimagining Ritual and Trance in Post-Soviet Russia
by Thomas P. Riccio
Arts 2026, 15(3), 62; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030062 - 19 Mar 2026
Viewed by 393
Abstract
This article documents and analyzes a three-month intercultural performance collaboration with Metamorphosis Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, during the summer of 1992—a pivotal moment following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Drawing on the author’s fieldwork methodology developed through decades of collaboration with [...] Read more.
This article documents and analyzes a three-month intercultural performance collaboration with Metamorphosis Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, during the summer of 1992—a pivotal moment following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Drawing on the author’s fieldwork methodology developed through decades of collaboration with Indigenous communities in Alaska, Southern Africa, and Siberia, the project employed trance techniques, rhythm-based training, and ritual archaeology to reconstruct pre-Christian Slavic performance practices. The resulting production, Shadows from the Planet Fire, emerged through a process that positioned ritual not as nostalgic revival but as a living technology for addressing cultural trauma and existential displacement. This account contributes to performance studies, applied theatre, and cultural heritage discourse by demonstrating how cosmocentric Indigenous methodologies can be adapted to address the spiritual and psychological wounds of post-industrial, post-colonial societies. The work establishes foundational principles for what the author terms “Techdigenous” practice—the synthesis of Indigenous wisdom traditions with contemporary performance contexts—and argues for ritual as a necessary consciousness technology in an era of ecological crisis and cultural fragmentation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Topic Reimagining Totemism: Mystical Experience, Life Values, and Contemporary Art Practices)
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6 pages, 2170 KB  
Opinion
A Layer of Salt for My Oblivion: An Artist’s Reflections on Archives and Resistance
by Sara Sallam
Arts 2026, 15(3), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030061 - 19 Mar 2026
Viewed by 432
Abstract
In this essay, the author reflects on the entangled histories of archaeology, colonial extraction, and heritage dispersion through the lens of her artistic research project, A Layer of Salt for My Oblivion. Centering the displacement of the Old Kingdom mastaba of Neferirtenef from [...] Read more.
In this essay, the author reflects on the entangled histories of archaeology, colonial extraction, and heritage dispersion through the lens of her artistic research project, A Layer of Salt for My Oblivion. Centering the displacement of the Old Kingdom mastaba of Neferirtenef from Saqqara to the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, the author unearths the silences embedded within archival photographs. The archive in focus is that accumulated by Belgian Egyptologist Jean Capart, several of whose archaeological missions were funded by the Belgian industrialist Baron Empain. The latter’s imperial ambitions also defined the urban fabric of the author’s own childhood in Egypt. Blending essay, archival intervention, and poetic voice, the author proposes an alternative mode of listening to displaced heritage: one that honours the agency of the silenced, embraces rupture over restoration, and invites the possibility of care over control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ancient Egyptian Art Studies: Art in Motion, a Social Tool of Power and Resistance)
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12 pages, 1317 KB  
Article
Vladimir Tatlin: The Transition from the Technological to the Organic?
by Christina Lodder
Arts 2026, 15(3), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030060 - 18 Mar 2026
Viewed by 324
Abstract
This text focuses on Vladimir Tatlin and the different concepts of energy that he embraced during the 1920s: from the technological ethos of his Model for a Monument to the Third International (1920) to the organic forms and renewable energy of The Letatlin [...] Read more.
This text focuses on Vladimir Tatlin and the different concepts of energy that he embraced during the 1920s: from the technological ethos of his Model for a Monument to the Third International (1920) to the organic forms and renewable energy of The Letatlin, (1932). Despite the differences, I shall argue that there are strong continuities in the way that Tatlin approached the innate properties of material. I shall also suggest that his reservations about technology in the late 1920s may have reflected some misgivings about the government’s industrialization policy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The European Avant-Garde(s) and Technologies: Unfinished Modernity and the Idea of Tékhnē—the One Hundred Years’ Revolution, 1850–1950)
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27 pages, 7688 KB  
Article
Divine Talisman Writing: A Study on the Spiritual Power Sources of Daoist Fulu Writing and Its Revelatory Significance for Contemporary Calligraphic Art Creation
by Zhilong Yan and Manyi Pei
Arts 2026, 15(3), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030059 - 17 Mar 2026
Viewed by 429
Abstract
Daoism is an important indigenous religion of China that emerged from ancient totemic worship and shamanic practices, encompassing mysterious ritual arts known as fulu (talismans and registers). Daoist fulu writing constitutes an important content and manifestation of Daoist spiritual calligraphy, representing a significant [...] Read more.
Daoism is an important indigenous religion of China that emerged from ancient totemic worship and shamanic practices, encompassing mysterious ritual arts known as fulu (talismans and registers). Daoist fulu writing constitutes an important content and manifestation of Daoist spiritual calligraphy, representing a significant embodiment of Daoist sacred knowledge and mystical power. This paper presents the first in-depth investigation into the sources of the mysterious numinous power inherent in Daoist fulu writing. We conclude that the spiritual power of fulu writing derives from three distinct yet interconnected levels: external divine spiritual power, innate primordial qi spiritual power, and the fundamental Dao spiritual power. These three sources are not mutually exclusive but rather work in coordination. Only through the integration of the fundamental Dao spiritual power at the primordial level with the High Master’s own innate primordial qi spiritual power can external divine spiritual power be mobilized and utilized. This unity of subject and object, essence and application, forms a complete cycle that maximizes the spiritual efficacy of the talismans. Furthermore, to apply these research findings to promote contemporary artistic creation and enhance the mystical and innovative dimension of contemporary art at the visual level, the authors, drawing upon their personal Daoist cultivation experiences and fulu writing artistic practice, will further discuss the revelatory significance of fulu writing for contemporary calligraphic art creation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Topic Reimagining Totemism: Mystical Experience, Life Values, and Contemporary Art Practices)
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16 pages, 868 KB  
Article
Singing Along with the Social Rhythms: Andrei Bely’s Attempts at Soviet Travel Writing
by Evgeny Pavlov
Arts 2026, 15(3), 58; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030058 - 17 Mar 2026
Viewed by 255
Abstract
In the canon of Soviet travel writings of the 1920s–30s, Andrei Bely’s lesser-known book Veter s Kavkaza (1928, not reprinted since its first publication) and the essay Armenia (1929) are something of an oddity. They are generally seen аs an active attempt on [...] Read more.
In the canon of Soviet travel writings of the 1920s–30s, Andrei Bely’s lesser-known book Veter s Kavkaza (1928, not reprinted since its first publication) and the essay Armenia (1929) are something of an oddity. They are generally seen аs an active attempt on his part to become a Soviet writer. This attempt by all accounts had very limited success, but the intention was genuine, and it enters into a most intriguing constellation with the more successful travel writings of the same period that ostensibly are based on the same practice of participatory observation as was practiced by members of LEF and other literary groups. Bely’s writings are more about observation itself than they are about anything else. His entire approach to the subject matter of his travel narratives is based on an obsessive mapping of the topography of his journey in an attempt to learn (by his own account) the Goethean art of seeing—not just the physical topography but also the past and the future of the human landscape in its revolutionary transformation. Ultimately, Bely’s spatially focused narrative seeks to see and represent time, and for this reason suffers the most spectacular failure, which Bely the Kantian and Bely the Symbolist wants to celebrate, but Bely the Soviet writer desperately tries to overcome. The article examines this failure in the broader political and artistic context of the time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The European Avant-Garde(s) and Technologies: Unfinished Modernity and the Idea of Tékhnē—the One Hundred Years’ Revolution, 1850–1950)
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8 pages, 152 KB  
Editorial
Special Issue on “Arts and Urban Development”
by John Zarobell
Arts 2026, 15(3), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030057 - 16 Mar 2026
Viewed by 263
Abstract
When I set out to edit a Special Issue in Arts on urban development and the role of the arts, I wanted to harvest a different perspective on the advantages of culture for urban development [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Arts and Urban Development)
22 pages, 6766 KB  
Article
Erasure as Visibility: The Israeli Gaze and the Politics of Heritage in the Gaza Envelope
by Ronit Milano
Arts 2026, 15(3), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030056 - 16 Mar 2026
Viewed by 274
Abstract
This article examines the politics of visuality in Israel through the case study of Alami House, a Palestinian home in the village of Hiribya that became the nucleus of Kibbutz Ziqim in 1949 and was later transformed into a heritage site near the [...] Read more.
This article examines the politics of visuality in Israel through the case study of Alami House, a Palestinian home in the village of Hiribya that became the nucleus of Kibbutz Ziqim in 1949 and was later transformed into a heritage site near the Gaza border. Drawing on theories of visual culture, affect, and heritage, the study traces the shifting visual and ideological functions of the site—from its early use as a kibbutz “watchtower,” through its renovation and rebranding as a heritage museum and wine bar, to its symbolic role during and after the Gaza War. It argues that the Israeli gaze toward the Palestinian—manifested in both the spatial design and the performative experience of the site—embodies a dual operation of seeing and unseeing, whereby the Palestinian is simultaneously acknowledged and erased. The essay introduces the concept of disciplined visuality to describe this politically orchestrated management of what may be seen, remembered, or forgotten. By analyzing Alami House as a microcosm of Israeli heritage-making, the article reveals how visuality functions as a tool of power, shaping both the material and conceptual landscape of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Visual Culture in Conflict Zones and Contested Territories)
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27 pages, 7416 KB  
Article
Activating Embodied Memory Through a Fusion of Clay and Augmented Reality
by Svetlana Atlavina
Arts 2026, 15(3), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030055 - 16 Mar 2026
Viewed by 654
Abstract
The ACE-funded project Clay and Augmented Reality (CAR) explored how the combination of tactile and digital media might activate embodied memory, foster art expression, and stimulate new forms of creative learning. The project investigated memory recollection by integrating clay sculpting with [...] Read more.
The ACE-funded project Clay and Augmented Reality (CAR) explored how the combination of tactile and digital media might activate embodied memory, foster art expression, and stimulate new forms of creative learning. The project investigated memory recollection by integrating clay sculpting with immersive Augmented Reality (AR), focusing on psychoanalysis and participatory art research. The created multisensory environment was a significant element in reconnection with early-life experiences. Six workshops engaged over 40 participants in memory-mapping through AR interfaces and tactile activities. Extensive theoretical and methodological research focuses on theories of Freud, Polanyi, Ettinger, and art practice of Hepworth, integrating embodied making with experimental technologies, including 3D scanning, ARvid/HoloLens experiences, and qualitative feedback analysis. The outcome is a hybrid repository of over 120 memory-informed artefacts titled My Mother and I, presented on the sketchfab platform. The collection showcases intergenerational memory, imprints of intangible and visual storytelling. During the research, the significance of slowness, play, and relational presence was underlined as conditions for memory activation. It concludes that memory lives in gesture, spatial perception and given care, and that hybrid arts-based methods offer new epistemologies of healing, creativity and pedagogical inquiry. CAR presents a model for participatory research that bridges physical and digital realms in deeply human ways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Craft to Code and Back Again: Rethinking Art, Materiality and Exhibition Practices in the 21st Century)
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17 pages, 13209 KB  
Article
The Circular Return: Scenographic Practice in Virtual Production
by Natalie Beak
Arts 2026, 15(3), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030054 - 11 Mar 2026
Viewed by 453
Abstract
This practice-led research examines how virtual production represents a circular return to scenographic practice, reactivating integrated modes of spatial authorship that have long underpinned screen storytelling but were obscured by industrial fragmentation. Drawing on a single-day intensive workshop at the Australian Film, Television [...] Read more.
This practice-led research examines how virtual production represents a circular return to scenographic practice, reactivating integrated modes of spatial authorship that have long underpinned screen storytelling but were obscured by industrial fragmentation. Drawing on a single-day intensive workshop at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), the study analyses how spatial authorship emerged through embodied, collaborative engagement with an LED volume environment. Grounded in scenographic theory and concepts of distributed cognition and situated authorship, the article reframes virtual production as a condition that renders pre-digital, collaborative modes of making visible within contemporary screen production. The LED volume functions simultaneously as scenic environment, lighting instrument, and compositional partner, requiring participants to negotiate space, light, movement, and camera as a unified spatial event. Analysis identifies how scenographic understanding emerged through virtual scouting, world-responsive storytelling, physical-digital integration, and embodied realisation. The findings extend production design theory by challenging ocular-centric models of mise-en-scène and positioning scenographic integration as screen practice—an epistemic mode of enacting through collective, materially grounded spatial experimentation. While situated within an educational context, the study points to broader implications for how spatial authorship and collective practice are understood in contemporary screen production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Technology and Scenography in Film and Television: Crafting Visual Worlds)
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17 pages, 6516 KB  
Article
Algorithmic Resistance Through Material Praxis: Exhibiting Post-Extractive Futures in Digital Capitalism’s Shadow
by Adina-Iuliana Deacu
Arts 2026, 15(3), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030053 - 11 Mar 2026
Viewed by 391
Abstract
Digital capitalism has generated new forms of extractivism that extend beyond natural resources to encompass data, attention, affect, and planetary materials. This article examines how exhibition practices can function as forms of algorithmic resistance by foregrounding material praxis, embodied engagement, and curatorial strategies [...] Read more.
Digital capitalism has generated new forms of extractivism that extend beyond natural resources to encompass data, attention, affect, and planetary materials. This article examines how exhibition practices can function as forms of algorithmic resistance by foregrounding material praxis, embodied engagement, and curatorial strategies of care. Drawing on a practice-based research approach, the paper develops a theoretical framework around extractivism, materiality, and relational ethics, and applies it to two case studies: the author’s exhibition Nature Reclaims: Images of Healing, which cultivates regenerative imaginaries through urban rewilding photography, tactile installations, and trauma-informed reflective tools; and Fossil Fables, curated by the Global Extraction Observatory (GEO), which exposes the infrastructural, political, and ideological architectures sustaining extractive industries and digital technologies. Through comparative analysis, the article introduces the concept of symbiotic curation to describe a post-extractive curatorial method that holds critical exposure and regenerative proposition in sustained tension. The findings illustrate how exhibitions can reorganize perception, recalibrate temporality, and render hidden infrastructures visible, while also cultivating embodied relations of care, ecological attunement, and collective reflection. By positioning curatorial practice as an epistemic process in which theoretical propositions are tested through spatial, material, and affective decisions, the article identifies transferable principles for post-extractive cultural work. It argues that exhibitions can operate as laboratories for algorithmic resistance and as sites for rehearsing alternative relations between humans, technologies, and more-than-human worlds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Craft to Code and Back Again: Rethinking Art, Materiality and Exhibition Practices in the 21st Century)
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9 pages, 171 KB  
Article
Manifesting Mark Fisher: Instagram, Network Extension, and the Making of a Decapitalised Film
by Simon Poulter
Arts 2026, 15(3), 52; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030052 - 9 Mar 2026
Viewed by 356
Abstract
This article sets out an assertion that a mass art project can make a virtue of ‘network extension’ through an Instagram account, to build creative community, new connections, and physical artwork outcomes. We Are Making A Film About Mark Fisher is an example [...] Read more.
This article sets out an assertion that a mass art project can make a virtue of ‘network extension’ through an Instagram account, to build creative community, new connections, and physical artwork outcomes. We Are Making A Film About Mark Fisher is an example of a ‘manifested artwork’, where Fisher’s ideas on capitalism and community are explored through electronic media. We have taken the work of critical theorist, Mark Fisher, and subjected it to a process of détournement, alluding to the work of Guy de Bord and The Situationists. The thing in itself—Fisher’s processed ideas—are reprocessed and held up against the posthumous period between 2017 and now, since he died. The assertion in the work is that while the tools are circumscribed by a set of ‘standards’ and ‘production processes’, this does not delimit them from being employed towards the evolution of embodied and shared actions that develop a counter-narrative or something that eschews the methods of Hollywood or broadcast television documentaries. We just have to learn ways to do this. ‘Decapitalising’ a process, working with human agency and good will, turns the platform of Instagram into a tool of empowerment—reappropriating the algorithm and capturing the collective back from the closed corporate system of control. We see that a form of value is pulled back out of the machinic effects of a proprietary platform. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Craft to Code and Back Again: Rethinking Art, Materiality and Exhibition Practices in the 21st Century)
19 pages, 2551 KB  
Article
The Tékhnē of Surgical Body Transformations and Fedorov’s Futurity in Aleksandr Beliaev’s Science Fiction, 1920s
by Henrietta Mondry
Arts 2026, 15(3), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030051 - 4 Mar 2026
Viewed by 403
Abstract
The first two decades of the twentieth century saw an unprecedented surge in scientific and technological experiments directed at the physical transformation of the human body. In Bolshevik Russia of the 1920s, science fiction and scientific and technological experiments created a nexus. The [...] Read more.
The first two decades of the twentieth century saw an unprecedented surge in scientific and technological experiments directed at the physical transformation of the human body. In Bolshevik Russia of the 1920s, science fiction and scientific and technological experiments created a nexus. The science fiction of Aleksandr Beliaev (1884–1942) turned experiments into adventure plots. Beliaev’s views on scientific experiments were informed not only by Bolshevik science but also by late-nineteenth-century pre-Revolutionary scientific theories. Nikolai Fedorov’s visionary futurity known as “Philosophy of the Common Task” bridged pre-Revolutionary utopian aspirations with the speculative thought of the 1920s across science, literature and art. My aim is to identify and analyse both intersections and differences in Beliaev’s and Fedorov’s visions of futurity in relation to body transformations in two of Beliaev’s most important yet understudied novels of the 1920s, The Amphibian Man and Professor Dowell’s Head. My approach is both synchronic and diachronic. I address features of transhumanist and posthumanist thought in Beliaev’s narratives that involve experiments in assembling hybridised human–animal, interhuman and human–machine organisms. I position Beliaev’s writing within the speculative discourse that was informed by Fedorovian aspirational futurity as well as by scientific and medical experiments involving reanimation and restoration of humans and animals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The European Avant-Garde(s) and Technologies: Unfinished Modernity and the Idea of Tékhnē—the One Hundred Years’ Revolution, 1850–1950)
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12 pages, 2045 KB  
Article
From Philosophy to Canvas: An Empirical Model of Confucian Visual Translation in Malaysian Chinese Art
by Yuanyuan Zhang and Mumtaz Mokhtar
Arts 2026, 15(3), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030050 - 3 Mar 2026
Viewed by 343
Abstract
This study advances the Confucian Visual Transformation Model (CVTM) to analyse how Confucian values are visually reformulated in contemporary Malaysian Chinese art. Integrating artist interviews (n = 5), symbolic visual coding, and audience surveys (n = 227), the research addresses the lack of [...] Read more.
This study advances the Confucian Visual Transformation Model (CVTM) to analyse how Confucian values are visually reformulated in contemporary Malaysian Chinese art. Integrating artist interviews (n = 5), symbolic visual coding, and audience surveys (n = 227), the research addresses the lack of empirical frameworks for transcultural aesthetics. While an initial exploratory factor analysis (EFA) confirmed four dimensions—Ren (benevolence), He (harmony), WenZhi (technique-ideology), and MeiShan (aesthetic-moral)—it also revealed structural overlaps. Consequently, the study proposes CVTM 2.0, which replaces additive metrics with a tension-driven fusion mechanism. Key innovations include a Symbolic Tension Index (STI) for dynamic weighting and a fuzzy integration layer to handle overlap between WenZhi and MeiShan. Results indicate that Confucian dimensions are not static but are activated through compositional and material tensions. Theoretically, this reframes Confucian aesthetics as a context-responsive system; practically, it offers a replicable blueprint for analysing postcolonial identity negotiation in Southeast Asian art. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Visual Arts)
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17 pages, 3751 KB  
Article
On the Antinomies of Body and Machine in Avant-Garde Art
by Nataliya Zlydneva
Arts 2026, 15(3), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030049 - 3 Mar 2026
Viewed by 394
Abstract
This article examines the avant-garde reformulation of the nature–culture dichotomy. Within avant-garde discourse, the traditional opposition between the organic and the mechanical—and, by extension, between the body and the machine—evolves into a specific dialectical form based on the principle of juxtaposition-in-identity. In this [...] Read more.
This article examines the avant-garde reformulation of the nature–culture dichotomy. Within avant-garde discourse, the traditional opposition between the organic and the mechanical—and, by extension, between the body and the machine—evolves into a specific dialectical form based on the principle of juxtaposition-in-identity. In this framework, a metaphysics of corporeality comes into conflict with an instrumentalist understanding of the organic. The analysis identifies a key conceptual shift in the 1920s: the notion of the body is superseded by that of the organism, which is subsequently transfigured into the machine. Focusing on Russian painting from the 1910s to the early 1930s, this study employs a comparative and typological methodology. It analyzes works by Mikhail Larionov, Mikhail Matyushin, and Pavel Filonov in relation to those of Konstantin Redko, situating this analysis within a broader art-historical and intellectual context. The research traces and exemplifies a pivotal transition in visual art: the shift from the early avant-garde mythopoetics of the machine–human to the late-1920s construct of the human–machine, as theorized in biomechanics and gesture studies. The article foregrounds electricity as a central pictorial motif, arguing that it served as a powerful visual and conceptual medium for synthesizing the organic with the mechanical and the mythological with the ideological. Ultimately, it posits that the internal social logic of this aesthetic shift contributed to the formation of the totalitarian body politic in Stalinist Russia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The European Avant-Garde(s) and Technologies: Unfinished Modernity and the Idea of Tékhnē—the One Hundred Years’ Revolution, 1850–1950)
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11 pages, 176 KB  
Article
Digitality and the African Photographic Archive: Towards a Practice of Futurity
by Emmanuel Iduma
Arts 2026, 15(3), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030048 - 3 Mar 2026
Viewed by 457
Abstract
In this paper, I examine ways in which a digital photographic archive might be instantiated or instigated, how that instantiation contributes to discourse on the localization of archives, and how the imbrication of an archive with the knowledge it produces requires new ways [...] Read more.
In this paper, I examine ways in which a digital photographic archive might be instantiated or instigated, how that instantiation contributes to discourse on the localization of archives, and how the imbrication of an archive with the knowledge it produces requires new ways of knowing. I argue that the key responses to that imbrication, broadly conceptualized as an ‘ethics of care’, should be expanded into an ‘ethics of futurity’, given the affordances of the networked image. I conclude by pointing to how a practice of futurity for digital photographic archives is concerned not just with domiciliation but with the archival imaginary of a post-digital era. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Craft to Code and Back Again: Rethinking Art, Materiality and Exhibition Practices in the 21st Century)
16 pages, 264 KB  
Article
The Beauty of the Beast: Beauty and the Beast, Television Scenography, Special Effects Labour Hierarchies and Affective Spectacle
by Benjamin Pinsent
Arts 2026, 15(3), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030047 - 2 Mar 2026
Viewed by 670
Abstract
On the 25 September 1987, CBS aired the first episode of Beauty and the Beast. This television fantasy romance centred on the chaste relationship between Catherine Chandler (Linda Hamilton), a New York socialite turned District Attorney investigator, and the beastly Vincent, a [...] Read more.
On the 25 September 1987, CBS aired the first episode of Beauty and the Beast. This television fantasy romance centred on the chaste relationship between Catherine Chandler (Linda Hamilton), a New York socialite turned District Attorney investigator, and the beastly Vincent, a man with leonine features who lives in a secret commune of outcasts beneath the city, played by Ron Perlman, but designed by Rick Baker. This article examines Vincent as a core part of Beauty and the Beast’s appeal and as a sight for affective spectacle. It will argue that due to television’s ability to provide audiences with intimacy and proximity, as well as Alexia Smit’s theories of tele-affectivity, Vincent, as a character and as part of the scenography of the television show, allows for “a multisensory, situated experience”. Taking a historical materialist approach, this article will examine the initial reaction to Vincent as a character in the prerelease material and the critical reception upon the release of the first season. It will also explore ideas of responsibility in the creation of Vincent and the tension and collaboration that take place between Perlman and Baker. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Technology and Scenography in Film and Television: Crafting Visual Worlds)
36 pages, 63708 KB  
Article
The Architecture of Ivan Leonidov Between “Russian” Tradition and Universalism
by Alexandros Dimosthenis Protopappas
Arts 2026, 15(3), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030046 - 1 Mar 2026
Viewed by 677
Abstract
This article examines the influence of tradition, particularly Orthodox thought and icons, on the “Russian” and Soviet avant-garde. This field of research was systematically initiated in the 1990s and continues to this day, as evidenced, among others, by recent articles in the Arts [...] Read more.
This article examines the influence of tradition, particularly Orthodox thought and icons, on the “Russian” and Soviet avant-garde. This field of research was systematically initiated in the 1990s and continues to this day, as evidenced, among others, by recent articles in the Arts Journal. The present article contributes to this field by broadening the perspective, which has overwhelmingly focused on art. The step towards architecture is taken with a case study on the famous Soviet architect Ivan Leonidov. The article positions him in the context of contemporary debates on icons led by theorists Evgeniy Trubetskoy, Pavel Florensky and Nikolay Tarabukin, but also in connection with the emergence of Suprematism, which was introduced by Kazimir Malevich and further developed by El Lissitzky. Leonidov’s geometric bodies, which dynamically “float” in space, prove to be relevant to “Russian”/Soviet aesthetic interpretations of icons and “Russian”/Soviet artistic forms of expression. Just as the icon aimed at bringing believers closer to God, or Suprematism sought to reveal to the masses a higher spiritual or scientific truth, Leonidov’s architecture offered a metaphysical spectacle for a corresponding universalist goal: the creation of a pan-humanist utopia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The European Avant-Garde(s) and Technologies: Unfinished Modernity and the Idea of Tékhnē—the One Hundred Years’ Revolution, 1850–1950)
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17 pages, 235 KB  
Article
Antinomies of Modern Science and Technology in the Texts of Andrei Bely (Soviet Period)
by Mikhail Odesskiy and Monika Spivak
Arts 2026, 15(3), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030045 - 1 Mar 2026
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Abstract
For the spiritual situation at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it is appropriate to speak of the project of the new man, which was caused by a grandiose revolution that had various dimensions, including scientific, technological, and artistic aspects. From [...] Read more.
For the spiritual situation at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it is appropriate to speak of the project of the new man, which was caused by a grandiose revolution that had various dimensions, including scientific, technological, and artistic aspects. From this perspective, it is useful to distinguish between two models of the relationship between experimental art and science and technology. According to the first model, art assists science and technology to create the new man, with science and technology playing a fundamental role (Futurism). According to the second model, art opposes science and technology, which poses a threat to the individual and humanity as a whole. Bely is closer to the second model, but with important clarifications. The treatise The History of the Formation of the Self-conscious soul occupies a central place among his philosophical texts. In this treatise, the author examined the development of culture from Christ to the beginning of the 20th century. Bely worked on The History in the USSR, but did not plan to publish it. Therefore, he freely used the anthroposophical methodology and conceptual methodology, which led to the radically experimental (avant-garde) character of the treatise. In The History, science and technology are an important expression of culture, but by no means the highest. Their significance is determined by when and how they contribute to understanding the spiritual laws of the universe. At the same time, Bely published a review of Fyodor Gladkov’s novel Energy in the Soviet magazine Novy Mir, in which he continued to criticize the cult of science and technology being self-sufficient. Finally, in his experimental novel Moscow, Bely explored the tragedy of the scientist in modern society. The protagonist of the novel makes a scientific discovery that has potential for industrial (military) applications. The character realizes the danger of the discovery, and he is tortured, but he does not reveal the discovery to either foreign spies or the communists. In other words, in his Soviet-era writings, Bely did not so much deny the importance of science and technology as he did prioritize spiritual work and art. Thus, his texts express the type of interference between scientific reflection and avant-garde art that R. Poggioli described as “general dynamism”. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The European Avant-Garde(s) and Technologies: Unfinished Modernity and the Idea of Tékhnē—the One Hundred Years’ Revolution, 1850–1950)
20 pages, 458 KB  
Article
Travelling into the Dark: The Circumpolar North, Indigenous Art, and Settler Aesthetics of Remoteness
by Lindsey Drury
Arts 2026, 15(3), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030044 - 28 Feb 2026
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Abstract
While concepts of remoteness have long conditioned the fabulation of alterity, remoteness is not a quality ascribable to distant places and strange peoples “out there”. No one is by nature “remote”. Building from this proposition, this article argues that a heritage of European [...] Read more.
While concepts of remoteness have long conditioned the fabulation of alterity, remoteness is not a quality ascribable to distant places and strange peoples “out there”. No one is by nature “remote”. Building from this proposition, this article argues that a heritage of European aestheticization of the “far” north grew out of European ways of imagining the world and contributed to settler social imaginaries of remoteness. Through historical analysis of travelling accounts, colonial exhibitions, and the settler art theorical work of Francis Sparshott about the “cold and remote art” of “far” northerly Inuit peoples, the concept of an aesthetics of remoteness—modes of appreciation and taste that produce a “darkness” not inherent to the Arctic itself but projected by the settler-colonial milieu, which maintains control through the creation of distance. The study shows how Indigenous Arctic art becomes aestheticized through settler sensoria of faraway and incomprehensible forms of beauty that mask histories of colonial extraction and dispossession. The article further contextualises a close, critical reading of Sparshott into relation with the wider history of trade and colonisation, to consider how colonial markets for art objects interface with both European narration of remote peoples and European markets for art from remote parts of the world. The work ultimately argues for a reorientation that refuses this projection of an aesthetics of remoteness and proposes an ethics of recognition that confronts the colonial histories embedded in art circulation and appreciation within Canada and beyond. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Artistic Imagination and Social Imaginaries–Polysemous Readings of Historical Travelling Accounts)
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19 pages, 944 KB  
Article
Curating and Creating Collective Artistic Experiences: The Role of the Choral Conductor
by Róisín Blunnie and Orla Flanagan
Arts 2026, 15(3), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030043 - 26 Feb 2026
Viewed by 1612
Abstract
The commonly recognised image of a choral conductor is of a person who stands in front of a group of singers and uses a set of gestures to direct them in performance. In order to arrive at this moment of shared musical experience, [...] Read more.
The commonly recognised image of a choral conductor is of a person who stands in front of a group of singers and uses a set of gestures to direct them in performance. In order to arrive at this moment of shared musical experience, however, there is a long journey of preparation that must take place, from devising an artistic concept, to formulating a coherent and stimulating programme of repertoire, to realising such a programme by engaging in an extended period of rehearsal that encompasses vocal, musical, expressive, linguistic, and emotional facets and gathers diverse individual singers into a unified choral instrument with a common expressive purpose. In this article, two experienced choral conductors present structured reflective exegeses on artistic projects undertaken with their respective chamber choirs. Drawing on reflective approaches aligned with practice-based/artistic research, and on leading voices in repertoire programming and choral studies more broadly, the authors articulate and analyse their creative processes, highlighting considerations and goals for choral conductors both in designing programmes as a basis for impactful collective musical experiences and in enacting these experiences in a spirit of co-creation with choir members and other artistic contributors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Creating Musical Experiences)
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15 pages, 326 KB  
Article
Pablo Picasso and the Threat of Death in the Early 1940s
by Enrique Mallen
Arts 2026, 15(3), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030042 - 25 Feb 2026
Viewed by 672
Abstract
During the German Occupation, Picasso reacted to the omnipresent threat of death and violence with defiant stoicism, artistic subversion, and a profound memorialization of its victims. Though his work was banned as “degenerate” by the Nazis, he remained in Paris, and chose to [...] Read more.
During the German Occupation, Picasso reacted to the omnipresent threat of death and violence with defiant stoicism, artistic subversion, and a profound memorialization of its victims. Though his work was banned as “degenerate” by the Nazis, he remained in Paris, and chose to fight with his art rather than flee. Picasso was also personally affected by death during this time as he lost several close friends. Among them were the poet Max Jacob, who died in the Drancy concentration camp in 1944. He knew that his art was impacted by the horror around him, even if he did not paint the war directly. That same year, he declared, “I did not paint the war… but there is no doubt that the war is there in the pictures which I painted then.” The artist stripped away any hint of beauty in his wartime portraits and still lifes in favor of brutal, angular compositions. In all the jarring pictures he painted during this period, death is portrayed as a violent threat rather than a peaceful end to life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Attitudes, Practices, Rituals and Funerary Arts Across Disciplines and Cultures)
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