Liminal Lands, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, PRÉLUDE, Luma Arles, 2021 ©Jakob Kudsk Steensen.
This thesis investigates whether a Nordic collective and cultural memory can be observed through selected artworks by five contemporary Scandinavian artists: Simon Stålenhag, Jenni Hiltunen, Joar Nango, Loji Höskuldsson, and Jakob Kudsk Steensen. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of collective, communicative, and cultural memory developed by Aleida and Jan Assmann, the study examines how these works function as carriers of memory and reflect shared social norms, values, and identities across the Nordic region.
The research asks: How do these images remember the Nordics? In what ways do they act as communicators of collective and cultural memory? Using a combination of visual analysis and reflective interpretation, the thesis identifies motifs, symbols, and narratives that resonate with shared Nordic experiences, from childhood toys and familiar landscapes to cultural traditions and societal rituals.
Findings suggest that the selected artworks both stabilise and transmit collective memory, supporting identity and belonging within a shared regional context. They reveal the interplay between individual and social memory, highlighting how art can serve as a bridge between personal experience and communal knowledge, and how digitalisation and globalisation shape the formation of contemporary, transnational memory.
Photo credits: Tales from the Loop, Simon Stålenhag, 2014.
Phygital Curation - Embodied Experiences
Anna’s Master’s dissertation examines users’ responses to immersive art installations and the curatorial challenges of exhibiting such hybrid, “phygital” forms. It asks:
How do the virtual worlds created by Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen evoke emotional responses and empathy, shaping users’ understanding of the world?
How do exhibition design and curatorial aesthetics influence users’ embodied encounters with these digital environments, and what challenges arise in translating the artist’s virtual universe into physical space?
The research combines content and exhibition analysis with field studies, interviews, and phenomenological observation, drawing on theories of Semiotics, Animism, Empathy, and the Sublime. The study positions “Phygital Curation – Embodied Experiences” as a bridge between traditional exhibition practices and contemporary multisensory experiences, exploring how bodily perception guides meaning-making within immersive digital art.
Analysing Steensen’s works, such as Tongues of Verglas, Liminal Lands, and RE-ANIMATED, the thesis finds that his art reanimates endangered ecologies and challenges modernity’s divide between nature and culture. Through animation and animism, his installations foster empathy and moral awareness toward non-human entities. Observations reveal that most participants reported distinct bodily sensations and emotional engagement, suggesting that immersive art can trigger moral and sensory reconnection with nature.
The study concludes that Steensen’s phygital environments expand curatorial practice beyond display toward experience design — demanding new terminologies, interdisciplinary understanding, and attentiveness to how digital-physical aesthetics shape user perception. Ultimately, the research proposes that the convergence of art, science, and immersive technology holds the potential to cultivate new forms of subjectivity and awareness in the face of ecological crisis.
Photo: Tounges of Verglas/Les Langues de Verglas, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Yes it Moves, Copenhagen Contemporary, 2023. Photo by A.F. Nilén.
In the Shadow of Monumentum... the War on Statues examines the contested role of public monuments in shaping collective and cultural memory, focusing on four case studies: Edward Colston, Cecil Rhodes, and Mary Thomas (“I Am Queen Mary”). It investigates the past decade’s protests (2013–2023) against these monuments, exploring how colonial and institutional symbols become sites of public contestation, emotional response, and political action.
The research asks: In which ways do these monuments manifest injustice? Why did similar anti-racist protests produce divergent outcomes? And is this a war against statues or a war between memories? Drawing on theories of cultural memory, affective economy, object agency, and iconoclasm, the study analyses each monument’s political, historical, and affective significance.
The thesis demonstrates that older monuments, commissioned by historical authorities, often function as enduring symbols of systemic injustice, provoking collective anger and activism. Contemporary works like I Am Queen Mary, by contrast, actively challenge existing narratives and create opportunities for new, inclusive memories. Ultimately, the study argues that debates over public monuments are debates over memory itself, highlighting the need for transparent and participatory decision-making regarding which monuments remain, which are removed, and how societies negotiate shared histories in public space.
Photo credits: “Rhodes Must Fall” Demonstration, Cape Town, 2015, ©New York Times