Beyond the White Cube: A Conversation on Artistic Research in Public Space

What kinds of spaces allow us to experience artistic research, and how can we create them?

In artistic research, knowledge is not confined to text. It can be embodied in sound, material, movement, performance or spatial experience. When a research project takes the form of a concert, how do we encounter and understand it as research? If an artist works in public space, what happens when the work is moved into a gallery? The question is not only how artistic research is presented, but where it takes place.

The white cube has long been one of art’s preferred modes of presentation — a space that attempts to recede and let the work stand on its own. But no space is neutral. Materials, acoustics, scale, history and social use shape the encounter between a work and its audience. Donna Haraway’s concept of situated knowledge, Karen Barad’s intra-action and Jane Bennett’s thinking on material agency point to this from different directions: place itself helps shape what kinds of knowledge can emerge.

At Kullbingen, TSSK’s new exhibition space at Nyhavna, this becomes tangible. The concrete, steel, volume, acoustics and industrial history of the area cannot simply be reduced to background. They participate.

The conversation is part of NTNU Artistic Research Week 2026 and brings together three artistic researchers from different fields across NTNU – textile and materials technology, visual art and music. Through distinct practices, they explore how artistic work can be shared and experienced without being reduced to what can be put into words. The ambition is not to replace the white cube, but to expand the range of places in which artistic research can take place.

Participants

• Hilde Stiegler Rubecksen, PhD candidate at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (KiT). Her PhD project Reactive and Proactive Materials in the Anthropocene explores self-healing and regenerative materials at the intersection of art, textiles and materials technology.
• Joe Lockwood, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (KiT).
• Heather Frasch, Department of Music, NTNU.

The conversation is moderated by Carl Martin Faurby, Director of TSSK.

Practical information
Kullbingen, Strandveien 94 — warehouse building opposite HAVET
Free admission · The conversation will be held in English

The event takes place on the same evening as the opening of Hilde Stiegler Rubecksen’s exhibition at Kullbingen.

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