Ars Memoriae, The Art to Remember analyzes the role of art within the larger history and evolution of external memory devices. It looks at material traces of remembering and the invention of an ever-changing body of language expressions, like signs and symbols, to enhance communication capabilities. I followed the process of externalizing emotions, knowledge, and information, starting in the Palaeolithic Stone Age about 3 million years ago, until, in a speculative future, it will be internalized again using artificial wetware, neuro-computers, and DNA coding.
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Matter, Gesture and Soul is a cross disciplinary artistic research project, (October 2019), that departs from, and investigates several encounters and alignments between Contemporary Art and Archaeology. The goal is to create autonomous and collaborative artistic, poetic and scientific expressions and responses to prehistoric Art and its contemporary images. It seeks to stimulate a deeper understanding of contemporary and prehistoric artistic expression and the contemporary and prehistoric human condition. The participating artists and archaeologists will create autonomous projects, but also interact with each other in workshops, seminars and collaborative artistic projects. The secondary goal of Matter, Gesture and Soul is to establish an international cross disciplinary research network at the University of Bergen and strengthen the expertise in cross disciplinary artistic and scientific work with art as the driving force. The project is supported by DIKU, UiB and Global Challenges (UiB).

Paricipants and supporting institutions:

Associate Professor Geir Harald Samuelsen. (Norway). Creator and leader of the project. Visual Artist, Researcher at The Art Academy, Department of Contemporary Art, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University in Bergen.

Professor Åsil Bøthun. (Norway). Visual Artist, Professor of Sculpture and Installation at The Art Academy, Department of Contemporary Art, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University in Bergen.

Professor Eamon O´Kane. (Ireland). Visual Artist, Professor of Visual Art, The Art Academy, Department of Contemporary Art, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University in Bergen.

PHD candidate (in the project) Maarten Vanden Eynde. (Belgium). Visual Artist, The Art Academy, Department of Contemporary Art, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University in Bergen.

Professor Dragos Gheorghiu. (Romania) Professor of cultural anthropology, Doctoral School, National University of Arts in Bucharest and Instituto Terra e Memória - Mação, Centro de Geociências da Universidade de Coimbra

PHD candidate Elin Tanding Sørensen. (Norway) Visual Artist, Landscape Architect PhD candidate at School of Landscape Architecture. Faculty of Landscape and Society. Norwegian University of Life Sciences NMBU.

SapienCE. (International Research Center). Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE). A new Centre of Excellence (CoE) located at the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion at the University of Bergen (UiB)

- Professor Francesco d’Errico. (Italy). A member and Professor II of the RCN funded Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE) at the University of Bergen, also Directeur de recherche de classe exceptionnelle at the University of Bordeaux.
- Archaeologist Petro Cecilia Keene. (South Africa). Independent Researcher and Exhibition design consultant.

Professor Boris Valentin. (France). Professeur en archéologie préhistorique (20e section), à l’Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne (UFR 03). France

PhD, Research

Ars Memoriae - The Art to Remember

An Artistic PhD Research Project
Time: 2020 - 2024
Location: Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen, Norway
Main supervisor: Eamon O'Kane / Secondary supervisor: Anke Bangma / External advisors: Oulimata Gueye, Augustin F.-C. Holl, Jan Zalasiewicz

Matter, Gesture and Soul is a cross-disciplinary artistic research project that departs from and investigates several encounters and alignments between Contemporary Art and Archaeology.