Arts and Culture

Painting, writing, making theatre productions — not the first activities that spring to mind when you think of academic research. At the University of Groningen, it is nonetheless possible. What are these artistic research studies about and what role does art play in them?

Next week, the annual Eurosonic Noorderslag music festival (ESNS) will kick off again. Two groups of students from the UG Science Shops will participate in the event. During the ESNS festival, they will investigate various societal themes.

Musicologist and music philosopher Chris Tonelli is fascinated by unusual music genres and their influence on people. ‘I love music that encourages people to create something themselves.’

They keep piling up – legal cases involving comedians, cartoonists or social media users who are taken to court for an inappropriate joke, meme or cartoon. Cultural scholar Alberto Godioli is working on a toolkit for (and with) judges to help them adopt a balanced, systematic approach in legal cases.

The Roman Empire saw a previously unparalleled production of numbers of buildings and artefacts. How did the Romans deal with these changes? This question preoccupy classicist Bettina Reitz-Joosse to such an extent that she has initiated scientific research into them.

Leonardo Arriagada Beltran conducted his PhD research on the interface of computer-generated art and the constantly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He will defend his Phd thesis on 21 September. His research offers valuable insights into how AI is redefining artistic creativity.

Literature scholar Konstantin Mierau talks to Chilean prisoners about literature. He asks them about the books they read, the characters they identify with, and the impact literature has on them. By doing so, he is exploring how literature can be used to reach prisoners and help them reintegrate into society. “I ask them questions that they never get asked.”

Film scholar Julian Hanich works studies cinematic beauty. But what exactly is cinematic beauty, and why is experiencing cinematic beauty valuable? Five questions about his research, and the answers.

PhD student Krina Huisman researched how we can ascribe meaning to the loss of a loved one by narrating that loss in the form of a story. She studied different types of books on grief and distinguished four ways in which bereavement literature narrates the subject. She concludes that grief is not at all as unique as we think it is. Huisman will be awarded a PhD by the University of Groningen on 13 April.

Classic mythological stories have been written in a certain Zeitgeist and from a specific, often male, perspective. But how would these stories sound if we looked at them through a current lens, and from a female perspective?

How do you involve young people in culture? This is a question that local governments and the cultural sector have struggled with for some time. At the request of the Municipality of Het Hogeland, University of Groningen students carefully considered the matter and have come up with an answer.