DNF: PhD in Artistic Reasearch: “The Carrier Bag Theory of The Documentary Series - collecting fragments of connections between woman and landscape”

2023 - ongoing

Position in Artistic Research at The Norwegian Film School / HINN.

During the project “The Carrier Bag Theory of The Documentary Series - collecting fragments of connections between woman and landscape” I will develop a concept for a documentary series through my artistic practice.

The project will explore the relation between women and the particular landscape they come from through audiovisual sketches. The project is created in light of the current climate and ecological crisis. 

I am inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s feminist essay, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, (Grove Press, 1989). Le Guin imagines the story, the novel as a container, a carrier bag, with room for a broad spectrum of elements unfolding and bearing meaning in relation to each other. When I first encountered the essay, it opened in me a feeling of infinite possibilities. More than a text about narrative, I view it as a life philosophy. It influences how I view myself as a female artist, and it affects how I view the relation between myself and participants, subjects, time and space.

The documentary series, as the novel, is an obvious carrier bag, by virtue of its potential to contain entire worlds. It has room and time to dig deep into the elements it carries. Characters, rooms, colours, moods, memories, a question, a fireplace, 23.00 at night, an iceberg, a song. The elements can be embraced and unfolded in relation to each other in a continuous process.

I am interested in what potential this approach can inspire through the development, production and publishing of the documentary series.