Metode volume 1: Deep Surface

ROM for kunst og arkitektur are proud to announce the publishing of our first volume of Metode, “Deep Surface: Rethinking Surfaces with Art and Architecture.” The online journal platform Metode was launched spring 2022, and the first open call for experimental essays was announced.

How do we think surfaces today? Are they living membranes, hermetic layers of superficiality, “hyperobjects,” systemic tissues, or something entirely different? How to make visible that which withdraws but still exists all around us, and perhaps with us?

During autumn 2022, thirteen Norwegian and international scholars, curators, artists, and architects have gathered at ROM for kunst og arkitektur; at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design; and online to discuss the status of the surface in our contemporary times. The invited participants share an ambitious and risky research attitude that creatively combines theory and artistic/architectural practice. Participants in Metode’s first volume Deep Surface are Andreas Ervik, Beatrice Zaidenberg, Neda Genova, Marius Moldvær, Severino Alfonso, Loukia Tsafoulia, Jenny Perlin, Adam Hudec, Julie Barfod, Jakob Oredsson, Nick Walkley, and Benjamin Blackwell. In addition, the group has been joined by artists Petrine Vinje and Marte Eknæs who in different ways explore the notion of surface on their current work. 

Sybille Krämer and Tim Ingold have joined the group by sharing and discussing drafts of their keynote essays for Deep Surface. In response to the open call, Krämer has written essay “The Cultural Technique of Flattening” and Ingold has contributed with the essay “The Earth, The Sky and The Ground Between.”

Led by Editor-in-Chief of Metode, Ingrid Halland, the group has engaged in an in-depth and transparent peer-review process with Metode’s Editorial Board and affiliated scholars. Through open-ended discussions, the group has explored the different symbolic, functional, and economic values of surfaces in the age of the Anthropocene. The key focus of the discussions has been, however, method; how do we think surfaces today, both with and through art and architecture?

Metode by ROM for kunst og arkitektur is a gathering place for work- and text-based thinking in art and architecture where the path is more important than the ultimate goal. The publishing plattform works with open, in-depth peer review method. Metode aims to offer theorists and practitioners a discursive platform for generating original and compelling critical thinking on art, architecture, design, and aesthetics that challenges conventional academic publication formats and disseminations. Metode is run by ROM for kunst og arkitektur: Ingrid Halland (editor-in-chief) and Gjertrud Steinsvåg (director). The editorial board for Volume 1 consists of Victoria Bugge Øye, Gustav Jørgen Pedersen, Anna Ulrikke Andersen, Sara Yazdani, Marie-Alix Isdahl and Anders Rubing. Metode is generously supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The word “method”—or in Norwegian, metode—comes from Ancient Greek and means “the way to follow.” In the field of art and architecture, the term refers to the work process behind the work, while in a research context the term refers to the work process behind the research result. Although the term is often associated with precision, planning, and positioning, the term also implies challenges, unpredictability, and a notion of the unknown.