Steinunn Knúts-Önnudóttir
Malmö Theatre Academy
About me
I am a theatre maker and a PhD student at Malmö Theatre Academy. I have a background as a performer, theatre director, dramaturg and author mainly in Iceland and the Nordic countries. Before starting my artistic research at Lund I worked at the Department of Performing Arts at The University of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland as an artistic leader, teacher and a dean.
About my research project
The title of my PhD project is "How Little Is Enough? - Sustainable Methods of Performance for Transformative Encounters".
Within the project I will explore sustainable methods of creating transformative encounters with an audience through participatory and site-specific artworks, with a particular focus on how minimal and sustainable the framework for the encounter can be.
The project is rooted in my artistic practice of more than 20 years, my degree in theology and most recently my practice as a life coach. Throughout my practice I have been interested in creating a meaningful dialogue with my audience, acknowledging that what they bring to the performance is part of the actual content of the artwork. My aim is to bring these pre-existing participatory practices and sustainable questions into conversation with a wide range of other fields of practice that invite participants to engage with issues related to their own values and give them space to co-create and reflect in ways that lead to potentially transformative and revelatory experiences.
The practice is anchored in a sustainable production ethos and a genuine interest in engaging an audience in a profound dialogue around quality of life.