The Power of Recognition

The Power of Recognition is a 3-year artistic research project investigating how graphic culture shapes human perception and decisions. Surveying the boundary between familiarity and novelty, the project asks: what exactly is the power at play when we recognise something?

The project runs in the period 2025–2027 and involves a variety of research formats as well as an international network of visual practitioners and advisors. By exploring the territory between familiarity and novelty we aim to expand modes of making, while unpacking the idea that aesthetics function not only as surface, but also as our fundamental interface to life.

The first in the field of visual communication to be granted funding by the Swedish Research Council, the project is co-led by professor Johanna Lewengard and affiliated researcher Benedetta Crippa, together with professor Åsa Wikberg-Nilsson.