MOVING / I RÖRELSE: Ray Borg, 30% seminar

In this 30% seminar, Borg examines questions related to film as touch through two embodied practices that are central to the research: queer BDSM and somatic therapy using neurofeedback. The seminar combines film, recorded conversations and live performance. Through these materials, Borg explores how power, attention, feedback and bodily response operate differently in BDSM, therapeutic practice and filmmaking.

A central question is what can, and cannot, be transferred between these practices. In BDSM and neurofeedback, response can be registered and adjusted in real time. In cinema, the filmmaker and the person encountering the work may be separated by both space and time. What happens to questions of control, care and responsibility under these different conditions?

The research moves between three situations: the artist’s own bodily experience, encounters with another person, and encounters that take place through film across time and space. This first presentation is mainly focused on the personal. You are invited into a process usually shared only with close collaborators. Please relate to it, and the people in it, with care and respect.

Read more about the doctoral project

Content and consent

The seminar contains edited recorded conversations with Borg’s collaborators: with psychotherapist Simon Baruch, about neurofeedback and trauma therapy; and with BDSM play partner K, about pain, psychological dominance, shame, fear, explicit sex and play around trigger boundaries. The BDSM live action in the room is limited to boot blacking and needle play, and some blood may be visible. Both are negotiated in advance and done calmly, by people with long experience of these practices, at the pace of the practice. There will be no physical contact with the audience, and no one will be asked to take part in these activities. The audience members can leave or take a break at any time.

Please email Petra Bauer at petra.bauer@uniarts.se if you have questions or concerns.

While questions and critique relevant to the research are encouraged, the seminar speaks from the understanding that BDSM can be a feminist practice. It will not explain BDSM basics or reopen that debate. Please inform yourself if you wish to know more prior to the seminar. One starting point could be the work of American psychotherapist Dossie Easton.

Queer, trans and kink-community members and their allies are warmly welcome. Homophobia and transphobia will not be tolerated.

By attending, you confirm that you have read this note and agree to the ground rules above.

The hybrid performance is created in collaboration with psychotherapist Simon Baruch and Borg’s BDSM play partner K, with technical and BDSM-specific assistance by Madde Edlund. Still image by Ekaterina Lukoshkova. Soundscapes and musical elements originally composed by Katharina Nuttall for the feature film Passion (2021).

Main supervisor: Petra Bauer
Supervisor: So Mayer
Opponent: Jonna Bornemark

Jonna Bornemark is Professor of Philosophy at Södertörn University, where she works at the Department of Culture and Learning and the Centre for Practical Knowledge. Her work in phenomenology and the philosophy of religion has addressed the body and the limits of knowledge, practical knowledge and judgment, the limits of measurability, and pregnancy and embodiment. Her doctoral thesis, Kunskapens gräns, gränsens vetande (2009), is a phenomenological study of transcendence and embodiment, and her book Det omätbaras renässans (2018) is a critique of the dominance of measurement in contemporary society. She also works with “the more-than-human”; her latest book, Vrida världen: De undanträngda (Volante, 2026), is about neurodiversity and our relation to matter. She also writes for the press and appears regularly on radio.

Schedule: 13:00 Welcome and consent (Petra Bauer) · 13:10 Hybrid screening/performance · 14:00 Break · 14:15 Short Q&A with the collaborating participants (Simon Baruch and K), open to the audience · 14:30 Response from discussant, then discussion with Ray · 15:30 Questions from the audience