Backsell, Jessica Inez

Jessica conducts her PhD studies at Stockholm School of Economics where she also teaches matters of spatial and legal construction of markets. Her current research concerns the art market’s financialisation. A development which has been well underway for decades and has resulted in a bulk of new services offered such as freeport art storage and NFT-investments. She explores this phenomenon as an infrastructural assemblage drawing upon theories from both classical anthropology and postmodern philosophy.

As a natural extension of the latter two, she has also explored fields of new materialist approaches and spatial theory. More specifically she has focused on exploring how the binary systems we like to enforce in terms of presences and absences or differences and similarities are much more more fleeting than we tend to think. This approach opens up for multiplicity in spatial and temporal constructs and paves the way for new epistemological inquires to be explored through aesthetic and affective methods. These methods in turn can be effective ways to open up new forms of learning and discussions around empathy and ethics. Matters which Jessica engages with in a course on creative writing and social engagement. 

As a long lasting lover and passionate advocate of the transformational power of art, she is also an avid supporter of the young art scene in Stockholm in the role as board member in ISSUES gallery. She also takes part in spurring dialogues between artists and researchers through the SSE Art Initiative.