Browsing by Author "Anttila, Vera"

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    Drifting with yellow attention to cups – a hydrofeminist visual essay on an artistic process as a figuration
    (2021) Anttila, Vera; Haapalainen, Riikka; art; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Ylirisku, Henrika
    'drifting with yellow attention to cups' started as an artistic practice in 2018 as picking up discarded yellow single-use cups from the streets to pay attention to discarded things and beings. The open-ended process drifted into forming yellow ceramic cups based on the design of the single-use cups. By reading posthuman feminist theories, especially by Astrida Neimanis, while sailing in the Finnish archipelago, it drifted the artistic practice with yellow cups closer to watery themes. This feminist artistic research is a visual essay, where images and writing are juxtaposed to map an artistic process from the middle through a hydrofeminist lens. The main aim of the thesis is to reflect on what drifting with yellow attention to cups does by being a visual essay. This thesis is situated at the crossing of contemporary art, posthuman feminism and Finnish Environmental Art Education. The visual essay is divided into an introduction, two essays, one poem and an epilogue, that are in dialogue with the archive of the artistic practice with the yellow cups. The essay 'figuring drifting with yellow attention to cups' is divided into three parts to elaborate on this artistic process as a posthuman feminist figuration. Firstly, the yellow cups are written as containers with the help of 'Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction' by author Ursula K. Le Guin and artist/researcher Özgü Gündeşlioğlu’s embodied practice with clay. Secondly, the yellow cups are written in relation to Astrida Neimanis’ figuration bodies of water. Thirdly, the artistic process with the yellow cups is linked to (un)intentional drifting beyond terracentricism and the unfinished conceptual performance on disappearance, In Search of the Miraculous, by artist Bas Jan Ader. In the essay 'feminist artistic research', different methods and maritime cartographic layout choices are mapping the drift of the process. Methods include walking with a pocket camera, taking snapshots with a phone, poetical writing with fiction and graphical design. Especially the uneven forms of the pinched yellow ceramic cups and the letters in the word cup, have been material metaphors to form the map of the artistic process. The poem 'drifting with yellow attention to c, u and p' is a fictional maritime map as an at-tempt to portray the anxious emotions on drifting with the yellow cups in the times of climate change crisis. The format of a poem is chosen to highlight the space between words as a fluid surface of thoughts and affects encountered during this process. The fictive setting of the poem tracks the drift of a sailing vessel in a yellow cup across the depth curves of c, u and p. The epilogue addresses that in order to embody posthuman feminist knowledges in one’s artistic research, there is an urgent need for more longitudinal, interdisciplinary and collaborative ways and methods of meaning-making. This feminist artistic research may run a risk of navel gazing and emphasise Eurocentric art concepts. Mapping from the middle, fiction and poetry can serve as methods to narrate an artistic process in a more entangled and intersectional way.
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    Enter the Ultimate Empathy Machine – a case study on empathy in virtual reality (VR) documentary
    (2019) Anttila, Vera; Tuovinen, Taneli; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Tuovinen, Taneli
    The case study is focused on mapping possibilities and challenges with calling documentary virtual reality (VR) an empathy machine. The VR documentary Clouds Over Sidra is chosen due to its availability, connection to the media artist Chris Milk’s viral TED-talk about VR being an empathy machine and personal interest. What kind of challenges and possibilities are connected to calling virtual reality (VR) documentary an empathy machine? The theory is based on literature review of articles found online by using the Boolean search-method in the search engines Google Scholar and Finna: Virtual reality, empathy, virtual reality AND empathy, virtual reality AND documentary, empathy machine AND documentary, virtual reality AND empathy AND documentary. First, the background of Clouds Over Sidra is reviewed with other similar and recently produced VR documentaries, that are addressing empathy representation and the Syrian refugee crisis through children’s perspectives. Second, the VR technology connected to Clouds Over Sidra will explained and outcomes on empathy-related research of VR will be reported. Third, the media analysis of Clouds Over Sidra will be reflected through the theoretical framing on presence, representation and ethics. The outcome of the study is that representational and ethical dilemmas became evident as challenges for VR as an empathy machine, because the generalized rhetoric doesn’t take in consideration the diversity of the represented, the hidden agendas of the producers and the biases of the users. Neither does it question the power-relationship between the producers and the represented subjects nor the newness and hype of the medium VR. VR documentaries could serve as an educational tool for creating a deeper understanding of the distant other combined with discussions and workshops. There is also promising research about positive effects on empathy and presence through first-person perspective-taking in VR, but it needs more longitudinal research.