Browsing by Department "Taiteen ja median laitos"
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- Art from Home to School: Towards a Critical Art Education Curriculum Framework in Postcolonial and Globalisation Contexts for Primary School Level in Uganda
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2022) Muyanja, MichaelArt from Home to School is an investigation, which examined various aspects to transform the school curriculum, restore a stronger sense of historical cultural awareness; promote tolerance and cultural diversity through art education at primary school level in Uganda. Art from Home to School argues against censored cultural heritage; earmarked as indigenous art and mother tongue use in primary schools of Uganda. It provides an inquiry into colonial and postcolonial educational policies that promote a Euro centered school curriculum that stresses rote learning, encourages school violence through corporal punishment and ultimately that may result in physical abuse, along with dropping out of school. Further, Art from Home to School attends to other antagonisms in the society and school where the student persists; which cause socioeconomic inequalities and exploitation by reason of globalisation in education. It builds its knowledge base on Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed to transform teaching and learning focused on social change. In it, ethnographic research was used to review art works produced by students as resistance to previously silenced voices and obtained results were used to plan a hypothetical critical curriculum of art education suggesting a captured vision of decolonising reforms. - Art of Research 2023
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa(2023) Laakso, Harri; Pantouvaki, Sofia; Valle Noronha, Julia; Krokfors, Karin; Helke, Susanna; Falin, Priska - Arts of vulnerability. Queering leaks in artistic research and bioart
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2023) Pevere, MargheritaThe dissertation addresses artistic practice that combines the manipulation of organic and living matter with biotechnology (bioart) with a more-than-human theoretical framework of feminist studies, queer studies and environmental humanities. At the heart of the research there are the two bioart works Semina Aeternitatis(2019) and Wombs (2018–2021). Semina Aeternitatis manipulates individual memories through a series of biotechnological procedures and genetic engineering of bacteria. The series Wombs (W.01, W.02, W.03) addresses sex, gender and hormonal contraception from an ecological perspective. I realized both artworks in collaboration with international scientific laboratories.Placing the artworks at its heart makes this dissertation a contribution to the field of artistic research. After giving insights into the realization of the artworks, I offer the two concepts ‘arts of vulnerability’ (AoV) and ‘poetics of uncontainability’ (PoU). These interrelated concepts illuminate different aspects of engaging and making art with unstable, living materials. The concepts emerge as aesthetic instances rooted in the art practice but, through the queer feminist theoretical framework, become ethical and epistemic tools to deal with the more-than-human in unstable times. - Arvioinnin äärellä - Lukion kuvataiteen arviointia ja lukiodiplomia kehittämässä KAARO-hankkeessa
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | D4 Julkaistu kehittämis- tai tutkimusraportti tai -selvitys(2022) Henrika Ylirisku, Elina Härkönen & Jani Vepsä (toim.) - The changing meaning of an urban place
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2022) Sayed, NehaThe meaning of an urban place for a traditional trading community on Ṭapāl Nākā develops in response to the development policies enforced by the government's planning department. The government policies are enforced through artefacts such as maps and reports. The analysis of these artefacts reveals their purpose to control the development. Their operational role also assigns a certain meaning to the place. These policies are adapted to by the community as a post-implementation response. Their concerns are expressed through mobilising trade networks to emphasise the trade practices and property ownership patterns. The ethnographic data of networks and spaces analysed using the collective cultural memory framework of Assmann(1995) reveals the meaning of Ṭapāl Nākā generated by the community. The government is now implementing smart technologies to enforce their regulatory control, strengthening their meaning of Ṭapāl Nākā. The community is already well-versed with technologies such as surveillance cameras connected to smartphones. The Internet of Things (IoT) technology can reinforce the voice of the community addressing their concerns related to development. This is shown by an exemplary design concept for traffic management to be implemented by the community. This design concept which improvises upon the way the community already manages traffic indicates the possibility of enhancing the community's meaning of place. The research contribution lies in presenting an approach to study the meaning of place for design intervention and exploring the role that IoT technology may play in the changing meaning of place. It also contributes to the IoT paradigm by indicating a pro-community approach for technological development. The research contributes to the urban planning discipline by revealing the disparity in the meaning of a place. More immediately, the project contributes to New Media research by highlighting the role of media studies in the developing understanding of IoT. - Clothes, Culture and Crafts - Dress and Fashion among Artisans and Small Shopkeepers in the Danish town of Elsinore 1550–1650
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2023) Sindvald Larsen, Anne-KristineThis dissertation explores the sixteenth and seventeenth-century clothing culture in relation to men and women of artisanal status. It investigates what clothing artisans and their wives wore in everyday lives and on festive occasions and how they connected with contemporary codes of fashion. Based on a study of 294 inventories from the Danish port town of Elsinore from 1573-1650, the dissertation provides a unique insight into what people of lower social status wore. The dissertation is divided into three parts. The first part of the study looks into the most common garments, accessories, materials and colours of their wardrobe, as well as considering what options men and women of lower rank had for acquiring and commissioning clothing. Moreover, it explores how articles of clothing were not only seen as personal items but were used and circulated as an economic currency that could be turned into cash. Part two deals with the more practical sides of clothing and how clothes were used in local society to reveal ambitions and professional achievements. It explores how local artisans in Elsinore wore and produced linen and how they engaged in the processes of laundering and mending their clothes tokeep themselves well-groomed for themselves and for the public. Furthermore,it investigates clothes in relation to work and weather, examining the durability and practical aspects of their wardrobe. Lastly, it shows how clothes mattered socially, professionally and economically in everyday lifeand in public, and how they could be important in relation to one’s future ambitions, rank, reputation and social identity. Part three considers how clothing was used to express status and social ambitions and fashion knowledge at public and festive events. This includes a study of how artisans and their wives wore fine silks, expensive fur and leather as well as costly jewellery and dress ornamentations of gold and silver, to show off their social aspirations. It moreover explores the role of clothing and accessories at festive and social occasions in town, such as weddings and churchgoing, that were also important life events for people of the artisanal levels of society. Lastly, it illustrates how men and women incorporated novelties, small accessories such as hats, stockings and sleeves into their wardrobe, but also fashionable expensive and low-cost clothing items such as trimmings and garments made of materials that mimicked the properties of their superiors. The study aims to demonstrate that fashion and the desire to dress well was not limited to the wealthy elites of the society, but that common skilled artisans such as people working in the textile, metal or wood trades or producing food or services in local society, also used garments made in fine and innovative materials and adorned themselves with accessories and trimmings as a cheaper way of engaging with popular trends. - Encyclopedia of In — Betweenness
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2023) Jensen, AnnaThe dissertation Encyclopedia of In-Betweenness. An Exploration of a Collective Artistic Research Practice presents art as a socially prominent phenomenon that is always in a state of becoming. It suggests that art is on the front line perceiving new emerging ideas and ideologies while it also impacts and creates them. This means that art is obliged to seek what we, in fact, cannot yet know. The thesis has two main research questions. It explores how art can be a way to approach the unknown, and how it can be a tool for societal research and change. By creating art, we create societies. This is an immense task, and this dissertation explores the possibilities and responsibilities of it. Working towards the new always means working with the unknown, being in process and in an in-between state of becoming. To present in-betweenness, processes and becoming - things that are not known to us - new forms and methodologies are needed. Mapping the entanglements of the contemporary art world the thesis provides new perspectives on the relational nature of our being and ends up documenting a turn in the contemporary art world: how collective practices, site-specific and process-led approaches have emerged from the margins to the mainstream. The thesis documents how collective art projects can function as research platforms providing new knowledge and places for encounters. This study, positioned in the field of artistic research, uses exhibition making and curating as methods. By creating a network of varied knowledge, from the analysis of past projects to the diversification of theoretical and philosophical references, this dissertation intends to present how everything is in process and everything is symbiotic. The form of the dissertation – an encyclopedia with taxonomic colour-coding – is part of the methodology. It adds one layer to the domino effect of projects playing with known forms and questions of the unknown. Because artistic research operates with forms and experiences, these methods are part of the mediation: the in-betweenness and process-oriented approach defines the form and reading. The form follows the logic of the over 20 collaborative projects realized by the author during the past ten years presented and analyzed in the thesis. Deconstructing familiar concepts from “biennial” to “world expo” and “encyclopedia” helps to explore the unfamiliar and makes hidden structures visible. The thematically colour-coded entries map the current discourses, but they also point out the hierarchical conception of knowledge itself and the absurdity of taxonomic processes. It leads to the question of control, and the fact that eventually one can never control how something is encountered, experienced, and interpreted. - Estranging Comics - Towards a novel comics praxeology
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)(2022) Manouach, IlanThe industry-wide adoption of digital and network technologies has produced long-lasting and unevenly distributed effects in all the sectors of the comics industry. The globalization of markets and services has profoundly reshaped comics labor. Its effects are economic (the precarization of craftsmanship traditions), social (the rise of entrepreneurial fan culture and the consolidation of increasingly diversified communities with novel forms of amateur and semi-professional activity), technical (the introduction of digital tools for the distribution, the archival and retrieval of media artefacts) and aesthetic (the gradual integration in the production pipeline of AI and synthetic media). As is demonstrated by the recent emergence of radical forms of experimentation documented in the Conceptual Comics media collections of Ubuweb and Monoskop, comic artists are often able to leverage the dependencies of the ever-growing network infrastructure of the comics industry. Nevertheless, these disruptions foreground an epistemic crisis in the understanding of contemporary comics, both in academia and in more traditionally established professional spheres. This thesis embraces an attitude of productive estrangement towards the medium’s forms, material qualities and operations, and constructs comics as a “contemporary object”. According to philosopher Anne-Françoise Schmid, a contemporary object is an extra-disciplinary entity that is massively distributed in space and time. Understanding such an object depends on the increasingly aggregate nature of knowledge production and dissemination in the computational age. Both in theory, with a series of papers in peer-review journals, and in artistic practice, by way of published comics and commissioned curatorial projects, this thesis examines the mutations of the comics ecology as an expansion of the scope of knowledge. It embraces the cumulative impact of digital transformation and articulates a novel comics praxeology predicated on two conditions. First, the thesis appeals for a systematic exploration of comics outside of narrow media purviews, the implicitly disciplinary conceptions, and the dominant historical perspectives in Comics Studies. It aims to develop a conception that embraces a rigorous application ofa non-hegemonic interdisciplinarity in comics research. Second, and most importantly, the thesis argues for the expansion of operational agency on the part of comics professionals. This agency is described as a heightened contextual appreciation of the industry’s infrastructural backend, an awareness of its imbricated institutions and a diversification of the professional toolbox. I argue that a novel comics praxeology is a necessary attribute in order to embrace future, speculative,unclaimed or hitherto impossible forms in comics expression. - Grounded Principles for Open Design Pedagogy - Design Perspectives on Early Years Pedagogy with Digital Technologies
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)(2024) Brinck, JaanaIn the past few decades, researchers have shown growing interest in design in the context of teaching and learning in the 21st century. Accordingly, design has been introduced as a method to implement and develop teaching and learning practices that are more active, evidence-based, and interdisciplinary, as well as to confront real-life situations and problems. Moreover, in the current world, skills and competencies to utilise and benefit from various digital technologies are increasingly important for an individual to fully participate in society. Socialisation into digital media culture starts from an exceedingly early age, and digital environments are an integral part of children's everyday sociocultural environment. Thus, digital tools should be integrated in early years pedagogy. Consequently, this research explores the ways in which pedagogical practices should be designed to apply digital technologies in early childhood design education. The pedagogical dimensions of design practice are investigated in real-life educational context by conducting two design experiments, which highlight participatory design in pedagogical development and focus on developing practices that support the pedagogical use of digital tools and enhance children's participation in their everyday lives. To study the phenomenon, this research project conducted a participatory design process in a kindergarten in the Helsinki area for over one year, entailing 22 workshops involving research participants: teachers, daycare assistants, a pre-service kindergarten teacher, children, and pedagogical specialists. The research process was guided by a grounded theory method in which the aim is a data-driven and open-ended research process, and to actively learn from the interaction and collaboration with the research participants. The research process included three sub-studies that have been reported in three academic publications; in addition, a technology prototype was designed, implemented, and tested—an augmented reality sandbox for early childhood learning. As an overall contribution, this thesis developed grounded principles for open design pedagogy, a set of principles which is called the 4Ts of open design pedagogy. The thesis provides important perspectives on the ways that digital tools should be taken into early years pedagogy in a pedagogically meaningful manner. The main finding of this thesis is that open design pedagogy should foster learning contexts that are designed around the principles of togetherness, tools, trust, and time. - In the Middle of Things : On Researching the Infraordinary
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2024) Coyotzi Borja, AndreaThe infraordinary is a phenomenon first addressed by Georges Perec in his 1975 text Approaches to what? The in-fraordinary is presented in Perec’s text as an awareness and a questioning of things and events happening in our everyday life. These everyday happenings are not qualified as grandiose; but rather, the phenomenon focuses on the significance of the banal, the common, the things we label as ordinary due to their relationship with functionality or their recurrence in our daily lives. Through his work, Perec invites us to question the ordinary, what we encounter in our everyday lives, objects, situations, routines, and things which we have lost contact with when we dismiss them or qualify them as obvious. In this dissertation, I propose the question What is the infraordinary? not as an interrogative subject, but rather to raise the possibility and purposeful search, and re-search, of the phenomenon. This questioning delves into the processes through which the phenomenon becomes visible and inquiries about the dynamics present in this process. This dissertation approaches the questioning in two parts. The first part, In the middle of things, is practice-based research that seeks through 114 fragments to circumvallate the infraordinary and, in the process, determine which features and characteristics of the phenomenon are visible and how. This first part engages with experimental writing with the purpose of having content and form intrinsically woven. It follows the structure of the book Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar, which invites the reader to choose one of the three (or possibly more) orders to read the book. In the same way, the document In the middle of things invites the reader to decide how to engage with it: either linearly from 1 to 114, or by following a suggested order which is found at the beginning of that part, or by free association by moving at random from section to section. The research in this first part follows a way-finding methodology through a selection of concepts such as visibility, gesture, space, everyday life, and experience, among others. Additionally, In the middle of things engages with the two artistic components included in this doctoral research (the exhibition There was no thought, but a thrive for the visibility of something yet to be named in HAM gallery, and the piece What happens when nothing happens exhibited in Huuto gallery), as well as with related methodologies and practices employed by other artists and writers. The second part, On researching the infraordinary, elaborates on a framework of research on the infraordinary and on the work of Georges Perec in Literary studies and Artistic research. On researching the infraordinary also contains a formulation about the artistic research methodology employed in the section In the middle of things. Researching the infraordinary phenomenon brings forward the opportunity to observe and dwell on different facets of everyday life and to re-consider our relationship with our daily lives. In Approaches to what? Perec invites us to question our teaspoons, why? Why is questioning what is found in our pantries useful? What are our pantries saying to us? What do we encounter, and what do the things we find say about our everyday lives, our contexts, the place we live, the supermarkets, the social dynamics, and the politics of it? To inquire about the infraordinary is not an action delimited by the pursuit of an answer but an opportunity to engage with what surrounds us. A chance to take a moment, to look around and discover all that is already there speaking to us. - Mukana kuvassa : valokuvaus vapautuksen käytäntönä
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2024) Söderlund, LiisaSince the 1840s, photography has been used to reveal social inequality. The tradition of social documentary photography has been formed from the photographers attempts to influence the problems prevailing in the surrounding reality, and the participants have also been invited to document their own everyday life and oppressive circumstances. IN THE PICTURE – photography as a practice of liberation deals with participatory photography. In this research, nine people who have experienced homelessness look at homelessness using photography as their tool. The photographs make the topics that are important to the participants visible. When pictures are shown in exhibitions, the purpose is to increase people's awareness of homelessness and to act as a visual counter-speech to the stigmatization caused by homelessness by changing stereotypical perceptions of homeless people. Theoretically, the research is based on the pedagogy of the oppressed by Brazilian educationist Paulo Freire (1921–1997). Freire's thinking is considered one of the theoretical cornerstones of critical pedagogy. In the empirical research, the photographic and discussion material is conceptualized as a practice of liberation with the help of Freire's ideas. This means that photography supports people's participation, cooperation and becoming visible and heard: it is a dialogic and critical awareness-seeking activity. Methodologically, IN THE PICTURE represents rebellious research, i.e. it belongs to those critical studies that take a social stand, where the participants work together with the researcher to achieve a more just world. - The Open Seam On Becoming a Knot with a Storm-sculpted Roof, on Speaking-with from Within
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2022) Lauterbach, Gloria FeliciaThe central notion under exploration in this thesis in the field of artistic research is the cooperation of materials. The thesis is divided into three parts: excavation, exposure and weathering. The three processes enable an engagement with the notion of material cooperation, focusing on site, time and agency. Considering the current time of crises, the study highlights the urgency of re-envisioning the cooperative space between "one" and "other". In this thesis, it is the notion of "a waiting towards and giving room", as voiced by dialogical philosopher Martin Buber, the artmaking of Finnish sculptress Eila Hiltunen, the artist-researcher's own artistic practice, the craft and anecdotes of the artist-researcher's grandfather, as well as the post-anthropocentric concepts of Rosi Braidotti, that invigorate a practice of re-envisioning the in-between. As a site where a shared process of weathering takes place – the artistic component of the doctoral thesis, a sculpture in the form of a storm-sculpted roof based on an actual meteorological event – provides the means for practising and examining the exchange of agency between the artist-researcher herself, an atmospheric condition and copper as the working material. The practice-based methods applied in this thesis – knotting, twining, rehearsing and speaking-with – enable vital bonds between multi-sidedness and multiple temporalities, paving the way for dialogue between various generations, material visions and agents. The thesis contributes to the rethinking of existing material visions. This requires, it claims, a re-contextualisation of approaches to material that took place in the past. It is these notions from the past, unseen, that allow, once excavated, a revival of contemporary notions to regenerate for future applications. In conclusion, the thesis proposes three moments towards a vital material cooperation. 1) Through the methods of knotting and twining, a new encounter takes place that counterbalances the density and inertia of material composition. This first moment requires thinking in a long line and through circular movements. 2) Through rehearsing this new encounter in an ongoing manner, a new memory forms which is called a touchstone in this thesis. This touchstone holds the space temporarily open and guides future encounters. 3) Through speaking-with the cooperating materials in the temporary space, the materials unfold to jointly and actively weather. In this last moment, the space of "one" and "other" becomes a space of the in-between, a space of many. Rather than focusing on knowing and learning, this space foregrounds transformation, experimentation, care and desire. - Ordering the Everyday - Serial photography, repetition and everyday acts
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2024) Timonen, HannaSeriality and the everyday are elusive notions that are nevertheless central to photography. This thesis examines photographic seriality as an artistic practice and a quotidian activity. The everyday is not treated as subject matter to be photographically represented; rather photography is understood as a practice deeply embedded in the experience of everyday life. I argue that in order to understand the ways photographic acts take place in the flow of life, an understanding of photographic seriality is vital. Serial photography is approached both as a conscious artistic method and as a means of open engagement with the world, available to anyone with a camera. The work presents four case studies. Zoe Leonard's Analogue and Dina Kelberman's I'm Google are situated within post-conceptual contemporary art. In the last two chapters I introduce the artist Christina Holmlund's N60°09´2 E24°56´1, a series of photographs that are taken on a daily walk with her dog as well as photographs taken by a local photographer from her window. In these examples, photography aligns with other activities like daily tasks, walking, gathering and preservation. The thesis combines close readings of specific artworks, artistic research and two interviews with photographers. The artistic component includes a solo exhibition at the Photographic Gallery Hippolyte in 2018, as well as two further photographic series that test how a situated practice of serial photography unfolds in daily life. The work draws from a range of reading on conceptual art, history of photography, photography theory and everyday aesthetics, specifically the work of Yuriko Saito. The thesis discusses how immediate perceptions as well as larger phenomena become conceptualised through serial photography. In conceptual art, this happened through conscious experimentation with language, performance, and performative acts: briefs and scores for artworks. In everyday photography, a similar conceptualisation takes place when experiences turn into photographs. However, everyday photography does not lead to articulated concepts or artworks in any simple, institutional sense, but further actions, emotions and gestures of sociability. In this way, everyday photography achieves a merger of art and life not accessed by conceptual art. Instead of a rigid system or order, serial photography can then be viewed as embodied engagement with one's immediate surroundings. Looking at photography in relation to those undertakings that form the basis of everyday experience, the thesis ultimately suggests that serial photography can be approached as supporting activity that is related to preservation, maintenance, and care. - Post-Internet Queer Reproductive Work and The fixed Capital of Fertility: The Interface, the Network and the Viral as Themes and Modes of artistic Response
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2023) Close, RebeccaThis research considers the digital infrastructures and interfaces of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) industry as a depository for human memory and a powerful translation zone where beliefs regarding social and biological reproduction are fashioned today. Offering an innovative take on the dynamic interaction between sexuality and digital technologies, this thesis sets out how queer reproduction struggles, as evidenced in the long history of pathologizing queer parenting structures and the networks of care forged during the HIV/AIDS crisis, are not just a glimmer haunting the IVF-centred heteronormative fertility clinic but structurally linked across the systems of accumulation that order capitalist expansion. The concept of “post-internet queer reproductive work” fuses three scholarly traditions: the study of queer work, theorizations of reproductive labor and the concept of fixed capital. Chapters 1-4 define and mobilise these concepts, suggesting how they interact and inform each other in the context of the financialized fertility market, with a focus on the facial-matching algorithm boom in Spain and European clinic and bank websites. Post-internet queer reproductive work is further elaborated on through close readings of 1970s UK lesbian magazine Sappho, who published poetry and operated as a network for resource sharing across disability, sexuality, race and class struggles, and Gay Gamete (2000), a work of Net Art by U.S artist Clover Leary that protested an FDA protocol regulating gamete donation according to sexuality and sexual practices. Beyond historical examples, the concept of post-internet queer reproductive work attends analytically to the processes through which the social knowledge accumulated in queer reproduction struggles is incorporated as the fixed capital and “digital machines” of the global fertility market. Chapters 5-6 contextualise the artistic dimension of this thesis as it is constituted by an animation film, a Net Art work, a poetry book and ongoing editorial project Them, All Magazine, which brings together poetry, critical writing and Net/Code/Software Art on the subject of reproductive politics and sexuality. Broadly, this research proposes a reclaiming of the interface, network and viral as themes and modes of artistic response to reproductive control. While the interface, network and viral are staple topics in the fields of Software Studies and Visual Studies of the Internet, they have not been a main concern for Feminist Social Reproduction Theory or related studies of assisted reproduction. On the other hand, social reproduction struggles and sexuality have not always been at the center of studies of the interface, the network and the viral. This thesis is an original contribution to the interdisciplinary field of reproduction studies by developing a Queer Marxist perspective on assisted reproduction, fixed capital and reproductive labor –and their intersections– and by presenting post-internet art works and practices as modes of response to reproductive control. Layering critical, sociological, historical, audiovisual, editorial, auto- and poetic gazes, this thesis develops an interdisciplinary mode of “gestural writing” as a method and way of knowing that centres bodily feeling and political becomings. - Quantifying Qualia – Aesthetic Machine Attention in Resisting the Objectifying Tendency of Thought
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)(2024) Okulov, JaanaMy interdisciplinary doctoral thesis Quantifying Qualia – Aesthetic Machine Attention in Resisting the Objectifying Tendency of Thought, conducted at the Department of Art and Media at Aalto University, explores human and algorithmic perception. While language-based approaches are widely developed and utilized in machine learning today, the thesis explores the ethical potential of alternative modes of perception to be manifested in machines and proposes the concept of aesthetic attention to invite perceptual variations from phenomena through how they resonate across the senses. Psychologist Daniel Stern suggests that this dynamic nature of experience, arising from embodiment, represents the earliest stage of development. Consequently, it serves as the primary means for interpersonal communication and also expressing inner experiences later in life. Additionally, affective and aesthetic expressions can be viewed as being rooted in these vitality forms described by Stern. The thesis argues that aesthetically oriented attention has the potential to reorganize perception by delaying the categorical determination of an experience. At the core of my research is the idea that the narrowed cognitive repertoire resulting from perceptual biases can be altered with perceptual strategies aiming to broaden the receptivity for sensory knowledge. My thesis consists of three peer-reviewed articles published in interdisciplinary edited volumes and journals, along with one peer-reviewed unpublished article. These articles redefine philosophical concepts such as aesthetic attention and qualia, making them computable. As a result, a method was developed in interdisciplinary collaboration to generate asemic stimuli algorithmically. This approach also led to the establishment of a research platform that seamlessly integrated both artistic and quantitative research. The artistic conclusion of my thesis is a research process utilizing the platform. During this process, asemic stimuli were annotated with artistic expressions as opposed to the traditional method of using verbal categories for annotating. Multimodal expressions established aesthetic data for a machine attention model to perceive beyond categories. With the research process, I demonstrated how the development of machine learning models that incorporate nonverbal expressions can influence cultures increasingly reliant on algorithmic information processing; future intelligence and ethics are founded on the choices we now make in what is recognized as valuable data. - Reassessing Gombrich’s Theory of Illusion for the 21st Century
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2023) Chernyakevich, BogdanERNST GOMBRICH produced a well-known classic of the so-called “theory of illusion” (Ziska, 2018, p. 2), aiming to tell “the story of art” through its relation with illusion and visua l“schemata.” His famous work, Art and Illusion (1960/2014) gained wide popularity, first appearing in 1960 and continuing to be republished until today. This has created a paradox: on the one hand, readers and modern thinkers are interested in Gombrich’s writings (Hopkins, 2003; Lopes, 2005; Veldeman, 2008; Tullmann, 2016), but on the other, they do not use his concepts to evaluate the processes occurring in today’s social, ontological, and artistic domains. Indeed, the question of artistic skill has been significantly relegated to a secondary position in the modern debate, while the notions of ideas, manifests, and concepts have come to the fore (Haftmann et al., 1965, p. 203). Moreover, we have witnessed a transformation from “the human of skill” and limited capabilities into “the human of concepts” and expansion, where self-acting technologies work for our good (or bad). Take, for example, deepfakes, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). For good reason, the contemporary philosopher Chiara Bottici (2019) warns us that there is a significant reliance on perception and image-type representations by public society, so much so that losing grasp of real things is a potential danger. In this regard, is it wise to set aside Gombrich’s ideas and perceive them exclusively as a relic of their time, or have we just not yet found the right place for them in the current debates? Did Gombrich detect some deeper meanings than just the reinterpretation of art history through the lens of the illusional and solving the “riddle of style”? In order to answer these questions, this research reassesses Gombrich’s Theory of Illusion with regard to the techno-social and political environment of today’s image-making. By detecting and building connections between the ideas of Gombrichand contemporary philosophers of mind, it is hoped that we will be better equipped to attend to the novel features of the art world and its practices which have emerged in a post-computational society. It appears that we may have already reached a world in which the gap between image and nature is collapsing, leaving us hanging in uncertainty. This is a world in which the differences between the imaginable, illusional, abstract, and real are significantly more complex and blurred. That is why it is essential and crucial to address this very question now, especially when any idea is dependent on representation and at the same time is complicated by imaginal spaces, imaginal objects, and imaginal politics. - Reciprocal Drawing: Bodies’ Co–dependence and Direct Contact in Performance Drawing
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2023) Karasch, AgnieszkaReciprocal Drawing is an original method of collaborative practice situated within the field of performance drawing. In Reciprocal Drawing, two collaborators draw in the frame of reciprocal partnering strategy, which imposes uninterrupted co–dependence and contact between their bodies. The practice is carried out within two additional frames: the repertoire of actions and the score (rules and diagrams). Although these frames have been applied before, this research further jointly develops them to tackle challenges emerging from application of reciprocal strategies in drawing. The combination of frames facilitates co–exploration of reciprocal strategies’ potential for the medium. Supported by the frames, the collaborators devise complex reciprocal processes resulting in products that reflect ambiguous and nuanced human relations. The developed Reciprocal Drawing aims to extend conventional drawing by underlining the medium’s bodily–reciprocal, social potential. As an artistic research, the study focuses on Reciprocal Drawing processes and products as sources of embodied knowledge and explores the opportunities which they bring for drawing. As a phenomenological research, the study explores the embodied, relational–social dimension of Reciprocal Drawing. This is done by discussing the drawing–based experimentation conducted first solo by the researcher and then in duo form with collaborating artists. In the solo phase, the repertoire of actions was formed based on Laban Movement Analysis (LMA), a system of codified vocabulary used in understanding human movement. LMA helped the researcher to systemize and adapt body actions to the conditions of drawing in contact with the two–dimensional horizontal plane. In the collaborative phase, two strategies were identified as establishing the bodies’ co–dependence: rope–binding, originally used by Tehching Hsieh in his One Year Performance. Rope Piece (1983–84) and point–of–contact, the principle of Contact Improvisation dance. The use of rules and diagrams in the co–experiments links them to the 1970s practices of the Fluxus artists. In the reflection following the experimentation, LMA was also utilized to establish links between the complex reciprocal dynamics, the finalized drawings, and the mental states that accompanied their co–production. This aided the evaluation of the emerging opportunities. Phenomenological research theoretically guided the project allowing description, analysis, and thematic interpretation of the artist–researcher’s experience of the process to be verbalized. Following Merleau–Ponty’s philosophy, the embodied, expressive and dialogic character of Reciprocal Drawing is underlined as is its products’ capacity to be a source of self–knowledge for the creators. Additionally, with a support of theoretical perspectives in art and performance Reciprocal Drawing is identified as enabling co–exploration of physicality. Further, Reciprocal Drawing processes are presented as finely reflecting the social and relational aspect of human life: Defined as play, Reciprocal Drawing reveals its subversive, transformative and solidifying function, it renders possible learning new approaches to drawing. Finally, in this thesis Reciprocal Drawing is recognized as a postconsensual practice, where the engaged artists deliberately generate embodied conflict and co–explore its benefits without posing a threat to each other’s integrity. This is supported with the ethics derived from Jean–Luc Nancy’s and Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophies whose thinking is also employed to acknowledge Reciprocal Drawing as evoking loss, self–limitation and responsibility for the other. - Synthesizing Art and Science - A Collaborative Approach to Understanding Intergroup Relations and Contributing to Social Change
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)(2024) Amir, EinatThis thesis examines the vital role artists can play in shaping individuals and societies, emphasizing art as an impactful force that can foster a more inclusive, empathetic world. It explores the concept of synthesizing art and science, suggesting that equal collaborations between these fields can yield innovative solutions to contemporary 'Wicked' problems. This thesis is situated within the interdisciplinary domains of socially engaged research, ArtScience, and artistic research, with a special focus on the relationships between participatory performance art and social psychology. This research agenda is composed of both the written and artistic components. It presents an analysis of innovative ArtScience interdisciplinary research methods and hinges on the role and efficacy of art, from collective transformation to personal engagement. Component 1 responds to why there exists a need for equal collaborations between scientists and artists, and how such collaborations could contribute to society. Underlining that artists are needed more than ever during challenging times, this study advocates for their crucial integration into all societal and environmental change initiatives. Component 2 shows empirical evidence from multiple studies of how the synthesis of art and science, specifically performance art with social psychology, contributes to improving prosocial behaviors by elevating empathy towards individuals from marginalized groups in different societies. Component 3 presents a tangible example of the synthesis of a social psychology field experiment with participatory performance art. As an artwork rather than an academic article, this component offers an opportunity for experiential understanding through direct emotional and aesthetic engagement, as opposed to merely analytical comprehension. Finally, component 4 illuminates the significance of art for the individual self, positioning narrative-based art as a safe space for emotional exploration, devoid of real-life social consequences. Drawing upon the dynamic interplay between scientific research and artistic practice, this thesis positions research as the confluence between theory and practice, unearthing new knowledge. The synthesis of art and science in collaborative ventures offers enormous possibilities for innovative research. Beyond this, it has a multifaceted impact—it can educate, influence, and evoke change in individuals and societies in multiple ways. - Working as an artist as part of participatory landscape conservation
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2023) Heino, MarjoTaiteellinen väitöstutkimukseni käsittelee taiteilijatyön merkityksiä kuvataiteilija-ammatin laajentuessa ja hybridisoituessa. Tutkimukseni kehyksenä on Kokemäenjokeen ja sen moniin erilaisiin yhteisöihin ankkuroitunut hanke 2017–2019. ”Kokemäenjokilaakson maaseudun kulttuuriympäristön yhteisöllinen suojelu ja taiteellinen kehittäminen” -hanketta hallinnoi Turun yliopisto ja rahoitti Koneen säätiö. Toimin hankkeen taiteilija-tutkijana ja samalla maaseututaiteilijana, tehtäväni oli koordinoida yhteisölliset taideprosessit, mutta omien teosten tekeminen oli myös mahdollista. Hankkeessa työparinani toimi maisemantutkimuksen asiantuntija Turun yliopistosta. Hankkeen ytimessä oli Kokemäenjokilaakson asukkaiden ja yhteisöjen kuuleminen kulttuurikartoituksen avulla. Tavoitteena oli pureutua yhteisöjen asukkaiden jokapäiväiseen jokimaisemakokemukseen ja taiteen avulla synnytettiin työskentelytapojen yhdistelmiä, jota kutsumme yhteisölliseksi maisemansuojeluksi. Suojelumääritelmä pohjaa tässä hankkeessa asukkaiden jokapäiväisiin jokikokemuksiin ja arvoihin. Yhteisöllisestä taiteellisesta työskentelystä nousi kysymyksiä, joihin taiteilijana halusin löytää vastauksia. Tutkimuksen painopiste kääntyi prosessin aikana kohti taiteilijoiden välistä työskentelyä, yhteisyyttä. Tarkastelen taidetta ja taiteilijana työskentelyä omasta kokemuksestani käsin fenomenologisessa viitekehyksessä, aineistona käytän taideprojektien prosesseissa syntyneitä teoksia, näyttelyitä, päiväkirjamerkintöjä, taiteilijahaastatteluja ja rinnastan niitä taidefilosofioihin. Filosofi Emmanuel Levinasin vastuu toisesta nousi tärkeimmäksi filosofiseksi näkökulmaksi. Tutkimuksen taideprojektikuvauksissa pyrin avaamaan hankkeessa toteutetun taiteen ydintä, sen keskeistä olemusta. Selvitän sanojen ’häiriö’, ’kokemus’, ’dialogi’, ’yhteisö’ ja ’toinen’ merkityksiä. Taiteilijoiden yhteisyyttä pohdin vuoropuhelussa viiden taiteilijan kanssa. Tutkimuksen taiteelliset osat muodostuvat kahdesta kuratoimastani yhteisnäyttelystä, valikoiduista teoksista sekä hankkeen toteutuneista taideprosesseista. Maailmassa-näyttely oli esillä Vuojoen kartanon Galleria Gylichissä ja puistoalueella 7.6.–17.8.2018. Se nosti esiin taiteilijoiden käsityksiä maisemasta ja luontohuolesta. Joki-näyttely Porin taidemuseossa oli esillä 7.6.–11.8.2019. Näyttelyssä viisi taiteilijaa pohti teoksissaan Kokemäenjokilaakson maisemaa, sen maisema-arvoja, jokeen kiinnittyviä identiteettejä ja yhteisöllisyyttä. Taiteen ja taiteilijatyön ansiota oli kokemuksellisuus ja laajan yhteistyö verkoston rakentuminen, taiteen myötä tavoitettiin yhteisöt ja kasvatet tiin yhteisöllisyyttä. Johtopäätöksenä kannustan muita hybridihankkeita luottamaan taiteilijoiden ja taiteen kykyyn syventää prosesseja. Tutkimus merkityksellistää taiteilijoiden työtä osana yhteistyöhankkeita. - The Teaching of drawing in higher arts education — Articulating the practitioners’ orientations
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)(2024) Nurminen, MarjaIt is my experience of working with drawing in higher arts education since 1998 that has driven this research. During these years, I have been occupied with the significances of drawing as a part of growing up as an artist. This is why the focus of my doctoral research project is on exploring the teaching of drawing in two art universities, one in Finland and the other in Sweden. The main research question is: What kind of orientations do the practitioners have towards drawing and the teaching of drawing? Even if drawing is understood as an important and integral component of an artist’s education, the significance and value of drawing have not been articulated properly. The research touches upon two areas: higher arts education and drawing. The theoretical framework I am using is Keijo Räsänen’s notion of academic work as practical activity (2009). In the research question, I refer to orientations, which are, according to Räsänen, how to do it (tactical), what to accomplish (political), why do it in this way (moral) and who to become (personal). The methodological approach draws from “at-home ethnography”, which was developed by Mats Alvesson (2003, 2009). As he states, it is a method especially suited for studying universities and higher educational institutions in which you yourself work. I am focusing on a particular strand of at-home ethnography which I call at-home interviews. The data consist of twelve interviews with six artists/designers and university teachers from Sweden and six others from Finland. The data collection method I have chosen is expert interviews with artefacts, i.e. the interviewees had the chance to bring one to three drawings or documentations of drawings to the interviews, and we also discussed the drawings. One of my goals in this research is to demystify the teaching of drawing and the tacit knowledge which it contains by articulating it. In so doing, the research produces a description of the values and beliefs about drawing in higher arts education, supporting those who are responsible for designing content and curricula for higher arts and design education.