[diss] Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu / ARTS

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    Grounded Principles for Open Design Pedagogy - Design Perspectives on Early Years Pedagogy with Digital Technologies
    (Aalto University, 2024) Brinck, Jaana; Leinonen, Teemu, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, Finland; Kallio-Tavin, Mira, Prof., University of Georgia, USA; Adjunct Professor Aalto University, Finland; Taiteen ja median laitos; Department of Art and Media; Learning Environments Research Group; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Leinonen, Teemu, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, Finland
    In 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.
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    Ilmastoitu ? moderni : Sisäilman hallinta sotien jälkeisessä toimistoarkkitehtuurissa
    (Aalto University, 2024) Linnanmäki, Seija; Niskanen, Aino, Prof. Emerita, Aalto University, Department of Architecture, Finland; Michelsen, Karl-Erik, Prof., LUT University, Finland; Arkkitehtuurin laitos; Department of Architecture; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Savolainen, Panu, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Architecture, Finland
    Buildings account for nearly 40 % of our final energy consumption today. The biggest single user of energy is air-conditioning (AC) with a remarkable 10–15 % proportion of the total amount. Exact quality of indoor climate is a characteristic feature of 20th Century modern architecture. The social, political, economic, hygienic, aesthetic and cultural objects of AC had significant values for 20th Century modern architecture. Air conditioning has been enhanced for beneficial reasons such as healthy, work efficiency, thermal comfort, convenience, and energy efficiency of buildings. However, AC increases the use of electricity and has a negative impact on global warming and climate change. This study discusses the processes of design and building work in terms of the three main elements of the Theory of Social Practices, materia, competence and meanings. To analyse the role of air-conditioning in modern architecture, materia, I chose two case study buildings, built in Helsinki, Finland 1949–1953: the Head Quarters for the Industrial Centre (architects Viljo Rewell and Keijo Petäjä) and Voimatalo commissioned by Imatran Voima Oy (architect Aarne Ervi). At this time, mechanical ventilation was considered obligatory for office buildings, whereas natural ventilation, a traditional Finnish method of ventilation, was not permitted. The early stages of air-conditioning and Modern Movement architecture before the World War II form a background for the analyses of the competence and co-operation between architects and new profession of HVAC-engineers. The study was comprised of contemporary and research literature, archives of relevant companies and the Museum of Finnish Architecture as well as building archeological observations from the architectural and technical point of view. Office rooms in the Industrial Centre were air-conditioned by famous American Carrier Conduit Weathermaster System. The first large deployment of this type in Europe, was recommended by HVAC-engineer Torsten Kranck who visited building sites of New York skyscrapers in 1950. The air-conditioning industry for thermal comfort and convenience started in 1953 after a licensing agreement between the Carrier Corporation, Syracuse, New York and the State Metal Works and Aircraft Factory, Tampere, Finland was signed. The meanings of new technology were highlighted due to the Carrier Units imported to Finland at a time of depression, currency regulations and war reparations to Soviet Union. The third part of this study encourages people to find ways for buildings and occupants to work together in support of sustainable living and the mitigation of climate change. The demand for easy life and all-year convenience has resulted in energy-consuming world where better energy efficiency is pursued by new, even more electricity using technology with poor material efficiency as Elizabeth Shove has highlighted. People are more tolerant of thermal conditions than the ASHRAE Standard static model suggests. We need to try instead behavioural, physiological and psychological adaptation of the Adaptive Thermal Comfort model created by Fergus Nicol, Michael Humphreys and Susan Roaf.
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    Ordering the Everyday - Serial photography, repetition and everyday acts
    (Aalto University, 2024) Timonen, Hanna; Kella, Marjaana, Prof., Academy of Fine Arts, The University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland; Lehtinen, Sanna, Dr., Aalto University, School Common ARTS, Finland; Taiteen ja median laitos; Department of Art and Media; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Laakso, Harri, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, Finland
    Seriality 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. 
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    In the Middle of Things : On Researching the Infraordinary
    (Aalto University, 2024) Coyotzi Borja, Andrea; Paenhuysen, An, PhD, independent curator and writer, Berlin; Taiteen ja median laitos; Department of Art and Media; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Laakso, Harri, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, Finland
    The 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.
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    Mukana kuvassa : valokuvaus vapautuksen käytäntönä
    (Aalto University, 2023) Söderlund, Liisa; Salo, Merja, Prof., Aalto-yliopisto, Suomi; Kantonen, Lea, Prof., Taideyliopisto, Suomi; Suoranta, Juha, Prof., Tampereen yliopisto, Suomi; Taiteen ja median laitos; Department of Art and Media; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Laakso, Harri, Prof., Aalto-yliopisto, Department of Art and Media, Suomi
    Since 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.
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    Finnish Architects in China : Discourses and Practices
    (Aalto University, 2023) Zhao, Yizhou; Nieto Fernandez, Fernando, Tampere University, Finland; Arkkitehtuurin laitos; Department of Architecture; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Sanaksenaho, Pirjo, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Architecture, Finland
    The expansion of globalization in the architecture industry has primarily changed the methods architects use and the organizational structures of architectural firms. Nowadays, international architectural offices that have advanced design capabilities are working globally. Finnish contemporary architecture has constructed its own identity while engaging extensively in international architectural designs. This doctoral dissertation focuses on the practices and discourses of Finnish architects in China and how Finnish architects have participated in the rapid wave of urbanization since China’s economic reform. Sino-Finnish projects bridge Finnish architectural designs, which is a paradigm of the Scandinavian design tradition. China, with a culture significantly different from Finland, is a fast-developing economy where numerous transnational architectures have occurred and more are expected to take place in the future. The primary research question is: How may Finnish architecture—an architectural tradition often associated with Finland’s identity and imagination—reconcile with the Chinese context at the level of practice and discourse? This research consists of several parts. First, the study investigates the backgrounds China brings to international architects and what China expects from them. Given the geopolitical, social development, and cultural differences between China and the West, Finnish architects in China are often situated in a context where discourses oppose and compete, which inevitably influences architects’ practices and discourses. Meanwhile, China continues to have close exchanges with the outside world in cultural and economic fields. Finnish architects have developed new works based on their design philosophies and methods, considering the Chinese urban scale and demands. Also, the study seeks to understand how Finnish architects construct interpretive discourses in a differentiated cultural background and critically analyze the strengths and limitations of these discourses. By analyzing the networks that conduct transnational architectural designs, this study seeks to understand how Finnish architects realize their buildings through collaborative partnerships involving multiple parties, including Finnish architects and local Chinese design institutes. Finally, this research uses a comprehensive case study to illustrate Finnish architects’ ways of reconciling their ideas based on a specific context and how differentiated circumstances have influenced their designs. This dissertation employs a combined approach of discourse analysis and case studies, drawing from diverse sources including interviews, literature surveys, and original documents. It encompasses interviews with architects from Finland and China, analyzing various documents such as drawings, communication records, and meeting minutes. The study spans architectural competition proposals to completed projects and enhances understanding of recent developments in Finnish architecture and globalized architectural design by examining design thinking, social contexts, design execution, and cross-cultural interactions.
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    Unimagined Spatial Performativity in three Scenographic Assemblages
    (Aalto University, 2023) Raya Mejía, Mónica; Loukola, Maiju, Dr., University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland; Elokuvataiteen laitos; Department of Film; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Pantouvaki, Sofia, Dr., Aalto University, Dept. Film, Television and Scenography, Finland
    My research presents a philosophical retrospective report and analysis of accidental aesthetic encounters with unimagined scenographic performativity. The aim is to point at the aesthetic potential of the ephemeral in the construction-rehearsal processes of scenography and to what I present as evanescent spatialities. Conceptualizing the unimagined spatial performativity aims to aesthetically appreciate the most ordinary, incidental scenographic assemblages that display their brief performativity away from the gaze of a conventional public. Evanescent spatialities are not necessarily or primarily designed by human agents, nor are they conditioned to "exist" by the presence of a human performer or human audiences; rather, they occur autonomously and spontaneously and may be discovered or provoked by the act of playing. I took a feminist post-human approach to understanding that scenographies work as human and nonhuman assemblages and that bodies in space are always performing their own agenda. My research exposes an intimate and authorized visual archive that makes my photographic and video work an expansion of my practice. I envision that scenographers will continue to expand the discipline by exploring the world beyond anthropocentrism and the capitalism of the humanmade. My study performs my conviction that a scenographer can also act as a philosopher and as a political activist.
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    Beautiful Rotten Tehran - Multi-Sensory Artistic Research on Contemporary Urban Design in Tehran (Pardis Phase 11)
    (Aalto University, 2023) Mousavi, Ali; Taiteen laitos; Department of Art; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Kallio-Tavin, Mira, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, Finland
    Beautiful Rotten Tehran is a multi-sensorial enquiry into a specific location close to the city of Tehran, Iran, called Pardis Phase 11. This is accomplished by employing visual and acoustemological methodologies as research tools for observing and analysing architecture and urban design. In this regard, this research is an attempt to observe, study and analyse the process of urbanisation in Iran, specifically the housing construction in the Pardis Phase 11 suburbs of Tehran. The interest in the sensory dimensions of Pardis Phase 11 serves as the starting point for this multi-sensory research. The project employs sensorial methodologies such as acoustemology and cartography to investigate the area and urban transformations caused by concepts such as 'modernisation', 'development', 'progress' and 'globalisation'. The work evolves through a large collection of media content in the form of field recordings, photographs and collages made at the Pardis Phase 11 site. The main objectives of the research are a) to contribute towards critical spatial practices that are operating in the spaces between artistic research and urban design, and b) gain new knowledge and understanding of the social aspects and sensory experience of urban and built form (placemaking) in Tehran, Pardis Phase 11. In this research I offer Critical Regionalism as a possible solution to the issues related to Pardis Phase 11 and the research questions. A historical study is also presented to have a better understanding of past values. I also create comparative images of Before, Now and the Future, which resonates with the principles of Critical Regionalism. A chapter on nature embarks on the enormous task of dismantling the concept of nature in the context of urban space. In doing so, I have chosen a religious perspective as the point of departure, as religion is an ancient social concept that has been influential in most societies. Then, after dismantling the religious and philosophical concept of nature, I intend to construct a foundation for understanding urban space in continuation and in relation to the concept of nature. These are necessary steps to create a context for analysing, interpreting and understanding the changes happening in the city of Tehran, in particular the project of Pardis Phase 11.
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    Talot pysyvät, ihmiset vaihtuvat : Sosialistisen yhteiskunnan rakentaminen entisessä suomalaisessa Kurkijoen kirkonkylässä Neuvostoliitossa
    (Aalto University, 2023) Böök, Netta; Knapas, Rainer, FL, fi l. tri h.c., Finland; Niskanen, Aino, Prof. emerita, Aalto University, Finland; Shikalov, Yuri, FT, Finland; Arkkitehtuurin laitos; Department of Architecture; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Savolainen, Panu, Assist. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Architecture, Finland
    The study examines the construction of a socialist society from an architectural point of view in the former Finnish settlement of Lopotti in the municipality Kurkijoki as part of the Karelian-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic after the territorial cessions of Finland following the Winter War (1939–1940) and the Continuation War (1941–1944). It sheds light on the norms, goals and principles of construction and planning in the rural areas of the Soviet Union, both at the time of the cessions and later on, which also determined the shaping of the former Finnish territories after the wars. As a subject of study, Lopotti or, since the cessions, Kurkijoki, off ers rare opportunities to examine the fates of buildings representing foreign culture within the context of a new state, because almost all the buildings of the pre-war period have been exceptionally well preserved, both through the wars and the Soviet era. Sovietisation meant bringing all aspects of society under the direction and control of the Communist Party and a complete change of population. The restructuring of the countryside was guided by the division between industrial and military twns and rural areas created in the 1920s, and by the classifi cation of collective farms and the ideal of the collective village created in the 1930s. The Finnish buildings were exploited as a resource, hybridised or adapted to the needs of socialism, both in terms of their function and architecture.After Finland temporarily retook the area in 1941, it was returned to Finnish normalcy, that is, dehybridised. After the cession of territory in autumn 1944, the process of sovietisation was repeated. For Kurkijoki, however, sovietisation did not bring about the modernisation of living conditions and society in the same sense as in post-revolutionary Russia; on the contrary, compared to the Finnish period, its material development stagnated or even took a step backwards. Thanks to the rare survival of its built environment, the Kurkijoki settlement also provides an exceptional starting point for examining the cultural encounter or clash and the reception of the buildings of a foreign culture within a new state context amidst the process of Sovietisation and after the reconquest in 1941. Many factors infl uenced the way in which this building resource was dealt with in the Soviet Union, especially the position of the individual in a socialist society, the ambivalent attitude of the authorities, the blurring of the Finnish history of the area and rootlessness. Nevertheless, the case of Kurkijoki shows that even buildings of a foreign culture with contradictory connotations can be extensively hybridised when, at the same time, they are cleansed of culturally or ideologically alien features. However, it may be diffi cult or take several generations to incorporate such a resource into the national building heritage. In the Soviet Union, the Kurkijoki settlement had the status of the local and central village of the Kurkijoki sovkhoz, for which an extensive town and building plan was drawn up in 1975 in line with the then current ideal of an agrotown. However, by the time of the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the plan had only been implemented to a limited extent and ultimately, in the postsocialist period, there was no longer any justifi cation for the implementation of the Kurkijoki urban development plan. The pre-war building stock in the actual settlement survived the Soviet era almost intact. On the Soviet scale, the case of the Kurkijoki settlement is just one example of the failure of rural modernisation and urbanisation. The large-scale plans did not match the available fi nancial resources, and the rigid and hierarchical administrative system did not really allow for the specifi cities of the local building tradition and the use of local resources.
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    Reciprocal Drawing: Bodies’ Co–dependence and Direct Contact in Performance Drawing
    (Aalto University, 2023) Karasch, Agnieszka; Rouhiainen, Leena, Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland; Suominen, Anniina, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Finland; Taiteen ja median laitos; Department of Art and Media; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Suominen, Anniina, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art, Finland
    Reciprocal 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.
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    Encyclopedia of In — Betweenness
    (Aalto University, 2023) Jensen, Anna; El Baroni, Bassam, Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, Finland; Taiteen ja median laitos; Department of Art and Media; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Laakso, Harri, Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, Finland
    The 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.
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    Spaces of Embodiment - A practice-based investigation towards a new design typology for urban public spaces
    (Aalto University, 2023) Dlabáč, Veronika; Hodson, Elise, Dr., Aalto University, Finland; Muotoilun laitos; Department of Design; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Julier, Guy, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Design, Finland
    Spaces of Embodiment examines how citizens can experience intimacy, embodiment and spirituality in the radically changing city. The research is situated within the fields of design and architecture, and it derives from a personal quest for a public space that enhances spiritual and embodied behaviour in a highly urbanised society. This thesis investigates the meanings and practices of contemporary, Western embodied experience, leading to a new design typology through practice-based research. It addresses the questions: What are the features of a new typology of 'spaces of embodiment' in the urban context? How can knowledge of the embodied experience inform the design of public space? The research builds on my previous training as a visual artist and placemaker. It involves a critical analysis of contemporary cities related to digitalisation and disembodiment. It brings together innovative examples through architectural art projects such as Cultural Sauna (Kulttuurisauna, Helsinki) and King's Cross Pond (London) that offer new ways of looking at multifunctional public spaces in contemporary cities, but also rural areas such as Therme Vals (Vals, Switzerland) in relation to art and the notion of the body. The aim of this practice-based thesis is to make a contribution to knowledge within and beyond academia, via an art practitioner's lens, by creating a design typology for 'spaces of embodiment'. Research methods included: a literature review of theory focusing on the digital revolution, extreme urbanisation, secularisation, disembodiment, and lack of spirituality and the sacred; qualitative research through interviews with experts from the fields of visual arts, theology, urban studies, architecture and spirituality; three case studies (King's Cross Pond, London; Kulttuurisauna, Helsinki and Therme Vals in Switzerland) researched through the method of autoethnography; and practice-based explorations leading to practical design outcomes. New knowledge was sought through inductive modes of practice with the development of new types of public space. The findings of this research project concentrate on how the knowledge of embodied experience can inform the design of a new typology of 'spaces of embodiment'. The typology proposes spaces that augment, enhance, or intensify embodied experience and can work well in urban areas, and the collaborations produce various practice-based outcomes (images, visualisations, pictograms, summary of materials and practical applications) consisting of characteristics of a new design typology. A new approach is proposed to grouping, that defines the spatial requirements of public spaces and buildings not through technical specificities, dimensions and scales but rather through human experience focusing on senses, embodied thoughts, feelings and habits.
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    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
    (Aalto University, 2023) Close, Rebecca; Taiteen ja median laitos; Department of Art and Media; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Kallio-Tavin, Mira, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, Finland
    This 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.
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    Intuitive Design Workflows - Investigating the Feedback Cycles Between Physical and Digital Processes
    (Aalto University, 2023) Gulay, Emrecan; Kotnik, Toni, Prof., Aalto University, Finland; Muotoilun laitos; Department of Design; Embodied Design Group (EDG); Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Hyysalo, Sampsa, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Design, Finland
    Digital technologies have transformed the design process in various disciplines, including architecture. Architects now use digital tools not only for mundane tasks but also for creative processes. However, some conventional analog methods such as sketching and model-making have lost their prominence in the digital era. This thesis investigates the role of physical and digital techniques in the initial design stages and examines the feedback cycles of conception, revision, and evaluation. The main objectives are to understand architects' current experiences, test the feedback cycles via tangible research prototypes, and propose approaches to create intuitive design workflows. The thesis consists of three peer-reviewed articles that document the three main processes of the research. The first article is a literature review that defines the scope of the investigation. The second article introduces an exploratory design process based on Research Through Design (RtD) methodology. The last article presents contextual and online interviews with practicing architects and experts from Finland, Switzerland, Germany, and the UK. The findings emphasize the importance of physical and digital techniques in the initial design stages and highlight the need for design and interaction methods to integrate physical and digital design workflows. The thesis suggests that architects value intuitive design experiences that allow for easy manipulation and understanding of design concepts, which can be achieved through the use of tangible and interactive design tools. The thesis offers several approaches to create intuitive design experiences, such as using interactive and tangible design tools, integrating physical and digital design workflows, and designing for ease of manipulation and understanding of design concepts. The thesis provides a theoretical and historical framework for the research, with each study presented separately. The main findings and highlights of the research are discussed in the last chapter, which connects the three research processes and offers ideas for practitioners and researchers to create intuitive design experiences. These findings are useful for practitioners and researchers in the architecture and design fields who are interested in improving the design process and creating more intuitive and efficient design experiences.
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    Puisto taideteoksena - Kolme helsinkiläistä puistoa suunnittelun ja laajennetun lavastuksen näkökulmasta
    (Aalto University, 2023) Aaltonen, Jari; Elokuvataiteen ja lavastustaiteen laitos; Department of Film, Television and Scenography; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Lahtinen, Outi, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Film, Television and Scenography, Finland; Gröndahl, Laura, Univ. Lecturer, Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy, Finland
    The starting point for my research comes from my observations on the literature of garden art, in which parks and gardens are often equated with theater and scenography. This led me to the question of what connects parks and gardens to the art of theater and scenography. A park with its surroundings can act as art. This way the art in outdoors can be more than just a statue on a pedestal. In different outdoor spaces people can be guided to use and observe the space as art through the usability. Overarching theme in my study is the usability of outdoor spaces: how the space solutions move people in space and how they experience the space? I am approaching a topic that is familiar to me, planning outdoor spaces. I have used my own experience of park design and landscape architecture. I have connected this with the theory of expanded scenography and pragmatic art philosophy. I am seeking answers to my research questions by studying three different public spaces in Helsinki. Tapio Wirkkalan puisto - Tapio Wirkkala Park is a central part of this study. It’s unusual park space in Finland due to the amount of art included in the space. In comparison Karhupuisto - Bear Park represents more traditional concept of art and Hiljentymisen piha - Yard of Silence represents what I call integrated concept of art. I observe my case studies as works of art, and the artistic experience they generate. According to art philosophy of pragmatism, aesthetic experience is created through practical and material features, providing that the art is experienced through one’s own experience. Very practical features such as the plants, furnishings, different materials used and built structures affect the experience of any outdoor space as art - as a meaningful experience. The designers of Tapio Wirkkala park and Yard of Silence have their background in theatre scenography. Both case studies show how the scenography and its ways thinking and working affected the spaces created and how the designers move a people in these spaces. When planning public outdoor spaces, the art of theatre and scenography can be utilized by using various means and concepts. This way art can be understood in a much wider concept in comparison to a traditional park architecture and design.
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    Turning Inwards in Transformative Co-Design - Cultivating the Interconnectedness of Internal and External Change
    (Aalto University, 2023) Hakio, Kirsi; Mattelmäki, Tuuli, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Design, Finland; Muotoilun laitos; Department of Design; ENCORE – Engaging Co-design Research Group; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Mattelmäki, Tuuli, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Design, Finland
    This doctoral thesis examines how co-design as an enabling creative practice can contribute to the transformation toward eco-social sustainability. The focus of this research was on the inner dimensions and conditions of transformation and sustainability, and the so-called neglected inner worlds of individuals and collectives, which have been identified in the systems change literature as the most influential leverage points for transformation. They are also identified as the most challenging to reach and transform. This research aimed to explore how and by what means these source conditions of individuals and collectives can be cultivated and potentially shifted as part of development projects. The topic was examined from the perspective of capacity-building. This thesis consists of four publications and an essay that complements them. The research approach was based on the dialectic epistemic tradition of constructive design research, and the data were collected via design experiments. In order to complement the design approach, the work also extensively explored literature from other fields on the concepts and various ways of understanding the different components of transformative change and its manifestation. These include approaches of care ethics and awareness-based system change, perspectives of reflective empathy, and exercises drawing from philosophical and eastern wisdom traditions, which are seen as ways of understanding of the interconnectedness of internal and external change. Transformative co-design refers here to a process that takes into account the effects of these internal conditions on the formation of external responses. The approach is based on mutual learning and self-reflection, which includes exercises and components for turning inwards as part of the collaborative process and its development goals. Such exercises prepare favorable conditions for awareness-based co-creation and envisioning of the future, in which the collective transformation process goes hand in hand with the participants' personal, internal shift work. Based on findings, the thesis presents a collection of components and corresponding techniques and tools, by means of which such self-reflective and awareness-based internal shift work can be facilitated as part of co-design. In terms of transformation toward eco-social sustainability, the main arguments highlight how transformative co-design can contribute to shifting inner conditions, as it helps participants adopt new, more caring and aligned internal postures that arise from the broader experiences of relating and connectedness with oneself, others and the world. Further, the work provokes to take into account the ever-present, ontological possibility of making an internal shift a conscious choice, which means that every encounter and interaction with others and the world presents an opportunity to practice an internal posture of care–if we want it to. 
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    Clothes, Culture and Crafts - Dress and Fashion among Artisans and Small Shopkeepers in the Danish town of Elsinore 1550–1650
    (Aalto University, 2023) Sindvald Larsen, Anne-Kristine; Hohti, Paula, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art, Finland; Taiteen ja median laitos; Department of Art and Media; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Hohti, Paula, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art, Finland
    This 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.
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    Designing with Nature for Sustainability - Towards a critical approach for including natural nonhuman stakeholders in collaborative and participatory design when designing for sustainability
    (Aalto University, 2023) Veselova, Emīlija; Gaziulusoy, İdil, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Design, Finland; Muotoilun laitos; Department of Design; NODUS Sustainable Design Research Group; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Gaziulusoy, İdil, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Design, Finland
    Collaborative and participatory design (C&PD) is an area of design theory and practice in which designers involve project stakeholders as active participants to jointly explore and frame problems and to co-create solutions. In response to increasingly more pressing sustainability challenges, C&PD scholarship has been engaged in rethinking the premises, constructs, and practices of the field. One of the ways in which C&PD is striving to address the sustainability challenges is by including natural nonhuman stakeholders. Such an approach warrants a careful and evaluative investigation. Therefore, this doctoral dissertation critically explores in what ways including natural nonhuman stakeholders in C&PD can contribute to sustainability. It seeks to answer four research questions. (1) Why should designers include natural nonhuman stakeholders in C&PD when aiming to contribute to sustainability? (2) How to approach the identification of natural nonhuman stakeholders in C&PD when aiming to contribute to sustainability? (3) In what ways can natural nonhuman stakeholders be included in C&PD? (4) How to approach the identification of natural nonhuman needs? This dissertation includes two parts: five peer-reviewed research publications form one part, and a six-chapter introductory essay forms the other part. The essay answers the research questions by integrating and discussing the findings, summarizes the results, and outlines limitations and avenues for further research. The doctoral research findings indicate that including natural nonhuman stakeholders in C&PD when aiming to contribute to sustainability has merit; however, it requires being critical and careful when identifying the stakeholders, including them in C&PD processes and sourcing their needs. Including natural nonhuman stakeholders can contribute to sustainability in three interrelated ways: by shifting individual and collective worldviews towards being more aligned with sustainability; by challenging the dominant systems and structures that support unsustainability; and by creating practical design solutions that are more aligned with and support sustainability. The dissertation discusses these three reasons and proposes an integrative framework showcasing the interdependencies and interconnections between them. Further, the dissertation proposes a systemic approach and the usefulness of non-anthropocentric environmental ethics to identify natural nonhuman stakeholders. Then the dissertation presents three ways designers can use to include natural nonhuman stakeholders in design time and discusses natural nonhuman stakeholder participation in the use time. Finally, because natural entities are rarely discussed in relation to their needs and research disciplines do not necessarily identify needs of natural nonhuman stakeholders, the dissertation suggests that designers should attentively approach the identification of needs of the natural nonhuman stakeholders in their projects.
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    Layered Approaches - Woven eTextile Explorations Through Applied Textile Thinking
    (Aalto University, 2023) Pouta, Emmi; Mikkonen, Jussi, Assoc. Prof., Technical University of Denmark, Denmark; Muotoilun laitos; Department of Design; Fashion and Textiles Futures Research Group; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Niinimäki, Kirsi, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Design, Finland; Xiao, Yu, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Communications and Networking, Finland
    Woven structures form the most common type of textile in our everyday life. Their potential for eTextile development, ranging from component integration to entirely woven user interfaces, has invited researchers from various fields to explore how weaving can expand the interactive capabilities of textile surfaces around us. However, eTextile literature typically considers weaving as a method of constructing, and rarely acknowledges the reflective nature of weaving, and the insights related to thinking associated with textile design practices, that is, textile thinking, are often sparingly described. The overarching research question in this thesis is how can weaving be used to explore new concepts and design opportunities for eTextiles, and it is examined through five academic publications. The exploration of textile thinking was carried out through a practice-based design research approach on technical woven eTextile development. The primary methods for data collection were the woven textile design practices and semi-structured interviews, complemented by reviewing grey and academic literature related to woven eTextiles. The first study investigated how the orthogonal yarn architecture of woven structures enables the integration of electrical circuitry. The second study examined how electrically functional structures and sensorial properties of a textile surface can be designed in parallel to form a user interface for an interactive textile object through a case of an interactive hand puppet. The third study included an exploratory weaving process to map the possibilities of multi-layer weaves for woven eTextile development through accumulative design experimentation. The fourth study reviewed eTextile literature through the lens of woven textile design to understand how weaving has been used in eTextile research across different disciplines. The review identified woven structures whose potential for eTextile development has remained uncharted. The fifth study examined the role of weaving within an interdisciplinary eTextile material development process by focusing on the experiences of the researchers working on a project developing yarn-like actuators for shape-changing interactive textiles. The practice-based approach grounded on textile thinking was found to be well-suited for mapping the design space of woven eTextiles to discover new research opportunities. The approach enables accessing methods based on textile design and construction skills and conducting the investigation through the possibilities of weaving. As a core contribution, this thesis proposes a model for approaching woven eTextiles as electrically functional material systems, in which woven textiles' structural hierarchy collides with circuit design principles.
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    Panopticons of Convenience - The Internal Politics of the Smart Home
    (Aalto University, 2023) Ehrenberg, Nils; Keinonen, Turkka, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Design, Finland; Muotoilun laitos; Department of Design; Encore; Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu; School of Arts, Design and Architecture; Keinonen, Turkka, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Design, Finland
    This thesis explores digitalisation, smart home technologies and how they may affect the power structures of the home. It proposes to view smart homes as emerging panopticons of convenience, where surveillance is accepted in return for conveniences. Digitalisation and smart technologies rely on the continuous collection of data which are used to examine and judge the behaviour of the residents, making it possible to interpret smart technologies as Foucauldian disciplinary technologies. This understanding is explored through a three case studies that examine how smart technologies affect autonomy, agency, and equality. The studies - presented in four publications - use primarily interview data and thematic analysis to investigate narratives of technology in the home. The first case study explores privately owned homes. The second - rental homes, while the third explores IT helpdesks as quasi-public services and the limits of support for those who are marginalised by the process of public digitalisation. The thesis asks two research questions: (1) how can the politics associated with the character of smart home technologies be conceptualised and (2) how do these politics, both intentionally and unintentionally, affect different members of the household and their relation to the home. The thesis answers the first question by conceptualising of smart homes as panopticons of convenience, which are defined as'the acceptance of additional surveillance of one's life for the purpose of acquiring actual or presumed convenience' while drawing on a wide range of theories such as Foucault's theory on disciplinary power, Borgmann's device paradigm, assemblage theory, notions of abjection and foreignisation through technology, and ethical theories such as the capability approach and contributive justice in order to reflect on how the politics of smart homes re-shape power relations in the home. The answer to the second question explores how these technologies reinforce asymmetric power structures, making them part of the infrastructure of the home. Smart home technologies divide the residents into different roles, thus, actively disempowering less technologically adept residents and displacing existing practices. By drawing on Borgmann it is possible to understand how these technologies can commodify the home, exemplified through co-living sites where a home experience is part of the offering. The asymmetric power relations are used to understand how smart home technologies become integrated into a sociotechnical assemblage which favours certain groups over others.