Research Catalogue

This research is rooted in nihilism, exploring how the contrast between materiality and spirituality leads to an uncomfortable way of percieving existence. What does it mean to be unable to believe in "what's beyond"? What role does the body play in such an issue? The starting point is a deeply philosophical debate. Through art and numerous attempts it tries to unravel itself.

In today’s age of information overload, it is all too easy to become constantly overstimulated. As both a composer and an improviser, I have found a new source of inspiration by exploring minimalism—especially Holy Minimalism—using simple materials, embracing a slower creative process, and diving into the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The introspective elements, structure and usage of space and silence in this music guided me towards a journey that has helped me reconnect with music in a profound way. Drawing from the composers of the ECM Record Label's New Series who specifically connect a certain image and sound, this thesis examines selected works by Arvo Pärt, whose Tabula Rasa was the starting point for the New Series. This research is to unpack the ideas behind these compositions, explore the thought processes involved, and discuss the underlying philosophies with external concepts that I find highly inspiring, all in search of fresh perspectives. As more artists turn toward simplicity, I believe that looking at this music and the philosophies behind it through both an improvisers and a composers lens can open up exciting new pathways for inspiration.

In this exposition I invite you to reflect on a part of my artistic research: the screen capture. The aim is to reconsider this little-explored practice by artistically transforming original images through a double variations in post-production. In this artistic research I also use experimental software and unconventional methods to carry out images from videogames. At the same time these methods engage with the European regulations about copyright and American fair use policies. While the extraction of images from three-dimensional, copyright-protected spaces is often restricted, it can sometimes be permitted when used creatively.

Traces from the Anthropocene: Working with Soil Research Pavilion #3, Venice, Italy 2019 The video documents the artistic research project Traces from the Anthropocene: Working with Soil, that explores the relationship between humans and soil through a study of soil contamination in the Venice Lagoon area. In this research, ceramic artists collaborate with soil contamination experts focusing on the current state of the local soils and sediments, linking them with the anthropogenic impact in the area. The group of artists, researchers and MA students studied the soils and sediments of the Venice Lagoon using ceramic art and methods of soil contamination research. The video follows the artists on their sediment sampling fieldwork and documents the research environment, also recording the artists’ work at the Research Pavilion where they coiled large clay pots from local brick clay, and painted them with the contaminated soil. Working with Soil group: Maarit Mäkelä (PI), Riikka Latva-Somppi, Özgu Gündeşlioğlu and Catharina Kajander and students Tzuyu Chen, Pauliina Purhonen and Hanna Kutvonen. The project was led by Empirica research group of Aalto University’s Design Department and done in collaboration with the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE. The local brick factory Terreal SanMarco provided local brick clay for the artworks.

This project explores the theme of human fragility, examining its many dimensions through sculpture and painting. Fragility is not approached as weakness, but as a fundamental aspect of existence — a space of vulnerability, yet also of sensitivity, transformation, and creative potential. The works emerge from an intimate dialogue with the body, memory, and time: delicate or weathered materials — such as wax, plaster, paper, and fluid pigments — give shape to ephemeral figures, incomplete or transforming bodies, and marks that evoke the instability of identity and the constant interplay between resistance and collapse. Through this process, art becomes an act of listening and bearing witness — to what breaks, but also to what, in breaking, reveals a new possibility of presence.

'Southern Outfall Works' consists of the collected partworks developed through extensive period as field artist at Crossness, a historic sewage pumping station on the banks of the Thames, leading towards a large-scale, site-specific installation, Southern Outfall, in May 2025. The evolving works form part of submission for practice based Phd, alongside a co-evolved paper 'Southern Outfall: sensible ways in evolving installation'. The works and paper encompass a spectrum of thought from multiple knowledge bases, brought together through an underpinning in process philosophy. The part-works and text support the generation of immersive, multi-modal event-installation which will be sensitively situated across the site, engaging a range of sensory encounters while exploring the nature of the voluntary organisation that keeps the place in existence. Through a layered relationship to science, technologies and redundancy and with a touch of common sense, mingled encounters emerge...