Research Catalogue

PROJECT DESCRIPTION “Working Title” is an art performance about labor conditions and class structures. The motivation behind the piece is to interrogate the many ways in which work affects us. The boundaries between labor and art are also examined, as the physical and mental demands placed on the performers reflect the burdens of modern working life. The format mirrors a regular workday: the performance lasts eight hours, including a break. It is presented in two versions—a day shift and a night shift. Today, many sectors are marked by rapid change, demands for efficiency and ever-increasing productivity. Which values are prioritised, and which are undermined to meet the needs of such a labor market? In the piece, structural challenges will be studied and observed through scenarios acted out on stage. Some examples of questions that will be used to form these scenarios: -At what cost do you actually sell your time? -What kind of value is, beyond the monetary, created for those who buy your time? -In what ways, physically and mentally, do you experience your labouring hours, after you have clocked out? The performance will explore themes such as: - Monotony and repetition as fundamental elements of labor - Power dynamics in the workplace and how privileges are maintained and reinforced - The body’s needs in relation to work: illness, disabilities, menstruation, and pregnancy - The physiological consequences of labor - The value of time as an economic and social divide - The close link between economic stability and mental health In a time when the job market is shaped by rapid technological development, climate change and an uncertain future, thinking through alternatives for how to organise ourselves has become crucial. With this performance, we aim to dig into the mechanisms at stake in order to hopefully be able to both raise questions and think deeply about how we may face the challenges ahead collectively. A dynamic, experimental and collectively driven form of artistic expression is combined with societal critique. We believe in art as a way of adding to the discourse in poetic manners, activating questions through embodied experiences. With this unique format, we hope to open new perspectives on what labor means for individuals and society—and what values we wish to build our common future upon.

Based on the Jungian concept of the shadow, I wanted to develop illustrations that depict a journey within the self, leading to the discovery and understanding of one’s own shadow. It represents the dark side of our personality, which we refuse to acknowledge and accept.

When preparing for the dead, may we peep into the future? In the broader geography of the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean, we cook our coffee in the briki or cezve. Every region has its own variation, some heat up the water before adding the powder, some add spices, some make it thick, others thinner. And every person has their own variation as well. Coffee is something as personal as communal. Apart from the daily morning and evening consumption, we also share two uses of the coffee that are central of interest here: the coffee cup reading and the tradition of coffee drinking in funerals and memorials. Imagination and memory, future and past, the association with grief; and the unique timelines traced in each cup. I think that it has been with me for years, the memory of my grandmothers, my mother’s morning ritual of cooking a light Greek coffee in a big cup. The familiarity of the Kafenio. And most importantly, community dynamics; sharing others, participating. Here I aspired to create a meeting space with people, artists or not, with whom I have met over the years and share the subtle fascination about this type of coffee and its rituals. Acknowledging the blood, oppression and displacement behind and around the product. The Cafe Imperial.

Tässä ekspositiossamme esittelemme veden-kanssa-kirjoittamisen praktiikkaamme kirjoittamisen taiteellisena tutkimuksena, poeettisena etsintänä. Veden-kanssa-kirjoittaessamme olemme tarkastelleet suhdettamme veteen, myös vesiin sisällämme, sekä yksilöllisesti että yhdessä erilaisia tekstejä tuottaen. Ekspositiossamme esittelemme tämän taiteellisen praktiikan tuotoksia sekä reflektoimme niitä poeettisia, poliittisia ja pedagogisia suuntia, joita veden-kanssa-kirjoittaminen voi avata – sekä meille että laajemmin, maailmalle. Teoreettisia lähtöhtiamme ovat feministinen posthumanismi ja uusmaterialismi sekä niiden piirissä harjoitettu hydrofeminismi. Lisäksi suhteutamme veden-kanssa-kirjoittamista keskusteluihin feministisestä pedagogiikasta, taiteilijapedagogiikasta ja ympäristöpedagogiikasta sekä veden merkityksistä kirjallisuudessa. Uskomme, että runouden avulla voi kielentää sellaisia kokemuksia, joita on muutoin vaikea muotoilla sanoiksi. Väitämme, että hankalasti sanallistettavien kokemusten poeettinen kielentäminen tuottaa ymmärryksiä ihmisten suhteista enemmän-kuin-inhimilliseen, kuten siitä, miten tehdä taidetta muuttuvassa maailmassa, eettisessä suhteessa enemmän-kuin-inhimilliseen. In English: "On Becoming Sensitized - Practices and Orientations for Writing-with-water as Artist Pedagogy" In this exposition, we explore what we call 'writing-with-water', a practice of artistic research in writing, a "poetic search". While writing-with-water, we have explored our relationship(s) with water – including the waters within us – both individually and together, producing different texts. Here, we share our artistic explorations and reflect on the poetic, political, and pedagogical directions our artistic practice and research opens up. Our theoretical starting points are feminist posthumanism and new materialism, but we also discuss our method in the context of hydrofeminism (as part of the aforementioned theoretical frameworks), feminist pedagogy, artist pedagogy, and environmental pedagogy, as well as the literary meanings and uses of water. It is our belief that through poetic practices and explorations, it is possible to express experiences that are otherwise difficult to put into words. We claim that these experiences, and the ways they are expressed in poetic language, can lead to better understandings of human relationships with the more-than-human; including how to make art ethically with the more-than-human in our rapidly changing world.

This exposition aims to examine the found and experienced environments as an impulse for artistic and pedagogical potentials in performance design. The writer asks, what kind of performance design could be created through scenographic worlding? The exposition presents a research approach to the urban, built environment, which is seen as an impulse, a constant and ongoing potential for performances and performance designers’ work. The topic is contributed with photographs from the writer’s site-sensitive memos. This approach offers perspectives on contemporary scenography and its theories. It is situated in the field of art-based action research, and the intention is to combine performing arts, performance design, visual arts, and pedagogy. The exposition highlights that an observational, experiential, and environmentally oriented way of working may prove more useful in the future; designers encounter applied and nomadic forms of performance design in their careers. How can we create more sustainable performance design, encourage ecocreativity and work towards more sustainable pedagogy?

The presentation focuses on inclusive sensory drawing as a way to observe, notice and interact with non-human species in local nature, imagine their perspectives and reflect on the experience. It is known that many people today feel alienated from nature while on the other hand connection to nature is linked to pro-environmental behaviour. As an artist and art educator I have been wondering how participatory artistic and educational practices can reinforce the emotional and physical connection with nature, how to create conditions for perceiving the intertwinedness and mutual dependence, moreover, what could be the role of art and art education in the post-growth conditions. Drawing is not a new method for observing nature, but I find the inclusive drawing activities to be relevant to facilitate creative nature experience in contemporary context. As an artist, I have been using sensory drawing and realised how using the pencil and brush as facilitators help me to concentrate, slow down, notice interactions and sense myself as a part of the ecosystem. I have used the embodied and situated artistic thinking as a source for drawing walks and workshops in gardens, forests and parks and introduce some of the simple exercises in this presentation, asking how and which drawing and painting approaches facilitate active engagement with the environment and what is the intersection between artistic practice, environmental and artist pedagogy. I describe the specifics of four methods. These kind of curated nature experiences offer possibilities to recognise other beings, their relationships and ourselves as related to them through actions and reflections.