Research Catalogue

In our exploration of the spatiality of language and, specifically, the activation of the site where writing "makes" rather than takes place, we propose a multilayered experience of the book as an object, as well as a geometrical, topological, and especially performative space, which we understand as an "ecology of the book". Extending this practice beyond the book's margins, yet simultaneously embedding it within the material and technical affordances of the book’s medial articulations, we evoke a "new" ecology—one unfolding alongside the interaction-landscape and its actual and invented inhabitants, as well as the techniques of its production. Texts, drawings, figures, figurations, methods, and both human and non-human authors weave together the heterogeneous texture of the book’s "new" ecology. In our monographs, "Fauna. Language Arts and the New Order of Imaginary Animals" (2018), "Flora. Language Arts in the Age of Information" (2020), and "Fiction Fiction. Language Arts and the Practice of Spatial Storytelling" (2023, De Gruyter/Edition Angewandte), we explore and map the territory of language arts. This approach manifests, on the one hand, through the transgression of traditional scientific methodologies and a shift in models—from thinking-of-the-other toward thinking-with-the-other, and on the other hand, through the agency of our eponymous characters, Fauna and Flora, who not only title our books but also act as conceptual operators—figures that navigate, perform, and activate the very spaces our texts explore. Applying Michel Serres' methodology of thinking by inventing personae, these characters move within and percolate through the margins of text (written, figural) and space (concrete, fictional), reconfiguring the notion of authorship and placing literary texts and digital drawings within the frame(less) collective of more-than-human and more-than-organic actants.

Arts-based-philosophy is an emerging research concept at the cutting edge of the arts, philosophy and the Sciences in which cross-disciplinary research collectives align their research practices to finally stage their investigations in field-performances, shared with the public. Our research explores the significance of the HEART in artistic research and performance philosophy from a cross-cultural perspective, partially based on the concepts of the HEART in the works of two artist-philosophers, in which philosophy already became arts-based-philosophy: Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Aurobindo’s poetic opus magnum Savitri. We generally assume that the works of artist-philosophers are not only engaged in “creating concepts” (Deleuze), but their concepts are also meant to be staged artistically to let them bodily matter in fact. The role of the HEART in respect to this process of “bodily mattering” is the core objective under investigation: Firstly, because we hold that atmospheres trigger the HEART of a lived-body to taste the flavor of things it is environmentally engaged with basically in an aesthetic manner (Nietzsche). In this respect the analysis of the classical notion for the aesthete in Indian philosophy and aesthetics, sahṛdaya––which literally means, “somebody, with a HEART”––becomes crucial. Secondly, because the HEART is said to be not just reducible to one’s manifest Nature, but has access to one’s virtual Nature as well. The creation hymn in the oldest of all Vedas (Rgveda) for instance informs us that a HEART is capable of crossing being (sat) & non-being (asat), which makes it fluctuate among these two realms and even allows its aspirations to let virtual possibilities matter. Such concepts show striking similarities with contemporary concepts in philosophy-physics, e.g. the concepts of “virtual particles” and “quantum vacuum fluctuations” (Barad).

The aim of this PD project is to bring artists and citizens together with each other and their environment, and collectively explore how the wordless voice can be a means of communication. Artists leading this project bring understanding from the multiple fields in which they are working – music, theatre, visual arts, and circus. In addition to the collective exploration of connection, the objective is to propose a methodology (which combines and develops from a range of existing methods and is provisionally termed “Resonant Cycles”) and investigate if it can have a transformative impact on the subjectivities of the individual participants. The project involves interventions in the field of performing arts with the goal of modeling less language-dependent and more inclusive, sensory-rich experiences of cross-disciplinary creation and performance. It invites a holistic and immersive experience of performing arts that brings the physical voice to the forefront and prompts reflection on the essence and meaning of vocal sound regardless of language, and the way that sound itself functions as a means of communication.

Tiivistelmä Kuvataiteen tohtorin opinnäytteessäni Kävellen kuvailtu, kävellen koettu tarkastelen kävelyn tuottamaa visuaalista kerrontaa ja sen rakentumista. Kyseessä on liikkeen avulla aikaansaatu havainto, jonka avulla rakennan vuorovaikutusta ympäristöön. Kiinnostukseni työskentelyprosessiin on johtanut tutkimaan asioiden kehkeytymistä. Tästä nousseet havainnot ovat puolestaan merkinneet kävelymenetelmän muotoutumista. Keskeinen asenne taiteellisessa työskentelyssä erilaisissa ympäristöissä on huomioiva suhtautuminen. Tämä on puolestaan vaikuttanut kävelymenetelmän rajoitteiden hahmottamiseen. Taiteellinen tutkimukseni keskittyy kolmeen teoskokonaisuuteen, joissa olen käyttänyt kävelymenetelmää. Kehittämässäni kävelymenetelmässä on viitteitä kokeellisen kirjallisuuden työpajan Oulipon kokeellisiin menetelmiin ja oulipolaisten tapaan tuottaa tekstiä käyttämällä itsekeksittyjä rajoitteita. Kävelymenetelmän käsikirjoitus on kulkuväline, jolla on oma reitityksensä ja kiintopisteensä. Teosten reflektointi kirjallisessa osiossa on synnyttänyt pohdintoja kirjallisen esityksen luonteesta. Päädyin yritykseen kokeilla teoksen rakennetta edes jossakin määrin myös tekstiin. Olen ajatellut teoksen sanalliseen muotoon siirtämisen rinnakkaisena prosessina ja saman suuntaisena kuin taiteellinen työskentely. Tällä tavoin analoginen prosessi on merkinnyt myös kielen tarkastelua niin, että kieli itsessään toisi esiin materiaalisuuttaan paikoitellen vahvemmin. Kokeilen lyhyitä, erillisiä tekstisaarekkeita häiritäkseni lineaarista lukutapaa. Samalla saan tuoduksi tekstiin harhailun ja kuvittelun tasoja. Tekstisaarekkeet ovat eräänlaisia muistikerrostumisia. Näin ne ovat kuin jälkiä tai jäänteitä harhapoluista, mahdollisista kulkureiteistä. Samalla ne puolustavat olemassaolollaan sellaista tekstin paikkaa, jonka ei tarvitse olla selittävää tai määrittävää. Tutkimukseni keskeiset taiteelliset osiot: Tammimäki 3416 askelta, 2010-2015 Teos on esitetty ryhmänäyttelyssä Puun taju, 2011, Promenadigalleria, Hyvinkää. Teos on esitetty yksityisnäyttelyssä Kävelemällä, 2015, Muu Kaapeli, Helsinki. Punaiset autot (Olen käyttänyt myös seuraavia nimiä teoksesta: Kaupunkikävelyä, Lupa ylittää katu) 2011-2015 Teos on esitetty yksityisnäyttelyssä Kävelemällä, 2015, Muu Kaapeli, Helsinki. Pääsy maisemaan (Kirje Joroisiin, Kirjoitusharjoituksia), 2015-2017 Teos on esitetty ryhmänäyttelyissä: Ornament and Beauty, 2016, Titanik-galleria, Turku; You Gotta Say Yes to Another Access, 2017, Tutkimuspaviljonki, Venetsia. Tutkimuksen muu oma taiteelliseen työskentelyyn perustuva aineisto: Jakauksia pöheikössä, 2007, Puska ympäristönäyttely, Nurmijärvi; 2009, Farrera, Pyreneitten vuoristo, Espanja; 2018, Mustarinda, Hyrynsalmi Plataanikuja 8, 90420 Oulu, 2008, Kaakkurin kirjasto ja monitoimitalo, Oulu (prosenttityö) Yksityisnäyttely: Paikoitusalueita, 2010, Galleria Sculptor, Helsinki Esitarkastuslausunnot: Harald Arnkil, 2.6.2010; Carolus Enckell, 10.8.2010 Ryhmänäyttelyt: Arjen voima, 2010, Gallen-Kallelan museo, Tarvaspää, Espoo Esitarkastuslausunnot: Harald Arnkil, 2.6.2010; Jyrki Siukonen, 19.8.2010 Jos muutan jotain, mitä liikutan? 2018, Mustarinda, Hyrynsalmi Residenssityöskentely: Centre d ´Art i Natura de Farrera, 2009, Pyreneitten vuoristo, Espanja Saaren kartano, 2010, Mietoinen Edinburgh, Skotlanti, 2014, Taiteen Edistämiskeskus Mustarinda, 2018, Hyrynsalmi, Kainuu

This dissertation considers performed silences in composed music and suggests that musicians often use markers to communicate the dimensions of silence. These markers may shape, summon, or impose silence. Markers are signals or cues that may be visible, audible, or multimodal. This research consists of an archive of examples from the author's pianistic practice, as well as three case studies drawn from works of Beethoven, Cage, and Antheil. Full title: "Performing Musical Silence: Markers, Gestures, and Embodiments"

As a recorder and traverso player, J.S. Bach’s works form a crucial part of my repertoire. They include some of the most technically advanced music written for the recorder, in which the instrument seems to be pushed to its limits. Meanwhile, the traverso is welcomed into the orchestra, and it has come to stay. In order to understand the many problems surrounding the recorder and traverso parts from Bach’s music, I need to know how Bach used each instrument specifically. And to be able to make the right artistic choices, I need to know why he chose the recorder for one composition, and the traverso for the other. In answering these questions, I have used my experience in playing both woodwinds to my advantage. My journey has led me through an analysis of terminology, tessitura, symbolism, clefs and pitch surrounding Bach’s flute parts. And for context, I have compared Bach’s use of the recorder and traverso with that of his contemporaries. With my research, I present an overview of the characteristic differences between the two instruments in Bach’s music, giving my own artistic view on some of the unsolved mysteries surrounding Bach and his use of flutes.