
Call for
prosals
RP#
May 2018
Project timeline
Load PDF of our application

Introduction
Insects among Us looks at cultural practices that emerge from encounters between humans and insects. Drawing from methods of insect observation and the history of entomology, our project considers conditions of visibility from an ontological perspective. The fragility of our shared lifeworld becomes manifest through visual and audio installations based on techniques derived from the study of insects.
The project resulted in a series of works entitled Entomological Encounters. The former convent of SS. Cosmas and Damian housed small-scale site-specific installations that addressed the eerie lifeworlds of insects.The indoor and outdoor spaces around the Sala del Camino were transformed into an insect observatory that highlighted empathic looking and listening.
The actuality of the project relies on the fact that the number of insects is drastically decreasing. Insects are vanishing. Entomologists call it the windshield phenomenon. In a growing number of studies scientists have tracked alarming declines in bees, butterflies, and other bugs. Between 1989 and 2016, according to a report published in the journal PLOS One, the biomass of flying insects captured in Germany decreased by a seasonal average of 76 percent. Wild insects are elementary parts of a functioning ecosystem: they bury animal dung, prey on pests and pollinate plants.
We believe that artistic research proceeds in two conceptually interconnected ways: through experiential artworks and reflective writing. The works are at the core of the research. Discursive elements informed by the practice will include a paper Epistemic Bugs at Worldmaking as a separate RC-exposition to be published early 2020 in RUUKKU Nr.14 issue Ecologies of Practice.
Authors:
Tuula Närhinen (Visual artist, DFA) UNIARTS, Helsinki in collaboration with Tytti Arola (sound artist, composer) AALTO University, Espoo
First Cell
Assembly
September 6-8th 2018
Helsinki
Traces from the Anthropocene:
INSECTS AMONG US





NATURE MORTE
Installations (please click on the tiles below to access the installations)
MEMORIAL TO AN EARTH WORM
Load PDF of the slide show at the first Assembly

WING BEATS



DIARIES OF A SERIAL KILLER

Second Cell Assembly
November 5-8th 2018
Helsinki
Tuija Kokkonen pulled out of the project.
Sound artist and composer Tytti Arola joins in starting 2019
Tytti Arola's and Þorkell Nordal's composition ABOUT CRICKETS performed by three musicians from the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra at the Helsinki Music Center in an event initiated by the Korvat Auki – Society for Contemporary Music
See images (PDF on the right) of the concert event on Fri 1.2.2019
Read more about the making of the piece

"The last door to open is the worm's mouth"
Alfred J. Tanner
Listen to sound artist Tytti Arola's talk on radio in YLE 4.2.2019
Third Cell Assembly
February 15-17th 2019
Helsinki





MALAISE TRAP
VENICE
May-August
2019