KuvA Research Days, Day 2: Material Matters
Investigations into vernacular and indigenous methods and materials at the Rural Turn. Keynote by Ivan Morison from the UK. Presentations and workshops during the day by Finnish based artists and designers looking for ways to use traditional techniques in tune with the natural world for new ways of making and thinking about art.
Host: Professor Andy Best, Uniarts Helsinki´s Academy of Fine Arts
Partly streamed on the Uniarts Helsinki YouTube channel at 9:15–15 (Time zone: UTC +2). Link in program!
Material Matters
Investigations into vernacular and indigenous methods and materials at the Rural Turn. Keynote by Ivan Morison from the UK, with presentations and workshops during the day by Finnish based artists and designers researching techniques and materials in tune with the natural world for new ways of making and thinking about art.
Programme Wed 13.12.2023
Partly streamed on the Uniarts Helsinki YouTube channel at 9:15–15 (Time zone: UTC +2).
9:00 Morning coffee & pulla
9:15 Welcome and Introduction – Andy Best
9:30 Ivan Morison (UK) – keynote: It Matters
I think of matter as material and its ideas (historical, environmental, political, physical, geographical, social). The use of any material connects to all these factors, and must be considered, in order to use matter with integrity. Maggie Nelson sees the function of art as to churn the world. To stay in the shit. And this notion of turning over fetid, but also fecund materials, again and again for me connects the artist to the farmer. I have always lived rurally, with periods of education and work spent in cities. But that rural has actually always been agricultural, even in Wales, surrounded by mountains.
Over the past few years I have come to view the countryside that surrounds me not as nature, but as the conservationist Aldo Leopold said – as a world of wounds. The rural therefore is a radical space to be engaged in. Artists as radical thinkers and art schools as the incubators now must find ways to address the rural. For this talk we will look at the artist’s position with relation to the rural, the role of guardianship, and ideas of material integrity. Exploring examples of material use within my own practice to better understand the inseparable relationship between the things we use to make our work, the places we make our work, and our responsibilities as makers.
Visit Morisons website
11:00 Coffee break
11:30 Four artists talk material matters
Ulla Phillips – Artist and designer working with unfired clay and natural building methods
I came across with natural building three years ago and surprisingly it has connected many of the loose ends with my different kinds of artistic interests. It hasn’t been easy to find my own media in art. I did my BA in ceramic design but always thought I was more interested in the surface and its visuality than the form. Later I studied graphic design and illustration and worked a bit on that field but again felt like something was missing. Then came natural building and especially the discovery of traditional clay plasters and clay paints. Soon I understood that instead of working with the surface of a clay pot or a plate or a small relief you could turn a whole room space into an art piece with clay plasters. This made me think of illustrations on a big scale and art pieces that you can actually step into and have the spatial experience with. I also learnt that natural materials seem to be somehow easier to relate. When you step into a clay plastered room for the first time, you are quite likely to say: Wow, what IS this? At the same time the material is something familiar and something new, something that you already know but you still have lots of questions.
Inka Nieminen – Natural materials as artistic content
Central to my work is experimenting with effects of time in sculptures produced with natural materials. In my works, materials dry, melt, change their colors or move and change their form. In my artistic work I am interested in the origin of the materials, multimodality and experimenting with new techniques in sculpting. Inka Nieminen is a sculpture artist and works with materials based on ecological and experimental material choices. She lives and works in Helsinki and Hailuoto.
Read more about Inka Nieminen
Priss Niinikoski
With a background in textiles and fashion design, my interests have shifted towards fiber and structure studies. I am intrigued by how the principles of textiles extend across diverse fields, encompassing a broader range of materials and techniques than the traditional notion. Textiles provide a means of working with materials to construct surfaces and structures. In my artistic practice, I view these structures as a way to document time and intention, appreciating the expressive qualities of manual work, which involves the coordination of the eye, hand, and mind, while embracing imperfections and showing care. Textile thinking serves as the foundation for contemporary technologies, where both low-tech and high-tech approaches are intertwined. In my presentation, I will discuss labour, techniques’ classification, and the discovery of hidden knowledge. I will share my experiences in knowledge exchange within craft communities, the role of traditional ecological knowledge, and explore how fibers can be found in unexpected places. Read more
Aala Nyman
Aala Nyman and Tuomas Lehtomaa have been working together for the last few years on a shared practice based on sculptural explorations on material processes of the everyday. Through their interest in mundane moments, slowness and boredom, the artists attempt at drawing closer on a sense of presence in very concrete terms. A shared process-based practise oriented on the potential of material changes and reactions takes place, the only promise here being a passing of time. Aala Nyman introduces their installation “Lobby”.
12:20 Arvind Ramachandran – commenting on the morning’s presentations. Arvind is a Helsinki based architect, city planner and stand-up comedian. Read more
12:30 Lunch break. Vegan soup served in the White Studio
During the break enjoy the workshop by Priss Niinikoski. Chance to view and participate in installation by Sculpture students Tuomas Lehtomaa and Aala Nyman.
Spin and Spindle – Priss Niinikoski
‘Spin and Spindle’ will explore various methods of spinning and processing fibers to create personalized yarn, cordage, and ropes. This workshop aims to introduce participants to different techniques for repurposing and preparing materials for spinning. We will experiment with diverse approaches to crafting your own yarn, starting from manual techniques and concluding with the use of an electrical spinner. The introduction of a twist to the material can alter its purpose and quality, opening up new possibilities for use.
Lobby – Aala Nyman and Tuomas Lehtomaa
Aala Nyman and Tuomas Lehtomaa have been working together for the last few years on a shared practice based on sculptural explorations on material processes of the everyday. Through their interest in mundane moments, slowness and boredom, the artists attempt at drawing closer on a sense of presence in very concrete terms. A shared process-based practise oriented on the potential of material changes and reactions takes place, the only promise here being a passing of time.
For the research day Aala and Tuomas are working on an active installation that takes as it starting point the place in which it is situated in, a lobby. The common waiting room, its possible different meanings, and the notion of a lobby as an in-between space for things to possibly take place or formulate functions here as the core for the sculptural, time-sensitive, mind map-like gathering of things.
“A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, reception area or entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc.) adjacent to the auditorium. It may be a repose area for spectators, especially used before performance and during intermissions, but also as a place of celebrations or festivities after performance. In other buildings, such as office buildings or condominiums, lobbies can function as gathering spaces between the entrance and elevators to other floors.
Since the mid-1980s, there has been a growing trend to think of lobbies as more than just ways to get from the door to the elevator but instead as social spaces and places of commerce. Some research has even been done to develop scales to measure lobby atmosphere to improve hotel lobby design. Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to great lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression and convey an image.” See source
The installation is interactive in a way, that the viewer is free to touch the objects, boil some water, make a cup of tea or maybe chew a piece of gum..and leave a small trace.
13:30 Empirica Research Group (Aalto University)
Making things that change: Re-considering the fluid nature of creative productions in research through art, design, and craft
In our presentaions, each of us will present our creative productions related to our doctoral research. Creative productions are integral to research conducted through practices of art, design, and craft. Examples abound in the literature, ranging from artifacts and prototypes to inventive forms of research presentation and dissemination. Creative productions in this context can be better understood as fluid assemblages that enact and are enacted by change. Central to our understanding of creative productions is the need to shift from a perspective of neatly defined research outputs to one of fluidity and systemic affects. We raise questions about the place and continuity of these assemblages outside formal research, emphasizing the need to adequately assess their societal value beyond academia.
Short introductions by each of the following researchers:
Priska Falin, Postdoctoral Researcher
Luis Vega, Doctoral Researcher
Riikka Latva-Somppi, Doctoral Researcher
Maiju Suomi, Doctoral Researcher
Sara Hulkkonen, Doctoral Researcher
Empirica is an interdisciplinary research group where practices of art, design, and craft are used as vehicles of inquiry. We nurture a rigorous but open-minded research environment that accommodates diverse ways of being, knowing, and doing. By adopting the attitude of a craftsperson, we value the operational role of subjective and situated experiences in our various investigative processes. Each member brings along a set of personal, cultural, and disciplinary qualities that form the building blocks of the plural perspective prevailing in the group.
Central to Empirica’s approach is the reflexive character of creative practice, which becomes an important tool to challenge ourselves and others not only creatively but also intellectually. Documentation and reflection are thus essential in rendering our personal knowledge open, transparent, and explicit. Without limiting ourselves to disciplinary boundaries or topics, we persistently develop our art of research by theorizing, experimenting, prototyping, speculating, and (re)inventing ways to investigate empirical phenomena. Read more about Empirica
14:30 Commenting on the themes of the day – Arvind Ramachandran and closing comments from Andy Best
15:00 END of Material Matters
15:00–17:00 Presentation and discussion in the Theatre Academy (TeaK), at Tori with Iswanto Hartono & Reza Asifina (TeaK / LAPS visiting professors)
Material Matters
Investigations into vernacular and indigenous methods and materials at the Rural Turn. Keynote by Ivan Morison from the UK, with presentations and workshops during the day by Finnish based artists and designers researching techniques and materials in tune with the natural world for new ways of making and thinking about art.
Programme Wed 13.12.2023
Partly streamed on the Uniarts Helsinki YouTube channel at 9:15–15 (Time zone: UTC +2).
9:00 Morning coffee & pulla
9:15 Welcome and Introduction – Andy Best
9:30 Ivan Morison (UK) – keynote: It Matters
I think of matter as material and its ideas (historical, environmental, political, physical, geographical, social). The use of any material connects to all these factors, and must be considered, in order to use matter with integrity. Maggie Nelson sees the function of art as to churn the world. To stay in the shit. And this notion of turning over fetid, but also fecund materials, again and again for me connects the artist to the farmer. I have always lived rurally, with periods of education and work spent in cities. But that rural has actually always been agricultural, even in Wales, surrounded by mountains.
Over the past few years I have come to view the countryside that surrounds me not as nature, but as the conservationist Aldo Leopold said – as a world of wounds. The rural therefore is a radical space to be engaged in. Artists as radical thinkers and art schools as the incubators now must find ways to address the rural. For this talk we will look at the artist’s position with relation to the rural, the role of guardianship, and ideas of material integrity. Exploring examples of material use within my own practice to better understand the inseparable relationship between the things we use to make our work, the places we make our work, and our responsibilities as makers.
Visit Morisons website
11:00 Coffee break
11:30 Four artists talk material matters
Ulla Phillips – Artist and designer working with unfired clay and natural building methods
I came across with natural building three years ago and surprisingly it has connected many of the loose ends with my different kinds of artistic interests. It hasn’t been easy to find my own media in art. I did my BA in ceramic design but always thought I was more interested in the surface and its visuality than the form. Later I studied graphic design and illustration and worked a bit on that field but again felt like something was missing. Then came natural building and especially the discovery of traditional clay plasters and clay paints. Soon I understood that instead of working with the surface of a clay pot or a plate or a small relief you could turn a whole room space into an art piece with clay plasters. This made me think of illustrations on a big scale and art pieces that you can actually step into and have the spatial experience with. I also learnt that natural materials seem to be somehow easier to relate. When you step into a clay plastered room for the first time, you are quite likely to say: Wow, what IS this? At the same time the material is something familiar and something new, something that you already know but you still have lots of questions.
Inka Nieminen – Natural materials as artistic content
Central to my work is experimenting with effects of time in sculptures produced with natural materials. In my works, materials dry, melt, change their colors or move and change their form. In my artistic work I am interested in the origin of the materials, multimodality and experimenting with new techniques in sculpting. Inka Nieminen is a sculpture artist and works with materials based on ecological and experimental material choices. She lives and works in Helsinki and Hailuoto.
Read more about Inka Nieminen
Priss Niinikoski
With a background in textiles and fashion design, my interests have shifted towards fiber and structure studies. I am intrigued by how the principles of textiles extend across diverse fields, encompassing a broader range of materials and techniques than the traditional notion. Textiles provide a means of working with materials to construct surfaces and structures. In my artistic practice, I view these structures as a way to document time and intention, appreciating the expressive qualities of manual work, which involves the coordination of the eye, hand, and mind, while embracing imperfections and showing care. Textile thinking serves as the foundation for contemporary technologies, where both low-tech and high-tech approaches are intertwined. In my presentation, I will discuss labour, techniques’ classification, and the discovery of hidden knowledge. I will share my experiences in knowledge exchange within craft communities, the role of traditional ecological knowledge, and explore how fibers can be found in unexpected places. Read more
Aala Nyman
Aala Nyman and Tuomas Lehtomaa have been working together for the last few years on a shared practice based on sculptural explorations on material processes of the everyday. Through their interest in mundane moments, slowness and boredom, the artists attempt at drawing closer on a sense of presence in very concrete terms. A shared process-based practise oriented on the potential of material changes and reactions takes place, the only promise here being a passing of time. Aala Nyman introduces their installation “Lobby”.
12:20 Arvind Ramachandran – commenting on the morning’s presentations. Arvind is a Helsinki based architect, city planner and stand-up comedian. Read more
12:30 Lunch break. Vegan soup served in the White Studio
During the break enjoy the workshop by Priss Niinikoski. Chance to view and participate in installation by Sculpture students Tuomas Lehtomaa and Aala Nyman.
Spin and Spindle – Priss Niinikoski
‘Spin and Spindle’ will explore various methods of spinning and processing fibers to create personalized yarn, cordage, and ropes. This workshop aims to introduce participants to different techniques for repurposing and preparing materials for spinning. We will experiment with diverse approaches to crafting your own yarn, starting from manual techniques and concluding with the use of an electrical spinner. The introduction of a twist to the material can alter its purpose and quality, opening up new possibilities for use.
Lobby – Aala Nyman and Tuomas Lehtomaa
Aala Nyman and Tuomas Lehtomaa have been working together for the last few years on a shared practice based on sculptural explorations on material processes of the everyday. Through their interest in mundane moments, slowness and boredom, the artists attempt at drawing closer on a sense of presence in very concrete terms. A shared process-based practise oriented on the potential of material changes and reactions takes place, the only promise here being a passing of time.
For the research day Aala and Tuomas are working on an active installation that takes as it starting point the place in which it is situated in, a lobby. The common waiting room, its possible different meanings, and the notion of a lobby as an in-between space for things to possibly take place or formulate functions here as the core for the sculptural, time-sensitive, mind map-like gathering of things.
“A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, reception area or entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc.) adjacent to the auditorium. It may be a repose area for spectators, especially used before performance and during intermissions, but also as a place of celebrations or festivities after performance. In other buildings, such as office buildings or condominiums, lobbies can function as gathering spaces between the entrance and elevators to other floors.
Since the mid-1980s, there has been a growing trend to think of lobbies as more than just ways to get from the door to the elevator but instead as social spaces and places of commerce. Some research has even been done to develop scales to measure lobby atmosphere to improve hotel lobby design. Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to great lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression and convey an image.” See source
The installation is interactive in a way, that the viewer is free to touch the objects, boil some water, make a cup of tea or maybe chew a piece of gum..and leave a small trace.
13:30 Empirica Research Group (Aalto University)
Making things that change: Re-considering the fluid nature of creative productions in research through art, design, and craft
In our presentaions, each of us will present our creative productions related to our doctoral research. Creative productions are integral to research conducted through practices of art, design, and craft. Examples abound in the literature, ranging from artifacts and prototypes to inventive forms of research presentation and dissemination. Creative productions in this context can be better understood as fluid assemblages that enact and are enacted by change. Central to our understanding of creative productions is the need to shift from a perspective of neatly defined research outputs to one of fluidity and systemic affects. We raise questions about the place and continuity of these assemblages outside formal research, emphasizing the need to adequately assess their societal value beyond academia.
Short introductions by each of the following researchers:
Priska Falin, Postdoctoral Researcher
Luis Vega, Doctoral Researcher
Riikka Latva-Somppi, Doctoral Researcher
Maiju Suomi, Doctoral Researcher
Sara Hulkkonen, Doctoral Researcher
Empirica is an interdisciplinary research group where practices of art, design, and craft are used as vehicles of inquiry. We nurture a rigorous but open-minded research environment that accommodates diverse ways of being, knowing, and doing. By adopting the attitude of a craftsperson, we value the operational role of subjective and situated experiences in our various investigative processes. Each member brings along a set of personal, cultural, and disciplinary qualities that form the building blocks of the plural perspective prevailing in the group.
Central to Empirica’s approach is the reflexive character of creative practice, which becomes an important tool to challenge ourselves and others not only creatively but also intellectually. Documentation and reflection are thus essential in rendering our personal knowledge open, transparent, and explicit. Without limiting ourselves to disciplinary boundaries or topics, we persistently develop our art of research by theorizing, experimenting, prototyping, speculating, and (re)inventing ways to investigate empirical phenomena. Read more about Empirica
14:30 Commenting on the themes of the day – Arvind Ramachandran and closing comments from Andy Best
15:00 END of Material Matters
15:00–17:00 Presentation and discussion in the Theatre Academy (TeaK), at Tori with Iswanto Hartono & Reza Asifina (TeaK / LAPS visiting professors)