KuvA Research Days, Day 3: Object Studies
The focus of this day is a strange collection of objects. These objects were sourced from research environments at the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, Uniarts, and the city archives, and represent human-disease-plant relationships from a variety of perspectives. During the morning, a series of short presentations will expand on individual objects, whilst the afternoon’s practical workshop will use curatorship to highlight various connections and intersections within the collection and encourage communication across research fields.
Host: Postdoctoral Researcher Nina Liebenberg, Uniarts Helsinki´s Academy of Fine Arts
Partly streamed on the Uniarts Helsinki YouTube channel at 9:00–13 (Time zone: UTC +2). Link in program!
Object Studies
The focus of this day is a strange collection of objects. These objects were sourced from research environments at the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, Uniarts, and the city archives, and represent human-disease-plant relationships from a variety of perspectives. During the morning, a series of short presentations will expand on individual objects and use curatorship to highlight various connections and intersections within the collection. The afternoon’s practical workshop will grow the morning’s collection of objects through translating a range of scientific data into artistic re-materializations through various exercises.
Programme Thu 14.12.2023
Morning session 9:00–13:00
Partly streamed on the Uniarts Helsinki YouTube channel at 9:00–13 (Time zone: UTC +2)
9:00 Welcome
9:15 Object Study 01: A petri dish with colonies of a plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae & a stomatal complex of Arabidopsis thaliana
Speaker: Jasmin Kemppinen (University of Helsinki, Viikki Plant Sciences)
How do plants recognize other organisms? What are the first stages of plant perception? We will explore plant-pathogen communication, focusing on the first stages of pathogen perception. Our journey unfolds at the stomatal complex, a dynamic cellular structure that responds rapidly to changes in environment and controls the rate of gas exchange (or breathing) in the plant.
9:45 Object Study 02: A page from the musical score of Chaya Czernowin’s Adiantum Capillus-Veneris II Discussion, performance & facilitated breathing exercise: Hannah Chorell (Sibelius Academy, Uniarts Helsinki, Opera Singer) Adiantum capillus-veneris is the botanical designation for a species of maidenhair fern. Czernowin borrowed the Latin name of the plant for the title of a bare, and delicately composed study for amplified voice. Subtitled, ‘Etude in fragility’, the voice and breath play an equal role in executing the musical text, as the sounds of breathing are treated as an instrument, independent from the voice. Fragility is present in the piece on many levels; as the fragility of sound, as the plant that inspired the piece, and as the total dependence of oxygen-breathing beings on oxygen-producing plants.
10:15 Short interval (curated presentation by Nina Liebenberg)
Objects: Anaesthesia workstation & X-Ray goggles (Töölö Museum); an equation representing respiratory difficulties in plants & infrared drone footage of trees affected by bark beetle infestation.
10:25–10.55 Object Study 03: ‘Magic Objects’
Speaker: Mystery speaker
Two small birch balls have been sourced from the Satakunta Museum in Pori, where they form part of the permanent exhibition display, Signs of Life. Titled ‘Magic Objects’ and classified in the museum cataloguing system as ‘woodwork’, ‘magic and sorcery’, ‘folk belief’ and ‘luck and chance’, these objects were used ‘in healing practices’. Like many objects classified as ‘magical’ in museums worldwide, scant or no information is available on their local use and their history. This session documents the ongoing quest to find out more about them, and their provenance.
Look at object online
11.00 Coffee break
11:20 Object Study 04: Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) specimen & microscope slide of biological material extracted from woodpecker feathers and claws.
Speaker: Niko Johansson (University of Helsinki/Finnish Museum of Natural History)
What can a Great spotted woodpecker specimen found in the Finnish Museum of Natural History reveal about the movement of fungi? Natural history collections are treasure troves for collection-based research. In this talk you will hear how museum collections can be used in traditional and novel ways in research, from classical specimen-based morphology studies to modern museomics and extraction of genomic material from ancient specimens. A special emphasis will be on a PhD project that examines the dispersal interactions of birds and fungi based on museum objects.
11:50 Short interval (curated presentation by Nina Liebenberg)
Objects: A model of SPR’s hospital’s rheumatic hospital expansion plan & a stereotactic frame designed by Lauri Laitinen (HUS Museum); a copy of Darwin’s The Power of Movement in Plants
12:00 Object Study 05: A medicinal herbarium specimen of Agapanthus from Africa found in the Finnish Natural History Museum
Speaker: Zayaan Khan (University of Cape Town)
Going through pregnancies in short succession has revealed how enrapt this physiological process of growth is within the corporate industrial medical complex. As a response to this and to unhinge this practice to regain power and sovereignty, artist Zayaan Khan turns to anecdotal evidence (later substantiated in research here and here) to explore traditional birthing with success.
12:30 Performative presentation (Conflations & Reroutings & Diversions)
13:00 Lunch break
Afternoon session (Practical Workshop sessions)
14:00 – 17:00 Workshop session
Venue: Majakka Project Space, 6th Floor in Academy of Fine Arts building Mylly, (Sörnäisten rantatie 19, Helsinki). The 6th Floor can be reached from the 5th Floor via the staircase or with the elevator.
Hosts: Vincent Roumagnac and Nina Liebenberg
This session will be led by the artist-researcher Vincent Roumagnac and host, Nina Liebenberg, and involve researchers from the Viikki Plant Sciences centre and students and researchers from Uniarts working in groups. Data drawn from the Viikki researchers (some of which were discussed during the morning session) will be playfully revamped into artistic re-materializations through various transpositional operations and exercises – and displayed in the space as a test-exhibition on variations of epistemic-aesthetic registers of representations.
17:00–18 Workshop-outcome installation / Open doors
Speaker bios
Jasmin Kemppinen
Jasmin Kemppinen earned both her BSc and MSc degrees at the University of Helsinki, specializing in plant physiology and development. Her current doctoral research explores the role of a receptor protein GHR1 in the complex world of stomatal immunity networks. Her core interests lie in unravelling the mechanisms behind pathogen perception and the orchestration of various signals that drive stomatal movements. Jasmin’s passion for the botanical world extends beyond the lab, as she also cultivates, paints, and photographs plants.
Hanna Chorell
Hanna Chorell is a doctoral researcher in the DocMus doctoral school of the Sibelius Academy in the University of Arts Helsinki. Her artistic research project focuses on gender performances of song recitals in the culture of Western art music through a new materialist lense. As an opera singer her artist name is Hanna Rantala. During her career so far, she has performed over 30 leading and supporting roles of her voice type in the Finnish National Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival and Royal Danish Opera among others.
Niko Johansson
Niko Johansson is a biologist and doctoral researcher at the Finnish Museum of Natural History/University of Helsinki. He is interested in all things fungal, algal, botanical and more, currently working with dispersal interactions between birds and fungi. Using classical collection-based research together with emerging environmental DNA studies he tries to make sense of the diversity of lifeforms and interactions in the natural word – and to provide data and inference on how we can conserve biodiversity in the era of global biological change.
Zayaan Khan
Zayaan Khan works through seed, land, and food from a multidisciplinary perspective, forwarding sociopolitical, ecological, and spiritual political perspectives. Her research is based on interdisciplinary praxis, both as practitioner and facilitator, and through storytelling, she attempts to unhinge our dependence on neoliberal consumption. Khan is currently a PhD candidate at the Environmental Humanities South, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Vincent Roumagnac
Vincent Roumagnac is a Helsinki-based Basque-French discipline-fluid artist and researcher. Vincent started his career in theater as a director but gradually moved away from straight theater context. Instead, he has been focusing on how the concepts of stage and theatricality transform in the context of climate change, technology, and transmediality, at the crossing of visual, installation, and performing arts, exploring new artistic ways to engage with contemporary, multiple and complex, environments. In 2020, Vincent completed his Doctorate in Arts at Uniarts Helsinki, with his research project ‘Reacclimating the Stage’. After that, he began the four-year post-doctoral artistic research project DATA OCEAN THEATRE, as a visiting researcher at the same institution.
Object Studies
The focus of this day is a strange collection of objects. These objects were sourced from research environments at the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, Uniarts, and the city archives, and represent human-disease-plant relationships from a variety of perspectives. During the morning, a series of short presentations will expand on individual objects and use curatorship to highlight various connections and intersections within the collection. The afternoon’s practical workshop will grow the morning’s collection of objects through translating a range of scientific data into artistic re-materializations through various exercises.
Programme Thu 14.12.2023
Morning session 9:00–13:00
Partly streamed on the Uniarts Helsinki YouTube channel at 9:00–13 (Time zone: UTC +2)
9:00 Welcome
9:15 Object Study 01: A petri dish with colonies of a plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae & a stomatal complex of Arabidopsis thaliana
Speaker: Jasmin Kemppinen (University of Helsinki, Viikki Plant Sciences)
How do plants recognize other organisms? What are the first stages of plant perception? We will explore plant-pathogen communication, focusing on the first stages of pathogen perception. Our journey unfolds at the stomatal complex, a dynamic cellular structure that responds rapidly to changes in environment and controls the rate of gas exchange (or breathing) in the plant.
9:45 Object Study 02: A page from the musical score of Chaya Czernowin’s Adiantum Capillus-Veneris II Discussion, performance & facilitated breathing exercise: Hannah Chorell (Sibelius Academy, Uniarts Helsinki, Opera Singer) Adiantum capillus-veneris is the botanical designation for a species of maidenhair fern. Czernowin borrowed the Latin name of the plant for the title of a bare, and delicately composed study for amplified voice. Subtitled, ‘Etude in fragility’, the voice and breath play an equal role in executing the musical text, as the sounds of breathing are treated as an instrument, independent from the voice. Fragility is present in the piece on many levels; as the fragility of sound, as the plant that inspired the piece, and as the total dependence of oxygen-breathing beings on oxygen-producing plants.
10:15 Short interval (curated presentation by Nina Liebenberg)
Objects: Anaesthesia workstation & X-Ray goggles (Töölö Museum); an equation representing respiratory difficulties in plants & infrared drone footage of trees affected by bark beetle infestation.
10:25–10.55 Object Study 03: ‘Magic Objects’
Speaker: Mystery speaker
Two small birch balls have been sourced from the Satakunta Museum in Pori, where they form part of the permanent exhibition display, Signs of Life. Titled ‘Magic Objects’ and classified in the museum cataloguing system as ‘woodwork’, ‘magic and sorcery’, ‘folk belief’ and ‘luck and chance’, these objects were used ‘in healing practices’. Like many objects classified as ‘magical’ in museums worldwide, scant or no information is available on their local use and their history. This session documents the ongoing quest to find out more about them, and their provenance.
Look at object online
11.00 Coffee break
11:20 Object Study 04: Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) specimen & microscope slide of biological material extracted from woodpecker feathers and claws.
Speaker: Niko Johansson (University of Helsinki/Finnish Museum of Natural History)
What can a Great spotted woodpecker specimen found in the Finnish Museum of Natural History reveal about the movement of fungi? Natural history collections are treasure troves for collection-based research. In this talk you will hear how museum collections can be used in traditional and novel ways in research, from classical specimen-based morphology studies to modern museomics and extraction of genomic material from ancient specimens. A special emphasis will be on a PhD project that examines the dispersal interactions of birds and fungi based on museum objects.
11:50 Short interval (curated presentation by Nina Liebenberg)
Objects: A model of SPR’s hospital’s rheumatic hospital expansion plan & a stereotactic frame designed by Lauri Laitinen (HUS Museum); a copy of Darwin’s The Power of Movement in Plants
12:00 Object Study 05: A medicinal herbarium specimen of Agapanthus from Africa found in the Finnish Natural History Museum
Speaker: Zayaan Khan (University of Cape Town)
Going through pregnancies in short succession has revealed how enrapt this physiological process of growth is within the corporate industrial medical complex. As a response to this and to unhinge this practice to regain power and sovereignty, artist Zayaan Khan turns to anecdotal evidence (later substantiated in research here and here) to explore traditional birthing with success.
12:30 Performative presentation (Conflations & Reroutings & Diversions)
13:00 Lunch break
Afternoon session (Practical Workshop sessions)
14:00 – 17:00 Workshop session
Venue: Majakka Project Space, 6th Floor in Academy of Fine Arts building Mylly, (Sörnäisten rantatie 19, Helsinki). The 6th Floor can be reached from the 5th Floor via the staircase or with the elevator.
Hosts: Vincent Roumagnac and Nina Liebenberg
This session will be led by the artist-researcher Vincent Roumagnac and host, Nina Liebenberg, and involve researchers from the Viikki Plant Sciences centre and students and researchers from Uniarts working in groups. Data drawn from the Viikki researchers (some of which were discussed during the morning session) will be playfully revamped into artistic re-materializations through various transpositional operations and exercises – and displayed in the space as a test-exhibition on variations of epistemic-aesthetic registers of representations.
17:00–18 Workshop-outcome installation / Open doors
Speaker bios
Jasmin Kemppinen
Jasmin Kemppinen earned both her BSc and MSc degrees at the University of Helsinki, specializing in plant physiology and development. Her current doctoral research explores the role of a receptor protein GHR1 in the complex world of stomatal immunity networks. Her core interests lie in unravelling the mechanisms behind pathogen perception and the orchestration of various signals that drive stomatal movements. Jasmin’s passion for the botanical world extends beyond the lab, as she also cultivates, paints, and photographs plants.
Hanna Chorell
Hanna Chorell is a doctoral researcher in the DocMus doctoral school of the Sibelius Academy in the University of Arts Helsinki. Her artistic research project focuses on gender performances of song recitals in the culture of Western art music through a new materialist lense. As an opera singer her artist name is Hanna Rantala. During her career so far, she has performed over 30 leading and supporting roles of her voice type in the Finnish National Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival and Royal Danish Opera among others.
Niko Johansson
Niko Johansson is a biologist and doctoral researcher at the Finnish Museum of Natural History/University of Helsinki. He is interested in all things fungal, algal, botanical and more, currently working with dispersal interactions between birds and fungi. Using classical collection-based research together with emerging environmental DNA studies he tries to make sense of the diversity of lifeforms and interactions in the natural word – and to provide data and inference on how we can conserve biodiversity in the era of global biological change.
Zayaan Khan
Zayaan Khan works through seed, land, and food from a multidisciplinary perspective, forwarding sociopolitical, ecological, and spiritual political perspectives. Her research is based on interdisciplinary praxis, both as practitioner and facilitator, and through storytelling, she attempts to unhinge our dependence on neoliberal consumption. Khan is currently a PhD candidate at the Environmental Humanities South, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Vincent Roumagnac
Vincent Roumagnac is a Helsinki-based Basque-French discipline-fluid artist and researcher. Vincent started his career in theater as a director but gradually moved away from straight theater context. Instead, he has been focusing on how the concepts of stage and theatricality transform in the context of climate change, technology, and transmediality, at the crossing of visual, installation, and performing arts, exploring new artistic ways to engage with contemporary, multiple and complex, environments. In 2020, Vincent completed his Doctorate in Arts at Uniarts Helsinki, with his research project ‘Reacclimating the Stage’. After that, he began the four-year post-doctoral artistic research project DATA OCEAN THEATRE, as a visiting researcher at the same institution.