Research Catalogue

CITY AS SPACE OF RULES AND DREAMING promotes emancipation and democratisation in urban space by cross-examination through artistic research, empirical urban research, political theory and legal theory. The study strengthens polyphony of urban space and thereby develops a more just city It asks: How is urban space formed and shared, and who has access to it? What normative and de facto instruments regulate, control and inhabit this space? What kinds of processes, structures and spaces of inclusion and marginalisation, as well as disagreement and controversy are there in the city? What kind of fractures, escape lines and dreams are hidden in the normativity of urban space? What kinds of spaces of shadow, noise, potentialities and dreams are there and how do they actualise? The study reaches beyond established art-science boundaries by bringing new and more inclusive means of “soft law” to urban decision-making and inviting different neighborhoods to dream of their own dwelling-regions through imaginary urban archaeology and fictionalising democracy combining different artistic mediums. The project is coordinated by the Academy of Fine Arts (Doctoral programme) at the University of the Arts Helsinki. Other partners are Helsinki University Faculty of Law, Helsinki University Faculty of Arts/ Aesthetics and Aalto University Department of Built Environment. In Memoriam Ari Hirvonen (1960–2021) The responsible leader (PI) of the project is Maiju Loukola at the Academy of Fine Arts / KuvA, Uniarts Helsinki. The other research group members and co-initiators are Aino Hirvola (Dept. of built environment, Aalto University), Tanja Tiekso (Faculty of Arts/Aesthetics, Helsinki University Faculty of Arts/ Aesthetics) and Paul Tiensuu (Helsinki University Faculty of Law). Since 2023 Jaakko Ruuska (KuvA, Uniarts Helsinki), Henna-Riikka Halonen (KuvA, Uniarts Helsinki) and Niran Baibulat (KuvA/Uniarts Helsinki) have contributed as postdoc artist-researchers for shorter periods. Other collaborators include Stefan Winter, Zen Marie, Brigitta Stone-Johnson, Anita Zsentesi, Chris Butler, Jan Schacher, Josue Moreno, Denise Ziegler, Simon Critchley, Antti Nyyssölä, Gabi Schillig and Kristina Sedlerova. Villanen We dedicate this project to Ari, and to Stargazing

ARTikulationen 2024 is an artistic research event conceived and organised by the Doctoral School for Artistic Research (KWDS) | Center for Artistic Research of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG). It takes place at Theater im Palais and AULA KUG, Graz, between 02–05 October 2024. ARTikulationen interweaves in-depth artistic research presentations, a festival character (intermezzi-performances), and a mini-symposium on the topic of research journeys between artistic and scholarly or scientific practices. Topics range from current acoustic, electroacoustic, and computer composition, historically informed and contemporary performance, to improvisation and theatre.

In this exposition I’m showing you my journey for these past two years of investigating my artistic practice through the meeting of identity and aesthetics. Due to my Iranian background, I have felt a need and curiosity to bring together my Iranian and European identities. This project is a dialogue between myself and music, encompassing sounds, arrangements, physical presence, materiality, technology, context, and politics. By politics I mean; history, cultural appropriation, diversity, colonisation, beliefs, and the current needs of the western culture. A project involving confrontations with habits, default parameters, and elements within digital audio workspaces, thereby incorporating scales.

Esta pesquisa propõe uma instalação com foco em aprofundar uma experiência sensorial, para despertar a sensibilidade das pessoas, em São Bernardo/MA, no Balneário Rio Buriti. São abordados elementos da escuta sensível e consciente, como forma de valorização dos sons naturais e culturais do local. Para a execução da prática, realizamos algumas etapas, como: determinar local, dia e o horário da atividade; elaboração de um mapa mental contendo todas as ideias; retomada da leitura do mapa mental com novas impressões individuais, pessoais, subjetivas, objetivas; decidir sobre a ação em si. Nos desdobramentos desta ação, que envolve escutar, sentir e criar, observamos que a paisagem sonora, termo criado por Schafer (2009), possui todos os componentes para a criação e sensibilização das pessoas em relação aos seus próprios territórios. O autor demonstra sua preocupação com a qualidade da escuta, que está cada vez mais ameaçada pelo problema da poluição sonora, por isso a necessidade de que a população tenha consciência dos sons que nos rodeiam.

"Grain: Mediator Between East and West" is an image-led, cross-temporal exploration of bread wheat as both a commodity and a metaphor. Drawing on its historical and practical ubiquity as a staple grain in agrarian (Eastern) Europe, wheat emerges as the focal medium through which cultural and geopolitical narratives are revealed. What narratives does bread wheat carry, and what is entangled within localised perspectives? To what extent does the cultural history of grain intersect with modern grain infrastructures, whereby wheat transforms from an elemental medium into a mediator between East and West? Through thinking with and about grain, this work interrogates the gaps, overlaps and resonances between East and West, the post-war Soviet 1940s and the present day, repositioning wheat as a cultural mediator. This Master's project was conducted within the European Media Studies program at the University of Potsdam and University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, August 2025.

”Vi använder ord för att nå varandra och för att förstå oss själva och världen. Orden är alltid kroppsligt förankrade och sammanbundna med tanken och viljan”, förklarade gumman. ”Men vad har det med mitt gestaltande att göra?” suckade skådespelaren. ”Allt”, svarade gumman och log. ”När människokunskap länkas till skådespelarkonsten blir den både konkret och magisk. Du förstår, kroppsliga kunskaper om språkhantering är mycket viktiga att ha med sig i det gestaltande ögonblicket. Det räcker inte att analysera den dramatiska texten eller att göra medvetna val. Det finns något i oss som är större, något som vi ska vara rädda om.” ”Vad ska jag vara rädd om?” ”Du ska vara rädd om dig själv. Om ditt konstnärskap. Om din röst”, svarade gumman utan att tveka. Vad är det som sker i övergången från skriftlig till muntlig gestaltning? Orden som i det vardagliga samtalet flödar fram i förbindelse med avsikten och känslan, förlorar under högläsning både sin självklarhet och spänst. Istället för att finna övningar som skyler över det som går förlorat, tycks det mig mer intressant och verksamt att försöka förstå vad som sker. Och hur det kroppsligt intuitiva skulle kunna tas tillvara. Min forskning har utmynnat i en saga. Sagan om skådespelaren som återfann sin röst. Om konsten att gestalta med röst och tal.