Research and artistic activities at the Department of Art

Research & Art

Research and artistic activities at the Department of Art

The research and artistic activities of Department of Art takes place in the fields of contemporary art, art education, visual culture, and curating. The department has a long tradition with artistic and philosophical production and many researchers’ work emphasizes contemporary, critical, political and societal entanglements of art, curating, and pedagogy.

(Im)possible Labor #3 – WWW³ (World Wide Web - Wild Wo.men Witches : World Without Work), 2019. Installation. Galleria Augusta, Helsinki, Finland. Photo: Sheung Yiu — Marie-Andrée Godin: (Im)possible Labor #3 – WWW³ (WORLD WIDE WEB - WILD WO.MEN WITCHES : WORLD WITHOUT WORK), 2019. Installation. Galleria Augusta, Helsinki, Finland. Photo: Sheung Yiu

The research and artistic activities of Department of Art takes place in the fields of contemporary art, art education, visual culture, and curating. The department has a long tradition with artistic and philosophical production and many researchers’ work emphasises contemporary, critical, political and societal entanglements of art, curating, and pedagogy. Artistic, art educational and curational research connects to, and informs larger societal, cultural, and philosophical discourses.

Many research projects are identified as artistic research (AR) or arts-based research (ABR). This research happens, for example, in artists’ spaces, classrooms, exhibitions, museums and other institutions, and in the public sphere. The emphasis on art praxis (the combination of theory and practice) and AR and ABR brings transdisciplinary artistic knowledge to other research contexts in a unique way, and it enriches a broad range of research areas at Aalto University. Work stems from contemporary art production, artistic research, activism, and/or pedagogical motives.

Visual and popular culture & aesthetics -Department of Art

Art education and future learning - Department of Arts

Critical social research and activism in art

This research focuses on activism, ethical perspectives and aspects of social justice, bringing forth societal questions on cultural diversity and environmental issues, such as immigration, whiteness, gender-aware research, and disability studies. Research takes place through artistic practices and research, arts-based research, curating and mediating art. Research themes share a critical aspect on power structures and questions about privileged positions in society. Solidarity, emancipation, criticality and embodied knowledge play a crucial role in this discourse.

Art, science & technology - Department of Art

Art education and future learning

Research on art education has over 100 years of history in the department and has a vivid connection to art teaching practices within and outside of schools. It includes historical, artistic, arts-based, philosophical, epistemological and sociopolitical research in the areas of art, pedagogy, schooling, education, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Emerging practices within art education includes varied notions of future arts learning, from programming to artificial intelligent.

Culture, material and history - Department of Art

Art, science & technology

The focus is on the intersection of art, science and technology as well as on research of multi/inter/transdisciplinary education. Research is done in collaboration with researchers and teachers from other schools of Aalto University as well as individual artistic research projects, for example in Aalto Biofilia laboratory, and in the context of environmental art. The study includes the latest developments in technology taking into consideration (post)human, post-digital, post-internet, and other contemporary artistic aspects.

Culture, material and history

Research in culture, material and history at the department of art focuses on social and cultural practice, and investigates how culture and cultural meanings are produced in society, both in the past and the present, with a special focus on materials (pigments, dyes, textiles etc.). The specific themes range from colour in arts to the use of material-based methods in cultural studies of dress. Most of the work is related in the fields of art and cultural history or artistic research, but our work also draws on other methodological traditions, such as social history, natural sciences and anthropology.

Visual and popular culture & aesthetics

This research focus targets visual and aesthetic cultures from sport and food and from media to politics. Diverse methodological traditions are embodied (cultural studies, anthropology, philosophy), and issues like gender, racialization, environment and the institutional problems of cultural production are central.

Fashion and Material Culture History

Finnish Arts Education Research

a colorful drawing depicting a fruit, a Black mermaid, a hairy person in underwear and boots, an orchid, a rainbow-colored blob, high heels, a person with a flower growing from their armpit, a unicorn, a person with long hair squatting in boots and text "power" reading in between their legs, a quote saying "let's meet. here's a pic"

Feminism and Queer in Art Education (FAQ)

Cluster for Critical Artistic Research (CCARe)

Disability Studies, Art & Education (DSAE)

Art and Biopolitics

Installation view from Teemu Lehmusruusu: Maatuu uinuu henkii (Respiration Field), Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden, Helsinki, 2019. Photo credit: Telling Tree art+rsrch (2, close)

Art, Science & Environment (ASE)

Re-fashioning the Renaissance

Research in Arts and Education

Research in Arts and Education is an international peer-reviewed journal. Thematic scope of the journal includes, but is not limited to, the questions of art & design practice and production,...

Sanna Lehtinen, Delfina Fantini van Ditmar 2022 Places: forum of design for the public realm

Marika Ahlavuo, Matilda Heilala, Sebastian Aho, Hannu Hyyppä, Jaana Tamminen, Kaarina Kaikkonen 2021

Einat Amir, Yossi Hasson 2021

Einat Amir 2021

Antti Arkoma 2021

Freja Bäckman 2021

Freja Bäckman, Rebecca Close, Marie-Andrée Godin, Mira Kallio-Tavin, Ali Akbar Mehta, Abdullah Qureshi, Sepideh Sadatizarrini 2021 Research in Arts and Education

Laura Beloff 2021

Laura Beloff, Tanya Ravn Ag 2021 Contemporary Art Stavanger

Laura Beloff 2021

More information on our research in the Aalto research portal.