Defence of doctoral thesis in the field of Photography, MA Pauliina Pasanen

Title of the doctoral thesis: Kohtaamisissa koetellut. Oppiminen dokumentaarisissa valokuvaustyöpajoissa

Opponent: FT Reijo Kupiainen, University of Tampere

Custos: Professor Harri Laakso, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Media

Defence is held remotely via Zoom: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/69451333758

Zoom Quick Guide: https://www.aalto.fi/en/services/zoom-quick-guide

The dissertation is publicly displayed online 10 days before the defence at:https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/doc_public/eonly/riiputus/

More information on the thesis:

The doctoral thesis Tested through encounters. Learning in documentary photography workshops by Pauliina Pasanen is an academic study in the field of arts pedagogy. It examines learning in photography´s major studies in a University of applied sciences, more precisely in two specific documentary workshops in which the photography of the students is at the core. The teachers of the study Stefan Bremer, Japo Knuutila and Jan Kaila, have carried out workshops using self-developed concepts for decades in Finnish photography study programs.

In the study learning is observed through the actor-network theory. In it the learning is considered to be happening in transformations of the different human and non-human actors. Instead of seeing learning only as an individual’s progression, this research looks at learning as a socio-material process. To learn to be a photographer is to experience the trials of the unified functioning of human and camera in different encounters in photography environments as well as teaching situations in the dialogue between the teacher, the student and the student group.

The research acknowledges the changes that digitalization and the internet have caused to photography and its learning processes. The Documentarist now acts in a networked world, where the information concerning the study of art is easily available, international contacts are created through social media and the sharing of images changes the human attitude towards photography.

Alongside non-human actors the study also examines, for example the dialogue and authority relation between the teacher and the student. The teacher teaches in many ways, for example by setting up an opposition to the student and challenging them to overcome themselves as photographers. In Documentary workshops the idea is to be present in the world which is not entirely possible through distant learning using the internet. Being trained in being intensely present matters.

More information: Pauliina Pasanen, [email protected], p. 044 708 9884