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.

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.

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 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.

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

Research group

Finnish Arts Education Research

Focus area

Feminism and Queer in Art Education (FAQ)

Research group

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"

Cluster for Critical Artistic Research (CCARe)

Research Group

Disability Studies, Art & Education (DSAE)

Research Network

Art and Biopolitics

Funded by EU Creative

Art, Science & Environment (ASE)

Research group

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

Re-fashioning the Renaissance

ERC-funded project

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, criticism, pedagogy, curriculum and instruction. The journal welcomes all arts disciplines: visual arts, music, dance and other performative arts, their theories, practices and education. Research in Art Education grants an open access to all publications and is ranked in the publication forum of Finnish academic research. The journal also welcomes submissions from different fields, including among others, anthropology, art history, aesthetics, cultural studies, sociology, psychology and philosophy.

Refashioning the Renaissance: Everyday Dress and the Reconstruction of Early Modern Material Culture, 1550–1650

Paula Hohti 2022

5G Aesthetics

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

The New Aesthetics of Circular Architecture

Antti Lehto, Sanna Lehtinen 2022 Architectural Thinking in a Climate Emergency

Taideteoksen Eteneminen : 3D-animaatio

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

Relative Distance

Einat Amir, Yossi Hasson 2021

סינתזה בין אמנות למדע כאמצעי להגברת אמפתיה בין קבוצתית

Einat Amir 2021

Stockfors Art Festival

Antti Arkoma 2021

Biofriction Exhibition, Lisbon

Laura Beloff 2021

Conversation Series: Art’s New Making

Laura Beloff, Tanya Ravn Ag 2021 Contemporary Art Stavanger

Tick Acts

Laura Beloff 2021

More information on our research in the Aalto research portal.

Research portal

Art of Research Conference VII: Authorship and Responsibility

3.12.–4.12.2020: Over the past two decades, the Art of Research conferences have had a significant role in promoting continuous dialogue and fruitful convergence between art and design related research practices. The conferences have contributed to the development of rapidly growing and spreading contemporary discourse on artistic and practice-led research – acknowledging and engaging in multiple notions of research where diverse modes of creative practice are used as context for enquiry.

Graphic image in green and black, written 'Art of Research 2020. Authorship and Responsibility', round green elements around

Radical Relevances 2018

25.–27.4.2018. We invite researchers and artists of all disciplines to join us in conference that goes beyond the rational and explores what is relevant to lived experience. Radical Relevances is a multidisciplinary conference addressing complex global phenomena of our time, such as climate change, biodiversity, income inequality, and mass migration and how these relate to the everyday lives of different people.

InSEA 2018

June 18.-21. 2018. The Congress will concentrate on European and global issues around art education and its connections to societal and scientific topics. The goal for this InSEA Congress is to offer possibilities for intercultural and interdisciplinary conversations on most current and burning issues in contemporary art education. Different submission formats will offer room for new ideas to appear among researchers, teachers, artists and project workers.