Research Activities, Trips, and Expeditions
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The 2nd Biennial International Conference for the Craft Sciences (BICCS 2023) took place in Mariestad, Sweden, from September 20 to 22, 2023. The conference is organized by The Craft Laboratory of the University of Gothenburg’s Science faculty and serves as a platform for communicating craft research within and beyond academia.
The 10th Nordic Design Research Society (NORDES 23) Conference was organized by Linköping University in Sweden. The conference took place in the university’s Norrköping campus on 12–14 June 2023.
Soil Laboratory is a concept and practice that brings together artists, designers, craftspeople, researchers, and local human and nonhuman actors to explore the relationship between humans and soil.
The current exploration done in the Soil Laboratory aims to understand through lived experience what a living landscape means. We set out to challenge the Western ways of conceiving land as a material asset that can be consumed by humans. The exploration takes place in Lapland and Southern Finland.
From May 23 to 29, Helsinki, Espoo and Björkboda served as the backdrop for the MakerStudioPeda Summer School 2023, a week full of productive activities. The event saw the long-awaited opportunity for the whole research team to have their first in-person, completely offline group meeting.
The Alusta pavilion, located in the courtyard of Helsinki’s Designmuseum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture, offers a space for multispecies encounters from June of 2022 to October of 2023.
The first MakerStudioPeda consortium summer school took place in Björkboda, Finland from 23 to 25 May, 2022.
The Soil Laboratory is a collaborative space situated in the Soil Matters exhibition form September 4, 2020 to January 10, 2021 at the Design Museum in Helsinki.
The number of reindeers in northern Finland reaches over 200,000 each year, which is even greater than the population of people in the region. While the meat, leather, fur and antlers of these animals are consumed, most of the reindeer bone remain as waste material and a by-product of the industry. Taking the concerns about sustainability into account, recycling of such waste material can create new possibilities and collaborations in the Lapland region.
After three months of preparations, we start our first trip to Venice to meet with the people that our web of contacts has found us. We also pack our gear; rubber boots and containers for sediment sampling. Ironically, we are on an expedition to a destination where more than thirty million tourists visit each year. All the same, we are constantly learning something new. It feels like being on the verge of discovery as the story formulates through our experiences.
The international two-day workshop organised at Aalto ARTS on 4-5 February 2019 created a great space for learning and sharing information on the ceramics 3D printing technique. The workshop gathered together different stakeholders interested in the subject from inside Aalto, as well as from international universities and interest groups.
On Tuesday February 13th 2018 the interactive Clay Pit workshop was organised for the first time at Aalto University. Empirica member Priska Falin has been developing the workshop together with community and engagement programme manager Dena Bagi from British Ceramics Biennial (BCB).