In Empirica, different creative practices from the realm of art, craft and design are used as a catalyst for thinking and making research. Artist and doctoral researcher Montana Torrey led the research group on a tour of her studio during her winter project residency at HIAP Studios on Suomenlinna Island, where she shared her process and experiments for her ongoing research. 

Luis Vega will defend the thesis "Thinking with people and pots: A practice-led design study of sociomaterially distributed thought processes" on November 15 at noon.

In the Utsjoki iteration of Soil Laboratory, four artists embarked on an exploration of the dialog between humans and the land in the northernmost part of Finland during 2023–24.

Specialist Anna Kholina will defend the thesis "Experiencing urbanity in the making. Embracing uncertainty in design for social diversity and rich public realm" on Friday 27.9 at noon.

The workshop took place at the Aalto University hot glass studio and was organized by doctoral researcher Sara Hulkkonen who investigates glassblowing processes.

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.

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.

Join us for a seminar on creativity-oriented pedagogy in art and design universities, featuring keynote speeches by two leading experts in the fields of creativity research and artistic practice: Keith Sawyer and Nithikul Nimkulrat. The Seminar will take place on Wed, May 24 in Lecture Hall M1 (Otakaari 1).

The eighth Art of Research conference will be held from November 30 to December 1, 2023, at Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.

AREA is the Artistic Research Doctoral School of Aalto. Applications are open until 09.03.2023.

MA Priska Falin will defend the thesis "Relating to Clay: Tuning in to the Workings of the Aesthetic Dimension in Ceramic Practice" on 21 October 2022 at 12:00 in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design, at lecture hall M1, Otakaari 1, Espoo, and online in Zoom.

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.

MA Hanna-Kaisa Korolainen will defend the thesis "The Making of Inspiration - From Monet to Warhol" on 20 May 2022 at 12:00 in lecture hall M1 (M232) at Otakaari 1, Espoo, and online via Zoom.

EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art ) showcases evolving processes and artistic research in a ceramic art exhibition. “Ceramics Facing the New” in EMMA highlights the significance of clay for humanity while exploring contemporary environmental concerns and the disintegration of social structures.

Soil Matters exhibition at the Design Museum Helsinki’s Gallery presents nine craft and design projects which explore the relationship between humans and soil. A multidisciplinary group of professionals from ceramic artists working with scientists to artist-activists present nine experimental design projects. 

After years of hard work and dedication, the defence is the time to discuss the research motivations, findings, and implications. Doctor of Arts Bilge Aktaş reflects on her experience of defending her dissertation.

The seventh Art of Research conference will be held on 3-4 December 2020 in online mode. The theme of the conference “Authorship and Responsibility” addresses the varied collaborative and individual working situations of researcher artists, designers and architects.