Our interaction with media technologies poses something of a paradox; in search for relevant visual information, we are happy to trust the illusions constructed by imaging technologies. Photomedia is often considered a self-evident element of the human lifeworld, but the technological conception of images is susceptible to remain black-boxed. With artworks that challenge the latent anthropocentric underpinnings of images, the project strives to unfurl cultural techniques and pictorial operations underlying the spell of images. Taking the spectators eyewitness experience as a starting point, we set out to understand the repercussions that images may have in orienting the human sensorium and in underpinning our worldview. By creating experimental settings that grant the spectator an access to the process of imaging, this Uniarts research project will develop an artist-led, empiric approach for studying the cultural regimes and fictional spaces generated by imaging technologies.

Global policies address both the preservation of cultural heritage and the inclusion of women in public life despite gender exclusion being common and conspicuous in various traditions. Little research exists about how these policy goals can be navigated in the field of music. This transdisciplinary collaborative research project seeks systems understanding of the drivers for change towards gender equality through the case of Nepal where rituals and festivals feature patriarchal music making, and girls and women are largely absent from music education, music professions, and public life. With public pedagogy as a guiding approach, the research focuses on the politics of women and girls music making in Nepal to co-develop transition designs and leadership pathways towards more inclusive and sustainable societies. The research is based at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki and is in cooperation with Kathmandu University and Echoes in the Valley.

The elitist mental model of expert musicians continues to isolate professional musicianship from political participation and social life. This project aims to expand the notion of the political in music professionalism by advancing eco-artistic imagination and transformative systems thinking within higher music education. The project will be conducted with international collaborators in the Nordic higher music education contexts and with students, teachers, and leaders at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Data will include surveys, interviews, artistic-pedagogical interventions, and workshops. With public pedagogy as a catalytic idea, alternative performance practices in public contexts will be initiated jointly with folk music, jazz, and music technology study programs. Through participatory processes, the project will construct new practices for music professionalism and visions for responsible higher music education politics significant to society.

Despite decades of humanitarian discourses advocating for the ethical education of exceptional achievers, children gifted for music remain largely underprotected and exploited for the sake of sustaining the prestige of educational institutions and nations. This project explores how the politics of care in elite higher music institutions and certain educational “cults” could better support the education of gifted children. The transdisciplinary, multimethods research uses data from children, parents, teachers, adults earlier identified as gifted for music, and international representatives of elite institutions and the music industry. Systems Thinking will be used as an overarching approach to explore fundamental change in professional music education. Based at the Sibelius Academy, the project seeks to support children gifted for music internationally, so that they can live as agentic and healthy individuals while pursuing desirable educational outcomes in caring ecosystems.

Extractivism refers to the forced removal of raw materials and life forms from the earths surface, depths, and biosphere. Today, Extractivism also supports the operations of digital platforms by the mining of mineral resources, labor, data, and cultures. In fact, Extractivism is explicitly present in the field of Intelligent Performance that utilizes resource-intensive technologies such as automation and Artificial Intelligence. However, an intrinsic challenge lies in the limitations of cultural expression, prevalent bias in AI models, and a narrow utilization of automation in Intelligent Performance. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies and an absence of methodologies to deal with its materialities and environmental impacts. This project aims to conduct performance research to probe the histories, theories and practices of Intelligent Performance as a way to understand and mitigate Extractivism in the intelligent performing arts.