Encounter with dead pieces of wood: Exploring dialogue and materiality at the end of the research project

Författare

• Mari Martin Taideyliopisto

Nyckelord:

encounter, artistic research, artistic dialogue, materiality, virtuality, trans-corporeal

Abstract

In this research report, I describe my work with wooden wedges I found in the forest of Uutela. Into these wedges, I carved texts drawn from my postdoctoral research material and titled the work Ajatuskiiloja (Thought Wedges). I exhibited the work in the Melancholia exhibition, at the Mylly building of the Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki, in 2022. With this work, I concluded my postdoctoral research project In Dialogue with the Urban Environment (University of the Arts Helsinki, 2022). In the project and its various sub-projects, I explored the
encounter between art and the urban environment as a form of artistic dialogue. Here, I analyse my engagement with the wooden material and summarise the project’s outcomes, entering into dialogue with scholars who have addressed materiality in their work – particularly environmental philosopher Stacy Alaimo, philosopher, director and performer Esa Kirkkopelto, and philosopher Emanuele Coccia.