Maiju Loukola | University of the Arts Helsinki (original) (raw)

Articles by Maiju Loukola

RUUKKU, 2019

>> voices >> THE "VOICES" EXPOSITION PRESENTS A SELECTION OF CONFERENCE AND POST-CONFERENCE CONTR... more >> voices >>
THE "VOICES" EXPOSITION PRESENTS A SELECTION OF CONFERENCE AND POST-CONFERENCE CONTRIBUTIONS (ESSAYS, ARTICLES, PAPERS, ABSTRACTS, IMAGES AND AFTERTHOUGHTS) BY PARTICIPATING ARTIST-RESEARCHERS, SCHOLARS AND STUDENTS ACROSS DISCIPLINES, AESTHETICS AND PRACTICES. IT ALSO PRESENTS A"VISUAL JOURNEY" OF THE ART EVENT CURATED BY THE "FLOATING PERIPHERIES"-ARTIST-IN-CONSORTIUM PIA EURO.

FLOATING PERIPHERIES CONFERENCE 2019 – SITE AND SITUATION
was an international conference on artistic research organized by the research consortium “Floating Peripheries – mediating the sense of place” between Aalto ARTS Department of Film, Tv and Scenography and University of Lapland’s Faculty of Art and Design.

The conference and the curated event of experimental and situated artistic research practices, “Site and Situation Art Event”, took place on 14 – 16 January 2019 at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi.

Figures of Touch: Sense, Technics, Body, 2018

(Book introduction) Figures of Touch: Sense, Technics, Body Eds. Mika Elo & Miika Luoto As a... more (Book introduction)
Figures of Touch: Sense, Technics, Body
Eds. Mika Elo & Miika Luoto

As a sense modality, touch has been both over- and undervalued in Western culture. On the one hand, touch has been regarded as the basis of sense certainty and as a rather normative support to the theoretical gaze. On the other hand, it has been considered as vague, vulgar, drive-related or impure. Due to these contradictory and potentially subversive qualities, touch has been invested with various emancipatory expectations. In its ambivalence, the very sense of touch is essentially over-determined.

The texts of this volume address various dimensions of touch, where touch is not only a matter of sensory experience or bodily capacity, but also one of technics and vulnerability, of exposure and depth, of delicacy and tact. Some of the chapters venture out to the obscure borderlands of the phenomenal world where knowledge-oriented approaches encounter their limits, while others address something we could call generative patterns, or, as the title suggests, “figures of touch”.

Figures of Touch Sense, Technics, Body. Art theoretical writings from the Academy of Fine Arts (12).
Editors: Mika Elo & Miika Luoto. 2018.
ISBN 978-952-7131-45-9

CONTRIBUTORS:
MIKA ELO
LAURA GRÖNDAHL
HARRI LAAKSO
MAIJU LOUKOLA
MIIKA LUOTO
JEAN-LUC NANCY
DAVID PARISI
SAMI SANTANEN

"Flying backwards into the future" is an essay in Futures of Artistic Research – At the Intersect... more "Flying backwards into the future" is an essay in Futures of Artistic Research – At the Intersection of Utopia, Academia and Power, a collection of essays that brings into focus and explains the actual significance and future possibilities of the experimental exercises and critiques emerging across the field of artistic research. The book is structured around seven main questions and topics that are, at the moment, of interest to a wide interdisciplinary field of scholars, curators, and artists.

Contributors: Andrea Phillips, Basak Senova, Behzad Khosravi Noori, Cecilie Broch Knudsen, Darla Crispin, Florian Dombois, Jan Svenungsson, Joasia Krysa, Julian Klein, Lars Hallnäs, Leena Rouhiainen, Maiju Loukola, Melanie Bouteloup, Mick Wilson, Mika Elo, Nikita Yingqian Cai, and Renate Lorenz.

Futures of Artistic Research – At the Intersection of Utopia, Academia and Power. Writings from the Academy of Fine Arts (5). 2017.

Editors: Jan Kaila, Anita Seppä, Henk Slager

Graphic design: Marjo Malin

Publisher: The Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki

ISBN 978-952-7131-42-8

Taide on imaginäärinen praktiikka, jonka aineksia ovat yhtä lailla aistin varaiset havainnot ja k... more Taide on imaginäärinen praktiikka, jonka aineksia ovat yhtä lailla aistin varaiset havainnot ja kokemukset kuin käsitteet ja käsin kosketeltava materiaalisuus. Taiteen puhumissa kielissä sen itsensä ja elämän rakennus palikat asettuvat uusiin asentoihin avaten nähtäväksemme ennalta arvaamattomia näkymiä. Näin voimme päätellä Jacques Rancièren kehitelmästä koskien Friedrich Schillerin Spieltraubin leikkisää taipumusta yllyttää maailma syntymään taiteessa aina uudelleen (Rancière 2014, 116. Ks. leikkivietistä myös Schiller 2013.) Rancièren politiikan filosofian ytimessä on kysymys partikulaaristen vastakkainasettelujen tuolla puolen olevasta tilanteesta, erimielisyydestä politiikan luonteena. Niin taiteessa kuin politiikassa jatkuvan kiistan alaisina ovat ne tiedolliset ja aistimelliset rajat, jotka määrittävät kokemus-tamme maailmasta. Rancièrea seuraten voidaan hyvästä syystä pohtia miten taide, tuo kumma vieras, epätavallinen spektaakkeli, mysteeri, jonka merkityksiä itse pitää etsiä, usuttaa esteettisen ja poliittisen osumaan yksiin? Rancière kehottaa olemaan tarkkana taiteen politiikan suhteen, ja syytä onkin välttää ottamasta taiteen vaikutustapaa annettuna. Hän ei välitä puhua poliittisesta taiteesta, sillä siinä taide astuu ikään kuin politiikan palvelukseen, kuvittaa. On kuin taide katselisi itseään peilistä ja näkisi kuvajaisen, joka on pohjimmiltaan sama ja siten ainoastaan itseään vahvistava reflektio jähmettyneessä tilassa. Onkin syytä jäljittää Rancièren poliittisen ajattelua, jota seuraten politiikka on pohjimmiltaan estetiikkaa. Kyse on maailman jakamisesta – siihen mikä tehdään näkyväksi ja nähdään, ja vastavuoroisesti siihen mikä jää näköpiirin ulkopuolelle. (---)

The article deals with the artistic and curatorial process of "Weather Station", a sound-based ex... more The article deals with the artistic and curatorial process of "Weather Station", a sound-based exhibition and the Finnish contribution to the Prague Quadrennial for Performance Design and Space 2015 (PQ 2015).

We wanted to highlight the role of sound as a scenographic material – sensual, spatial, performative, unexpected. One of the reasons for bringing sound into the frontline in our PQ 2015 contribution is that scenic sound art is going through an interesting and energetic phase in Finland. The spectrum of electronic music, experimental sound, transdisciplinary approaches and sound research are increasingly well-recognized areas within the contemporary performing arts.

The exposition was inspired by the Quadrennial's central theme of ‘Music, Weather, Politics’ – and we chose Weather, with emphasis on sound art and sound design. In our call for proposals we invited our colleagues and fellow artists to consider weather and sound – as parallel actors – in terms of space, condition and environment. The curator of the PQ 2015 Weather section, Simon Banham, articulated the theme in a way that inspired us in its ambiguity and open-ended formulation that seemed to leave wild space for unexpected and super-imaginary processes. For us this worked best as an activator towards imagining potential spaces that were not necessarily limited by the imperatives of meaning-economies that the tradition of modernist theatre and scenography has been burdened with for decades. Our aim was rather to take off from what might be called a post-dramatic premise, and create an event that would highlight artistic processes and working methods that tackle the given themes with a peculiar curiosity and a whimsical and experimental attitude.

We invited artists and designers to ponder on what kinds of (re)articulations and (re)formulations may come to the fore by bringing together sound-based performative situations with an interactive, unexpected, untamed factor such as weather. Contributors were encouraged to ‘think outside the box’, and to consider the spatial form, the visual features and embodied qualities of their proposal. They were asked to submit performative works or situations that foregrounded the spatiality, embodied experientiality and multisensory qualities in the mixing of sound and weather in refined and contextualized, yet open-ended and multidimensional ways.

Published in Theatre and Performance Design, Vol. 2 , Iss. 1-2,2016.

Authors: Maiju Loukola with Heidi Soidinsalo, Antti Mäkelä, Kristian Ekholm, Elina Lifländer, Nanni Vapaavuori and Antti Nykyri

In this article, I consider the experientality of projected image installations from a scenograph... more In this article, I consider the experientality of projected image installations from a scenographer’s point of view. My question is: how to comprehend media scenographic means of spacing in terms of sensing, perceiving, feeling? I approach the mediated means of scenography through analysing the relationship between mediality and touch, with regard to my own involvement as a practicing scenic artist. My particular interest is in ways of comprehending visibility and screen in terms of experientality and sensable perception.

I have composed the essay from the perspective of artistic research. That to me means practicing research through bringing making and theory into dialogue with each other. In other words, I let the practice and the theoretical reference points interfere and inform each other. I propose one possible framework attached to the over hundred-year long entanglement of practices of theatre and moving image, of the mixing of physical space and technological means of image projection. I bring one of my recent artistic projects into discussion with the theoretical reference points that I see relevant for the consideration.

Article in a compilation: Näyttämö & tutkimus (Stage & Research), vol. 5: Teatteri ja media(t) (Theatre and media). Toim./ Eds. Marjatta Häti-Korkeila, Hanna Järvinen, Jukka Kortti & Riku Roihankorpi. Helsinki: Teatterintutkimuksen seura (The Theatre Research Society, 72–86. (Peer reviewed)

>> Kosketus vaikuttaa heti kättelyssä tutulta teemalta. Kosketuksen kouriintuntuvuus kuuluu kokon... more >> Kosketus vaikuttaa heti kättelyssä tutulta teemalta. Kosketuksen kouriintuntuvuus kuuluu kokonaisvaltaisesti ruumiilliseen olemiseen, ja se palvelee intuitiota, ymmärrystä, käsittämistä ja sosiaalista kanssakäymistä monin tavoin. Lähemmin pohdittaessa tämä tuttuuden pintavaikutelma kuitenkin syvenee, sillä kosketus on viime kädessä aina toisen varassa. Se mikä meitä koskettaa, on käsillä ja lähellä, mutta vain osana maailmaa, johon kuuluu myös etäisyys. Paradoksaalisesti kouriintuntuvinta on juuri vieraus tuttuuden ytimessä.

Kosketuksen figuureja tarkastelee kosketuksen kulttuurista asemaa ja siinä tapahtuvia muutoksia filosofian, mediateorian, antropologian ja taiteellisen tutkimuksen konteksteissa. Kosketuksen eri ulottuvuuksia punnitaan alttiina olemisen, toisenvaraisuuden ja tahdikkuuden kysymysten valossa. Ihmeteltäväksi asettuu erilaisten tuntumien monitahoinen maasto, jossa kosketusta ei voi pelkistää yhdeksi aistimodaliteetiksi muiden joukossa.

Kokoelman kirjoittajat tutkivat kukin tavallaan fyysisen kosketuksen näennäisen välittömyyden murtumakohtia. Uudelleen arvioitavina ovat vakiintuneiden tietorakenteiden perusteet, kuten mieli/ruumis, järjellinen/aistinen, oma/vieras ja abstrakti/konkreettinen -erottelut sekä medioiden ja aistien suhteet. Jaetun viitepisteen kokoelman kirjoittajille muodostavat fenomenologinen kosketuksen ajattelu sekä sen dekonstruktio. >>

http://www.tutkijaliitto.fi/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=172&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26

Article of "Weather Station", an exhibition and event for exploring the performative potential of... more Article of "Weather Station", an exhibition and event for exploring the performative potential of sound and sound art in MUU Gallery Helsinki 3.–12.10. 2014. In BLUE PAGES Journal, published by the Society of British Theatre Designers, Vol.4, 2014. pp. 22–24.
N.B. Text/description of "The Sound of Music (in a box)" written by Heidi Soidinsalo & Jani-Matti Salo.

Modes of Spectating; edited by Alison Oddey and Christine White. Bristol/Chicago: Intellect Books. (Peer reviewed conference proceedings), 2009

The article focuses on the processual, spatio-temporal character and conceptualizing of digital i... more The article focuses on the processual, spatio-temporal character and conceptualizing of digital image, as well as on the phenomenological body of digital image-space in the light of reading philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Global `tele-presenciation´ has become the real-time environment of our lived everyday practices, as we find ourselves surrounded by the lightness and accessibility of mobile travelling and communication. How we find ourselves as `submerged in the world´, as it is phrased by Merleau-Ponty, and how we place ourselves in the era of the placeless and the timeless, has got a profound impact on how we outline our being. Thus, certain potentialities of sensing the digital image are contemplated from a particular spatio-temporal body-perspective.

Papers & other forms of presentations by Maiju Loukola

Presentation in the "Politics of participation and spatialities of politics" working group/ Theme... more Presentation in the "Politics of participation and spatialities of politics" working group/ Theme group 1: "Power, participation and urban planning"
at the Urban Studies Days 2015: CITY AS A STAGE.

May 11-12 2015 at the University of Tampere

The traditional conceptions of scenography seem but vaguely meet the needs of contemporary perfor... more The traditional conceptions of scenography seem but vaguely meet the needs of contemporary performative practices. I base my artistic work and research on the expanded notion of scenography. This implies getting into the spacing of performance in terms of transformativity, experientality and eventness.

Theatre constantly renegotiates and re-frames its spatial and temporal boundaries, those on which... more Theatre constantly renegotiates and re-frames its spatial and temporal boundaries, those on which the essence of all live art is based upon. Intermediality and interdisciplinary approaches have challenged the ways of the practices and theories of performing arts and also of scenography -at the intersection of theatre, dance, performance art, space / architecture, and new media. Theatre, as a site and as a structure for mimetic appearance -a site of gathering, presenting, representing, and making way for the appearance of unpredictable phenomena and thus by being theatrical medium by definition -has always been about shared space and time, and also virtuality. Virtuality cuts through any theatrical encountering in multiple levels, metaphorical, immaterial as well as material.

FOR "HOW ART PERFORMS HISTORY" SEMINAR ORGANZSED BY THE FINNISH PERFORMANCE RESEARCH ASSOCIATION ... more FOR "HOW ART PERFORMS HISTORY" SEMINAR ORGANZSED BY THE FINNISH PERFORMANCE RESEARCH ASSOCIATION (TEATS) & ESTONIAN THEATRE RESEARCH ASSOCIATION IN THE FINNISH INSTITUTE IN TALLINN, 27.-28.11.2009

PERFORMANCE STUDIES INTERNATIONAL (PSI) CONFERENCE, COPENHAGEN 2008 The panel approaches the visu... more PERFORMANCE STUDIES INTERNATIONAL (PSI) CONFERENCE, COPENHAGEN 2008 The panel approaches the visuality in the performance from the point of view of artistic research. All panellists are theatre and performance artists as well as research scholars, combining their artistic practice with doctoral work. Their mutual interest is to locate some grey areas of the visuality, and scrutinize foundational questions concerning some ruptures, crises and paradoxes appearing in their own performances. After 5 minutes introduction by the moderator, each panellist has 25 minutes for presenting their papers and examples of their practical work, leaving 40 minutes for discussion led by the moderator.

RUUKKU, 2019

Figures of Touch: Sense, Technics, Body, 2018

(Book introduction) Figures of Touch: Sense, Technics, Body Eds. Mika Elo & Miika Luoto As a... more (Book introduction)
Figures of Touch: Sense, Technics, Body
Eds. Mika Elo & Miika Luoto

Figures of Touch Sense, Technics, Body. Art theoretical writings from the Academy of Fine Arts (12).
Editors: Mika Elo & Miika Luoto. 2018.
ISBN 978-952-7131-45-9

CONTRIBUTORS:
MIKA ELO
LAURA GRÖNDAHL
HARRI LAAKSO
MAIJU LOUKOLA
MIIKA LUOTO
JEAN-LUC NANCY
DAVID PARISI
SAMI SANTANEN

Futures of Artistic Research – At the Intersection of Utopia, Academia and Power. Writings from the Academy of Fine Arts (5). 2017.

Editors: Jan Kaila, Anita Seppä, Henk Slager

Graphic design: Marjo Malin

Publisher: The Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki

ISBN 978-952-7131-42-8

Published in Theatre and Performance Design, Vol. 2 , Iss. 1-2,2016.

Authors: Maiju Loukola with Heidi Soidinsalo, Antti Mäkelä, Kristian Ekholm, Elina Lifländer, Nanni Vapaavuori and Antti Nykyri

http://www.tutkijaliitto.fi/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=172&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26

Modes of Spectating; edited by Alison Oddey and Christine White. Bristol/Chicago: Intellect Books. (Peer reviewed conference proceedings), 2009

May 11-12 2015 at the University of Tampere

Tiede & Edistys journal, 2017

(Johdanto/ Esipuhe) Taidetutkimus — taiteen ja tutkimuksen leikkauskohtia Tämän teemanumeron läh... more (Johdanto/ Esipuhe)

Taidetutkimus — taiteen ja tutkimuksen leikkauskohtia
Tämän teemanumeron lähtökohtana oli alkuvuodesta 2017 laatimamme kirjoituskutsu, jossa nostimme esiin kysymyksen taiteen ja tutkimuksen suhteesta. Peräänkuulutimme tutkimusartikkeleita, tutkimusesittelyjä ja esseemuotoisia kirjoituksia, joissa syvennyttäisiin taiteen ja tutkimuksen leikkauskohtiin, toisin sanoen sellaisiin kysymyksiin ja aihealueisiin, joiden kohdalla on tarvetta eritellä taiteen tekemisen ja sen kriittisen tarkastelun ja analyysin lähtökohtia ja tavoitteita uudella tavalla. Parin viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana tällaisia kysymyksiä on toki käsitelty laajasti ja monipuolisestikin, mutta käyty keskustelu on jäänyt pitkälti taidealojen sisäiseksi. Taiteen ja tutkimuksen yhteispeliä kuvaamaan kehitelty sanasto on ollut moninaista ja osin kömpelöäkin (”käytäntöperustainen tutkimus”, ”käytäntöjohtoinen tutkimus”, ”taiteilijalähtöinen tutkimus”, jne.). Niinpä eräänlaiseksi löyhästi sitovaksi ja pragmaattiseksi kattotermiksi on muodostunut ”taiteellinen tutkimus”. Termille ei kuitenkaan ole olemassa mitään yhtä vakiintunutta määritelmää, ja esiin tuotujen näkökulmien kirjokin on varsin laaja.

Kirjoituskutsumme pyrki kuitenkin avaamaan keskustelua vielä laajemmasta asiasta. Tavoitteena oli ”taidetutkimus”-nimikkeen alla innostaa keskustelua taiteentutkijoiden ja taidetta tekevien taiteilija-tutkijoiden välillä kenties jollakin tapaa jaetusta alueesta, jolla taide aidosti koskettaa myös tutkimuksen tekemistä, sen lähtökohtia, tavoitteita ja etenemisen tapaa. Artikkeli Ehdotuksia tuli kaiken kaikkiaan parikymmentä, mutta kirjoituskutsuun tarttuivat tällä kertaa kuitenkin lähinnä taiteilija-tutkijat. Teemanumerossa esitellään neljä tutkimusartikkelia.

Taiteellisessa tutkimuksessa teokset ja taiteen käytännöt ovat tutkimuksen ytimessä monin tavoin. Kokeellisuus, prosessi, kokemuksellisuus ja toisin sanominen ovat termejä, jotka usein kaikuvat taiteellisen tutkimuksen seminaareissa ja työpajoissa. Tutkivilla taiteilijoilla ei ole tukenaan, jos ei taakkanaankaan, yhtä lailla kauas ulottuvaa artikuloitua tutkimusperinnettä kuin tieteen taustasta ponnistavilla taiteentutkijoilla. Taiteen ja tutkimuksen leikkauspisteessä tutkimuskirjoittamisen akateemiset perinteet ja tieteellisyyden kriteerit ovat sekä haastajia että haastettuja. Punnittavina ovat myös perustavalla tavalla erilaiset lähtökohdat ja lähestymistavat. Tämä näkyy käsillä olevan numeron artikkeleissa paitsi monenlaisia tiedonaloja yhdistelevänä eetoksena, ehkä hieman yllättäen myös yhteiskirjoittamisen laajapohjaisena omaksumisena.

Taiteellisen tutkimuksen alueella tutkimuspoliittisia linjauksia on useita jo pelkästään suomalaisten yliopistojen puitteissa. Useimmiten keskustelu on kuitenkin fuusiohakuista, mikä johtaa siihen, että taiteellisen ja tieteellisen toiminnan eroavuudet karkaavat helposti näköpiiristä. Kun taiteet kirjataan tieteiden pohjustaman tutkimuksen piiriin, kun katsotaan että taidekin voi olla tutkimusta, niin siitä pyritään saamaan ote tutkimuksena tieteen näkökulmasta. Tällöin kuitenkin myös nähdään, että taiteellisella tutkimuksella on potentiaalia horjuttaa monia vallitsevia kulttuurisia dikotomioita, kuten henkinen vs. ruumiillinen, teoria vs. käytäntö, älyllinen vs. aistinen. Taiteellista tutkimusta voikin hyvin perustein luonnehtia rajojen tai äärten työstämiseksi (boundary work), joka parhaimmillaan haastaa vakiintuneita tietorakenteita varteenotettavalla tavalla.

Toisinaan on esitetty, että taiteellinen tutkimus demokratisoisi tiedontuotannon instituutioita ja purkaisi niihin kerrostuneita valtarakenteita. Toisin kuin yliopistoraami ja siihen liittyvät tutkimuspoliittiset etupiirikamppailut antavat helposti ymmärtää, niin taiteellisessa tutkimuksessa on kuitenkin paljon muutakin pelissä kuin ”etulinjat” – toisaalta jonkinlaisen avantgarden ja toisaalta eduntavoittelun mielessä. Pelissä ovat myös ja ehkä jopa ennen kaikkea monenlaiset ennakkoehdot, kynnykset, sävyt ja intensiteetit, ylipäänsä tiedonmuodostuksen tilannekohtaiset ehdot. Näihin ehtoihin kuuluu myös tutkimuspoliittisia kamppailuja laajempi kehys, jossa voi tarkastella yliopiston muuttumista koulutusteollisuudeksi, tutkimuksen muuttumista luovan teollisuuden aineettomaksi työksi ja taitelija-tutkijan muuttumista yrittäjäksi.
Missä määrin taiteen keinoin etenevän tutkimisen ratkaisevat kohdat ovat menetelmällisiä ja kielellisiä? Onko taiteellisessa tutkimuksessa kyse kokonaan toisenlaisista kysymystenasetteluista kuin tutkimuksessa, jolle taiteen ilmiöt ovat tutkimuskohteita? Jos taide on omalakinen kieli ja väylä avata näkymiä ilmiöiden ja olemisen tasoihin sanallisen ilmaisun tuolla puolen, niin miten tuoda esiin sen ehtoja ja jäsennyksiä tutkimuskontekstissa? Miten asettaa, muodot, rytmit ja sanomisen tilat?

Mika Elo, Tuija Kokkonen ja Maiju Loukola

RUUKKU, 2019

Peripheries in artistic research Edited by Mari Mäkiranta, Eija Timonen, Maiju Loukola ISSN: 23... more Peripheries in artistic research

Edited by Mari Mäkiranta, Eija Timonen, Maiju Loukola

ISSN: 2341-9687

RUUKKU #12 considers the conceptual, methodical, concrete and practical peripheries in the arts. This thematic issue ponders questions concerning what kinds of roles margins, peripheries or fringes have in the arts and artistic research? Can artistic research itself be conceived as a peripheral zone on the edge of the rationalistic scientific world? In the context of artistic research and the periphery theme it is interesting to ruminate upon what consequences can be expected when established ontological and epistemic questions are challenged. Also central to the thematic issue is how can periphery or peripherality be understood in artistic research in the field of the discursive-material, sensable and experiential.

Peripheries and margins may be envisioned as concrete or immaterial fields, phenomena, states of mind, associations, practices and epistemologies that are defined as ‘marginal'. When thinking of marginality, for example, as an elemental part of an artwork or an artistic process, one reaches the literal edge of artistic exploration: different (physical, discursive, conceptual, mental, imaginary, narrative, virtual, material, affective) conceptual and practical boundaries that can be linked to methods and means – or similarly, to ways of combining theoretical discussions with art's materiality. In artistic research, theory can also be structured as material, in which case we may ask: how do the actions and gestures of investigative art relate to the materiality of language?

Peripheries are always related to things and phenomena that are positioned as ‘mainstream'. When challenging the prevailing configurations – how do peripheries, in turn, become challenged themselves? Is it possible to reassess the current conceptions and borders stemming from the sphere of so-called normative thought, visualisation and spatiotemporal representation, through ideas and activities that manifest their status as ‘peripheral'? How do different areas in art and research get to be positioned as ‘peripheral' or ‘central' in relation to the conditions, structures, contexts and situations created by society and the surrounding communities? What is the role of marginalities in the ontological "turn" where dualisms are cast aside, as the focus has turned toward transformation, change and non-essentialistic perceptions of the world?

This thematic issue also considers the borders of peripheries themselves, or in other words the limits of borderlines, and the marginality of the marginal. In art, peripherality may be represented by the specificity of the material, the mode of expression, the tone, or the location of the artwork or other artistic performance. The extensive experiential landscape of artistic research creates relationships and produces tensions where certain things and elements become central and some have influence at the margin. It is with good reason that artistic research can be thought of as operating within the shadows of established knowledge structures, through piercing and questioning different predominant categories. At its best, the forms, materialisations and questions that come under scrutiny are things and issues that are linked to different contexts in such ways that they create new relationships between conditions, things, ideas and experiences.

VÄHÄN VÄLIÄ – NÄYTTÄMÖN MEDIAALISUUS JA KOSKETUKSEN ARKKITEHTUURI on sekä teoreettinen tutkimus e... more VÄHÄN VÄLIÄ – NÄYTTÄMÖN MEDIAALISUUS JA KOSKETUKSEN ARKKITEHTUURI on sekä teoreettinen tutkimus että kolmen esityksen ja kolmen esityksellisen installaation dokumentaatio.

Maiju Loukolan tutkimus käsittelee mediaalista näyttämöä aistimuksellisena ja tapahtumallisena skenografin näkökulmasta. Näyttämön, mediaalisuuden ja kosketuksen kytkökset ovat yhtäältä mediateknologioiden ja esityskäytäntöjen kysymyksiä. Loukolalle ne "välitteisyydessään" ovat vielä keskeisemmin yhteyden, kontaktin ja rajan käynnin kysymyksiä. Millaista kokemuksellisuutta mediatilan ja fyysisen tilan kohtaamisessa muodostuu? Miten tämä vaikuttaa katsoja-kokijaan? Näihin kysymyksiin vastatakseen Loukola hakeutuu fenomenologisiin ja mediafilosofisiin keskusteluihin.

Skenografia on Maiju Loukolalle ensisijaisesti tilan ymmärtämistä suhteiden ja dynamiikan lähtökohdista, jolloin tila jäsentyy kokemuksellisena ja aistinvaraisena – elettynä tilana ja tilanteena. Maiju Loukola purkaa käsityksiä mediateatterin skenografioista näkökeskeisinä kuvaesityksinä, jossa muut aistit kuten kosketus, kuulo, maku- tai hajuaistimukset sivuutetaan katseelle alisteisina.

* * *
ANYWHERE NEAR – media scenographies and the architectures of touch

Maiju Loukola's artistic doctoral research focuses on the mediality of performance space, on theatricality of media, and experientality of projected image installations. She asks in her dissertation: how do the mediated & expanded practices of contemporary scenography and performance design affect our lived, aesthetic experience, and how do they structure our bodily perception in and as performative spatio-temporal event?

She contemplates the mediality of theatrical space/place as media scenographic situation with reference to media theoretical contact points, connected to conceptualisations of aesthetic experience, sensable perception and embodied visibility. With reference to her own involvement as practicing scenic artist she examines the experientality of projected image installations, through analyzing the relationship of mediality and touch.

Loukola's research consists of written thesis and of six artistic projects—three performances and three experimental installations. She approaches each artistic part with specific research questions, each from slightly different angle, reflecting art practice and theoretical analysis through each other. Loukola approaches video projections in all of the three performances and three installation projects as transformative and situation-sensitive scenographic medium.

Her art and research interests are influenced by the tradition and the contemporaneity of spatio-temporally oriented art forms focused on applications of moving image and image projection.

One of the central starting points of Loukola's doctoral study is intertwined with the expanded notion of scenography; Loukola approaches scenography in terms of evental & transformative space, of experientality and scenograhic action. With reference to the notion of scenography expanded, she understands scenography in terms of spatial, temporal and visual strategies that activate and transform the spectator’s embodied experience.

Also, she argues that the traditional conceptions and practices of expanded scenography vaguely meet the needs of today’s heterogeneous intermedial performative practices, combining the physical and the mediated space in increasingly divergent, hybrid, socially and technologically affected forms. For Loukola, the fact that our remediated experience is ever so evidently compositioned in between the actual and the virtual, calls for rearticulations of both the vocabulary and practices of performing arts and scenography as well. Loukola contributes in this discussion from a media sensitive point of view—grounded on the sensability of the body, bodily perception and on the notion of sensuous knowledge.

Loukola' central theoretical reference points are connected to two main directions: the notion of touch on the one hand, and contemplations of mediality on the other. She aims at making visible a certain in-betweennes that characterizes both touch and mediality – yet emphasizing the peculiar and inherent quality, characteristic to both, that at the same time is determined by certain tendency for ineradicable intimacy. Loukola argues, that from a media sensitive point of view the structure of mediated experience may be articulated with reference to a profound, even radical simultaneity of intimacy and distance; this tensional structure defines both touch and mediality, and in the frame of Loukola's study, this structural feature is called the "architecture of touch".

One of the key factors in Loukola's study is a phenomenological orientation that positions the body as the focal point of sense perception. Reading through Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s "ontology of vision", it seems that sensibility and a certain structural "reversibility" inherent to touch builds as focal themes.

Her other theoretical focal point of reference is connected with the notion of "media" and its derivatives. Mediality is approached from a viewpoint where "media" are connected to both meaning making and the mediation of senses. Samuel Weber’s notion of "theatricality of media" and his thematizations of Walter Benjamin’s "translation theory" are central to Loukola's understanding of mediality in the scenic arts.

Näyttämö & Tutkimus, 2012

FLOATING PERIPHERIES – MEDIATING THE SENSE OF PLACE / LIIKKUVAT PERIFERIAT – PAIKAN TUNTU is an ... more FLOATING PERIPHERIES – MEDIATING THE SENSE OF PLACE / LIIKKUVAT PERIFERIAT – PAIKAN TUNTU

is an artistic research project (consortium) funded by the Academy of Finland (2017–2021). In this project we aim at enlarging the understanding of ‘peripheries’ into areas that are difficult to verbalize.

Peripheries are conventionally conceived as marginal geographical locations, whereas our purpose is to look at peripheries as a multifaceted phenomenon – as conceptual, spatial and site-responsive domains, aesthetically and spatially experienced sensory spheres, states of mind shaped by associations and mental images, and activities through different mediums in arts and epistemologies.

We aim at producing new art-based strategies for unraveling the spatial and conceptual hierarchies and biased assumptions of what and where the ‘periphery’ is in relation to the ‘center’. Our research is site- and situation-based. In each specific case we ask: How do we define here/now our relation to ‘peripherality’?

We live in an age where peripheral cultural phenomena tend to be overwhelmed by centralized systems and mediated global assumptions. Our living environment is a space of political, economical and legal exercise of centralized governing and control. It is strictly operated according to what, where and when is legitimate and to whom. It is substantially a normative space, the uses of which are to a great extent guided through the organization of space.

In relation to a wider societal context, we ask: Who and what gets to be objectified as ‘peripheral’ within the social and spatial hierarchies of the society? What are the rights of those who represent the fringes of normativity? Various ‘marginal’ and even ‘extreme’ phenomena have become pressing subjects of debate in the political and social discourse as well as in everyday human interaction. Our premise is that peripheral phenomena have occupied a significant amount of public space today on multiple levels, and hence the need for a multidisciplinary analysis is critical.

This multiperspective artistic research concretely moves into the public sphere in the form of artistic interventions, artworks and city-square-events to interfere and interrelate with different peripheral contexts and realities. It tackles art as an active and effective agency of change; art addresses pressing issues directly through the senses and affects us on a deeply emotional level, exceeding the operations of the rational mind and everyday reality. The peripheral phenomena appearing in sub/urban space, social space, media/digital space and nature are the basis for analysis and for artistic production.

In our view art not only has the ability to break the normative surface of everyday existence, but it can operate like a secret virus, making peripheral and ‘Other’ hidden spaces and narratives visible, felt and infective. The artistic interventions include interaction with local communities and ordinary people whose personal narratives, images, dreams and experiences of site catalyze the birth of new spatial stories. Our hypothesis is that actual engagement with space adds awareness, attachment and responsibility to both immediate neighborhoods and the environment at large. Similarly, the other side of the coin is acknowledged here: alongside ‘my/our’ narrative always appears the ‘other’ narrative of someone else.

The research aims at bringing to the fore the existing, hidden and controversial margins of human life and nature from an equal, ethical and empathic viewpoint. It proposes a more holistic and sensuous vision that adds value to urban and community planning by increasing the potential for more extensive collaboration between artists, urban planners, environmentalists and residents in the future. It brings the practical and theoretical skills and epistemologies that have traditionally belonged to performing arts, visual arts and media art, to be distributed among a wide spectrum of societal forums.

When our built and natural environments are planned and utilized according to market value alone, our sense of cultural identity, site-related history and thus our ‘sense of place’ are in danger of disappearing. Everyday practices like work, participation in society, leisure, care and interaction with others are governed, controlled and guided by means of spatial organization.

In our view, our knowledge-based society has subordinated the perceived, sensed and personal to the ‘hard sciences’, banishing these dimensions to the discursive margins. Economically driven decision-making and urban planning alone cannot provide the means for re-calibrating the spatial organisation of society so that each citizen is able to reclaim her/his sense of belonging to sites and places in our living environment.

The consortium is a collaboration between two leading institutions: Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture (Department of Film, Tv and Scenography ELO, and the Department of Art: Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art ViCCA), and University of Lapland (Faculty of Art and Design). The consortium strengthens the existing collaboration of Aalto ARTS and ULAP by deploying artistic research and its epistemic interests in a new way between the arts, body and society from a unique peripheral perspective.

The research project “Figures of Touch” is an interdisciplinary project deploying epistemic inte... more The research project “Figures of Touch” is an interdisciplinary
project deploying epistemic interests of media studies, art research,
aesthetics, philosophy, and medical anthropology. It addresses the
relations between the arts, body and society in a new way by analysing
the transformation of the cultural status of touching that cuts through
multiple levels, e.g. due to ubiquitous computing. In terms of our
research this shift constitutes a multifaceted research challenge with
aesthetic, ethical and methodological aspects.

Our approach will be guided by the ‘pathic’ moment of touching, by
which we refer to touch as the sense of being exposed and affectable.
From the normally ignored ‘pathic’ point of view, the sense of touch is
relational, situational and inherently heterogeneous. It also exceeds
the tactile order: to touch is always also to be touched, moved in the
whole of one’s being. As a ‘pathic sense’ touch potentially subverts
dichotomies, such as mind/body, theory/praxis, intelligible/sensible
and thus challenges established regimes of knowledge and art forms. The
‘pathic’ orientation of our research enables significantly
new and productive ways of cross relating the questions concerning
sensuous, ethical, clinical and technological aspects of touching.
Consequently, the project has great relevance in terms of its extensive
implications well beyond its explicit topics.

The research project investigates the sense of touch and the
transformation of its significance in regard to the culturally
established mind/body order and the institutional order of higher
education. From the ‘pathic’ point of view these are essentially
interrelated.

In terms of actual research processes, the research consists of
conceptual mapping of the ‘pathic’ sense of touch and of introducing,
analyzing and demonstrating concrete figures of touching, such as
sensuous difference, tactful art research, touch from a distance, and
the untouchable. This is done on multiple levels in the contexts of
media studies, philosophy, art research and medical anthropology. It is
our objective to give a rich and legible image of the cultural
significance of touch today.

WEATHER STATION exhibition featured 10 Finnish sound and performance artists in Prague Quadrennia... more WEATHER STATION exhibition featured 10 Finnish sound and performance artists in Prague Quadrennial 17–26 June 2015, and was curated by Maiju Loukola in collb. with Timo Heinonen. Two large-scale sound-space installations and video documentations of two research-based sound art performance processes were exhibited. The artists rerpresented the front row of scenography, sound, lighting and video design and art: Heidi Soidinsalo + Kasperi Laine + Jani-Matti Salo + Ville Seppänen; Antti Mäkelä (Puumalainen); Elina Lifländer + Nanni Kourkia + Kristian Ekholm + Nanni Vapaavuori; Antti Nykyri. The WEATHER STATION exhibition was granted 1st prize for Best Media Performance in Prague Quadrennial 20215.

S Ä Ä A S E M A Väderstation | Weather Station Äänen ja äänitaiteen esityksellisten muotojen nä... more S Ä Ä A S E M A
Väderstation | Weather Station
Äänen ja äänitaiteen esityksellisten muotojen näyttely.
En undersökande utsällning om ljud och ljudkonstens möjligheter
i föreställningar.
An exploratory exhibition on the performative potential of sound & sound.

Curators Maiju Loukola & Timo Heinonen

NIGHT PIECES: 3 x SPATIAL ACCESS TO 'THE VENICE' exhibition consists of spatial interventions, th... more NIGHT PIECES: 3 x SPATIAL ACCESS TO 'THE VENICE' exhibition consists of spatial interventions, their documentations and installations by three scenographers and artist-researchers working at Aalto ARTS.

NIGHT PIECES explores the "accessibility" into an archetypal site, the city of Venice, via spatial citation, rhythm and double-exposure.
Our survey is inspired by the book under the same title by E.T.A. Hoffmann (Nachtstücke, written in 1816–17). In his surreal narratives Hoffmann aims at bringing the incomprehensible and abnormal into a comprehensible form. Our point of orientation stems from this angle that seems to "call our attention towards recognising the horrendous consciousness of the darkest corners of human psyche".

See also
"SCENE/SCREEN WEEKS 33-34" in August:
http://www.researchpavilion.fi/camino-events

Out 2 IS A MOVING IMAGE INSTALLATION AND A COLLECTIVE PROCEDURAL WORK COMBINING CINEMATIC AND THE... more Out 2 IS A MOVING IMAGE INSTALLATION AND A COLLECTIVE PROCEDURAL WORK COMBINING CINEMATIC AND THEATRICAL EXPRESSION AND IMPROVISATORY METHODS.

Artists involved: Harri Laakso, Maiju Loukola (supervising artist-researchers), Riikka Theresa Innanen, Matti Tanskanen, Aneta Atsova, Outi Yli-Viikari, Katri Miettinen, Saara Tamminen, Niko Skorpio, Niko Tii Nurmi Sipiläinen, Valeria Nekhaeva, Jakub Bobrowski, Ragnar Rael, Henna Herranen, Jernej Çuçek Gerbec, Laura Leif, Ali Akbar Mehta, Joel Autio, Eero Tiainen, Katja Lautamatti, Tatiana Melnikova, Ilona Lehtonen, Victor Paradinho. //

Out 2 is inspired by a 13 hour-long film Out 1: Noli Me Tangere (1971) by Jacques Rivette, a key figure in French cinema; Out 1 is a difficult film because of its sheer length but also because Rivette’s style is uncompromising – combining bizarre narrative and being improvisational-experimental-theatrical. It is intellectual, meditative, illogical, sensual, highly enigmatic and at times also very funny. The background materials of Out 1 include texts from Aeschylus, Honoré de Balzac and Lewis Carroll.

Out 2 encompasses the artistic contribution of 21 students and 2 supervising artist-researchers from Aalto ARTS. Out 2 refers not only to Rivette’s film or its style but becomes a contemporary document about a certain time in Finland and a certain art school community. Further, Out 2 is inspired e.g. by the procedural methods of the French experimentalist literature group OuLiPo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle); for "oulipians", freedom of expression is a pathetic illusion, hence they operate under a multitude of restrictions. OuLiPo developed systematic rules and regulations (incl. algorithms, permutations, set-theory) that generate their work. Instead of "producing creations" they aim at "creations that create" (Mathews and Brotchie 2005, 31). Out 2 collective conceives these methods parallel to the improvisatory methods used in performative arts, and takes "not-knowing" as its point of departure. Our angle to "accessibility" is related to certain epistemological entrance in comprehending contemporaneity through a collective artistic process in which two completely different, yet in many regards resemblant historical moments (the aftermath of France -68 vs Finland/Europe/globe and the effects of the prevailing neoliberal heat) are brought into infective encountering/collision. Also, we will be discussing the "agambenian" notion of a collective of singularities (people, ideas, production) that co-belong without aiming at affirmation of (one) identity (Agamben 1993, 86).

Out 2 includes an exaggerated amount of documentary footage of collective discussions, fabricated, fictional and theatrical fragments and narratives, all intertwined in one as a cinematic composition or a sculptural moving image work. //

http://www.uniarts.fi/tapahtumat/su-07052017-2038/research-pavilion-out-

In SPACE INVADERS III: Aesthetically Tolerable festival, curated by Anna Jensen & Eliisa Suvanto.... more In SPACE INVADERS III: Aesthetically Tolerable festival, curated by Anna Jensen & Eliisa Suvanto. Otaniemi Espoo 14-17 May 2015. Collaboration with sound artist-researcher Taina Riikonen.

SERIES OF PERFORMATIVE INSTALLATIONS in TESTing2013, a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary artistic r... more SERIES OF PERFORMATIVE INSTALLATIONS
in TESTing2013, a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary artistic research workshop & symposium, Cardiff UK 9.–13.9.2013

VIDEO INSTALLATION AND PERFORMATIVE LECTURE in “Art Research Event # 3: Experimental event” orga... more VIDEO INSTALLATION AND PERFORMATIVE LECTURE
in “Art Research Event # 3: Experimental event” organized by Aalto ARTS/Department of Art, Pori Art and Media Unit in collaboration with the Figures of Touch Academy of Finland research project. In Pori Puuvilla Factory, Generator Gallery 29.–30.9.2011

PERFORMATIVE INSTALLATION-LECTURE PRESENTING ALTERNATIVE PRACTICES OF CONDUCTING ARTISTIC RESEAR... more PERFORMATIVE INSTALLATION-LECTURE PRESENTING ALTERNATIVE PRACTICES OF
CONDUCTING ARTISTIC RESEARCH
In ”Joint Research Day in Artistic Research” organized by the Figures of Touch research project in collaboration with Research School TUTKE and Doctoral studies programme of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts & Theatre Academy. in University of Arts Helsinki, 28.10.2009.

PERFORMATIVE VIDEO-STUDY ON LIVING/LIVED SPACES. Concept, editing Maiju Loukola, cinematography H... more PERFORMATIVE VIDEO-STUDY ON LIVING/LIVED SPACES.
Concept, editing Maiju Loukola, cinematography Heikki Färm, performer Laura Pietiläinen. Screening version I: Illusion Exhibition, Cable Factory Helsinki 2006.
Version II in Prague Quadrenniale 2007, Prague, CzechIa 2007.
Funded by: The Central Commisson of Art, AVEK.

PERFORMANCE DESIGN & PERFORMATIVE MEDIA INSTALLATION in a devised performance in collaboration w... more PERFORMANCE DESIGN & PERFORMATIVE MEDIA INSTALLATION
in a devised performance in collaboration with physical music theatre group Kuriton Company, theatre director & dramaturg Minna Nurmelin and sound designer & composer Timo Muurinen. Performances in Kiasma Theatre in the Museum of Contemporary Art Helsinki 2007.

PERFORMANCE DESIGN & MEDIA INSTALLATION in a devised performance on bodies in a constant stae of... more PERFORMANCE DESIGN & MEDIA INSTALLATION
in a devised performance on bodies in a constant stae of dislocation, in collaboration with transdisciplinary performance group Oblivia. Concept: Group & Oblivia. Performers: Timo Fredriksson, Riikka Theresa Innanen, Magnús Logi Kristinsson (ISL), Anna Krzystek (UK), Annika Tudeer. Performance dramaturgy: Stella Parland. Spatial installation & videos: Maiju Loukola. Lighting desig: Pexi Pitkänen. Sound design: Lauri Luhta.
Cable Factory, Helsinki 2005.

PERFORMANCE DESIGN & IMMERSIVE MEDIA INSTALLATION. Direction & dramatisation by Johanna Ropponen.... more PERFORMANCE DESIGN & IMMERSIVE MEDIA INSTALLATION.
Direction & dramatisation by Johanna Ropponen.
Performers: Jori Halttunen, Henriikka Salo, Leo Raivio.
Performance design & installation by Maiju Loukola.
Videos by Jukka Mantere, Johanna Ropponen, Maiju Loukola.
Lighting design by Ainu Palmu. Q-Theatre/ Puoli-Q stage, Helsinki 2004. Funded by: The Central Commission of Art, Academy of Fine Arts, Aalto ARTS, ELO, Q-Theatre.

Mika Elo and Miika Luoto (eds.): Figures of Touch. Sense, Technics, Body, 2018

As a sense modality, touch has been both over- and undervalued in Western culture. On the one han... more As a sense modality, touch has been both over- and undervalued in Western culture. On the one hand, touch has been regarded asthe basis of sense certainty and as a rather normative support to the theoretical gaze. On the other hand, it has been considered as vague,vulgar, drive-related or impure. Due to these contradictory andpotentially subversive qualities, touch has been invested with variousemancipatory expectations. In its ambivalence, the very sense of touch is essentially over-determined.

Contributors:
MIKA ELO, LAURA GRÖNDAHL, HARRI LAAKSO, MAIJU LOUKOLA, MIIKA LUOTO, JEAN-LUC NANCY, DAVID PARISI and SAMI SANTANEN

Tiede & edistys 4/2017, teemanumeron pääkirjoitus