Category: Doctoral School

On 9 December at 14:00 Hasso Krull will defend his thesis “Cosmic Trickster in Estonian Mythology” (“Kosmiline trikster eesti mütoloogias”).

The public defence will be held in EKA (Põhja pst 7), room A501.
The defence will be broadcast on EKA TV.
The defence is in Estonian.

Supervisors: Prof. Virve Sarapik, (Estonian Academy of Arts), Dr. Margus Ott (Estonian University of Life Sciences)
External reviewers: Prof. Ülo Valk (University of Tartu), Dr. Jaan Undusk (Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Under and Tuglas Literature Centre)
Opponents: Prof. Ülo Valk, Dr. Jaan Undusk

An Estonian mythology, does it really exist? Yes, but only on one condition: it exists, if the Estonian landscape equally exists. Cosmic trickster is the creator of the Estonian landscape. Therefore, the Estonian landscape is a mythical landscape, appearing and becoming visible to us after we have acquired the mythical narrative.

Until today, the Estonian mythology has been described either following a taxonomic or a concentric model. Neither of them should be underestimated. I propose a new concentric model focusing on the cosmic trickster. He often acts as one pole of a creator pair.

Trickster was already active in a primordial creation time, when everything was still in flux and even the stones were soft. Landscape carries many visual signes of his activity: rocks and stones, sources, rivers and lakes, mountains and valleys. This landscape is different from the modern landscape, that is dominated by a homogenuous space without any mythical dimension.

The treatise is divided into four parts. First part analyzes the concept of the trickster. Second part describes the course of mythologial studies in the 19th Century. Third part explores the creation myth, where the central protagonist is the trickster. Fourth part observes the return of the trickster in literature. Finally there is an exodus, outlining a project of a mythical ecology.

The thesis is available HERE.

Defence Committee: Prof. Andres Kurg, Dr. Anu Allas, Prof. Krista Kodres, Dr. Anneli Randla, Prof. Hilkka Hiiop, Prof. Aigi Rahi-Tamm, Prof. Eneken Laanes

The Sensorial Design group is hosting an event focused on design approaches centered around sensory experiences, addressing themes such as care, well-being, public engagement, and non-sexual intimacy. The event will begin with an open lecture on somatic well-being for individuals with chronic gut diseases by Dila Demir, followed by four Pecha Kucha presentations by sensorial design researchers Nesli Hazal Oktay, Azeem Hamid, Zaur Babayev, and Kristi Kuusk. Join us for an engaging exploration of sensory-driven design practices and insights.

Date: 

November 11

Time: 

16.00–17.50

Location: 

Estonian Academy of Arts, Room: A-101

Registration Link: 

https://forms.gle/HpxPEHL4x8Dz8FkY9

The workshop seeks to break this taboo by reconnecting poop with nature and fostering multi-sensory engagements with biomaterials to explore more-than-human connections.

November 9 – workshop only for people with chronic gut diseases

November 23 – workshop open to everyone

11.00–13.30

Registration Link

On 4 November at 15:00 Ulvi Haagensen will defend her thesis “In the In-Between: Explorations into the Line Between Art and Everyday Life as Seen Through the Eyes of a Practising Visual Artist” (“Vahepealsuses. Uurimusi kunsti ja igapäevaelu vahelisest joonest visuaalkunstniku silmade läbi”).

The public defence will be held in EKA (Põhja pst 7), room A501. The defence will be broadcast on EKA TV.
The defence is in English.

Supervisors: Dr. Liina Unt (University of Tartu), Dr. Jan Guy (University of Sydney)

External reviewers: Prof. Mika Elo (University of the Arts Helsinki), Dr. Rolf Hughes (EIT Culture & Creativity)

Opponent: Prof. Mika Elo

The field of contemporary art with its avant-garde legacy often meets, overlaps and clashes with ordinary everyday life, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. For an artist working within this field the relationship between art and life can be particularly intriguing; sometimes it’s puzzling, and at other times it can be difficult to distinguish one from the other, to know when something is or isn’t art, and is or isn’t life.

In the In-Between: Explorations into the Line Between Art and Everyday Life as Seen Through the Eyes of a Practising Visual Artist asks what new approaches, methods, techniques it can reveal and what alternative ways of thinking and looking it can contribute to help make sense of the enigmatic relationship between art and life.

The thesis speaks from within an art practice and in close proximity to artistic processes. It incorporates embodied and multisensory experiences, as well as humour and a playful approach that includes informal conversations between three imaginary friends – Thea Koristaja, Olive Puuvill and Artist Researcher. Their contributions allow for shifts in perspective and reveal the various ways that art and everyday life meet and collide as an artist prepares for, makes and installs and then reflects upon the three main exhibitions that form the basis of the thesis, and also in connection to cleaning performances (undertaken mainly by Thea Koristaja), other exhibitions and everyday life.

One of the aims, unfolding through the course of the research, is to reconcile art, art-making, the everyday, and research. The three imaginary friends play a key role in helping to achieve this, as do the ‘tactics of in-betweenness’ and the notion of the bricoleuse, someone who invents, improvises and makes do. Together they help reveal the ideas of ‘blurring’, ‘making strange’, ‘equalising’ and ‘destabilising’, together with ‘object-generated thinking’ as new approaches, methods and concepts that can transform, make sense of and reconcile art with everyday life.

The thesis is available HERE.

Defence Committee: Dr. Jaana Päeva, Dr. Anu Allas, Prof. Kirke Kangro, Dr. Kristi Kuusk, Prof. Indrek Ibrus, Dr. Varvara Guljajeva

On 11 October 11.30-13.00, the public review of the first creative project of Merike Rehepapp doctoral thesis “Educational design, why and how” will take place in EKA, room A202. The event is in Estonian.

The focus of the thesis is to find the reasons and ways to implement design in educational practice, through a design process and methodology created for this purpose. The practical part of the creative research has been carried out with a variety of collaborators over the last three years.
In her first creative project, Merike seeks to answer the question: what function do educational design process and methodology play in the educational landscape? What does it evoke, both visible and hidden? What kind of work does it actually do?

Supervisor: Dr. Anu Sarv, University of Tartu
Reviewers:
Dr. Kaire Uiboleht, University of Tartu
Martin Pärn, EKA and TalTech

Thanks are due to:
The supervisor and curriculum leaders for their patience and the reviewers for their willingness to contribute. A humble bow goes to Helen Arov, my faithful work partner, and my family support staff.

On 26 September at 09.30-11.00 the peer review of  Taavi Varm’s doctoral project will take place. Taavi Varm is a PhD student in Art and Design programme. The project “Erasmus Workshop 2024: Integrating participatory learning, video game design and psychological well-being” is the 1st artistic research project of his doctoral studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Taavi’s artistic doctoral thesis entitled “Designing video games for young adults to improve mental health and psychological well-being” at the Estonian Academy of Arts explores the integration of participatory learning, co-creation and experimental video game design to develop innovative methods and find new perspectives for improving psychological well-being of young adults.

Supervisors:
Dr. Varvara Guljajeva (HUSK)
Dr. Helen Uusberg (University of Tartu)

Project reviewers:
Dr. Liina Unt (University of Tartu, Viljandi Culture Academy)
Dr. Ásthildur Jónsdóttir (Iceland University of the Arts)

Peer review event will take place in Zoom:
https://zoom.us/j/95865149077?pwd=dOJbppC0isCyq2QoKPZmxhSgm3xv0d.1

Meeting ID: 958 6514 9077
Passcode: 817972

Mental health issues are a major global concern, especially among young adults. According to the World Health Organization, depression and anxiety are leading causes of disability worldwide. Especially in Estonia, nearly half of young adults report mental health challenges. Addressing these issues is vital for creating a healthier and more productive future generation.

The workshop, which took place at Tallinna Saksa Gümnaasium, was an artistic educational initiative that aimed to combine video game design with participatory learning and psychological well-being.

The workshop explored the potential positive impact of participatory creative methods on the psychological well-being of young adults. The workshop focused on artistic and experimental game design in a supportive environment. The main methods used were specially developed design toolboxes, the psychological concept of flow theory and participatory design principles.

The aim of this research is to offer creative approaches to addressing mental health issues through an artistic research framework. Emphasizing co-creation, the goal is to foster meaningful dialogue and creative synergy among young adults, artists, and professionals, generating evidence-based solutions in both the creative process and the final game projects.

I would like to thank the partners and supporters:
My supervisors Helen Uusberg and Varvara Guljajeva for continuous support.
Erik Joasaare from Tallinna Saksa Gümnaasium, Lisbon German School, Erasmus+ Art Bridge project, Andero Uusberg from University of Tartu and the Doctoral School of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The peer-review of Joanna Kalm’s artistic project “Kohtkeha. Kehaks olemise ruum” will take place on September 20 12.30–14.00 in Tallinn Art Hall gallery. “Kohtkeha” is the 1st artistic research project of Joanna Kalm’s practice-based doctoral studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The thesis is supervised by Dr. Liina Unt (Tartu University)
The peer-reviewers of the project are Leena Rouhianen (University of the Arts Helsinki) and Madli Teller.

Kohtkeha is open from 17th–21st of September at 15:00–20:00 at Tallinn Kunstihoone Galerii, enter and exit as desired.

Koht – place; keha – body; olemise – being; ruum – room, space.

Following, I would propose the English translation as (although falling short of the sense found in Estonian): Bodyplace. A room for being a body.

It is a room where four people gather to be a body. Unconditionally, without knowing what the practice of being a body entails in its ever evolving entirety. They enter to land within themselves (where were they before?), to perceive their inner spaces. They find themselves in a pressure-free environment where the body, with a tendency to become excessively condensed and accelerated, can find the organicity of its flow. To body is to be in experience. Here, they are guided by the dynamic process, desires and needs of their living matter, and their individual embodiments act as evolving and changing scores of the now. To body is to create and hold space. Experiencing creates a field that fills the seemingly empty room with a felt enmindedness, which can be entered into and joined with.

You are invited within.

The modality of participation is flexible – you may witness, be and feel with, self-experience, be on your own, together. The space is held by dance artists Joanna Kalm, Laura Kvelstein, Nele Suisalu and Tatjana Romanova. They have been meeting since the fall of 2022, sporadically and periodically intensively. Kohtkeha is a practice and/or an extended performance and/or a generator of body-based thinking, almost invisibly formed over time.

Kohtkeha is the 1st artistic research project of Joanna Kalm’s doctoral studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Joanna’s research deals with education of attention and perception in the context of somatic movement practice and creative works. The main focus of her doctoral studies is to observe the possible ways of being and expressing the body when sensitive self-listening and self-regulation are allowed. At the same time, Joanna is interested in the effect of somatic practice and works on how bodies start to materialise themselves in given frameworks: how they relax, hold themselves, and transform. She asks: What kind of self-materialisation, meaningfulness and value base does somatic approach facilitate?
The more prominent thematic thread in her work is negotiation of agency: Who and what is and can be considered enminded and capable of self-action? She is interested in de-centering the discursive understandings and experiences further from nervous system agency and application of “willpower”, towards the whole organism as a bundle of mindful matter – one of many “minds”. She researches how the expansion of bodily awareness affects which parts of us “think, move and speak along”. The latter, in her view, makes for an education of attention, which involves movement, relationality and engagement within oneself and the world – thus is based on practice.

I would like to thank the dialogue partners and supporters thanks to whom the project is realized:
the creative team, Liina Unt – my supervisor, Kai Valtna – consultant for the creative project, doctoral school of the Estonian Academy of Arts, Cultural Endowment of Estonia and Tallinn Art Hall. Thank you!

With the exhibition of Jane Remm’s creative research project “Interspecies Social Sculpture”, the doctoral student pays homage to Joseph Beuys, the creator of the world’s first green party, and invites you to participate in a nature walk at the opening of the exhibition.

On August 25, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., there will be a tour of the opening of the exhibition of Jane Remm’s artistic research project “Interspecies Social Sculpture”, which conceptualizes the garden and the forest as a multi-perspective creative environment. Expanding Joseph Beuys’ concept of social sculpture into a multifaceted context, the artist explores what it means to harness everyone’s creative potential in a modern age, when the world in an ecological crisis needs to adapt to degrowth.

“Interspecies social sculpture” combines the ecological dimension in the form of increasing biodiversity, the dimension of interspecies co-creation and the social dimension through public events. The experiential exhibition tour opens up different perspectives on the garden and forest through active participation. “It’s an attempt to co-create with other species and thereby think about the role of art in the long term,” says Jane Remm and continues: “This is a garden diary where drawings and writings have accumulated over the course of a year. It is a multi-perspective composition that is constantly changing through the cooperation of different actors. I act as an equal among other beings. It is an attempt to act in art locally, slowly and on a small scale. At the same time, this is a provocation through which I am investigating whether growing food, hay or firewood can be positive activism in today’s world, and in the context of Estonia. It is an attempt to give the everyday garden and forest a creative and artistic conditionality, and the suspicion that in competitive capitalism local peripheral actions have little value. It is the hesitation that co-creation with other species will not succeed. It is the uncertainty that less is not better. Let’s get entangled into that uncertainty and vulnerability.”

“Interspecies Social Sculpture” is the second peer-reviewed project of Jane Remm’s artistic

research doctoral thesis.

The “Interspecies Social Sculpture” exhibition is open during tours on August 25, September 15 and 22, and October 4.

The tour starts at 17:00 from the Mähkli bus stop: https://maps.app.goo.gl/fidsotPcnY2HtJgc9, passes through points in the forest and garden and leads to the common dinner table. Public transport to the place is poor, those coming from further away could share a car, while those coming closer could travel by bike or on foot. Weather conditions must be taken into account when it comes to clothing. The trip is free.

Registration:  https://forms.gle/vytS5ybUy8L9h98F8

More information about the project. 

Jane Remm is an artist, art teacher and artistic researcher, doctoral student at EKA and art didactics lecturer at Tallinn University BFM. Jane Remm’s work focuses on the representation of the experience of nature, co-creation and communication with different life forms. She is interested in what are the possibilities to understand and interpret the life experience of other species and communicate with them as equal dialogue partners using the means of art. She values manual working and co-creation with other species as a way of perceiving herself as part of nature.

CV: https://www.etis.ee/CV/Jane_Remm/, creative portfolio: www.janeremm.ee

Events previously held in the project: 06.08.24 “Determining, noticing, drawing and thinking walk” within the nature observation marathon led by Liina Remm, Indrek Hiiesalu, Jane Remm, Riin Magnus and Tiit Remm, 16.06.24 “Omailmatalgud” led by Timo Maran; 15.07.24 “Bat walk” led by Jaanus and Piret Remm. The review of the project will take place as part of the 4th trip. Reviewers: prof. Linda Kaljundi (Estonian Academy of Arts) and Taru Elfving (CAA Contemporary Art Archipelago, Finland).

The artist thanks dialogue partner Marta Konovalov, EKA Doctoral School, Remmik, all human and non-human neighbours of Karula.

“Interspecies Social Sculpture” is partly related to the project “Artists and designers as researchers, rethinkers, and partners of nature in the context of degrowth” (01.07.2023–31.12.2024), PR02049, which is funded by the Ministry of Culture. 

On 12 September at 12:00 Nesli Hazal Oktay will defend her thesis „Far-away bodies: Co-creating design(s) in and for remote intimacy“ ( „Koosolemine distantsilt: läheduse kogemine ühisloomelise disaini abil“).
The public defence will be held in EKA (Põhja pst 7), room A101.
The defence will be broadcast on EKA TV.
The defence is in English.

Supervisor: Dr. Kristi Kuusk (Estonian Academy of Arts), Prof. Danielle Wilde (Umeå University, University of Southern Denmark)
External reviewers: Dr. Verena Fuchsberger-Staufer (University of Salzburg), Dr. Vasiliki Tsaknaki (IT University of Copenhagen)
Opponent: Dr. Verena Fuchsberger-Staufer (University of Salzburg)

The doctoral thesis can be found HERE

This dissertation delves into the role of interaction design in fostering non-sexual intimacy across distances through an embodied approach. By designing for intimate, yet distant, bodies, it offers the research programme co-creating design(s) in and for remote intimacy. Derived from the main research question – How can a close-to-body experience be designed to support intimacy between people across distances? – this research programme explores the design of a remote, close-to-body experience for individuals who are emotionally close but physically apart. The designed experience aims to invite far-away loved ones to reflect on, disrupt, and reinvent their habitual ways of building and experiencing intimacy across distances. Within this programmatic framework, the dissertation offers three key contributions to interaction designers and design researchers: methodological, designerly, and theoretical. Methodologically, it proposes new approaches for co-designing remote intimacy. Designerly, it presents commitments to consider when designing in the realm of remote intimacy. Theoretically, it provides situated knowledge that highlights the multifaceted nature of remote intimacy, emphasising its individual, collective, bodily, virtual, and material dimensions.

In conclusion, this dissertation challenges conventional methods and advocates for embodied design practices and approaches, opening new design spaces for supporting intimacy across distances. It invites interaction designers and design researchers to rethink and reimagine how humans experience and build intimacy in an increasingly digital world.

Defence committee: Dr. Jaana Päeva, Dr. Anu Allas, Ruth-Helene Melioranski, Prof. Indrek Ibrus, Dr. Liina Unt, Dr. Claudia Nunez-Pacheco

Read more: https://www.artun.ee/en/curricula/architecture-and-urban-design/research/conference-2024-building-systems/