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Arctic artists “chewing the tundra” in Vienna

Text: Antti Kivimäki
Photopraphy: Heikki Tuuli

Taiteilija Pia Lindman

Climate change does not treat the world’s regions equally. The Arctic region is warming at three times the rate of the global average. Glaciers are retreating and opening up shipping lanes and access to natural resources, and this is arousing commercial interests.

– The Arctic’s living organisms are experiencing a dramatic change caused by pollution, climate change, mining, the global economy, and politics. The experiences of each community are of course unique, but simultaneously they are all experiencing this change collectively, in the larger context, says the visual artist Pia Lindman.

She has been building the Chill Survive network together with the Icelandic anthropologist Tinna Grétarsdóttir since 2016.  

Lindman ja Grétarsdóttir have travelled around the Arctic from Greenland to Siberia, become acquainted with local communities, and organised residencies where researchers, artists, and local communities have become acquainted.

– We try to convey information about what these changes mean in the everyday experiences of people. We want to convey what can’t be expressed in words, and this experience comprises the relationships created by people as well as all other living nature.

Lindman ja Grétarsdóttir have collected around them a network of about fifty artists, researchers, and activists, and its core activities have consisted of networking and collecting information. 

Now the hard work is beginning to bear artistic fruits.

Chill Survive will organise its first large exhibition, called Chewing the Tundra, in the centre of Vienna in the WUK art centre from November to July of this year. Fifteen artists from the Chill Survive network from Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and Finland will bring their art – videos, performances, paintings, sound art – into the 400 square metres of the Exnergasse exhibition hall.

Taiteilija Lauri Linna

One of them is Lauri Linna. He is building a documentary installation for the hall called Juomasuo – suo, jossa oli juotavaa vettä, in English “Juomasuo – a bog that had drinkable water”, about a bog whose Finnish name means “Drinking Bog”.

This bog in the municipality of Kuusamo is where a mining company is planning a cobalt and gold mine. For Linna, the surroundings are dear childhood landscapes where he spent time with his granddad, who lived from nature conservation, fishing, hunting, and hiking.

In the Exnergasse, Linna will create a scale model of the planned mining area with used smartphones and plant seeds and plants he has collected from the area in a herbarium. Last summer, Linna filmed the bog, its vegetation, and human activities in the environs with a video camera. He will continue filming and collecting this summer.

– I asked the Finnish Museum of Natural History how to preserve the plants in the herbarium so their DNA remains intact so they can be cloned in the future if necessary. When the mining ends someday, these seeds and other plant material can be used to replant the vegetation destroyed by the mine, Linna explains.

After the exhibition, the seeds and plant material will be donated to Kuusamo’s municipal archive.

In the Exnergasse installation, Linna’s video documentary will run on the screens of used smartphones. Linna collects them from people in Kuusamo.   

– The percentage of cobalt and gold in used phones is higher than in the planned mine’s bedrock. If all Finns donated one used mobile phone, we would get close to the amount of ore that can be extracted from the mine, Linna says.

He says that he has understanding for mining as such: People need work, and cobalt is important for climate change mitigation because it’s necessary for batteries in electric cars and for storing electricity.

– I also like discussing with people who have a different opinion. The nature of that area, however, is such that it’s hard to imagine a kind of mining there that wouldn’t produce pollution and spoil the environment. The lake Kitkajärvi, which is called Finland’s biggest spring, is nearby. The river Kitkajoki is 800 metres away and continues on to the Oulanka National Park and Finland’s most popular hiking trail and on to the historically important Karelian village of Paanajärvi/Panozero in Russia.

Juomasuo on kuusamolainen suo, jolle kaivosyhtiö suunnittelee koboltti- ja kultakaivosta. Kuva: Lauri Linna

Juomasuo is a bog in the municipality of Kuusamo, where a mining company is planning a cobalt and gold mine. Photo: Lauri Linna

Other participants from Finland in the Chewing the Tundra exhibition are the artist Leena Valkeapää; the reindeer herder Oula A. Valkeapää; the geneticist and artist Anu Osva, who has studied Northern Finncattle and the horses of the Yakuts; the dancer and visual artist Anra Naw, who belongs to the East Siberian indigenous Chukchi people and now lives in the Finnish municipality of Inari; and the visual artist Pauliina Jokela, who lives in Iceland.

Lindman has asked Austrian museums and universities to send to the exhibition objects in their possession that come from the Arctic. The artists participating in the exhibition will bring recordings, microbes, lichen, and other material they have collected on their expeditions.

Lauri Linna, M.A., received a grant of €13,000 for artistic work in 2022, and Pia Lindman, M.F.A., received a grant of €6,000 for development of the Chill Survive network’s activities.

Towards sustainable costume design

Text: Marika Aspila

Pasi Räbinä. Kuva: Kaisa Tiri

Pasi Räbinä. Photo: Kaisa Tiri

Having designed costumes for 35 years and for more than 100 productions, including tens of thousands of individual pieces of clothing, Pasi Räbinä knows the materials and how they are treated. He has worked full-time as a costume designer at the Oulu City Theatre since 1991, but he has also always simultaneously worked as an independent artist and designer and received awards as a stage costume innovator and pioneer. 

– I’ve consistently developed various fabric treatment techniques and thereby come closer to results in which the fabrics themselves are interesting, Räbinä recounts.

With the grant money he just received, Pasi Räbinä is starting a project in which he will study promising new ecological clothing materials for use in costume design. Climate change, loss of biodiversity, and overexploitation of natural resources require quick changes at all levels of society. Costume designers, who design hundreds and thousands of pieces of clothing for theatre and opera performances, also have to seriously ponder what they can design in the future, what materials they can use, and what to do with the hundreds of costumes after the last performance of a work.

– My plan is a pioneer project like we haven’t had before in Finland. My goal is to increase awareness of sustainable development in our field, says Räbinä.

The Addams Family, Oulun kaupunginteatteri 2015-16: Aaveen (tanssija) rokokoopuku, kerroksellinen kreppipainanta. Kuva: Kaisa Tiri

The Addams Family, Oulu Theatre 2015-2016: Phantom’s (a dancer) costume. Photo: Kaisa Tiri

– The challenge for the future is how can we reduce textile waste to hurt nature less. In my opinion, it’s crucial to influence how designers work already at an early stage and get them to think while making costumes what kinds of materials would be sensible for sustainable development and the circular economy. The concept of “circular economy” in my research doesn’t mean only recycling; instead, it means a comprehensively new approach to the manufacturing of clothing and materials. The idea is to strive towards reuse of most pieces of clothing used for costumes. My goal is to help costume designers by developing a model and way of working in which the costumes of a performance are designed to last long and be recyclable.

According to Pasi Räbinä, the Finnish clothing and textile industry is a trailblazer in the development of new ecological textile fibres. Metsä Group and Stora Enso are developing promising new materials and innovations. Spinnova is a Finnish pioneer in the conversion of wood-based cellulose into textile fibres using the Ioncell process. From the perspective of recycling and a circular economy, the Finnish Infinited Fiber Company is already far along in its product development of turning textile waste into new textile fibres.

– The goal of these companies is to make cloth fabrics that are more environmentally friendly and use less natural resources. I intend to familiarise myself with their activities and manufacturing methods and apply my research to my costume design, Pasi Räbinä explains.

Costume designer Pasi Räbinä, M.A., received a grant of €17,500 for research on the use of ecological materials in costume design.

Strong culture, a strong identity

Text: Minnamaria Koskela
Photography: Katrin Havia

Hilja Grönfors

Romany children are overrepresented among Finland’s social service customers, and young Romanies are more likely to end up in prison than their peers from the majority population. According to singer-musician Hilja Grönfors, who has volunteered in prisons, among other organisations, many Romany youths of today have lost their identities, while drug problems have increased exponentially and gang culture is eating away at the traditional upbringing of the people, where the central tenet is respect for others – particularly elders.

With a multidisciplinary team of professionals, Grönfors plans to carry out a tour of child welfare reception centres, hospitals and prisons with music and films that are about Romany culture. The project also involves film director Katariina Lillqvist, the film production company Camera Cagliostro, and the Museum of Roma Culture.

– We are really pleased and thankful for the grant. It will allow us to fulfil this important project. The ill-being of alienated Romany children and adolescents is a ticking time bomb that must quickly be addressed.

In the project, children and adolescents of Roma descent are shown performances compiling old Romany songs and relevant documentary films, which teach them about their culture. According to Grönfors, the children and young people who are most likely to become marginalised are those who don’t know whether they belong in the Romany culture or the majority population.

– Culture, such as music, forms the basis of one’s identity. Music and film are tools that we use to reinforce the cultural roots of Romany children and adolescents.

The tour will also include music workshops, in which the young people can participate. Music has traditionally played a central role in Romany culture. Songs have always been used to provide guidance to children. Besides educational songs, there are market songs and love songs – although Romany music never discusses love explicitly but through metaphors, such as symbolic flowers.

The social status of Romanies in Finland improved somewhat in the 1980s. Giving up their itinerant lifestyles and moving into family-specific apartments brought an increase in living standards, but also meant a loss of community spirit and the song tradition.

– My aim is to revive this nearly lost tradition by collecting and recording Romany songs, as well as writing new songs and lyrics. Even now, I am working on four new songs.

Hilja Grönfors has truly earned the title of Grand Old Lady of Romany music. In 2005, Kaustinen Folk Music Festival awarded her the title of Master Folk Singer, and in 2014 she received the Finnish National Prize for her efforts to maintain Romany cultural heritage.

– The songs describe the life of the Roma and they all share an element of hope. Tenacity and hope have always played an important role in our culture – otherwise we would have been eradicated by now, due to the vicious treatment we have received through the ages, Grönfors concludes.

Musician Hilja Grönfors and her team received an Art for Everyone grant of EUR 71,000 in 2022 for arranging a tour of prisons, child welfare reception centres and hospitals with music and films about Romany culture.

Personalised data for preventing type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease

Text: Antti Kivimäki
Photos: Petri Jauhiainen

About half a million Finns have adult-onset (type 2) diabetes. Their risk of getting heart and blood vessel disorders is much higher than that of other people.

Professori Ursula Schwab. Kuva: Petri Jauhiainen

– Lifestyle changes can prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. This is known from very many studies from around the world, and there’s no need to investigate that any more, says Ursula Schwab, professor of nutrition therapy at the University of Eastern Finland, with a laugh.

– But these studies have not been able to observe the effect of hereditary factors. So do genes affect who benefits from lifestyle changes and who doesn’t?

This is what Schwab and her colleagues are investigating with the help of men from the city of Kuopio.

The longitudinal study Metabolic Syndrome in Men (METSIM), led by Professor Markku Laakso, has used interviews and measurements to follow more than 10,000 men randomly chosen from the Kuopio population register. The men were chosen from 2005 to 2010 when they were 45 to 73 years old.

Schwab and her colleagues chose 635 men from this cohort. Half of them have a high and half have a low genetic susceptibility to get type 2 diabetes.

– Today more than one hundred gene variants are known that cause susceptibility to type 2 diabetes, but when we chose the men in 2016, only 76 were known, so we created the groups based on these.

At first, there were group meetings for the men. Later, tips for exercising and health-promoting diets, such as high-fibre products and recommended dairy products, were offered more online.

– Previous comparable studies have focused on personal guidance. We wanted to now try what kind of effectiveness can be achieved with group and online guidance organised using less resources.

“Health-promoting lifestyles have also helped those whose genes cause a higher risk of getting lifestyle diseases. So here too, we’re expecting that lifestyle changes will help both groups similarly.”

What results does Schwab expect to get?

– According to previous studies, health-promoting lifestyles have also helped those whose genes cause a higher risk of getting lifestyle diseases. So here too, we’re expecting that lifestyle changes will help both groups similarly, says Schwab.

– But one can’t be sure before the results have been analysed. So we’ll wait patiently for what the results tell us.

***

In another, similar study, nutrition scientists at the University of Eastern Finland are investigating whether genetic susceptibility cause differences in how switching to recommended dietary fats affects the storage of fat in the liver.

One hundred men of whom half have the PNPLA3 gene variant that makes them susceptible to fatty liver disease were selected from the above-mentioned METSIM database. The PNPLA3 gene regulates fat storage.

The men were instructed to use soft vegetable fats instead of hard animal fats in their diets, and the study monitors whether there is a difference in the degree of fat storage in the liver depending on which variant of the PNPLA3 gene the men have.

– The PNPLA3 gene variant that predisposes to fatty liver disease is very treacherous since it simultaneously protects against type 2 diabetes. Often people with this variant don’t have high blood sugar or cholesterol levels, but their liver can be fatty. If fatty liver disease has progressed enough, it’s possible that nothing can be done anymore, Schwab explains.

Genetic studies are connected to the megatrend of personalised medicine in a broader sense. When genetic understanding increases, those in risk groups can get more personal advice.

In addition to working as a researcher, Schwab takes care of patients in the Kuopio University Hospital.

– Patients who have problems with blood fat levels often ask whether they can eat eggs. If I only knew whether they have a certain gene variant, I could answer more precisely than now. People who have this gene variant absorb dietary cholesterol well, so they are recommended to not eat more than three eggs per week. But others can eat eggs more freely, Schwab explains.

– Generally speaking, people could be more motivated to eat health-promoting nutrition if general recommendations were customised into personal recommendations that take into account their specific characteristics.

Professor of nutrition therapy Ursula Schwab and her research team at the University of Eastern Finland received 250,000 euros for research on the connection between genes and lifestyles in the prevention of lifestyle diseases.

Advances in gluten research

Kati Juuti-Uusitalo (vas.) ja Katri Kaukinen.

Kati Juuti-Uusitalo (left) and Katri Kaukinen.

Wheat, barley and rye contain a protein called gluten. In about two percent of the population, it causes an inflammatory reaction that damages the lining of the small intestine, in other words celiac disease.

Gluten is however also avoided by many people who don’t have celiac disease. Many feel their lives are healthier without wheat, barley and rye – and the trend has reached Finland too.

– People can have cereal (grain) allergies and also non-celiac gluten sensitivity, but most of the hype about grain-free food is not based on research results, says Katri Kaukinen, professor of internal medicine and director of Tampere University’s Celiac Disease Research Center.

– Cereals in the sense of grains have fibre, vitamins, and minerals. They also provide an efficient way of producing large amounts of energy for humankind. In fact, one might ask whether avoiding cereals hurts people more than it helps.

Extensive epidemiological data is available in Finland that can be used to find an answer to this question, and the Celiac Disease Research Center has started to do this with Kaukinen at the helm. 

A 2000‒2011 longitudinal study of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare extensively followed the development of the health of adults. About 4,000 people were interviewed about their eating habits, and they gave blood and urine samples. Some of their genes were also studied.

The data enables differentiating celiacs from people who avoid gluten for other reasons. The data also shows whether gluten avoidance has benefited them.

– I’m quite critical, but we’ll soon get results and see what’s true about gluten avoidance, Kaukinen promises.

The Tampere celiac researchers are also trying to find better diagnostic methods of identifying  family members of celiacs who need special diets.

– There are good celiac disease tests, but they don’t identify all celiacs, especially in the early stage.

Improved tests could for example identify biomarkers in blood, urine, and excrement. A risk calculator that takes into consideration many different factors could also be useful.

There is also plenty left to research on treatments. It was thought that the inflammatory reaction of the intestinal lining would eventually heal when a celiac stops eating cereals. 

It has however been recently observed that the intestinal lining does not heal completely. Its damages may partly be inborn anomalies that are part of celiac disease. In that case, the nutrient absorption of celiacs is permanently disturbed, and they may need medication or dietary supplements for the rest of their lives.

Research on permanent damages of intestinal lining (villi) at Tampere University is under the direction of Kati Juuti-Uusitalo, university lecturer in biotechnology. 

Väitöskirjaohjattava Valeriia Dotsenko (vas.) ja Keijo Viiri.

Valeriia Dotsenko (left) and Keijo Viiri.

And celiac medication is being studied at Tampere University’s Celiac Disease Research Center by a research group led by Keijo Viiri, associate professor in molecular biology. His research group is collaborating with a German pharmaceutical company and studying a drug the Germans developed that prevents the activity of the small intestine’s TG2 transglutaminase enzyme.

– The gluten component gliadin is what sets off inflammation in celiacs. TG2 is a normal protein in the human small intestine that modifies gliadin such that its glutamines turn into glutamate. Celiacs get an inflammatory reaction from gliadin that changes in this way. The hypothesis to be tested is that the inflammatory reaction does not come when the TG2’s activity is inhibited,  Viiri explains.

The drug has worked well in preliminary clinical trials and seems to prevent the damages caused by gluten.

Viiri’s research group has however observed that microscopic i.e. histomorphometric analysis does not always tell all about an intestine’s ability to function. What is required is measurement of gene activities, in other words so-called molecular histomorphometry.

– A celiac’s intestine may look normal, but its surface may be so damaged at the molecular level that dietary minerals, for example, are not absorbed properly.

Viiri’s research team is studying the gene activity of the patients and control group members in the  data collected by the pharmaceutical company. At the same time, they are studying whether the drug’s healing effect can be observed in the form of possibly higher nutrient, mineral, and vitamin levels in the bloodstream.

The goal is to find out if the pharmaceutical company’s TG2 inhibitors work as well at the molecular level as they do at the microscopic level.

If the drug works well at the molecular level, does that mean celiacs can begin to eat wheat, barley, rye, and oats?

– I’m a researcher, not a doctor, so I won’t venture to give an opinion on that. But there’s always a small amount of gluten even in a gluten-free diet, and the most sensitive celiacs get symptoms from this so-called residual gluten, Viiri points out.

– It’s hard to avoid gluten on trips abroad too. So continuous medication could make life easier for celiacs even if they don’t quit their diet.

Edit 8.9.2022: removed oats from the list of crops containing gluten.

Professor Katri Kaukinen and Associate Professor Kati Juuti-Uusitalo received a grant of €250,000 in 2022 for research on the positive and negative health effects of dietary gluten.
Associate Professor Keijo Viiri and his working group received a grant of €200,000 for research on celiac disease treatment and on molecular-level damage caused by dietary gluten.

More than 200 PoDoCo projects have helped companies in renewal

Latest research expertise contributes to the twin transition in industry

– This round of applications highlighted twin transition projects. Companies are interested in developing technologies that make more efficient and environmentally friendly use of resources. With the help of postdocs, companies can utilize the latest information to reduce their carbon footprint, says the PoDoCo program leader Dr. Seppo Tikkanen from DIMECC Ltd.

Altogether 201 postdocs have used their expertise to renewal of companies since the beginning of the PoDoCo program in 2015. The program has received 397 applications for cooperation projects. Of the fully implemented PoDoCo projects, 90 percent have led to the employment of PhD in the partner company.

Four grants to postdocs of LUT University

Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT was strongly represented in both the applications and the grants awarded. The companies will be able to utilize the expertise of LUT University’s electrical engineering postdocs in four funded PoDoCo projects.

Dmitry Egorov, PhD from the University of Lappeenranta, focuses on the development of electric motors with Danfoss Editron in his PoDoCo collaboration. As power densities increase, more knowledge is needed about the interrelationships between electromagnetism and thermal and structural design.

– The PoDoCo program with Danfoss Editron Oy represents a unique opportunity for me to get intensive training and industry-related experience in comprehensive design of electromechanical conversion systems, which otherwise I would not be able to grasp within my current affiliation or time equivalent to the duration of the program, says Dmitry Egorov.

Recovering rare-earth elements

In his PoDoCo project, Pasi Salonen, a recent PhD from the University of Turku, is developing a method for the treatment and recovery of rare earth elements (REE), especially from electronic scrap and industrial by-products. Rare-earth elements are used in many new solutions to combat climate change, such as wind farms and electric cars, so the demand has increased rapidly.

In the project promoting circular economy, Salonen, together with Weeefiner Ltd in Jyväskylä, is developing 4D-printed filters for capturing metals, which means 3D-printed filters that have been chemically functionalized.

– I have always been interested in the academic research world as well as industry, and PoDoCo combines both. The PoDoCo project involving 4D REE scavengers done in collaboration with Weeefiner Ltd is interesting and meaningful and allows me to utilize the knowledge obtained in my PhD in practice. The PoDoCo program makes academic and industrial careers simultaneously possible, says Pasi Salonen.

PoDoCo program:

The next PoDoCo grant application round takes place March 1 – April 15, 2022.

There are no limitations regarding the branch of science or branch of industry.

Further information:

PoDoCo-ohjelman vetäjä, Seppo Tikkanen,
DIMECC Oy, seppo.tikkanen(at)dimecc.com, puh. 040 840 2780

Projects supported by SKR:

 
Applicant Company Discipline Grant (€)
Kumari Kajal Finnadvance Oy Chemistry and Mathematics – Environmental sciences 30 000
Panchal Bhaveshkumar Valio Ltd. Agricultural sciences – Other agricultural sciences 30 000
Leyter Potenciano Machado Elisa Oyj Chemistry and Mathematics  30 000
Müge Tetik Skanska Oy Technical sciences 30 000

A survey for researchers working with eDNA or aDNA

At the moment we are approaching researchers who work with or would like to work with environmental DNA or ancient DNA. Our aim is to evaluate the state of the art in the relevant scientific fields and to investigate their most pressing needs. The survey may be filled by all scholars linked with Finland and working in Finnish or foreign institutions, irrespective of their career level.

If you use environmental or ancient DNA samples, this is your time to be heard. Please fill in the survey questions: https://link.webropolsurveys.com/S/0C5BD2CF04D50D2A

Further information:

Dr Tânia Keiko Shishido Joutsen (tania.shishido@helsinki.fi)

13,7 million euros open for application in January Round

Art for Everyone grants available for long-term projects 

Grant previously named ‘Art for Institutions’ is now ‘Art for everyone‘. The purpose of this form of funding is to increase the opportunities of people in need of care or support to experience high-quality art and in this manner promote cultural equality. Possible locales for implementing this kind of project include for example prisons, reception centres, child welfare institutions and sheltered homes. 

The minimum sum that can be applied for is EUR 10,000 in the January round. The purpose of the grant is that the projects will be long-termed and have therefore a real influence on the target group. 

The Uusimaa Fund will award grants every two years in the future 

The Uusimaa Fund will award a total of 1,260,000 euros in the January 2022 round of applications. As the competition for grants is especially tough in the Uusimaa area, the Administrative Council of the Uusimaa Fund has decided that in the future grants will be awarded every two years. Therefore, the next round after 2022 is in January 2024.  

The Fund awards grants for local culture work and projects, for artistic work, art projects, art events and cultural occasions of representatives from all fields of art, for cultural heritage, and for local culture.  

Special grants of the regional funds 

The regional funds award grants for special purposes every year. This year the South Ostrobothnia fund will award a new Speak Finnish Boldly! grant. The grant is awarded for scientists or artists to study Finnish language. The grant sum is EUR 3,000 and it is applied for as its own expenditure grant or as a part of a working grant with the same application.  

South Savo fund will award a maximum of EUR 100,000 grant for projects concerning forestry. The applications may deal with forestry from different points of view, for example forest ecology, climate change, forest or wood technology. 

The North Savo and the North Karelia funds will altogether award a maximum of 100,000 euro grant to a high-quality, multidisciplinary undertaking that includes parties from both regions. In the 2022 application round, the grant is aimed at human and social sciences. 

University compensations 

Following discussions with Universities Finland, UNIFI, (university council of rectors), the Cultural Foundation has from March 1 2022 terminated the contracts they entered into with the universities in 2014, on the basis of which, grant researchers have been able to pay compensation for their workspace and other basic resources to conduct research. Next spring, the university compensation is no longer meant to be paid from the Cultural Foundation grants. The aim is to still have the universities welcome grant recipients and offer them equal resources to conduct quality research. 

You can find more information from the regional funds’ pages or from the January Round of applications. 

When archaeology meets contemporary glass art and advanced photonics

Text: Laeticia Petit and Ella Varvio

“In this project archaeology meets contemporary glass art and advanced photonics,” say Professor Laeticia Petit (on the right) and Glass Artist Ella Varvio. Photo: Jonne Renvall / Tampere University

“In this project archaeology meets contemporary glass art and advanced photonics,” says Professor Laeticia Petit (on the right) and Glass Artist Ella Varvio. Photo: Jonne Renvall / Tampere University

Glazing means a thin layer of glass decorating the surface of the pottery. Specific glazes were chosen for this project based on their color and texture which are due to the presence of crystals and metallic particles. Especial interest is in tiny gas bubbles inside the glaze, the interior of bubbles being covered with an exceedingly fine translucent nano-crystalline film.

The samples were provided to the Tampere University for research by Æli Barjesteh, the Director of ASET Stiftung Ltd. The composition of glazes has been analyzed to identify the elements in the glazes and also to evidence the presence of bubbles and crystals. This analysis not only provides information of ancient Chinese glazes but opens up the opportunity to design new materials for both photonics and contemporary glass art based on the composition of the glazes.

The research conducted by Professor Laeticia Petit at Tampere University as part of the PhotonArt project has for objective to develop glasses with similar elements and textures than those found in ancient Chinese glazes. The new glasses are designed with properties suitable for photonics applications, which is the main research activity of Professor Petit and of the research performed during the first year of the project by Reynald Ponte. The findings can be also applied in art as the glazes have beautiful reflectance and impressive colors. Glass artist Ella Varvio is exploring these colors in her blown glass artworks.

The research by Reynald Ponte has investigated the connection between the color of the glaze and their composition. Different advanced scanning methods like scanning electron microscope, X-ray fluorescence and Raman mapping were used to evidence the presence of bubbles and to identify the elements present in the glazes. For Petit, this first step of PhotonArt project has allowed the team to advance the fundamental understanding of glass structures and optical property relationships.

The new set of materials and colors reveal huge potential.

The findings that will result into applications in modern photonics are applicable also in art, but from a different perspective: color expression, visual language and different visual textures. Photo: Jonne Renvall / Tampere University

The findings that will result into applications in modern photonics are applicable also in art, but from a different perspective: color expression, visual language and different visual textures. Photo: Jonne Renvall / Tampere University

Based on the composition analysis, it is possible to create new glass recipes for artistic use and in this project, various glasses have been prepared with similar colors to those of the Chinese glazes. Ella Varvio’s art combines blown glass with engravings and illustrations. For Varvio, the new set of materials and colors reveal huge potential. She considers a privilege to get tailored colors to work with; melting the glasses, blowing and sculpting them, grinding and engraving will reveal how the glasses suit for small studio use.

Next step in the project is to work on the development of novel active optical glasses which contain also metallic nanoparticles as in the Chinese glazes. Understanding the formation of metallic nanoparticles in glasses with various compositions will have a significant impact on the photonics community as this work will lead to the development of new glasses with enhanced spectroscopic performance, useful for optical device applications for example. This will also impact other science related communities, for example metallic nanoparticles in bioactive glass could be used as new biomedical devices.

– This PhotonArt project allows us to also promote the research conducted at Tampere University on Glass Science which is of great importance especially since United Nations approved 2022 as the International Year of Glass. Indeed, although glass supports many vital technologies and facilitates sustainability and a green world, glass material yet often goes unnoticed, Petit says.

In 2020 the Pirkanmaa Regional Fund awarded a grant to Professor Laeticia Petit and her working group. The grant was awarded for a multidisciplinary three year Art-Science project aiming to design unique contemporary glass art master pieces and photonics materials inspired by ancient and historic Chinese glazes.

Understanding spaces that separate and unite

Text: Laura Iisalo
Photos: Rami Marjamäki

Postdoctoral researcher Alia’a Amr was awarded funding from the Foundations’ Post Doc Pool.

In every city there are underdeveloped, in-between areas that form boundaries or edges within the urban built environment. These areas are called interstitial spaces and they differ in scale. A logistics plot next to an apartment building, a space underneath a bridge, a highway, or an area alongside a ring road is considered interstitial, but even a whole city or a community can be interstitial.

These in-between areas are often ignored, yet they are an integral part of the on-going and rapid transformation of the built environment that is reshaping our cities, says Alia’a Amr, currently a postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University.

– These interstitial, partitioning spaces are defined as empty, underdeveloped, under-utilised. They increase separation and segregation but they have the potential to be contributors to the urban fabric. The potential of interstitial areas in general depends on the way spatial transition is facilitated and processed. How these areas emerge and transform is my area of interest, she says.

We shape our cities, then they shape us

Cities are defined by the built environment but also by people, culture, heritage, and the interactions between them. You don’t have to have a degree in architecture or spatial planning to participate in city development or placemaking.

– The concept of spatial transition is complex and involves inseparable social, cultural, economic, political, environmental, and spatial aspects. We need new combinations of hybrid tools, data, and models to steer the process of spatial transition, especially in the most vulnerable areas such as the interstitial ones, Amr says.

In her master’s thesis Amr discussed the spatial transition of urban peripheries, and in her PhD she looked at the urban transition and interstitiality of ring roads and areas alongside them in Oslo, Greater Helsinki, Greater Amman, and Kuwait City.

Cities are defined by people, culture, heritage, and the interaction in between.

To deepen her knowledge, Amr will be conducting new, postdoctoral research at the School of Natural and Built Environment at the Queen’s University of Belfast in Northern Ireland, funded by the foundations’ Post Doc Pool.

International collaboration benefits all parties

Amr is interested in the city of Belfast because it provides a unique and unexplored context for her research topic. She is especially intrigued by the areas around certain infrastructures such as the peace walls, which were created during and after the 30-year long conflict in Northern Ireland to separate the Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods.

– Besides providing spatial analysis, her research will include an assessment of the social and environmental aspects of these spaces. The outcomes of this project can be benefitted from not only in Belfast, but also in different urban contexts, she says.

While Amr believes that being part of the interdisciplinary and international research community will be a significant step in her academic career, she also thinks that it will provide new opportunities for close collaboration between the two universities in Tampere and Belfast.

– We are a global research community that encourages open-access publishing, and this is an opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience. These collaborations are key enablers of high-quality science and outputs. I’m sure that all parties will benefit, Amr says.

Postdoctoral researcher Alia’a Amr was awarded funding from the Foundations’ Post Doc Pool. She will be analysing interstitiality at the Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.