Annette Arlander

InHow to Do Things with Artistic Research – Revisiting Animal YearsAnnette Arlander presents her method of revisiting by returning to a series of video works named after the Chinese calendar, created in the years 2002-2014 on Harakka Island in Helsinki. As part of the Academy of Finland funded research project How to Do Things with Performance? in 2016-2020 she revisited the sites of those works as well as theoretical concepts or concerns previously discussed in relation to them. Experimenting with the video essay as a form she wrote these texts for various contexts. Here they are compiled to demonstrate how not only landscapes change over time but thinking, too, transforms. The publication has been peer-reviewed.

Performance art in practice - pedagogical approaches avaa konkreettisesti suomalaisissa korkeakouluissa kehittynyttä performanssitaiteen pedagogisista osaamista ja ajattelua. Teoksen toimittaneen Aapo Korkeaojan Tuomas Laitisen, Annette Arlanderin, Tero Nauhan, Eero Yli-Vakkurin, Leena Kelan, Pilvi Porkolan, Jussi Matilaisen ja Pia Lindyn esseet ovat kokoelma näkökulmia, joiden kautta performanssitaide kulttuurisena ilmiönä ja luovan työn kontekstina tulee hyvin näkyväksi. Performanssitaiteen näkökulma kulttuuripolitiikkaan, taidehistoriaan ja aktivismiin sekä oivallukset ja esimerkit mm. taiteellisesta työstä, somatiikasta, läsnäolosta ja dialogin metodologiasta piirtävät värikkään kuvan lajista, joka lopulta pakenee kaikkia määritelmiä. Performance art in practice - pedagogical approaches toimii erinomaisena työkaluna opiskelijoille ja opettajille. Kirja on mielenkiintoista luettavaa kenelle tahansa, joka haluaa tutustua performanssitaiteen ajattelutapaan ja käytäntöihin paremmin. Description in EnglishPerformance art in practice- pedagogical approaches opens a path to a realm of performance art guided by experienced artist-educators, who write about their passions as artists and practices as teachers in Finnish universities. These essays are a profound collection of views to understanding performance art as a cultural phenomenon and a creative tool. The writers Tuomas Laitinen, Annette Arlander, Tero Nauha, Eero Yli-Vakkuri, Leena Kela, Pilvi Porkola, Jussi Matilainen and Pia Lindy with the editor Aapo Korkeaoja all approach performance art and pedagogy from different angles. Several methods on how to engage and understand body, concentration, human presence, identity, vocabulary, culture politics, art history and activism are introduced. Inventive feedback and dialogue cultures are shared with the readers as well as a range of personal experiences in various situations at workshops and performance grounds. The book also introduces vocabulary and concepts that have grown in relation to performance art - an art that eventually escapes all definitions. Performance art in practice- pedagogical approaches is a great tool for students & teachers and a pleasant read for anybody, that wishes to know more about performance art.

How to collaborate with other beings we share this planet with is a central task for artists today. The starting point for these texts was the realization that we must find ways of relating to the environment that are meaningful from the perspectives of the ecological crisis and a new-materialist and post-humanist understanding of our place in the world. They suggest that artistic research can contribute by allowing for and generating hybrid forms of performing and thinking. Performing and Thinking with Trees summarises the various strategies of lens-based work used in two artistic research projects by Annette Arlander, namely Performing with Plants (2017–2019) and Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees (2020–2021). The focus of these essays is on artistic practices, enhanced by some philosophical discussions related to vegetal life. They seek to contribute to critical plant studies as well as to demonstrate what the outputs of artistic research beyond doctoral work might look like.

In this collection landscape, environment, place and site are considered from various viewpoints, based on practical experience in creating artworks. Landscape is discussed as a setting for stories in radio play and dance performance or as a scene for memories and fantasies in site-specific performance and sound installations. Landscape as environment is discussed through sound works; landscape as view is analysed in relation to painting and video, or as site of action and site of reception. Landscape is related to agency exemplified by talking trees and witches' brooms. The relationship of performer and environment is analysed through imaginary models in video works. How landscape moves the performer or the witness and topics like documentation, duration and breathing are discussed. Performing place is understood as a strategy for interruption or affirmation. Performing non-place is linked to the challenge of performative research. Annette Arlander is professor of Performance Art and Theory at the Theatre Academy Helsinki. The written part of her doctoral work Esitys tilana (Performance as Space) was published as Acta Scenica 2 in 1998.