SINI MONONEN, PhD (University of Helsinki, Finland)
16-18 October @14.30–17.45 in A-402
AIRI TRIISBERG, MA, curator and art researcher
19 October @14.30–17.45 in A-402
As the activist ethos has become increasingly prevalent in the music and art world in recent decades, we will discuss how to achieve social change through music, visual arts and broader creative practice. Sini Mononen‘s seminar will explore the role of music in today’s activist culture, including the international environmental movement of the 21st century. Together, we will find theoretical tools to understand how music and sound are intertwined with activism and artivism. Airi Triisberg‘s workshop will look more broadly at creative practices that aim to contribute to social change. It will analyse activists’ tools and tactics to intervene in social developments and influence public debates or political decisions. The seminar will be structured around examples from the visual arts, characterised by shifting boundaries between art and activism. It will also explore how the tools of creative activism have been used in the Baltic countries. Teaching methods will include lectures, discussions, debates and exercises. Participation in the seminar requires prior access to the study materials (texts, videos).
Please register via e-mail at brigitta.davidjants@eamt.ee. Seminars will be in English and Estonian.
Sini Mononen is a musicologist and an art critic. In 2018, she defended her thesis in the University of Turku on the sonic and musical representations of the experiences of stalking in stalker films. Mononen has worked as a part-time lecturer in the University of Helsinki, Aalto University and in the LAB University of Applied Sciences, teaching, for instance, the relations of music, art and society.
Currently, Mononen works in the research project Music Researchers in Society (2022–2025). Recently, her research has focused on the musical practices of Extinction Rebellion Finland (Elokapina). Mononen is a founding member of Research Association Suoni, an association focused on societal and activist research of music and music culture. She served as a chair of the Association from 2017 to 2022. Since 2005 Mononen has contributed art criticism to several publications (e.g. Mustekala, Helsingin Sanomat, Artforum). In 2016, Mononen was granted the Edward Richter literature award (Finnish Art Society) and in 2017 the E. J. Vehmas award (Finnish Cultural Foundation).
