New Media Art

Available on AV-Arkki , Centre for Finnish Media Art

In new media art, my focus shifts to games and play as metaphors for adult life. I explore the “inner child” as a space where vulnerability, imagination, and survival strategies converge. My recent projects bring Finnish and Beninese traditions into dialogue. They examine how cultural practices of play shape identity, memory, and belonging. A forthcoming project will expand this inquiry to Japan. There, I plan to study traditional forms of play and examine their cultural resonances.

“Games, play, and playing have been studied long before game studies became an academic field. These subjects were explored particularly within history, education, and ethnology. Play and games are central parts of human culture. Philosophers have commented on them since ancient Greece. For example, Aristotle regarded play as a way to recover and refresh oneself after work. The 18th-century playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller understood the “play drive” as a foundational condition for culture. Play is selfless. It does not pursue utility. The freedom experienced in play enables a kind of organic creativity that is essential for culture.

Games have also attracted interest as part of research in other fields. This includes their connection with simulations and technological development. They are also studied in relation to warfare and learning.”

Source: Adapted and translated excerpt from the introduction “Pelit kulttuurina ja kulttuurissa” [“Games as Culture and in Culture”] in Usva Friman, Jonne Arjoranta, Jani Kinnunen, Katriina Heljakka & Jaakko Stenros (eds.) Pelit kulttuurina (Games as Culture). Vastapaino, 2022. The introduction is openly available online on the publisher’s website.

Seksillä kotiin / What Is Left Unsaid

I began my studies by creating a multichannel work, Seksillä kotiin / What Is Left Unsaid (2014). This project explored communication between participants. It focused on how messages are transmitted and interpreted. This work involved two participants. They were filmed simultaneously from two perspectives. They repeated the same sentence with variation while responding to each other. The end result was nuanced communication from minimal elements.

This interest in interpersonal dynamics has evolved. It now focuses on play as a metaphor for human communication. This forms the conceptual basis for my next multichannel project, Peili / Mirror (2014). It evolved to a single channel version in 2019.

Peili / Mirror

Peili / Mirror (2014, multichannel, 2019, single-channel) examines relationship dynamics through a Finnish children’s game with the same name, particularly the pursuer–avoider dynamic. Longing for love and acceptance gets us to pursue the company of others. However, we tend to let some people closer than others. The same principles and rules do not apply to everyone.

The original  installation, Event Horizon (2014-2016), included Home with Sex and the multi channel version of Mirror,  including an interactive component, allowing viewers to play Peili with the woman featured in the video. 

Above: Tapahtumahorisontti / Event Horizon / Bothnia Biennale moods captured by Tomi Saarijärvi

 

Adjidji Ya

In my next work,  Adjidji Ya, I continue with same methods and themes, this time by exploring amoung diaspora communities, particularly adults who migrated from Benin to Finland. The childhood play serves as a framework for cultural identity, memory, and finding one’s place in a new environment. Participants are co-creators, voicing lived experiences of migration and belonging. 

In the video: Children playing Adjidji Ya in Grand Popo, Benin (2024)

Screenings

Lyhytelokuvapäivät, 2020

Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Germany 2020

Film Fest Dresden, Germany 2020

Braunschweig International Film Festival, Germany, 2019

Videoforma7, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2019

Muu Gaala, Helsinki, Joensuu 2019