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Research publications
Publishing is an essential part of Uniarts Helsinki’s activities. Uniarts Helsinki’s academies publish a wide variety of literature on education and research in music, fine arts, theatre, and dance.
Academy of Fine Arts

The Academy of Fine Arts is actively engaged in publication activities. The publications are high-quality works in the Academy’s field of expertise, published both independently and as co-publications. The versatile collection grows constantly.
Latest publications of the Academy of Fine Arts
Latest publications of the Academy of Fine Arts


As an element in human societies, religion forms part of the backdrop against which artists have worked in the past and present. Today, artists work in a world in which the place, role, and authority of religious traditions and institutions have changed, a process that began with the dawn of the modern era. Although the authority andinfluence of organized religion has declined in Western Europe and North America,
Contributors: Riikka Stewen, Jyrki Siukonen, Grant White, Juha-Heikki Tihinen, Johan Bastubacka, Liisa Lindgren, Päivikki Kallio, Elina Merenmies, J. O. Mallander

Figures of Touch Sense, Technics, Body
CONTRIBUTORS: MIKA ELO, LAURA GRÖNDAHL, HARRI LAAKSO, MAIJU LOUKOLA, MIIKA LUOTO, JEAN-LUC NANCY, DAVID PARISI, SAMI SANTANEN
Sand & Indigo: A book about Finnish and Gambian Collaboration in Art Pedagogy
More information:
Collaboration Partners: ArtsEqual Project, CERADA and CUPORE
Futures of Artistic Research – At the Intersection of Utopia, Academia and Power is a collection of essays that brings into focus and explains the actual significance and future possibilities of the experimental exercises and critiques emerging across the field of artistic research. The book is structured around seven main questions and topics that are, at the moment, of interest to a wide interdisciplinary field of scholars, curators, and artists. The starting point for this book is a questionnaire that was sent to writers that the editors consider significant within the field of artistic research. The editors (Jan Kaila, Anita Seppä and Henk Slager) asked them to either provide a separate answer to each question, or to write a short text as a reaction to the set of questions.
The Research Pavilion in Venice, hosted by the University of the Arts Helsinki, (Uniarts Helsinki) has been important as a setting influencing the selection of writers as well as the topic of the book. Jan Kaila and Henk Slager acted as curators, and Anita Seppä as the commissioner, of the Research Pavilion in 2015 and 2017.
Many participants of this book project have taken part in the exhibitions or in the so-called ‘Camino Events’ – spanning a wide variety of cross-artistic events; discussions, interventions, performances, screenings, and concerts – of the Research Pavilion. In addition to them, the editors have invited a number of people not connected with the Research Pavilion to discuss similar issues.
CONTRIBUTORS: Andrea Phillips, Basak Senova, Behzad Khosravi Noori, Cecilie Broch Knudsen, Darla Crispin, Florian Dombois, Jan Svenungsson, Joasia Krysa, Julian Klein, Lars Hallnäs, Leena Rouhiainen, Maiju Loukola, Melanie Bouteloup, Mick Wilson, Mika Elo, Nikita Yingqian Cai, and Renate Lorenz.
By presenting the responses of these internationally acknowledged specialists, the collection shows how the artistic research discussion reworks older definitions of experimenting, knowledge, methodologies, materials, and purposes of art, and how it also advances new ethical and political insights in the field of research.
Futures of Artistic Research – At the Intersection of Utopia, Academia and Power. Writings from the Academy of Fine Arts (5). 2017.
Editors: Jan Kaila, Anita Seppä, Henk Slager
Graphic design: Marjo Malin
Publisher: The Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts Helsinki
ISBN 978-952-7131-42-8
Inside and Beside the Camp
The books title Inside and Beside the Camp refers to German barracks on the Tulliniemi peninsula in Hanko, Finland. The peninsula was the point of arrival for German troops who began their transit through Finland from 1942 to 1944. The area closed after World War II, but it attracted public attention in 2014 when the City of Hanko opened a nature trail there, and partly forgotten German barracks from the transit camp were discovered next to the trail.
The transit camp is in focus in the Deutsches Lager research project (2015–2018). The research project both resembles archeology and is archeology – it effectively excavates history both physically – objects and texts – and visually – photographs and moving images. The artistic researchers and editors of the anthology Jan Kaila and Japo Knuutila process the visualizations of this project.
Oula Silvennoinen writes about the controversial relations between Finland and Germany during Second World War. Jan Fast gives an account of the history of the camp at Tulliniemi in Hanko and of the excavations conducted there. The discussion between Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen and Jan Kaila examines guilt and other issues regarding archaeological finds. The text by Irmeli Koskinen and Pirkko Pohjakallio investigates the potential benefits of collaboration between artistic and scientific research. Mats Burström recalls his conflict archaeology project in Cuba, while Björnar Olsen and Þóra Pétursdóttir describe their practice of contemporary archaeology in northern Norway, which bears interesting parallels with our own investigations around Tulliniemi. Sasha Colby writes about the potential of poetic archaeology in the light of the work of Charles Olson and Henri Cartier-Bresson. The book was published during the exhibition Poethic Archaelogy/Deutsches Lager – Inside and Beside the Camp in Exhibition Laboratory gallery in Helsinki.
Pekka Kantonen: Generational Filming. A Video Diary as Experimental and Participatory Research 2017

Graphic design: Erik Hartin and Moa Pårup
Copy editing: Rebecca Bligh
Publisher: The Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki
Printing: Aldgate Press, London, 2017
ISSN 2343-1008
ISBN 978-952-7131-32-9 (printed)
ISBN 978-952-7131-33-6 (pdf)
Markus Rissanen: Basic Forms and Nature – From Visual Simplicity to Conceptual Complexity 2017.
Do basic geometrical forms exist in nature, or are they merely products of the human mind? What roles do the three simple forms of classic Euclidean geometry – the circle, square and triangle – play in the cultural history of forms? Have we reached the limits of describing nature and its functions with basic forms? How do rhombuses help us to decipher the laws of rotational symmetry? This Doctoral thesis in Fine Arts is an interdisciplinary study of basic forms and nature. It combines artistic and scientific modes of research and consists of artistic productions and the cultural-historical study of forms as well as mathematical explanations.

Moscow Conceptualism is at the core of Russian contemporary art. Its influence extends from the visual arts to performance and from photography to literature. This book addresses the various aspects of Eastern Conceptualism from the perspectives of six artists and researchers and an artist group. The articles are by Yuri Albert, Hannu Eerikäinen, Tomi Huttunen, New Normals, Kimmo Sarje, Victor Skersis and Vadim Zakharov. The books texts are in English and Russian.
Hammer and Silence. A Short Introduction to the Philosophy of Tools. Siukonen, Jyrki. 2015
Should we make sense of what we are doing? Anyone who has ever pondered everyday studio practice will recognize the special difficulty of explaining the simple manual actions involved in artistic work. This historical study proposes to look at those wordless procedures that usually escape our attention when we engage in art and creativity. Touching on practical issues in philosophy, such as the simultaneity of doing, talking and tooling, Hammer and Silence will appeal to a hands-on audience in art and academia.
Sibelius Academy
Sibelius Academy's publishing activities are varied and lively. Sibelius Academy publishes
- Recording (SibaRecords, Etno.net)
- Theses and dissertation (in eThesis)
- Monographs, articles and anthologies (catalogue)
- Learning materials

Latest publications of the Sibelius Academy
Latest publications of the Sibelius Academy
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Margit Rahkonen: Douze Études by Claude Debussy – a Pianist’s View |
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Tuomas Hannikainen: Neito tornissa - Sibelius näyttämöllä This is a study of Jean Sibelius’ early compositions for stage, concentrating on the work Jungfrun i tornet (Neito tornissa in Finnish; Maid in the Tower in English) (JS101, 1896).
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Anne-Mari Kivimäki: Perinnelaboratorio: #haitariporukoissa The focal point of this artistic doctoral dissertation is the accordionist and storyteller Ilja Kotikallio (1894–1961) from Suistamo. Through research on Kotikallio’s personal history as well as archival tales recorded from him, the life of the parish municipality of Suistamo in Karelia (beyond the current Russian border) at the start of the 20th century is illuminated, especially the presence of accordion music in the Suistamo area |
Theatre Academy

Publications are an integral part of the activities of the Theatre Academy. With their focus on the performing arts, publications have produced material for supplementing teaching, research supporting the development of the field of theatre and dance, reports, and topical discussions.
Publications for sale
Publications of the University of the Arts Helsinki Unigrafia online store
The latest publications of Academy of Fine Arts are on sale at the Academy of Fine Arts Library (Elimäenkatu 25 A, Helsinki) and latest publications of Theatre Academy are sale at the Theatre Academy Library during the library opening hours.
Publications of the Sibelius Academy can be purchased from the Unigrafia online store or Ostinato. Releases of SibaRecords (music albums) can be purchased via distributor Naxos.
