Learning Materials: for thinking and making with materiality

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

Learning Materials is a transnational artistic research project led by Bioart Society, HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme, Koynẽ Program and TUO TUO, with associate partners FIBRA (Peru), LABVA (Chile), Scottish Sculpture Workshop (Scotland) and SWAMP (Finland). The project rethinks material practices and relations in an era marked by petrochemical dependence, extractive economies, technological determinism, and accelerating ecological crises. It asks how artists, cultural organisations and communities can foster more just, sustainable and plural practices of making. Rooted in artistic research, Learning Materials supports experimentation, artistic freedom and cross- and transdisciplinary enquiry, nurturing socio-ecological responsibility through residencies, fellowships, collaborative research and public programmes across Nordic and Latin American contexts. Structured in four work packages, the project integrates: – Capacity Building: 12-month fellowships, international residencies, a technician residency and micro-grants for associate partners. – Making Public: A learning programme, learning intensive and hybrid workshop series – Distribution: Communications, documentation, archiving and open access publishing across print, digital and audio formats. – Management: Ensuring strong governance, collaborative structures and evaluation. By linking Nordic and Latin American perspectives, Learning Materials fosters un/decolonial approaches and technodiversity, recognising differences as generative. With a commitment to environmental sustainability and carbon-consciousness, travel is minimised and redistributed, prioritising South–North mobility. The partners bring extensive expertise in sustainable material practices, residencies and community engagement. Together they create a long-term network for radical localism in dialogue with global perspectives, building capacity for artists and publics to imagine material futures beyond extraction.