Professor

Faculty of Art and Design

Heidi Pietarinen is Professor of Textiles at the Faculty of Art and Design, University of Lapland, Finland. She holds a PhD in Textiles, and her research focuses on material-led bioart methodologies, textile history, material studies, and arts-based research. Her scholarly and artistic work encompasses curated exhibitions, peer-reviewed publications, and active participation in multidisciplinary research groups, including the BioARTech Laboratory and the Early Modern Period Research Group at Tampere University, Finland.

Professor

Faculty of Art and Design

Satu Miettinen is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland in Finland. She has been in this position since 2018. She is also a Professor of Service Design at the same university, a position she has held since 2016. Miettinen is studying the relationships between forest, natural environment, play and performance. Her work is inspired by visits to the close-by forest that are her living laboratory. She is also inspired by a variety of natural environments when she and her colleagues are constructing embodied performances with nature utilising improvisatory methods.

Melanie Sarantou is professor of Social Design at Kyushu University in Japan and Adjunct Professor at the University of Lapland in Finland, investigating the role of arts and narrative practices in social design. She explores fashion as an artform through a variety of methods to upcycle, reuse and remake found fashion garments and objects. Her textile design is inspired by three-dimensional forms, geometrical shapes and the natural environments of the far North and South. Her work includes three-dimensional quilted and felted textiles and natural and organic materials that are shaped by a combination of human and non-human artistic expression that can be found, for example, in the agency of plant roots and their growth. The artist-researcher also seeks to understand how her textile and fashion art is received by human and non-human audiences.

Project Manager

Faculty of Art and Design

My work in the Bioart Lab focuses on arts-based and speculative research methods, exploring the connections between bioart, material experimentation and design futures. I am particularly interested in how more-than-human perspectives can be brought into dialogue to inspire new forms of artistic practice and drive sustainable innovation. As an Arctic Six Fellow, I contribute to advancing Arctic sustainability and interdisciplinary innovation, bringing together art, design and cultural research to address pressing global and regional challenges. Through the Bioart Lab, I seek to foster critical and creative exchanges that expand the role of art and design in shaping more inclusive, imaginative and sustainable futures.