Professor

Faculty of Art and Design

My research has an emphasis on knowledge and methods of textile art and history, bioart and creative research (art-based research and methods, material-driven research). My current research includes projects such as High Altitude Bioprospecting (HAB) and Life Between Art and (Reindeer) Blood. These have resulted in international exhibitions, discussions and teaching around the Arctic raw materials, nature of microbes, the language of bioprospecting and our relationship with our non-human research collaborators. I am a member of Bioart Society, SOLU, 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.