Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9178-3666
Aalto University Research Portal profile:
https://research.aalto.fi/en/persons/mari-keski-korsu
Articles
Walks and steams: Artistic approaches to develop more-than-human ritualisation in polycrisis
Keski-Korsu, M., 2025, Doctoral dissertation. Aalto University, Department of Art and Media. https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/items/51f3085c-a829-43b2-8c53-c7f385320604
Sensing the Polycrisis: Artistic Approach to Walking as Ritualisation
Keski-Korsu, M. Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society. 49, 1, p. 43–61.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.138680
Walking with Permafrost Microbial Communities: Artistic Proposals to Encounter the Leaking Messiness of the Melting Worlds
Keski-Korsu, M., 2024, In: Proceedings of The 10th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology 2023. Venice, Italy. p. 150-155.
Link to the article in Research Gate >
Together to Know: In search for Equus Spiritual Experience
Keski-Korsu, M., 28 Feb 2023, In: Research in Arts and Education. 2023, 1, p. 18-24.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54916/rae.126190
On the edges of consciousnesses: Messaging between species
Keski-Korsu, M., 1 Jul 2022, In: Technoetic Arts. 20, 1-2, p. 39-50 12 p.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/tear_00080_1
Love Me to Death: A Performative Ritual with Rats
Keski-Korsu, M., 1 Sept 2021, In: Proceedings of Politics of the Machines – Rogue Research 2021 : POM 2021 . Berlin, Germany: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, p. 172-177 6 p. (Electronic Workshops in Computing )
DOI: https://w10.14236/ewic/POM2021.22
Books
Sentimentally Fierce
Keski-Korsu, M., 2024, A tree, a reader on arboreal kinship, van der Loo (eds.). Eindhoven: Onomatopee
Biotaiteellisia hetkikuvaelmia näiltä seuduilta
Translated title of the contribution: Bioartistic momentary tableaux from the North, Keski-Korsu, M., 22 Aug 2023, Suomalaisen Mediataiteen Ensimmäinen Vuosisata. Tikka, H., Kuljuntausta, P., Rantanen, T. & Tarkka, M. (eds.). Helsinki: Parvs, p. 89-92 4 p.
State of the Art: Elements for Critical Thinking and Doing
Berger, E., Keski-Korsu, M., Radomska, M. & Thastum, L. (eds.), 21 Jun 2023, Helsinki: SOLU / Bioart Society. 282 p.
Dreaming with Turf by Keski-Korsu M. and M. Howse, M. p. 254 -257 4p.
Garden of Agency
Keski-Korsu, M., 2023, Exercises in Togetherness, Suonyrjö, E. (ed.), New York: The Finnish Cultural Institute in New York. p. 32-35 4 p.
Sylvan Invitation
Keski-Korsu, M., 11. Jun 2021, Nørrekærbiennalen 2019: Forandring, forankring, Dufour, K., Andersen, F.T. (eds.), Copenhagen: YNKB. p. 22-23 2p.
A Promise to Aspen: A More-than-Human friendship
Keski-Korsu, M., Sept 2018, Body of Us, Allen, J., Boshears, P., Garnicing, B., Jäger, N., Thoman, M. (eds.), London: continent (online publication)
Gift from the Forest
Keski-Korsu, M., 2018, Spring Celebration – Birch, Tree, Sauna, Bočkis, A., van Doorn, W. (eds.) NET-Book series, Rotterdam: Printroom. p. 22-25 4p.
The Place is Outside – MEGA
Keski-Korsu, M., 2016, What is outside? Art in the Underground, Jonas, U., Köbberling, F., Becker, J. Berlin: nGgK. p. 166-171 6p.
With Joy and Love: Case Pyhäjoki – Artistic Reflections on Nuclear Influence
Keski-Korsu, M., 2014, An Edge Effect / Art & Ecology in the Nordic Landscape, Fortune, B.(ed.), Chigago: Half Letter Press. p. 254-261 8 p.
Conference presentations
Track chairing with r.A.t research group for The materiality of sentience: an experimental approach, The 5th Politics of the Machines Conference POM: Synthetic Sentience, The Institute of Advanced Studies, The University Of Western Australia, Perth, Australia., Online, July 2025
Volatile Ecologies: Lichens, Reindeer, Olfaction and Environmental Change panelist (with Tarsh Bates), Hurricanes and Scaffolding: Symposium on Artistic Research, Swedish Research Council and UmArts Research Center, Umeå, Sweden, December 2024
Keynote: Steam Bathing with Ancestors and Other Wise, Bathing Art and Ecology in the Age of Water, Trondheim, Norway, December 2024
Walks in the Steam of Cryosphere, More-than-Planet: Earth Gazes back seminar, Oulu Finland, September 2024
State of the Art: Elements for Critical Thinking and Doing: The Eco and Bioart Lab Webinar and Virtual Book Launch, panelist with E. Berger and M. Radomska, Online, September 2024
Ritualisation, Participatory Performance and Beyond in Polycrisis
Politics of the Machines – POM 2024: Lifelikeness & beyond
RWTH Aachen University, KäteHamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research, Aachen, Germany, April 2024
Transcending Boundaries: an evening of art-science panel speaker
Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center Impact Week, Climate and Death
Cultural Centre Sofia/Tekstintalo, Helsinki, Finland, April 2024
Steam Bathing with Permafrost Ancestors: A Case Study of a Participatory Performance in Cryospheric Polycrisis
VIII Art of Research Conference, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, December 2023
Walking with Permafrost
Walking is still honest*: About being and moving together Symposium, SODAS 2123, Vilnius, Lithuania, October 2023
How to Entangle with Time-traveling Invaders: Walking with Microbial Communities of Permafrost
RE:SOURCE – The 10th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, Venice, Italy, September 2023
From Alpacas to Arctic Microbes: Intuitive Interspecies Communication within Artistic Practice
International Multispecies Methods Research Symposium: Intuitive Interspecies Communication, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, May 2023
Building (S)kinship in the Steam Bath – Sauna Becoming in Two Case Studies
with Lamminmäki, D., Conference of the Finnish Anthropological Society: Relations and beyond, Rovaniemi, Finland, March 2023
Walking with Permafrost
Transformation Symposium, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, November 2022
Walking as Artistic Research
Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe: History, Religion, and Culture V, Tartu, Estonia, September 2022
Love Me to Death: A Performative Ritual with Rats
Politics of the Machines – Rogue Research 2021 : POM 2021, Berlin, Germany, September 2021
On the Edges of Consciousnesses: Messaging in Between Species
Online International Conference Being One and Many: Faces of the Human in the 21st Century, Medical University of Łódź, March 2021
Empathy and Interspecies Communication as Artistic Practice
(Un)Common Worlds – Human-Animal Studies Conference, Turku, August 2018
Art and social science with Mari Keski-Korsu and Maarit Laihonen
Encounters Across Art and Science, Tiedekulma/Bioart Society, Helsinki, November 2017
Research projects
More than Person River is a collaborative, socially engaged artistic research project focussing on the more-than-human decision making on Torne River, the river flowing from Arctic in North Sápmi to the Baltic Sea in North Fennocnadinanavia. The research involves ethnographic inquiry with local inhabitants of Tornio (FI) – Haparanda (SWE) twin town; utilising walking methodologies as participatory performance and more-than-human intuitive communication to investigate the river relations amidst the polycrisis changes in the environment and the large scale industrialisation in the area (e.g. green transition). More Than Person River is supported by EU Horizon project VOICE in 2025. Through artist-led interventions (ATSIs), VOICE encourages citizen engagement to tackle local and regional environmental challenges effectively.
Changing Perspectives – Access Abisko Values is a collaboration between social sciences, natural sciences and arts to assess a new concept, termed ‘Nature’s Contribution to People’ (NCPs) and protect and improve the environments which support human life. The project engages citizen science, participatory ethnographic research, sound and visual arts projects in Abisko. This is an Arctic area of Sweden with vulnerable ecosystems and diverse, small community groups that are experiencing socio-environmental changes. The project focuses on non-monetary valuation, context-dependency, interconnectedness with the wider ecology and individuality of cultural values. The project included research conducted in Abisko Scientific Research station and was supported by Polar Research Secretariat 2022-2024. My doctoral research, funded by Kone Foundation 2021-2025, investigated more-than-human ritualisations and their changes in polycrisis in the context of this project and in Aalto University Department of Art and Media.
Hybrid Lab Network was an exploratory project that promoted mobilization, internationalization and links between distinct fields of study across 4 cultures: Arts, Sciences, Engineering/Technology and Humanities, and 3 sectors: Academia, Research, Society. The project focused on multidisciplinary approach to improve STEAM training, particularly in bio-sciences, including the development of didactic tools and resources to promote critical and creative thinking and innovation. The project was realised in 2019-2022. The Hybrid Lab Network was European consortium consisting of Aalto University, Alma Mater Europaea, the Institue of Molecular and Cell Biology IBMC and Waag | Technology & Society in Amsterdam.
Interfaces of Empathy (IfE) was an independent research project and action tank together with Maarit Laihonen and Petri Ruikka in 2015 – 2018, mainly funded by Kone Foundation. IfE started from Pixelache 2016 festival of the same name I co-directed with Petri Ruikka and evolved to researching various exercises for empathy building, developing and researching empathy enabling discussion methods, writings and basic empathy research as well as curated programme parts for other events. My research was focused on more-than-human empathy.
