Back to Capsula

Hardly any posts have been published in this site during the last three years. Capsula people have been busy with intensive projects and the “home capsule” has been abandoned. The summer 2014 will activate the blog, but first I must look back and tell about what Ulla Taipale and Merja Markkula have been doing after Capsula Curated Expedition project was organized in the framework of the Turku2011 European Cultural Capital year.

In 2011 Ulla Taipale was approached by Aalto University in Helsinki/Espoo to set up a laboratory and program dedicated to biological arts, in collaboration with the founders and directors of SymbioticA – Centre of Excellence for Biological Arts Ionat Zurr and Oron Catts.

Biofilia – Base for Biological Arts was officially opened in February 2013 in Otaniemi Campus, Espoo. The same year Biofilia hosted five hands-on workshops interrelating artistic and scientific research and thought. The workshop were led by Oron Catts&Ionat Zurr / Biotech Art Workshop, Leena Valkeapää / The Biology of Snow, Christina Stadlbauer&Lina Kusaite / Melliferopolis Workshop II: Understanding the Essence of Flowers – Exploring Pollen, Andy Gracie / Drosophila titanus- Designer Babies and Marc Dusselier/NanoHacking: Converging Life and Tech at the Nanoscale.

Ulla run two academic courses for Aalto students together with Biofilia lab manager Marika Hellman, in fall 2013 Biofilia: Art and Biosciences Course and in spring 2014 Dinner´s ready course, that culminated with incredible Cook Show ArtMeatFlesh Helsinki at Flavour Studio at Abattoir, Helsinki.

This year Ulla will continue working on the research projects Melliferopolis-Honeybees in Urban Environments with Christina Stadlbauer and Climate Whirl Project with University of Helsinki researchers Eija Juurola and Janne Korhonen, so it will be again a year full of interesting activities.

Merja Markkula decided to bring Kuusisto Manor House in Kaarina in life and is organizing the second Kuusisto Art Manor exhibition with lot of activities during the summer season 2014. The exhibition topic is Water and it is open until the end of August 2014.