An exhibition at Aalto University’s Dipoli Gallery 13.09-09.11.22.

The ABRA projects promote transdisciplinary knowledge and capacity building in higher education in order to tackle the skills gaps in addressing environmental problems and climate change and promote excellence in teaching and skills development for students and educators.

The ABRA project is dealing with complex problems, focusing on a fundamental shift in approaching grand challenges through novel combinations of currently disconnected fields of knowledge and ways of working. The project is provoking and beautiful at the same time.

The world is getting increasingly complex as new developments, systems and aesthetics are frequently introduced. While design and creative processes are evolving, new tools and methods often adopted from science and technology are used in art, design and craft practices. These diverse developments also impact manufacturing, industries, urban habitats, design approaches, and the expanded field’s skills. A disciplinary, tool- and solution-oriented approach toward the current and future global challenges might not be enough.

This exhibition presents first results from the hands-on workshops with students and faculty tackling the skills gaps and mismatches within our disciplines and beyond. In this entanglement, new questions, new ideas, and new solutions are generated. The presented experiments and prototypes demonstrate novel ways of working, focusing on how artificial intelligence can revolutionize artistic and architectural practice, how robots can creatively transform research and industry to propose new ways of viewing and addressing the complex global challenges.

Visit ABRA here

ABRA team:

Laura Beloff – Aalto
Pia Fricker – Aalto
Kaan Unlu – Aalto
Elizabeth Jochum – AAU
Anca Horvath – AAU
Timothy Robert Merritt – AAU
Matthias Rehm – AAU
Markus Löchtefeld – AAU
Lorena Cebolla Sanahuja – Trento
Martin Michael Hanczyc – Trento
Karina Vissonova – ADES
Judit Boros – ADES

Workshop participants (Aalto, Trento, Aalborg, ADES):

Laura Beloff, Pia Fricker, Kaan Ünlü, Hege Tapio, Aska Mayer, Marija Šumarac, Cynthia,, Blanchette, Katri Naukkarinen, Aurora Del Rio, Lorena Cebolla Sanahuja, Elisa Pettinà, Christopher Porterfield, Martin Michael Hanczyc, Anca Horvath, Elizabeth Jochum, Timothy, Robert Merritt, Matthias Rehm, Markus Löchtefeld, Maros Pekarik, Carlos Gomez Cubero, Sólja, Holm Mortensen, Johanna Lauritzen, Daniel Szalai, Edit Blaumann, Renáta Dezső, Karina Vissonova, Judit Boros, Aalto FabLab:, Solomon Embrafrash, Yu-Han Tseng, Marcus Korhonen

ABRA - Aalto Exhibition Team:

Edel O’Reilly, Curator
Pia Fricker, Professor of Practice and Vice Head of the Department of Architecture, ARTS
Laura Beloff, Professor (Associate professor) & Head of Doctoral Education in DAM , Vice-Head of DAM (Department of Art & Media), ARTS
Eva Tordera Nuño – Graphic design
Myriam Gras – Photography, video
Kaan Unlu – Photography, video, logistics
Aurora Del Rio – Photography, video