{"id":2812,"date":"2025-04-01T12:03:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T09:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/?p=2812"},"modified":"2025-04-01T12:18:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T09:18:05","slug":"conversation-as-art-or-the-art-of-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/en\/2025\/04\/01\/conversation-as-art-or-the-art-of-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversation as Art or The Art of Conversation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blog Week Two<\/h2>\n

By Katey O’Sullivan<\/h3>\n

Last week I was lucky enough spend a long weekend in Rovaniemi<\/a> (Roavve in S\u00e1mi<\/b> language), Lapland (S\u00e1pmi<\/a> <\/strong>– Sami cultural region). \u00a0I enjoyed all of the classic tourist experiences including meeting huskies, reindeer and driving a snow mobile.\u00a0 I was quickly bewitched by the beauty of the forest and snow, and despite the cold, I happily went for a late-night walk on a frozen river to look towards the heavens in search of the famous Northern Lights.\u00a0 While I scanned the sky with my husband and a glass of wine for company, I noticed that we weren\u2019t alone and called out a friendly greeting to shadowy figures carrying a spotlight.\u00a0 We were soon joined by two more Aurora hunters, friends on a weekend trip from Paris, so we chatted, sharing stories while we patiently waited for the \u2018show\u2019.\u00a0 Finally, after consulting various apps and having a quick lesson on the best settings for my phone, we saw a shy green and purple flare.<\/p>\n

\"Aurora
Aurora Borealis, Photograph by Katey O’Sullivan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Initially I was disappointed, I have an overly competitive personality and I was hoping for something bolder, more like the pictures I\u2019d seen online, bigger and better! Thankfully, it was a fleeting thought, replaced by gratitude as I took stock of where I actually was in that moment.\u00a0 It was an incredible privilege to witness such natural beauty and in such a pristine environment.<\/p>\n

Only later, did I think back on how fortunate it was that the French women came by, and that they were equally willing to talk to strangers.\u00a0 We\u2019d have surely given up the hunt and taken refuge in the warmth of our cabin long before we did, had they not come by and generously shared their knowledge.<\/p>\n

And so, I come to write this week\u2019s blog. I had intended to write about the philosophy of conceptual art and explain my practice a little more, but as is often the way with me, I\u2019ve shifted focus.\u00a0 I could argue that my current thinking is leaning towards a concept, but it\u2019s just beginning to form, and so I\u2019m not quite ready to call it an artwork yet\u2026just an idea.\u00a0 I\u2019m squarely in the research phase.\u00a0 For now, I\u2019d just like to work some more on my exploration of the value of conversations and human connections.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be back on campus at the University of Vaasa on April 1 (is April Fool\u2019s Day universal?) and April 2<\/strong> and would really like to set up some meet and greet sessions, at Oskar in the Ankkuri building and keep the conversation going.\u00a0 I\u2019d personally love to hear what you think about art and its place at the university.\u00a0 What creativity you value.\u00a0 How you incorporate art into your life,\u00a0 or anything else you\u2019d like to talk about around Vaasa, local history, and Finnish culture.\u00a0 I\u2019d also love to hear questions from you! If you agree, I\u2019ll take notes and ideally, your responses will inform my research and the work I make while I\u2019m here.\u00a0 I see this as a really exciting opportunity for cross cultural dialogue and a chance for me to get to learn about what matters to you.\u00a0 You can email me at klos@deakin.edu.au<\/a> to set up a time; and if you\u2019d rather write to me, that\u2019s welcomed too.<\/p>\n

A final note, I love conceptual art, but acknowledge it can be confusing and polarising. Many of us have a limited understanding of the visual arts beyond traditional forms of painting, sculpture, drawing and photography. Our response to contemporary art can have us tilting our heads or scratching our chins as we say, \u201cwhat is the point?\u201d, \u201cI just don\u2019t get it\u201d, or maybe the perfect Finnish phrase is \u201cno niin\u201d<\/strong><\/em>?!<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s no wonder, here is a brief explanation of what Conceptual Art is, provided by the good people of Kiasma<\/a> the Finnish National Gallery:<\/p>\n

“The physical embodiment of a work of conceptual art can be a sentence on a piece of paper or a polished section of the floor. The actual object may even be missing altogether.<\/em><\/p>\n

The important thing is the idea<\/strong>, which makes the viewer think.<\/em><\/p>\n

Conceptual art emphasises the active reception and interpretation of art. It challenges the viewers\u2019 habits of thinking and observation and their ideas about knowledge and reality.”<\/em><\/p>\n

How about you and I talk more about this when we meet?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Heart\"<\/p>\n

Kiitos, Katey<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d personally love to hear what you think about art and its place at the university.\u00a0 What creativity you value.\u00a0 How you incorporate art into your life,\u00a0 or anything else you\u2019d like to talk about around Vaasa, local history, and Finnish culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":388,"featured_media":2813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[438,412,622,644,35,39,111,113,263,642,283,626,84,45],"class_list":["post-2812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en","tag-art","tag-artist","tag-arts-based-research","tag-auroraborealis","tag-blog-post","tag-connecting-people","tag-creativity","tag-development","tag-education","tag-finland","tag-learning","tag-nature","tag-research-environment","tag-vme"],"acf":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":2812},"post_meta":" Rebekah Rousi<\/a><\/span><\/span>Activity<\/a><\/span>","post_thumbnail":"\"The<\/a>","pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/388"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2812"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2823,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions\/2823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/vmeenvironment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}