Kaamos Studies

Abstract

Kaamos Studies is a multi-media thesis project that examines the experience of the darkness that falls with the polar night (kaamos in Finnish) when the sun does not rise and the adaptation to it. In the darkness, there is still an array of different kinds of lights. My focal point is the Kevo Subarctic Research Station at the northernmost tip of Finland where my parents were working as weather attendants from 1976 until 1982. They observed and measured the earth and space weather by multiple devices every three hours, every day and night. I was born there. To create the exhibition installation of Kaamos Studies I have used some of the same devices my parent did, collected material from different kinds of archives and collaborated with weather researchers and institutes in Finland. The exhibition installation consists of four light sculptures of various scale, three videos, one sunshine recorder and The Pocket Book, a handmade artist’s book. This is the written documentation of my thesis exhibition Kaamos Studies for the University of Arizona, School of Art’s Master of Fine Art’s degree.