Defence in the field of contemporary art: Lic. Soc. Sc. Jari Jula

In his artistic research, Jari Jula is examining chance. Chance is an essential part of a successful artistic creation process.

Jari Jula, Lic. Soc. Sc., will defend his dissertation Sattuma taiteen tapahtumisen välineenä on Friday 20 April 2018.

Opponent: Saara Hacklin, PhD, Kiasma
Custos: Professor Paula Hohti, Aalto University, Department of Art

The discussion will be in Finnish.

More information:

In his artistic research Jari Jula is examining chance. Chance is the term used in artistic speech. The idea is that referring to the concept of chance, it is possible to express something about the process of creating a work of art and, also, about the artwork itself. What each person means by chance is usually left ambiguous in the descriptions, and the use of the term is confusing in its plurality.

The study includes an artistic and a theoretical part. The most important source of the theoretical part of the study is Aristotle; Jula defines chance in artistic work on the basis of Aristotle’s observations on the concept. In the theoretical part of the research Jula examines the concepts of chance, nothing and something also in the framework of determinism, phenomenology and oriental philosophy. In addition Jula describes chance with some practical examples. Key artists here include John Cage, Francis Bacon and Jackson Pollock.

Chance is an essential part of a successful artistic creation process. It is an artist's way of surprising herself. Jula defines chance in artistic process as 1. an event occurring in the context of goals that is 2. unpredictable, 3. surprising, 4. without explanation and 5. perceived as meaningful.

To answer the question what kind of phenomenon chance is as an artistic tool, Jula has described the art creation process by dividing it into two phases: nothing and something. Two exhibitions of the artistic part, Nothing and Something, are tailored for sharing. The difference between the phases is based on the existence of goals. The conditions for the occurrence of chance are met at the phase of something; in the phase of nothing the conditions for chance are not fulfilled, since in the phase of nothing does not involve sufficiently detailed goals for the occurrence of a chance to be possible.

Welcome!

The dissertation notice and the published dissertation are placed for public display at the Learning Hub Arabia (Hämeentie 135 C, 5th floor, room 570), at latest 10 days before the defence date.