This Reorientations publication is a story of a transformation through the experiences of one artist. The idea of transformation works on many levels. The word transformation also defines my own relationship with the author of the essay collection, Jani-Matti Salo, as his teacher and colleague. I remember Salo’s time as a student on the master’s degree programme in lighting design that I was leading. I remember Salo’s artistic component of his thesis for Kiasma Theatre, Of haloes – The politics of perfection (2015). I remember his analytical artistic ambition, which was well reflected in his post-graduation lighting designs and artworks, many of them for the renowned Finnish WAUHAUS arts collective, but also in the context of visual arts with Mark Niskanen in artist duo Niskanen & Salo. In reading and commenting on the manuscript, my memories, and my outward impression of the young artist’s impressive career have clashed with Salo’s story of discovering the unsustainable in the making of art. The personal transformation that Salo describes, arising from diverse crises, also forced me to think critically about the narratives we create about ourselves, each other, and our professional identity. I have great respect for Salo’s maturity to have the courage to stop his professional hamster wheel and to seek a change in counter-reaction to the megalomania of creativity and the normalisation of unsustainable ideals. This is why the publication of Salo’s carefully contextualised reflections is of great value. The essays challenge the reader, gently and without blame, to reflect on the identity and role of the artist as well as on the means of sustainability. From a broader perspective, the text relates to the global landscape of eco-social change that we perceive and are aware of as it extends ever more relentlessly into all areas of human life.
The perspective of Reorientations, which develops more sustainable performance design, and the professional and educational background of Salo, a lighting designer, well justifies the publication in the publication series of the Theatre Academy. The essay collection is an excellent continuum to the recently published collection of articles on the sustainability of performance design, which I edited together with Lecturer in Performance Design and Scenographer-Lighting Designer Raisa Kilpeläinen (Humalisto & Kilpeläinen 2023). Both publications are driven by the desire to share and reflect on concrete and more sustainable ways of working, while avoiding mental paralysis by identifying choices and means of artistic agency.
The publication also aligns well with the University of the Arts’ current strategic focus on ecological sustainability. The university’s environmental programme develops teaching, research, artistic activities, practices, cultures, and structures (Uniarts Helsinki 2024). At the Theatre Academy, the Production Services have produced guides to sustainable artistic work in student productions (Theatre Academy 2024). The curriculum and teaching in the Performance Design programmes have incorporated sustainability considerations (VES seminar 2022). A good example of the latter is the Ecologically More Sustainable Stage course, which is now an established part of the curriculum of the Master’s Programmes in Lighting Design, Sound Design and Scenography. As tomorrow’s professionals, design students have actively raised issues of sustainability in relation to the practices they study. This collection of essays gives them, as well as teachers and artists like me, inspiration to reflect on their own choices and the possibilities for reorienting them. I wish you interesting reading moments with Jani-Matti Salo’s essays.
Tomi Humalisto
Professor of lighting design
University of the Arts Helsinki, Theatre Academy.
Sources
Humalisto, Tomi & Kilpeläinen, Raisa, eds. 2023. Sustainable Choices – Potentials and Practices in Performance Design. The Publication Series of the Theatre Academy (Teatterikorkeakoulun julkaisusarja) 77. Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-353-066-9.
Of haloes – The politics of perfection. 2015. Director & choreographer & screenwriter: Aune Kallinen. Lighting Designer: Jani-Matti Salo. Sound Designers: Laura Murtomaa, Joonas Pehrsson. Performers: Aune Kallinen, Jenni Koistinen, Laura Murtomaa, Jani-Matti Salo, Ragni Grönblom-Jolly, Gesa Piper. Kiasma Theatre, Helsinki. Premiered 25 September 2015.
Uniarts Helsinki. 2024. Uniarts Helsinki’s environmental programme. Accessed 20 November 2024. www.uniarts.fi/en/general-info/uniarts-helsinkis-environmental-programme.
Theatre Academy. 2024. Guide for sustainable artistic work at the Theatre Academy. Accessed 20 November 2024. student.uniarts.fi/guides/guide-for-sustainable-artistic-work-at-the-theatre-academy.
VES seminar. 2022. Interactivity in performance design joint seminar of the programmes in Lighting Design, Sound Design and Scenography. Accessed 20 November 2024. www.uniarts.fi/tapahtumat/ves-seminaari-2.