Smokes and meditation is series of self-portraits discussing the embodied presence and the balance between the body and mind. We tend to present ourselves in the “good light” or as “presentable selves”. This may create pressure to take role of the desired self. How to present womanhood is always under tension. Whether it’s nakedness or how the motherhood is presented in pictures? These images can become iconic or scrutinized and certainly they should fit the norms.
Smoking is unhealthy and dangerous. What kind of image one presents with smoking? Will this fit to the role one has given to oneself in the post-modernist discourse or maybe it is theater? Can one enjoy hedonist pleasures without being an outcast? What if your embodied self is not performed and doesn’t meet the competitive criteria? What if you don’t fit the healthy image and you are experienced as a thread to medicalized society? It may be that even your gaze doesn’t fit the perception of beauty?
One can see oneself also bit tongue in the cheek. The ways we see ourself can also be hilarious and not too serious.
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Published by satumiettinen
Satu Miettinen is a professor of service design at the University of Lapland. She works as a dean of the Faculty of Art and Design, For several years she has been working with service design research and authored number of books and research publications in this area. She is working with SINCO service prototyping and simulation research environment. Her research interests are in the areas of service design including the areas of social and public service development, citizen engagement and digital service development. She is a visiting lecturer for service design for PUC in Chile and Hokkaido University in Japan. She is PI and co-ordinator in several national and international service design research projects funded by TEKES (Finnish Fund for Innovation and Technology, European Commision Horizon 2020 MSCA RISE etc.). Satu Miettinen has worked as a visiting professor in Stanford University in USA, Tongji University in China and at the University of Trento in Italy. She also has a strong design research interest for the complex, extreme and marginal contexts. Satu Miettinen is co-ordinating Arctic design lab that is part of DESIS network. Arctic design is looking at design solutions for circumpolar areas and conditions. In the past she has worked in the areas of crafts development, cultural and creative tourism in several international and European Union funded projects during the period 1997–2006.
Satu Miettinen is an active artist and designer in the area socially engaged art and ecofeminist photography. She has a long history in artistic work with Namibian and South African local communities in crafts and design development work in numerous projects: Opuwo-Helsinki-Opuwo (2002), Kwaata-Kosketus (2004), Potentials - design in the field (2006-2007), Lost in Katutura (2010-2012) and My Dream World (2013-2015). These projects have included exhibitions at the Finnish Craft Museum, Helinä Rautavaara Museum, Museum of Cultures, Arktikum Science Centre, Namibian National Gallery and Cape Town City Hall. Lost in Katutura, Kaupungissa vai maalla? ja Itsepäinen shakaali seikkailee -exhibitions were part of official program for World Design Capital Helsinki 2012. My Dream World -project was part of official program for World Design Capital Cape Town 2014. She was managing an artistic research project called Naisia maailman laidalla - margin to margin (2016-2017) funded by Koneen säätiö. This project has included collaboration with Australian aboriginal women artists and exhibitions in Australia and Finland. At the moment she works with Poetic Peripheries collaborative in numerous artistic, residency and exhibition projects.
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