Previous Project

After finishing her doctoral work on Dance and Theology, Laura Hellsten had a post-doctoral position within the Stiftelsen Åbo Akademi-funded Centre of Excellence BACE. BACE is a collaboration centered on developing a platform for bioelectronic activation that enables the control of cell signals and, thereby, the stimulation of cell functions. Hellsten did ethnographic fieldwork with the research group investigating questions of Ethics and Science Communication. To study science communication, Hellsten developed and led the research project Avtryck i det okända – Forcing the Impossible, which created collaborations between artists and researchers in the broader context of Åbo Akademi.

Avtryck i det okända

var ett mångvetenskapligt- och konstnärligt forskningsprojekt vid Åbo Akademi mellan åren 2020-2022. Projektet förde samman spetsforskningsenheter vid Stiftelsen Åbo Akademi och samtliga forskningsprofiler vid Åbo Akademi med ett urval konstnärer. Forskare fick öva sig i att prata om sin forskning utanför vetenskapsgemenskapen. Konstnärerna illustrerade och tolkade det de hörde med hjälp sina respektive medier.
Projektet har gett upphov till ett antal vetenskapskonstnärliga samarbeten av vilka majoriteten presenterades under Forskarnatten i Åbo Domkyrka samt Lilla Fabbes och Sibeliusmuseet 24.9.2021.
Du kan titta på Forskarnattens paneldiskussion på YLE.

Forcing the Impossible

was a multidisciplinary research project combining science and art. Within the frames of the project, cutting-edge research(ers) at Åbo Akademi University met different artists. The scientists got to practice communicating about their research outside the scientific community. The artists got to interpret and illustrate what they heard, using their respective media.

The majority of the scientific-artistic collaborations were presented during Forskarnatten, the European Researchers’ Night event, which took place in the Turku cathedral and also at Lilla Fabbes and the Sibeliusmusem on September 24, 2021.
https://forcing-the-impossible.com
https://player.vimeo.com/video/764196468?h=7063f7b0b1
https://player.vimeo.com/video/637800944?h=4818054cdd
https://player.vimeo.com/video/612746528?h=763da8f48e
https://player.vimeo.com/video/612745930?h=f7ef4bacca
https://player.vimeo.com/video/603238787?h=8af4a95da5
https://player.vimeo.com/video/603162278?h=a0cef869cb
https://player.vimeo.com/video/576227171?h=cccb60320b
https://player.vimeo.com/video/564055094?h=038edf0670
https://player.vimeo.com/video/554303131?h=ceb50e3b07
https://player.vimeo.com/video/553486715?h=f87eee3b4e
https://player.vimeo.com/video/531982266?h=e1b272205b

Hellsten is currently writing a book on the challenges and possibilities of cross-disciplinary research, particularly on how theology may create fruitful collaborations with natural science projects when engaging with the arts.
Research interests
In her post-doctoral position at the Polin Institute, Hellsten leads the project The Praxis of Social Imaginaries. Cosmologies, Othering and Liminality. This project works in tandem with the Nordic Summer University study circle that Hellsten co-hosts together with historian and dance researcher Lindsey Drury (PhD, Freie Universität Berlin/ University of Kent).
This project aims to create a platform for transdisciplinary research collaborations that simultaneously train scholars in science communication and investigates the relationship between praxis and social imaginaries in reading medieval travel accounts while critically inquiring about histories of othering and racialisation. The Praxis of Social Imaginaries project is enabled by the Nordic Summer University’s winter and summer symposia, where artists and activists join scholars in co-creating knowledge and artistic performances.
https://www.nsuweb.org
The project also works with questions of migration of knowledge between the past and present and different research fields, where philosopher and artistic researcher Eduardo Abrantes (PhD, Roskilde University) leads inquiries into theo-artistic interventions. As an outcome of the Praxis project we aim to create not only traditional academic publications but also arts and science performance events and artistic work.
For more, see: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/praxis-of-social-imaginaries/index