Personal profile

Description of research and teaching

The focus areas of my research are situated at the intersection of aesthetics, visual arts, and German philology:

  • the German language in the visual arts and communicating about the visual arts
  • German as a language of image studies and philosophy of art
  • hermeneutics, phenomenology, everyday aesthetics
  • images, image-making, and the visual constitution of meaning in the continuum of everyday life and art
  • multimodality, especially in the visual arts
  • transgenerational communication, especially in stone sculpture

Education/Academic qualification

German Philology/Linguistics (Minor: Multimedial Communication), Master of Arts, Master's Programme in Languages, University of Helsinki

20072021

Award Date: 28 Sept 2021

German Philology/Linguistics (Minors: Art History, Aesthetics, Pedagogical Studies Required of Teachers), Bachelor of Arts & Qualified Subject Teacher in German, University of Helsinki

19982007

Award Date: 24 Apr 2007

Fine Arts, Meisterschüler Postgraduate Studies (Meisterschülerjahr), Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe

19971998

Award Date: 12 May 1997

Fine Arts/Painting and Printmaking, Meisterschüler Title for Exceptional Qualification in Fine Arts, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe

19911997

Award Date: 12 May 1997

Fine Arts, Master of Arts, Master's Programme in Fine Arts, University of Art and Design Helsinki (now Aalto University)

19941996

Award Date: 13 Dec 1996

German Philology, Studies in German Philology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

Apr 1989Sept 1991

External positions

Visual Artist (State Artist Grant), Taiteen edistämiskeskus – Arts Promotion Centre Finland

20232027

Director, dean, vice dean, professor, Aalto University

20022008

Director, principal, Porin taidekoulu – Pori Art School

20012006

Aalto Doctoral Programme in Arts, Design, and Architecture, Aalto University

19972023

Fields of Science

  • 611 Philosophy
  • Aesthetics
  • Image Studies
  • Philosophy of Art
  • 6132 Visual arts and design
  • sculpture
  • installation art
  • public art
  • painting
  • drawing
  • 6121 Languages
  • German Philology
  • Multimodality
  • Lexicology
  • Terminology
  • Contrastive Linguistics