Doctoral Alumni ‘Poster’ Session ‘Timelines’

Organised: Prof. Ayesha Hameed & Nina Liebenberg
Date: KuvA Research Days, 9 December 2025
Space: White Studio, Academy of Fine Arts main building (Sörnäisten rantatie 19, Helsinki)

To Participate:  Please send us a short proposal (200 – 300 words) of your ‘timeline’ – EXTENSION: new deadline of Monday, 6 Oct at 5pm (more below)

As part of the KuvA Research Days (9-12.12.2025) we invite alumni of the Doctoral Programme at the Academy of Fine Arts to submit works for the ‘poster’ session on Tuesday, December 9th, taking place in the White studio. As a broad theme, we invite you to consider ‘timelines’: thinking about linear time, time askew, reversed, growing or shrinking, and thinking about how it might manifest, interact or dissolve in the space of the studio. What temporalities, chronotopes, time-scales might your work inhabit?What resonances do they have with histories, deep temporalities outside of the space of the studio? What kind of timelines might bring your work together?  

Museums and galleries use timelines as part of their exhibitions in various ways – from pedagogical versions that teach school children about a country’s historical development; to more personal and nuanced versions, such as Félix González-Torres and Julie Ault’s collaborative timelines (González-Torres adding his personal events, hopes, and failures, to the more ‘official’ timeline Ault compiled); or, Elaine Gann’s complex and layered timelines that depict a grain of rice from a multi-temporal point of view. 

The term ‘poster’ is used very loosely: it can be objects, films, artworks, performances, or texts that stem from your research. We consider this room as a collaborative laboratory, a space that is alive with the kernels or speculations produced by your doctoral research. The theme of the ‘timeline’ will also tie into the presentations of this day: the morning session offering reflections on the historical trajectory of Research Days to date, whilst the afternoon will look to the future, and introduce the research of the doctoral researchers who have started they studies within past four years. 

Scope and limitations: 

The various ‘timelines’ will be exhibited in the White Studio alongside a range of presentations that will take place in the morning and afternoon. This means that there will be chairs set out for the audience members, projections on the front wall, sound and light, and live streaming happening as well. The room has two large walls (7m x 3m; 12m x 3m) at the back and to the left of the chairs that can be used for display. There is space for sculptures and 3-dimensional work to be displayed between the chairs, or in the centre of the room (as per discussion with the poster session organisers). Performances can be scheduled to occur throughout the day. 

To Participate: 

Please send us a short proposal (200 – 300 words) of your ‘timeline’ – detailing as many of the formal qualities of the display (its materiality/duration/size etc) as possible. This will enable the organisers to curate multiple manifestations in the limited capacity of the White Studio. Add images or sketches if possible. Please submit your proposal to ayesha.hameed@uniarts.fi & nina.liebenberg@uniarts.fi EXTENSION: new deadline of Monday, 6 Oct at 5pm (There might be a limitation on the number of proposals we accept, due to the size and capacity of the space available.)

Kuva Research Days website