Heidi Pietarinen

Heidi Pietarinen is a professor (PhD Arts) of textile art and design at the University of Lapland, Faculty of Art and Design in Rovaniemi, Finland. Pietarinen’s research focuses on textile art, textile design, textile history, and bioart, with a particular emphasis on creative and material-based research methods. Her research includes projects and working groups such as High Altitude Bioprospecting and BioARTech Laboratory.

Artist-researchers Heidi Pietarinen and Amna Qureshi from the University of Lapland have conducted in-depth work on the innovative BioARTech laboratory environment and utilisation of available resources for bioart projects called Life Between Art and (Reindeer) Blood (2023) and Blurring Bioart Boundaries (2024). In these studies, a living design medium refers to material production that incorporates simple living organisms such as reindeer blood, material-driven design and co-designing, with an entity having its own agency.

 

Image: Cartography by Heidi Pietarinen & Amna Qureshi, 2023.