Researcher of the month: Joonas Vola

15.11.2013 18:45

Joonas Vola is a researcher in the Sustainable Development research group and a member of NPE team at the Arctic Centre and a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Lapland. His doctoral dissertation focuses on the political nature of the visual and material culture especially in animal based bioeconomic production in the Arctic region.

My very early idea concerning future profession was to become ‘natural scientist’ and ‘wildlife protector’. This was probably due to my affection to nature documents and illustrated literature with exotic animals and environments, not to mention dinosaurs and other pre-historic wonders. It is quite evident that the visual and artistic way of representing the ‘nature’ was not the least of the reasons which fascinated young heart.

npe_blog_joonas.jpgSchool education shifted my focus into history and social studies, and to study International Relations in the University of Lapland was a clear continuum for human society centered studies. Looking back, the first “moment” of thinking of starting to do research takes place within one and half years, where I had just finished my bachelor’s thesis to IR and concluded a minor in International Law, after which I did exchange studies in Cardiff University in a completely new environment. These contrasts gave me a view of the richness and variety of the academy. The second moment is also a process between writing one’s master’s thesis and having an internship in the Arctic Centre Sustainable Development research group during the autumn 2011, place which I haven’t left ever since.

To apply for an internship in Arctic Centre, even though having studied in Rovaniemi, was not obvious for me, having very little experience of the specific questions and knowledge concerning the Arctic. It required the eyes of others to see near, where oneself was blind, to recognize the possibility and shared interests. The circle was in one way completed when I was able to give a presentation in a Foucault oriented workshop for students, where just year earlier I had met some of the researchers of the Arctic Centre and my future superior/supervisor for the first time.

During my very early stage of career as a researcher, my interests have not only been shaped by the questions concerning the Arctic, but furthermore the different disciplines which aims to understand its complexity. I surprised myself by listening not only anthropological approaches but also biology, physiology and glaciology. It is a continuous challenge to understand the work of others but also everlasting source of inspiration. In one way I’m returning to arts, the very first aspect to science which compelled to me through the illustrations. For my dissertation the question is about one’s relation to image, the process of producing an image and the question “what comes between” in the relation of a described object and the viewer. One can easily get lost with concepts such as substance, bioeconomy, social representation and performativity, but first and foremost, research material is my muse, which keeps the feet on the ground while the head is surrounded by circulating cosmos of ideas.

My current attempt is to ‘ground’ my research on science exhibition which describe the Arctic; to try to see the ways and possibility of designing and defining understanding of social and political dimension of the Arctic via exhibition spaces. Part of this work so far, is based on separated research data, where I’m looking how animal activism describes reindeer herding economy in terms of violence and suffering, concentrating on the documentary practices which promote this image.

In my free time I consume a great number of different kind of visual material from films to magazines, sharing time and music with friends and colleagues, and when I have an opportunity, to go further to north along the river or to south, to the lake district of Eastern parts of Finland, to hear the call of nature and glitter of water.

Photo credits: J-E Kukko
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