Flow Art, Space and Wellbeing

Flow Art, Space and Wellbeing

Dr Heta Mulari, Tampere University, heta.mulari@tuni.fi
MA Maaria Hartman, Tampere University, maaria.hartman@tuni.fi

Zoom link: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/97532199773?pwd=TG41bUxLUGNWNzNpNDJwNzRXdnp5dz09

“You learn to see the world as a playground. Instead of everyone trying to guide us to follow certain routes. What if you just break the rules, go all over the place, and do handstands in a weird place?” Luna 24 yo

“Yep, I feel that there’s a will to spread that kind of state of mind, a way of thinking that we’re all equal. And that it’s important to respect life and other people, it is visible there.” Linda 34 yo

How is flow art used to playfully challenge and rethink urban and rural spaces? What kind of communities are built around the artform? And further, how is ‘flow’ linked to creating individual and collective wellbeing?

This presentation will provide an understanding of how Finnish flow art communities occupy and transform different urban and rural spaces with the means of their embodied and collective art. These creative and situational take-overs include, for example, park rehearsals, demonstrations, forest festivals and planned as well as spontaneous performances. Further, flow art is deeply connected to community building and creating wellbeing.

We understand flow art as an embodied, movement-based art discipline, which makes use of several props familiar from circus, such as sticks, fans, hoops, and poi. Flow art is closely intertwined into music, especially rave, psychedelic trance and electronic music in general. Further, the communities shared an understanding of the importance of achieving a state of flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1990), through constant interaction between the prop, movement, music, and one’s own body. They frequently linked ‘flow’ to, not only personal wellbeing but critical potential for wider change, including positive impact on communities and the society (Helne 2021; Vasileva & Honkatukia 2022).

The presentation is based on ethnographic fieldwork in flow art communities including participatory observation and interviews with the flow artists. The participants of the research are young adults and adults, many of whom are active performers in led and fire art groups. In terms of theory, the presentation is located at the intersection of urban studies (Lefebvre 1974/1991; Georgiou 2013; Tani & Pyyry 2017), performance studies and studies connected with art in urban spaces (see, e.g. Meehan et al 2021; Järviluoma et al 2021) and studies on wellbeing in contemporary societies (Helne 2021; Vasileva & Honkatukia 2022).

Dr Heta Mulari is a post-doctoral researcher at the Unit of Social Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. She is currently working in the research project Into the Flow (2021-2023), funded by the Kone Foundation, which focuses on flow art in Finland from the perspectives of space, community, and subculture. Mulari’s current research interests include youth and subculture studies, circus studies, urban studies, and feminist ethnography. She is co-editor of Nordic Girlhoods – New Perspectives and Outlooks, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017 (with Bodil Formark and Myry Voipio). Her publications also include: ‘Emotional encounters and young feminine choreographies in the Helsinki Metro’, Girlhood Studies, 2020; and ‘“Everyone here is willing to teach each other”: Negotiations over hippie culture and resistance in Helsinki-based flow art community’, Journal of Youth Studies, 2021.

MA Maaria Hartman is a project researcher at the Unit of Social Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. She is currently working in the research project Into the Flow (2021-2023), funded by the Kone Foundation, which focuses on flow art in Finland from the perspectives of space, community, and subculture. Hartman’s previous research include, for example, a research on young peoples’ art experiences (‘Young people’s experiences of art visits and cultural participation in the Art testers campaign’, Finnish Youth Research Society, 2020, Sofia Laine & Maaria Hartman). Hartman’s current research interests include feminist ethnography, subcultural art and folklore, alternative sports, ways of resistance and different ways of living youth and adulthood/.