2015 University of Arts Helsinki & Aalto University - Antigone Reloaded

Participating Academics

Sofia Pantouvaki

Professor of Costume Design for Theatre and Film

Dr. Sofia Pantouvaki is Professor of Costume Design for Theatre and Film at Aalto University, Finland. Her professional design work includes over 70 designs for theatre, film, opera, ballet and contemporary dance productions in major venues in Greece, UK, Italy, Cyprus and Finland, including Greek National Opera, the State Theatre of Northern Greece, Athens Festival, Finnish National Ballet, as well as collaborations with Cairo Opera House, Epidaurus Festival and La Scala, Milan. She is co-author of the book “History of Dress – The Western World and Greece” (2010), editor of “Yannis Metsis – Athens Experimental Ballet” (2011), and co-editor of “Presence and Absence: The Performing Body” (2014). Sofia is Project Leader for Performance: Visual Aspects of Performance Practice (Inter-Disciplinary.Net); International Curator for costume design, World Stage Design 2013; Associate Curator, Costume in Action (WSD13); and co-Editor of the international peer-reviewed journal Studies in Costume and Performance (Intellect, 2016). She is the founder and leader of Costume in Focus, the first research group on performance costume, based at Aalto University.

Liisa Ikonen

Professor of Design for the Performing Arts

Liisa Ikonen is Professor in Design for the Performing Arts at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Finland. She has worked both in the experimental field of performing arts and in the established theaters as well. Her design credits include over 60 theatre productions in some of major theaters in Finland. Her doctoral thesis «Dialogical scenography» (2006) addressed scenographers’ alternative working processes and investigated creative collaboration both in practice and in the philosophical frame of reference. Her current research focus is on an expanded and applied scenography, especially on scenography for urban places and different kind of social and public environments.

Minna Harjuniemi

Lecturer in Directing

Minna Harjuniemi is a Finnish theatre director that has directed many plays in various Finnish stages and theatre companies since graduating in 2002. Currently she is a lecturer in directing at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland.

Tomi Humalisto

Professor of Lighting Design

Tomi Humalisto is a freelance lighting designer and visual artist studied in Finland and Belgium, who has worked and collaborated in several visual art and performance projects during last 18 years. His lighting and stage designs have been seen particularly in contemporary dance and experimental stage productions. He has also been creating and supervising performance projects, lately in the Dark project 3: LIGHT NOISE (2010-2012). His latest works have been shown in Seinäjoki and Oulu City Theatres, Contemporary Art Space KUTOMO Turku and recent Moving in November and Side Step –festivals. Humalisto has been visiting lecturer 15 years in Theater Academy of Helsinki. In the same institution he also defended his artistic doctoral work concerning alternative approaches on lighting design 2012. Humalisto is a member of Artists Association MUU, Finnish Lighting and Sound Designer’s Union and the Helsinki based Live Art group Performing Arts Society.

Markus Fagerudd

Lecturer in Music

Since earning his Master of Arts degree in composition from Sibelius-Academy in 1995, Fagerudd has worked with various chamber orchestras and ensembles and with choirs. Also, he has done compositions for many opera productions done in Finnish National Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland and Malmö Opera in Sweden to name a few. Throughout his career Fagerudd has composed music  also for many theatre plays. Since 2012 he has been the lecturer of music at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland.

Juhani Liimatainen

Professor of Sound Design

Juhani Liimatainen is the professor of Sound Design in Theatre Academy Helsinki. He has been working with new music since the 1970’s. Besides solo performances he also performs with the following line-ups: TOIMII, HumppAvanti, Free Okapi, Son Panic, Trio Trr-trr, and Trio Liimatainen-Modig-Nikula. The eager attitude towards sound and its structures is the basis of all Liimatainen’s work.

Miika Luoto

Lecturer in Philosophy and Performance Theory

Miika Luoto is a philosopher whose work has focused on phenomenological and post-phenomenological thought as well as a translator of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty among others. He is currently Lecturer in Philosophy and Performance Theory at the Theatre Academy, University of Arts, Helsinki. In addition to numerous articles on Continental philosophy and aesthetics, he has published a monograph (in Finnish) on Heidegger and the question of art and co-edited a collection of articles on Heidegger’s thought. His most recent publication, co-edited with Mika Elo, is Senses of Embodiment. Art, Technics, Media (Peter Lang, 2014).

Anne Nimell, MA

Anne Nimell is a Directing MA student in Theatre Academy Helsinki. She works as a director, dramaturg, performer and as a comic drawer.