As a doctoral researcher in the Landscape Studies program at the University of Turku, I investigate the affective and sensory dimensions of plastic waste in urban environments. My research focuses on the city of Turku, where advanced waste management systems often render plastic waste less perceptible—producing an environment that appears clean and efficient, yet leaves behind subtle traces of material presence and emotional resonance.

I examine what remains to be sensed, felt, or ignored in such “insensible” contexts. Through an interdisciplinary and practice-based approach, I combine arts-based research, sensory ethnography, and non-representational theory to explore how urban inhabitants engage with plastic waste in their everyday movements and routines. Methods include walking, dérive, autoethnography, and participatory visual practices.

With a background in Arts Management, Performance Studies, and Visual Culture, I bring a creative and critical lens to questions of waste, materiality, and emotional ecology. My earlier work explored the aesthetics of microplastics in art, emphasizing their entanglement with air, water, and soil. In my current project, I continue to develop approaches that engage with the more-than-human landscape and the affective geographies of plastic waste.