Destination: Aalto University
Study Period: January 2024 – June 2024 (Visiting Research Fellow, August 2024 – January 2025)
Affiliation/Grade at the start of studying abroad: Graduate School of Design, 2nd Year Doctoral Program

I had never left Japan since I went on an exchange study. However, I wanted to go so far place because I have been staying in the same environment for eight years since my undergraduate. Most crucially, when an artist I knew well came to Kyushu University, I could speak almost nothing in English! That’s why I decided to study abroad.

My research is based on art-practice, creating visual media art with microorganisms as living ink. I searched for institutions, researchers, and artists who are engaged in this kind of transdisciplinary practice between biology and art among the exchange partners of our department. Finally, I found Aalto University. At Aalto University, there are various workshops separated by each material such as wood, metal, glass, and digital fabrication. It means we can create almost anything. One of these workshops, named ‘Biofilia’, is the biological laboratory for the art and design department, which is fitting for my research. In actual life, while taking some classes, I had opportunities to meet professors and practitioners I had researched before, and I joined the RAT-research group. In this group, we held hands-on lectures for other students and a group exhibition.

I believe Finland is so nice place for exchange, rather than English-speaking countries. Finnish people speak English as a non-native language, so they understand non-English speakers’ minds and hardly use advanced vocabulary. Aalto University has many exchange students. Fortunately, I have so nice friends since the first week, even though I didn’t speak English well at first, they helped (trained) me so much while talking with more than five people. We went to travel together, saw a huge northern light in front of our home, and took part in a wedding of a man I befriended in the sauna. All of thing are good memories. I spent a quite nice time in Finland in the ways of both research and daily life.