Well-Being
When I started my professional career in the 1990's I was very interested in the connection between well-being, visual arts and design. I was then working as a guiding artist and producer in Joensuu and had the opportunity to launch some of the first art projects in Finland that aimed for enhanced well-being. My own perspective belongs to the movement of positive psychology. I adapt the things that I have researched and learned in my teaching, projects and courses.
A book and Ph.D. dissertation can be found through the University of Jyväskylä,
Rethinking visual art practice in relation to well-being
Further study led to the examination of the concepts of subjective well-being (SWB), psychological well-being (PWB), hedonic and eudaimonic well-being (EWB), and flow as an optimal balance of skills and challenges and cognitive-affective experience. A set of relevant conceptions in order to connect the visual art practice with contemporary psychology of well-being was discovered. New interdisciplinary theoretical and conceptual frameworks were developed.