CS Grad Show 2026: Ronja Tammenpää
This is our interview with CS Arts graduate Ronja Tammenpää.
“Urban Soil Literacies” by Ronja Tammenpää explores how to learn with soil in an urban environment through a multispecies perspective. The thesis aims to find ways to widen understanding of soil in the city as well as deepen urban citizen’s connection to it. Based on discussion with soil experts, a set of soil connection methods were collected and tested in a workshop at Aalto Test-Site community garden. The methods were further developed into a set of self-guided practices at home to explore "SoilSelf", a unified relational space between human and earth.
What inspired your thesis?
I was inspired to learn more about the theory and practice of more-than-human relationality, and soil became a fascinating and challenging subject with its omnipresent existence.
What would you like readers to take away from your project?
I would love to inspire people to find more eco-centric ways of acting in the world. That can simply start with a notion of more-than-human actors all around – and under – you.
What was your favourite part about working on your thesis?
I really enjoyed working in collaboration throughout the process. I had an excellent supervisor and advisor, a co-worker soil scientist, soil practitioners, workshop participants, variety of soils and localities. Everyone I told about the project contributed in their own special way to the findings.
What was the most surprising thing that you learned from this process?
I was surprised how many fundamental questions were raised through working with multispecies beings, such as what is language, knowledge or relation.
Ronja TammenpääI want to keep working with and learning from more-than-human beings both personally and professionally.
Ronja Tammenpää is a Finnish visual artist and facilitator who works at the intersection of art, ecology and community. She is interested in how to live in a reciprocal relationship with the earth, nourishing it and being nourished by it. During her studies, she has worked with foraged wild plants making pigments, inks, anthotypes and ecoprints which inspired her to delve more into the source of life – soil. “Urban Soil Literacies” has received funding from the SOILSCAPE project through its Open Call, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.