Minna Tarkka Lectures 2025: Collective Imagination in the Era of Optimisation
Inspired by the legacy of media art pioneer and M-Cult’s founder Minna Tarkka (1960–2023), this series continues her commitment to critical experimentation and socially engaged practices rooted in a deep commitment to hospitality and the intersections of political and technological development.
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This year titled Collective Imagination in the Era of Optimisation, M-Cult will host the annual Minna Tarkka Lecture series in collaboration with Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and Aalto University. Responding to pressures within contemporary social and cultural environments impacted by digital, networked, and so-called intelligent technologies, this year’s edition asks: What forms of togetherness and resistance surface through media within the context of artistic practices today? How can artists, communities, and technologies rewire shared futures when the dominant narratives emphasise acceleration and optimisation?
To explore these questions, M-Cult has invited three contemporary voices whose artistic and theoretical practices challenge technological power while cultivating emerging forms of collectivity: Ruth Catlow, eeefff, and Harold Hejazi. Their workshops and public lectures will open spaces for shared reflection and imagination. Lectures are responded to by Andrew Gryf Paterson, Marleena Huuhka, and Grégoire Rousseau, and accompanied by edible artworks by Alejandra Alarcón, Koira1 and Emma Vilppula, and Caroline Suinner.
Through this programme, Minna Tarkka Lectures 2025 expands into a discussion of possibilities and calls for collective resistance, togetherness, connection, and solidarity in an era of screens, algorithms, fractured publics, and accelerationist capital. The programme ranges from community organisation and technologies to participatory and performative practices, as well as gaming and collective learning.
In Spring 2025, M-Cult organised the Open Advisory Session of Minna Tarkka Lectures, which served as a catalyst for envisioning potential futures for the M-Cult community while developing approaches for forthcoming lecture events and programming.
About the Minna Tarkka Lectures Series
Minna Tarkka Lectures are developed as an experimental public forum and learning initiative that amplifies critical activities in the arts and media, facilitating debates on the artistic, social, and technological currents of our time. Each year, the programme builds dialogue that underscores the roles of art and media as active contributors to civil society amid the severe challenges faced by democratic life today.
Minna Tarkka Lectures 2025 edition is produced by Media Culture and Art Agency M-Cult, in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma and Aalto Media Lab, and kindly supported by Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation.
All events are free and conducted in English. Please note that registration is required for workshops. For further information and full schedule, please visit our website:
Minna Tarkka Lectures – Collective Imagination in the Era of Optimisation
Registration to Workshops:
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4.12. Harold Hejazi: Reprogramming Public Spaces through Multiplayer Gameplay
Registration to the Lectures:
Art & Media Culture Agency M-Cult:
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Kiasma Theatre:
Aalto University, Aalto Media Lab
Course Registration | AXM-E0105 - External Collaborations, Minna Tarkka Lectures
Aalto Students are able to receive credits for participating to all of the workshops and lectures. Please see Sisu and MyCourses for details.