Teemu Lehmusruusu: Field Observatory

Field Observatory is a temporary public artwork situated by the pond of Hanhipuisto at the Kirjurinluoto park in Pori, Finland. The site serves as a gathering place where visitors can slow down to observe happenings of the growing season through the processes of the soil. While modelled by the artist from the starting point of a traditional barn, the measurements of the minimalist, dark-toned pavilion features elements reminiscent of a temple or a room of silence. 

Inside the structure the audience meets a large-scale clay sculpture on which a generative, moving image animation is projected, as well as a soundscape created by three instruments—guitar, piano and clarinet. The installation serves as a window, as a portal into the volumes of the ground, creating perceptible events and processes taking place in the soil. Both the visual and the audio elements change in real time in response to soil measurements taken from a specific field that is undergoing a biological soil improvement cycle—creating connotations towards an underground weather station. The installation is programmed to modify the stream of images and sounds in synchrony with variations in the temperature and humidity as well as CO2 flux in the soil. Thus, the work changes with the bioactivity pulse of the field. 

The underlying core concept of the work is the impact of plants in the biological regeneration of compacted soil. Its aesthetics are inspired by the root systems of alfalfa, tall fescue and white clover as well as other plants. The project is founded on a sustained dialogue that the artist has conducted with farmers as well as researchers committed to identifying and promoting carbon farming practices, soil improvement and regenerative food production methods. The data used in the work comes from sensor measurements made at the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s research farm in Qvidja where Teemu Lehmusruusu has worked since 2018. 

Teemu Lehmusruusu (b. 1981) is a transdisciplinary artist based in Helsinki and Kemiönsaari. His practice spans across hybrid interfaces between digital technologies, research-based art and architectural thinking in a quest to create experiential embodiments of biological phenomena that are otherwise inaccessible to human senses. In his art, Lehmusruusu explores connections to the invisible and unknown life-sustaining events whose meaning and existence we often ignore in our everyday lives. 

In many of his works, Lehmusruusu reconsiders the concept of landscape from an alternative angle, from below and within the soil, through the agencies residing in it. His work has in recent years encompassed artistic research related to soil ecosystems, undertaken within a network built around a project entitled Trophic Verses. The works were created in interaction with regenerative agriculture practitioners and farmers as well as climate and soil scientists. The most recent works include an open-air installation, House of Polypores, commissioned by the Helsinki Art Museum and exhibited at the Helsinki Biennial in Vallisaari in summer 2021, and Parent Matter, shown at EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art in 2022–2023 in the In Search of the Present exhibition. Lehmusruusu is currently working on his doctoral thesis at the Department of Art and Media at Aalto University. Field Observatory comprises the second artistic production created for the dissertation. 

Credits
Artist: Teemu Lehmusruusu
Research collaborators: farmer–researcher Juuso Joona, climate researchers Jari Liski & Liisa Kulmala, soil researcher Jussi Heinonsalo, Carbon Action & Finnish Meteorological Institute
Carpenter: Santeri Pöytäniemi
Real-time animation and programming: Roberto Fusco
3D animation: Vilja Achté
Music: Ville Tanttu guitar, David Rothenberg clarinet, Eetu Vekki piano 
Co-production: Trophic Verses and Kunstventures, with support from AVEK and Kone Foundation. 
Comissioning and production: Pori Art Museum
Curators: Saara Karhunen and museum director Anni Venäläinen