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Design and Aesthetics

Everyday aesthetics are more important now than ever. When the world gets darker on the outside, you can direct your gaze indoors. Add light and joy to your life with the help of these books.

Enchanting ceramics! Solid Ground edited by ceramist Nathalie Lautenbacherin combines essays and ceramics in a charming way. The writers reflect on the primordial material and man's relationship with materiality. Ceramic works shows how versatile Earth's modest materials can be in capable hands.

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How do you make aesthetic choices, when choosing a new phone, a dish, or a picture to post on Instagram? Ponder on the meaning of aesthetics during the 21st century with Ossi Naukkarinen's book which guides you to understand aesthetics and how it affects decisions.

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Harald Arnkil's seminal work on colour theory is full of information and tells you everything you have ever wanted to know about colour.

Learn how to visualize data into an image that creates an impact. This highly regarded modern classic about data visualization works perfectly as a textbook for a beginner and a more advanced visualizer alike.

Doctoral dissertation

One's own home can seem miles away from the chic apartments featured in interior design magazines, and yet still feel loved, own and beautiful. Heidi Paavilainen researched people's everyday relationship with their belongings and how they make a home. The book is only available as a free pdf.

Towards a sustainable world

How to build a more sustainable world? New material innovations and solutions created by professionals guide us toward a better future.

Our material world will change drastically in the coming years. Could innovations in biomaterial bring new solutions? What kind of materials can we create while respecting nature? Get inspired to test and create new materials with the guidance of The CHEMARTS Cookbook.

Explore how to design and consume fashion in a more sustainable way using circular economies.

Doctoral dissertations

According to Michael Lettenmeier's research, we would need four Earth, if we continue consuming as we have been thus far. But how can we find a sustainable lifestyle? And how can designers contribute to a better future? The book is only available as a free pdf. 

Planning green infrastructures can be in a key position during this time of environmental crisis. Elisa Lähde's research offers new knowledge on planning and developing urban socio-ecological systems. How does co-creation help plan sustainable urban landscapes?

Open access research literature

Open access to research creates opportunities for a better world. Large selection of our publications is free to read and download. Explore our selection of open access research literature.

Create something new

What better way to spend the holiday season than crafting and creating something new, getting inspired by a new hobby. The makers at Aalto ARTS have created textbooks that encourage and inspire.

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Hop on the creativity train and get inspired by the creative methods in surface design. Laura Isoniemi's book inspires to create and do something new.

Get inspired to make fabrics your own with the help of dyes and auxiliaries. Maija Pellonpää-Forss's book is full of beautiful and informative images and videos. The book is only available as an e-book and PDF.

Get inspired by this traditional method of printmaking with the help of the hands-on exercises that the book provides to encourage beginners and inspire the more experienced.

Doctoral Dissertation

In her dissertation, Krista Kosonen illustrates how designers can find their own way.

Artistic research

Would you rather take a more research based look into art?
This selection of books is also perfect for attendees of the Art of Research conference held online 3.–4.12.

If you're interested in art, science and biotechnology, then step into the fascinating world of bioart! Bioart examines the diversity of life, environment, nature, humanity. It showcases the problematic position of humans on our planet and illuminates the blind spots in science.

What is intermediality and how does it showcase in cultures, such as literature and music, film and television.

Explore how art educators become researchers and what kind of innovative doctoral research has been done in the field of art education.

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Explore the anthologies of past Art of Research conference topics.

Explore beyond the binary: How is queer represented in art education?

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Can art be researched? What happens, when an artist becomes a researcher? What kind of methods are used in artistic research? Juha Varto's book takes a step into the theory of artistic research.

Take a look at professor Juha Varto's other works on the meaning of art and artistic research:

Doctoral dissertations

The dissertation by Mikko O. Koivisto – also selected as one of the most beautiful books of the year –researches, via rap lyrics, psychiatrically disabled peoples' right to define themselves and their role in the society.

When math meets art, it brings new ways of visualizing hyperspatial geometry.

Photography

When you want to take break from the digital world and immerse yourself in the printed photograph.

Maija Tammi's and Ville Tietäväinen's artbook seeks the mystery of the immortal. The book combines scientific research, photographs and storytelling. Welcome to a hypnotic journey through the mind of Cornelia Dulac, a biologist and a researcher on hydra.

After Immortal explore the representations of sickness in Maija Tammi's doctoral dissertation.

What is the story behind the smiling images of cosmonauts depicting the idea of the perfect modern Soviet man? Discover these utopian narratives and how they worked in the complex world of visual propaganda and the censorship of the Cold War era.

Here are some perfect gifts for the photography lover. Books from the grand old man and future promises of photography, and beautiful landscapes – something for everyone.

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