The work of the second phase of the Margin-to-Margin (2020 – now) project focuses on post-human design approaches, co-creation with nature and our relationships with more-than-humans (MTHs). These works resulted in the publication of an e-book titled
Communicating with non-humans: a new visual language
Journal of Visual Communication, Frontiers Publishers
The focus of the Margin-to-Margin project shifted to the activities of the BioARTech lab at the University of Lapland, which was established in 2021 by Melanie Sarantou, Heidi Pietarinen and Satu Miettinen. A series of experimental projects has been running from 2020 onwards, aiming to move beyond human-centred approaches to art and communication by treating MTHs—such as plants and natural environments—as genuine collaborators rather than passive subjects. The process unfolded through two exemplary social design and arts-based studies: Placemaking Through Performance and Roots Stitching. In the first study, artists engaged in improvisational performances within natural landscapes, allowing environmental forces such as wind, snow, and river currents to shape both the movements and the filming itself. Through this embodied and intuitive practice, humans, places, and more-than-humans became co-authors of the performance, challenging the traditional dominance of the human gaze in artistic production.
Our margins have shifted to include the MTH marginalised.
The second study, Roots Stitching, explored how sunflower seedlings growing on wool beds could perform their own bioart by literally stitching the wool with their roots. This work fundamentally questioned authorship, as the seedlings—not the humans—were the primary creators of the living artwork during its active phase. As the seedlings grew, decayed, and transformed, so too did the tapestry, reflecting the cycles of life, death, and materiality. Throughout both projects, the team used arts-based research methods grounded in posthumanist theory, embracing the role of visual communication—especially film and photography—not merely as documentation but as tools for rethinking perception, agency, and authorship.
What emerged was a critical framework that emphasised placemaking as a multispecies collaboration, examined the difference between material and materiality, leveraged digital technologies as enablers of MTH agency, and embraced improvisation as a deeply respectful, non-extractive practice. Ultimately, the project radically decentered the human artist, foregrounding the creative and affective power of the more-than-human world and forcing a fundamental rethinking of how knowledge, creativity, and ethical relations might unfold in a damaged but still living ecosystem.
margintomargin 