TISP SYMPOSIUM

Frank Eckardt is an urban sociologist at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, where he teaches urban planners, architects, civil engineers, and artists. His research focuses on social inequalities, migration, political sociology, participation, and community development. Trained in political science, he has been a guest lecturer at numerous international universities and has published widely on urban transformation. His forthcoming book, The Speechless City: Sociology of an Ongoing Erosion, examines contemporary urban change through a critical sociological lens.

Emma Beverley is a multi-artform producer and curator based in Finland. She is Director of the Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP). Previously, she held executive leadership roles including Director of Programmes for LEEDS 2023 and Co-Director and Co-CEO of East Street Arts, and has worked internationally as an independent producer supporting artists across six continents. Alongside her professional work, she has contributed to numerous governance and advisory roles, with a sustained focus on climate action, mobility, and social justice.

Aleksandra Ianchenko is a visual artist, researcher, and curator whose work explores public space, mobility, and urban atmospheres. Her doctoral dissertation, Estranging Trams: Atmospheres of Trams in Art (2024), was completed jointly at Tallinn University and Åbo Akademi University as part of the HERA-funded research project Public Transport and Public Space in European Cities: Narrating, Experiencing, Contesting (PUTSPACE). Her interdisciplinary practice engages artistic research methods to examine how public transport systems shape shared urban experience.

Mischa Kuball is a conceptual artist working with light to explore architectural spaces and their social, political, and historical contexts. His practice often merges public and private spaces through participatory projects that engage audiences in dialogue with the work and its environment. Since 2007, he has been Professor of Public Art at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, and has held previous teaching positions at Hochschule für Gestaltung / ZKM Karlsruhe. He is a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts and has received the German Light Award (2016).

Sveinung Nygaard is a composer, musician, and photographer based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Trained with an MA in Audio Production from University of Westminster, he has composed for film and television, including the FREEJ series and the documentary The Lost Leonardo (Denmark). He also develops his own musical project, FLYT, and engages in initiatives at the intersection of art and democracy, such as TRACKS, Bard for Climate, I See Ukraine, and Nabad in Lebanon.

Meri Nikula is a performing artist, experimental vocalist, and Project Manager of NOPE – Norrbotten’s Performance Network. Educated at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (BA, 2007), she works at the intersection of contemporary performance and extended vocal techniques, creating site-sensitive works that explore the expressive potential of voice and body. Influenced by experiences in Japan, Iceland, and Arctic Norway, her practice reflects ecological awareness and a focus on the subtle, energetic dimensions of human experience.

Markus Rytinki is a postdoctoral researcher at the Kerttu Saalasti Institute, where he focuses on entrepreneurship in the creative industries and the development of cultural tourism. His recent research examines artist residencies as platforms for local collaboration, highlighting their role as centres of artistic life that foster new expertise, build bridges between art, research, and business, and strengthen the identity and attractiveness of regions.

Hsiao-Chi Chu is a cross-disciplinary practitioner working at the intersection of art, cultural heritage, migration, and humanitarian development. Her experience includes exhibition curation, community-based art projects, human rights advocacy, and international NGO work, with field experience across Asia, Africa, and Europe. She is the founder of Refugee Path and Taiwan Refugee Week, initiatives that promote inclusive engagement with forced displacement and global issues in Taiwan. She is currently an Affiliated Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies at Universiteit Leiden and a researcher at the Taiwan Art Space Alliance, and is the author of The Forgotten Heritage in Palestine.

Yu-Hsuan Lee is a cultural manager and curator based in Taiwan. She serves as Deputy Executive Director of the Accton Arts Foundation, Director of the Art Site of Railway Warehouse in Hsinchu City, and Director (2024–2026) of the Taiwan Art Space Alliance. With international experience across Taiwan, Japan, and Finland since 2010, her work focuses on fostering shared understanding and facilitating multidisciplinary collaboration between art and society.

Elli Leventaki is an art historian, curator, and researcher based in Athens. Her work engages with exhibitions and cultural initiatives that explore the sociopolitical dimensions of contemporary art, critically examining the structures and narratives that shape the art world. She is particularly interested in challenging dominant historical perspectives and patriarchal frameworks, advocating for gender equality through culture, and contributing to discussions around art-based labour.

James Crossley is an artist, graphic designer, and strategist whose practice engages movement, migration, and the dynamics of urban space. A founding member of the Cycling Art Research collective, his work combines visual art, community-building, and critical inquiry to explore physical, social, and political boundaries. Working across artistic and civic contexts, he examines how mobility shapes contemporary urban experience.

Marianna Maruyama is an artist and writer based in The Hague. Her work spans poetry, performance, and sculpture, often exploring translation, transformation, and intimate, dreamlike experiences that foster connection and reflection. She is the founder of Tufa Editions, a publishing initiative focusing on print, sound, and scent publications. Selected works include Diana (2026), Salt (2025), and Translation as Method (2017).

Magdalena Kallenberger is an artist, writer, and researcher whose practice investigates feminist approaches, radical care, and the visibility of care labor and motherhood in the arts. Working across video, performance, installation, photography, and text, she combines feminist theory, historiography, and collaborative methodologies. She studied Media Art at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Willem de Kooning Academy, and has taught internationally, including in Cairo, Berlin, and Lüneburg. She is co-founder of the feminist collective MATERNAL FANTASIES and a doctoral candidate at Bauhaus University Weimar.

Ika Yuliana is an artist working across performance, video, and socially engaged practice. With a background in anthropology, her work explores mobility, infrastructure, and the uneven conditions that shape who can move, gather, and belong. She transforms social research methods into embodied formats—choreographic scores, participatory workshops, and performative lectures—positioning the body as an archive of political and economic systems. In 2025, she was an artist-in-residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts and participated in the exhibition Public Intimacies with Urban Scenos.