Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä — Burning Stories: A Shared Platform Combining Science & Arts

The presentation sheds light in the deep and unknown intersection of social sciences and arts by adopting a dual case study approach. The content of the presentation is based on the introduction of Aalto University´s (Finland) core mission of radical discipline mixing between the schools of Arts and Design, Business, Chemical Engineering and Engineering. This is followed by the presentation of the Burning Stories research project´s alignment to this mission. Through the application of these two cases, and with the global Burning Man community as the audience in mind, the talk seeks to answer how and via what kind of artistic means can the results of a “traditional” scientific investigation be disseminated to the wider international audience? How can art, in turn, support social science in the traditional (interviews, surveys) data collections, both on playa and off-playa? The presentation is concluded with a preliminary data illustrations from the Burning Stories project´s 11/2019 data collection and ideas for future collaboration venues.