Rate My Professor Heidi Pietarinen

Heidi Pietarinen serves as Professor of Textile Art and Design in the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland, Finland, a position she has held since 2017. She holds a PhD in textile art and design. Her research emphasizes knowledge and methods of textile art and design, posthuman design, and creative research through arts-based research (ABR). Pietarinen leads the BioARTech Laboratory and participates in projects such as High Altitude Bioprospecting and Life Between Art and (Reindeer) Blood. These efforts explore Arctic raw materials, microbes, the language of bioprospecting, and relationships with non-human collaborators, resulting in international exhibitions, peer-reviewed research articles, discussions, and teaching activities. She is a member of the Bioart Society and SOLU, Finland, and has contributed to funded projects including Future Bio-Arctic Design II (2021–2023), SEEYouth (2020–2021), and Remotely more (2019–2022).

Pietarinen's key publications include "Multispecies collaboration in food textile art" (2026, with Qureshi and Miettinen), "More-Than-Human Empathy in Arts-Based Material Research Processes" (2025, with Bergström and Miettinen), "Editorial: Communicating with non-humans: a new visual language" (2025, co-editor with Sarantou, Karpati, and Miettinen), "Blurring Bioart Boundaries" (2024, with Qureshi), and "Life Between Art and Blood" (2023). She has curated exhibitions such as "Langat käsissä: teoksia Jenny ja Antti Wihurin ja Rovaniemen kaupungin kokoelmista" (2025) and participated in others including "Textile Intersections 2023: Entanglements South-North," "Rose Red Glow: Crossing Borders with Textiles" (2025), and "Reddish Orange: Ruskie" (2021). Awards and residencies include Gröndal’s House, the Reykjavík UNESCO City of Literature’s Writers’ Residence (2023), Ós/Tc2 Textile Residency (2022), and the Scandinavia-Japan Sasakawa Foundation (2024). She delivers keynote presentations, public lectures, and serves in organizing committees, juries, and positions of trust.