Nature Within @ One-to-One Festival 2025 – Fábrica da Pólvora de Barcarena, Oeiras (Portugal).

Festival Organisation and Production: Companhia de teatro Gato Escaldado – Ana Isabel Sousa & David Correia / One-to-One Art Project: Cultural Cooperative ILME (Finland), Gato Escaldado (Portugal), House of Klajn (Croatia) / Funding and Support: Creative Europe Programme of the European Union / Festival Venue: Fábrica da Pólvora de Barcarena, Oeiras / Festival Dates: 15.–16.11.2025 / Participating Artists: Giulia Gallina, Eva Nina Lampič, Rita Vilhena, Eva Holts, Antonia Kuzmanić & Jakov Labrović, Inês Magalhães, Jaakko Autio, Antti Tolvi, Nelo Sebastián Vera / Festival Trailer Video: Daniel Guiomar / Photography: Daniel Guiomar.

Current version – One-to-One Festival 2025
Nature Within was presented as part of the One-to-One Festival in Oeiras, Portugal, inside the historical industrial setting of Fábrica da Pólvora de Barcarena. The festival context sharpened the core premise of the work: one participant at a time—an encounter built on trust, attention, and the quiet intensity of being seen, internally.

Origins
Nature Within is an evolving artwork that began during a residency in Outokumpu in early 2024. It explores meditation and the transformation of inner states into sound and generative video through EEG data, visualizing subtle movements of the mind — emotions, focus, and consciousness — as a living digital landscape.

Evolution
Over time, Nature Within has taken on multiple forms. Each iteration invites the audience to reflect on the boundary between inner and outer nature, and the way perception itself creates connection.

In each session, the participant wears an EEG sensor that translates real-time brainwave data into a generative projection. The imagery becomes a living reflection of inner movement: focus, emotion, and presence forming distinct patterns. The work operates as a feedback loop—perception shapes the visual field, and the changing form deepens perception in return.

This documentation includes the official festival trailer introducing the wider One-to-One programme, alongside still photographs from the Oeiras context.

Nature Within @ Kehä Festival 2025 – Valve Cultural Centre, Oulu

Curator and Artistic Director: Timo Harju / Producer: Cultural Cooperative ILME & Cultural Centre Valve / Graphic Design: Riikka Kontio / Festival Theme: Journey / Programme Coordination and Audience Work: Valve Cultural Wellbeing Services / International Partners: Gato Escaldado (Portugal), House Collective (Croatia) / Funding and Support: Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, City of Oulu, Arts Promotion Centre Finland / Festival Venue: Cultural Centre Valve, Oulu / Participating Artists: Giulia Gallina, Eva Nina Lampič, Aapo Nikkanen, Eva Holts, Antonia Kuzmanić & Jakov Labrović, Inês Magalhães, Jaakko Autio, Harri Piispanen, Katri Rauanjoki, Signe Levä, and Rebecca Evans / pellensemble.

Kehä Festival 2025
Presented at Kehä Festival in Oulu (Valve Cultural Centre, October 17–18, 2025), this version is experienced one participant at a time. It offers a quiet encounter — a meeting point between awareness, sound, and space. Alongside its presentation at Valve Cultural Centre, Nature Within was also shared in a club setting that brings together members of a mental health rehabilitation community. In this context, the work revealed another layer of its meaning — the sound of inner awareness meeting the quiet rhythms of collective healing. The encounters were gentle yet profound, reminding that art, like the mind, becomes meaningfull through connection.

Experience
In the large theatre hall of Valve, an intimate setting emerges: two cushions placed at the center — one for the artist, one for the visitor. The participant wears an EEG sensor that reads real-time brainwave data and translates it into a generative video projection. This living image mirrors emotional and mental states — empathy, focus, and embodied presence form distinct visual patterns.

Functioning as a kind of digital synesthesia, the work replaces the x, y, and z coordinates of particles with brainwave frequencies. A visible human body slowly dissolves into abstract formations that shift with the visitor’s inner landscape. Through this, a neurological feedback loop emerges — a dialogue between the participant and their digital counterpart. Inspiration creates form, and form deepens inspiration.

The experience resembles meditation: a cycle where meaning generates more meaning, presence amplifies itself, and attention continually returns to the present moment. Nature Within reveals the existence of an inner nature — fast, responsive, and profoundly real. One may try to control this loop, or simply enjoy the journey.

Jaakko Autio & Akasaka @ YÖ GALLERIA, Helsinki 23.–25.8.2024

Join Exhibition: Jaakko Autio and Akasaka / Generative Video Art, Music and Performance: Jaakko Autio / Ink Dropping Works: Akasaka / Video footage: Hilla Väyrynen & Jaakko Autio / Association Coordinator: Jussi-Pekka Lehtinen – YÖ Gallery / Music Team: Vocals, Hilla Väyrynen, Reetta Karhunen. Cello: Mika Seppänen. Saxophone: Anna Voutilainen-Veijonen. Piano and Violins: Jaakko Autio.

“Art is a wave, flowing in all directions.” 

“The artist creates nothing. The artist discovers art.”

“The highest form of visual art is transforming the mind.” 

(Ad Reinhardt)

The exhibition theme ‘Meeting Point’ arises out of Jaakko’s and Akasaka’s shared interest in examining the non-material processes involved in the making of art and receiving it, focusing on working with the mind within a process of discovery. Artists have long been interested in how this process hinges on the nature of perception, and specifically the workings of perception for both artist and audience. 

Jaakko Autio’s work for this exhibition focuses on this theme through an interactive multimedia installation and a storytelling level designed specifically for this exhibition. Autio is meditating on a cushion wearing an EEG-reader, and his meditation (emotions and focus of intention) are represented as a digital double on the screen in the gallery space. Through this work Autio seeks to question assumptions of otherness in a gentle way and aims to dismantle invisible boundaries between artist and viewer, between subject and object.

Akasaka’s works on paper are series’ of abstract drawings that attempt to reveal a sense of presence, through an awareness practice that centres on freeing the mind from distractions in order to contemplate more directly the unfolding of the art making. Her video work, Living the Question, reflects on immediate experience exploring assumptions about the boundaries of ourselves, artworks, and the artistic process. In addition to drawing on her meditation practice, the narration for Living the Question draws on David Hinton’s book Existence: A Story. The starting point for the work asks: When I look, what do I see? 

ANIMA – NATURE WITHIN @ GALLERIA AHJO – URBANA HORTUS KUMPPANINÄYTTELY, JOENSUU 8.5.–26.5.2024

Generative Video Art, Music and Performance: Jaakko Autio / Joint Exhibition: URBANA HORTUS / Curators: Helsinki Artists’ Association – Satu Kalliokuusi, Eija Saarivirta, Reetta Gröhn-Soininen / Exhibition Coordinator: Mari Vilpponen / Music Team: Vocals, Hilla Väyrynen, Reetta Karhunen. Cello: Mika Seppänen. Saxophone: Anna Voutilainen-Veijonen. Piano and Violins: Jaakko Autio / Special Thanks: Kasper Omenasaari.

“ANIMA” is Jaakko Autio’s performance and video installation, recorded on May 8th at the AHJO Gallery opening as part of the URBANA HORTUS partnership exhibition in Joensuu. The piece combines Autio’s live meditation and brainwave digital synesthesia, where changes in brainwaves dynamically control the movement of particles in a 3D model projected on the gallery wall. The digital twin embodies subtle changes in the artist’s emotions, mind, and consciousness. The work highlights latent human characteristics and inner balance, to which its name “ANIMA” also refers.

URBANA HORTUS means urban garden. The Art Center Ahjo presents a diverse and rich collection of works by the members of HTS (Helsinki Artists’ Association), which in one way or another reflect their interpretation of urban nature in various ways and perspectives. The exhibition includes, among other things, paintings, graphics, sculptures, graffiti, video, and sound art.

Näyttelyyn osallistuvat taiteilijat:
Tuula Aalto, Riikka Ahlfors, Sirkku Ala-Harja, Sini Antti la-Rodriguez, Vesa Arjatsalo, Elina Autio, Jaakko Autio, Marianne Blomqvist,  Juhani von Boehm, Laurene Bois-Mariage, Cortes Reina Camilo, Terhi Ekebom, Päivi Eskelinen, Rasmus Förster, Hanna Galtat, Kaarina Haka, Mikko Hallikainen, Aulis Harmaala, Anna-Kaisa Hartikainen, Merja Heino, Tiina Herttua, Eric Hietaniemi, Sini Hodju, Laura Hokkanen, Maija Hopeavuori, Rauni Hulke, Sirpa Häkli, Susanna Iivanainen, Laura Ilvessalo, Jonna Johansson, Arja Jämsä, Anna Emilia Järvinen, Salla Järvinen-Sirén, Catharina Kajander, Liisa Kanerva, Laura Kansanen-Stavale, Terhi Ketolainen, Alex Keyriläinen, Taina Kokkonen, Anna Kolehmainen, Tero Kontinen, Anni Kuula, Joni Kärkkäinen , Minja Karoliina Laakso, Suvi Laine-Karsten, Jukka Lappalainen, Virpi Lehtonen, Eeva Louhio, Alex Markwith, Heidi Anniina Mattila, Ahti Meier, Tuula Moilanen, Hanneriina Moisseinen, Maria Mughal, Pia Männikkö, Maaria Märkälä, Nagashila, Heidi Naumanen, Artturi Nokelainen, Panu Ollikainen, Kari Paajanen, Laura Pakarinen, Jaro Palmu, Leena Palonen, Laura Pehkonen, Sari Poijärvi, Tero Puha, Irja Puhakka-Myller, Niina Putkonen, Merja Puuperä, Minttu Pyykkönen, Maarit Rantala, Ulla Repo, Age-Elisa Riekkinen, Niklas J. Rosenberg, Kikka Rytkönen, Minna Räsänen, Janne Saarinen, Aino Salmi, Merja Salonen Di Giorgio, Greta Salonen, Misa Saraste, Johanna Sipilä, Rauni Sipilä, Valter Strandén, Arja Sundqvist, Samuli Suonperä, Katja Sutisna, Sirkka Tapio, Linda Toye, Heli Tuhkanen, Eliisa Tuisku, Jussi TwoSeven, Sanna Vakkilainen, Mariliina Valkama, Meri Westlin, Tuuli-Anna Viitanen, Johanna Virtanen. 

LUONTO SISÄLLÄNI – OSA I – NATURE WITHIN ME – PART ONE @ KIISU THEATER, OUTOKUMPU RESIDENCY

I worked on the piece during the residency in Outokumpu in February-March 2024.

I worked on the piece ‘Nature Within‘ during the residency in Outokumpu in February-March 2024, systematically exploring meditation and its impact on brainwaves, as well as creating generative video art using TouchDesigner software. I also conducted the first public open studio, where I performed by drawing video art through an EEG reader in front of the audience. I also allowed the audience to try the EEG reader, creating an intimate moment. The piece thus creates a kind of camera that captures events in the mind and immersion into emotions and consciousness. The actual premiere of the piece will take place at the Urbana Hortus join exhibition in Joensuu, and the work will deepen with the joint exhibition ‘Meeting Point’ with Akasaka (Gillian Grabbe) at Helsinki’s YÖ Gallery in August 2024.