"The Tempest", Sibelius Academy, Music Centre (Musiikkitalo) Helsinki - Costume design

The "Tempest" project provides a chance to combine music analysis, visual design, creative collaboration and artistic research in real-scale practice inspired by Jan Sibelius’ "Myrsky" (Tempest) and Shakespeare’s "The Tempest". We look at the performance world of the "Tempest" as a timeless world; elements of different time periods are included in the design of the costumes - from Shakespeare’s time, to Sibelius’ time, to the performance time of today. The concept for the costume design focuses on how materials can be expressive; new materials were researched and made especially for this performance. The costumes for the "Tempest" were designed through a frame for artistic research currently in development within the research project Costume Methodologies, based at Aalto University and co-funded by the Academy of Finland/FiDiPro scheme. What the "Tempest" brings new to the artistic research is working with music as well as working with opera singers. The costume design for the "Tempest" developed in close collaboration with the performers: through personal interviews and artistic interpretation, the performers’ personal experiences and memories informed and influenced the costumes. The design as well as the realisation of the costumes for the "Tempest" is a paradigm of how artistic research develops through costume, and prove that artistic work, research and new learning can develop organically together.