Other audiovisual works

VIRTUNATURE RESEARCH PROJECT

We have wanted to develop new ways of getting out into nature, because it is not always possible to go there. We inspired Professor Liisa Tyrväinen at Natural Resources Institute Finland to study the impact of virtual nature and we were the prime movers behind the world's first virtual nature study. The results were revolutionary. Nature is such a powerful relaxant that just looking at a live nature image and listening to the sounds of nature is enough to de-stress and refresh. We designed and built a nature room at office environment and produced three different types of calming nature content. A break in the room was found to improve people's mood, calm their heart rate and reduce irritability and negative emotions. A forest-themed virtual environment seems to the most significant effect.

Research

  • Year of production: 2019

    Production team: Petteri Saario, Antti Saario

    Subscriber: Luke

LUTRA LUTRA

We built a space of silence in The Gallery of Vanha Kappalaisentalo in Porvoo, where visitors are surrounded by local nature and can forget their stress, worries and concerns for a moment. Four artists took part in the exhibiton and each spoke for nature from their own perspective. In our video installation Lutra Lutra, we created an experience of nature through the reflection of water.

The work was also shown in Old Town of Porvoo in the summer of 2021 at the summer pop-up shop Butiken i Stan.

  • Year of production: 2018

    Duration: 17:44

    Production team: Antti Saario, Petteri Saario, Joonatan Hietanen

STREAMLET OF URBAN TROUT

We showed urban trout and its underwater habitat to the citizens of Oulu at the Lumo valofestival. We planned and created an outdoor installation for the Finnish Natural Resources Institute, which has been working hard to improve the living conditions of salmon fish in Oulu. We travel in the film along an urban streamlet in the company of a trout. The egg hatches into a translucent offspring and when autumn comes, the mature trout heads up to its home stream to breed. The work was installed as part of a Light Festival in the city centre, near the Hupisaari park. In the park's streams, trouts can be seen swimming majestically under the shelter of plants and rocks.

  • Year of production: 2019

    Duration: 4:56

    Production team: Petteri Saario, Antti Saario

    Commissioned by: the Natural Resources Institute Finland / City of Oulu

WATERFALL

We created an installation for Oulanka Nature Centre exhibition, which focuses on the mighty Oulanka River which is the heart of the national park. The virtual waterfall starts from a drop of water and the drop travels through the sound of the stream to the rush of the rapids to reach the roar of the waterfall. In the work, Kiutaköngäs falls directly into the viewer's arms and the slow motion dance of the droplets in the rapids enchants the viewer.

  • Year of production: 2014

    Duration: 4 min.

    Implementation by Petteri Saario

    Client: Metsähallitus

SEAFARER

We created an instalation for an exhibition "Clean Baltic Sea" which raised awareness of the environmental state of the Baltic Sea. Gallery owner Hanna Kaarina Syrjäläinen organised the exhibition in collaboration with the John Nurminen Foundation and the Finnish Environment Institute at Näsi Manor in Porvoo. Eight artists looked at sea from their own unique perspective creating an athmosphere where the viewer could feel the sea breeze in the rooms of the manor. In our work, the Seafarer, the viewer could stop and watch a film of our precious sea in a room of silence.

  • Year of production: 2018

    Implementation by Petteri Saario, Antti Saario, Joonatan Hietanen

THE HERITAGE OF WATER

The Heritage of Water is a theatrical work combining film, live contemporary dance and live folk music. Filmmaker Petteri Saario, dance artist Virva Talonen and singer Veera Voima each look at water from their own perspective, in dialogue with each other. The dance flows out of the film canvas onto the stage and the song interacts with the film's water world.

The Heritage of Water is a story about water and its importance to all living beings. It is a tale of the drop, the rain, the stream, the river, the snowflake, the ice, the gush, the rapids, the ghostly howl of the sea. And of man as part of the water cycle.

The cross-artistic stage performance was seen at the Loikka film festival, Frankfurt Book Fair, Haltia Nature Centre, Kulturitalo Grand in Porvoo and Haikko Manor.

  • Year of production: 2014

    Directed, shot and written by Petteri Saario

    Sound design by Joonatan Hietanen

    Original music, vocals and instrumentation by Veera Voima

    Choreography and dance by Virva Talonen

    Production by Petteri Saario and Sari Orkomies

    In cooperation with: the Kone Foundation

SUOMEN LUONTOKESKUS HALTIA

We acted as dramaturgical consultants for the main exhibition of the Finnish Nature Centre Haltia, which opened in 2013. We have also produced several video installations for the main exhibition. In the virtual nature installation "Stream of Life", fish swim under visitors' feet in a virtual waterfall, and in another piece fish follow the visitor along the walls. We also created several pieces portraing ice canyons. In these works Finnish nature is dressed in winter's glistening snow and shimmering ice crystals.

  • Year of production: 2012

    Dramaturgical consultant for the main exhibition: Petteri Saario

    Installation design by Petteri Saario

    Production by Tiina Saario and Petteri Saario

    Client: Metsähallitus