enni-kukka tuomala

i am the world’s first empathy artist and designer. my vision is to transform empathy from an individual feeling to a radical and collective power for positive social change through public interventions, installations, collaborative projects, creative experiments, environments and tools to fight the growing global empathy deficit. my work breaks taboos and challenges social, cultural, behavioural norms in order to bridge the growing divides in our ecosystems, both between humans, and humans and other species.

having created artworks and led projects around the world from london and tokyo, to new york and helsinki, my collaborative and research-based practice builds on investigating the delicate relationships between empathy, culture, space and systems.

at the centre of my practice is the creation of spatial and sculptural artworks and public interventions that imagine new environments for connection, invite audiences to train their empathy muscles, and create intimate shared moments whether with oneself, with other humans, other beings, or our wider natural environment. after years of focusing my practice on interpersonal empathy, I’ve begun exploring empathy between humans and non-humans, developing a new body of research and a new model for ‘radical planetary empathy’; the empathy ecosystem, tracing the ecological, economic and social role of empathy in all human and non-human life, and a new growing body of work; forest empathy, understanding the perspectives and experiences of trees. i am currently collaborating with lusto the forest museum of finland on the project.

my practice is collaborative to its core, built for participation and anchored in an open process of public engagement and exchange. since 2018 i have been investigating the relationship between empathy + power, working with the parliament of finland to bring empathy into political dialogue and decision making through collaborating with six members of parliament to create empatia ele; a collection of empathy tools for politics. in 2019 i also launched the campaign for empathy, a community-centered campaign to promote empathy through art.

i am a graduate of the royal college of art and imperial college london with a joint m.a and m.sc in ‘global innovation design‘, and a graduate of the university of oxford with an m.a in ‘classical archaeologist and ancient history’. before launching my radical empathy studio i spent years working as an award-winning brand strategist at saatchi&saatchi and adam&eveDDB in london alongside my art practice. i am an experienced keynote speaker represented by myspeaker, on a mission to reframe the current conversations around empathy.

i was a designer in residence 2020-21 at the design museum / london, and the open house artist in residence 2020-21 at kettle’s yard / cambridge. in 2021 i had the honour of representing finland at the london design biennale.