Profile
Politics of the Machines Editorial Board Members
Cynthia Blanchette
Editorial Board Member
Cynthia Blanchette is a Canadian artist-researcher based in Finland, working as a Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Art and Media at Aalto University. Blanchette is a member of both, AREA – Artistic Research Doctoral School of Aalto University and RAT research group. Blanchette has a Master of Arts degree in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art with a minor in Textile Design (Aalto University, 2021), and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in painting, printmaking, and sculpture (University of Saskatchewan, CA, 2014).
Blanchette works at the intersection of art, science, and technology, while remaining rooted in craft, folk, and healthcare practices. Blanchette’s artistic and conceptual research falls into the abject facets of human-technological evolution, these lived phenomena and their cultural-societal notions are explored through ideation drawing, artifact collecting, sculpture, and bioart. Blanchette’s artistic work has been exhibited within Canada and Europe.
Blanchette has been on the Politics of the Machines (POM) Editorial Board since 2026 and taken part in the POM conferences since 2024. Blanchette has worked as a guest co-editor on several journal publications, including Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research and Artnodes. Blanchette also co-edited the book Presence of Exchange: GIFT in Artistic Research and Beyond published by Art Theoretical Writings from the Academy of Fine Arts (Helsinki).
Blanchette’s been a member of the Bioart Society since 2020, and participated in multiple art and science workshops and residencies, including the Ars-Bioarctica Residency (Kilpisjärvi Biological Station of Sub-Arctic Lapland, 2023); Mustarinda Residency (Paljakka Nature Reserve, 2023); Nordic Biomaterials by CHEMARTS programme (Aalto University, 2021); and the Hybrid Labs Network: Biohacking and Creative Thinking (Waag Society, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2022 & and i3s, Porto, Portugal 2021).
Orchid Profile
orcid.org/0009-0005-3421-0510