Doctoral Researcher at the University of Turku
I study plastic waste — micro- and nanoplastics — in Nordic urban environments, asking what it means to inhabit cities where plastic is ubiquitous yet largely imperceptible.
I am a doctoral researcher in Landscape Studies at the University of Turku, funded through the JUNO Doctoral Programme in the Humanities. My work sits within the Degree Programme in Digital Culture, Landscape and Cultural Heritage.
My research examines plastic waste — particularly micro- and nanoplastics — in Nordic urban environments. I am drawn to the material that hides in plain sight: how plastic saturates the places we live while remaining, for the most part, beneath perception. Through embodied and speculative forms of inquiry, I look for ways to engage environmental phenomena that resist direct observation.
How plastic persists and circulates through urban life, bodies, infrastructures, and environments.
Tracing micro- and nanoplastics as dispersed material presences across Nordic urban environments, with Turku as a close and grounded case.
Developing ways of attending to environmental phenomena that exceed direct perception through embodied, sonic, and material encounters.
Exploring how urban life takes shape through encounters among human and nonhuman bodies, materials, infrastructures, weather, surfaces, and waste.
Doctoral dissertation · in progress
The dissertation explores what it means to inhabit cities where plastic is ubiquitous yet largely imperceptible, and how embodied and speculative forms of inquiry can engage environmental phenomena that remain difficult to perceive directly.
Ongoing reflections from the project, published as Plastic Waste Sensibility — reflections on plastic waste sensibility in the Nordics.
Research-creation · iOS application
It is a research-creation project expressed as a quiet iOS app: an experiment in how questions can arise from ordinary life, rather than from prompts designed to keep us busy.
The project begins from a simple premise: not every question asks for an answer. Some remain with us, returning through ordinary life and changing how we attend to the world.
Questions arrive slowly. Sometimes they do not arrive at all. The pauses are intentional. There are no scores, feeds, streaks, or behavioural metrics. The application is designed to become quieter over time, leaving more room for questions that emerge beyond it.
Sound installation · 2026
A sound installation made from traffic recordings in rainy, snowy, and dry conditions in Turku. It attends to the shared friction of tires and road — the same event that makes traffic audible and sheds microplastic particles into the city, often unnoticed.
Continuous Otherwise · Substack
A personal blog where I think alongside the everyday — tracing how small, ordinary encounters open onto larger questions of individuation, perception, and change.
Email neylan.aular@utu.fi
Affiliation Digital Culture, Landscape and Cultural Heritage · University of Turku
ORCID 0009-0004-0859-5544
Elsewhere UTU profile Research portal Google Scholar ResearchGate LinkedIn Are.na Meanwhile Companion app Continuous Otherwise