Kalevankangas- Virtual Cemetery Launched

Kalevankangas is the major cemetery in Tampere. Since 1880 it has been the final place to rest in peace for the citizens of Tampere region. From this spring on the Kalevankangas cemetery can also be viewed through an online map that introduces some cultural, political, econimical and military persons, memorial statues of the cemetary and panorama images from the cemetary.

The site is a co-production of lutheran congregation of Tampere and Aamulehti, the major newspaper in Tampere.

The site is compiled and designed by students of visual design at TAMK School of Art and Media: Kaisa Pennanen, Jaakko Tyhtilä and Samuli Suomalainen.

Visit the online cemetery at http://www.aamulehti.fi/moro/kalevankangas/ The online cemetery is currently available only in Finnish.

Results of Media Programme Entrance Tests

The results of the Finnish universities of applied sciences (UAS) admissions are public today. You can find the names of the applicants admitted to TAMK University of Applied Sciences School of Art and Media Degree Programme in Media if you follow the link below.

Only persons who have given permission to publish their names on the Internet are included. If study places become available, applicants from reserve places will be admitted in the order of best results.

The students come from four continents, China, Finland, Greece, Iran, Peru, Serbia, South Afrika and the United Kingdom.

Four year studies lead to a Bachelor of Culture and Arts Degree (in Finnish Medianomi (AMK)).

The studies begin August 26th with a joint orientation days with the students from the two other international degree programmes of TAMK, the Degree Programme in Environmental Engineering and the Degree Programme in International Business.

The next application period starts mid-January 2010.

The Degree Programme in Media is new. Together with the Degree Programme in Film and Television (run in Finnish) it continues the traditions of TAMK School of Art and Media Media Programme, conducted in Finnish.

Applicants admitted to Degree Programme in Media
Degree Programme in Media

JÄÄPORTIT - VOIMASUO - Album Released

New album of frosty Finnish band Jääportit released as CD digipak by Epidemie Records on the 12th of May 2009.

"Voimasuo" (Vigor Swamp in English) album contains a bit over 50 minutes of wide-ranging music combining everything from dreamy ethereal ambient to cold rhythmical Nordic electronics and melancholic post-rock.

Intense, strong, polymorphous and mostly instrumental album hardly fits in conventional categories, because it's kind of a musical labyrinth, definitely worth of exploring.

Jääportit is a music project by Tuomas M. Mäkelä (keyboards, music and sound) and Mindy M. Heinonen (violin, voice and visual art) from Tampere, Finland.

Tuomas is also a sound design student at TAMK School of Art and Media. The production of the album's music from composing, recording and producing to mixing and mastering was solely made by Tuomas.

Official website
Myspace-profile
Promotional album video on Youtube
Epidemie Records

Score at Nordic Game!

Nordic Game is a two-day conference event focused on the game industry on the Nordic countries. Game Development Club Score, which is operating under TAMK, got sponsored tickets to the event from Neogames, the Finnish Center of Game Business, Research & Development. This year's event followed and almost coincided with Tampere Art Factory, so Score had their hands full of work. Fortunately, we got our business cards ready and organised our traveling schedule with TAMK's travel secretary Sirkku Teikari, big thanks to her. Nordic Game has now passed, and we would like to share some of our thoughts regarding the event and the trip in general.

One group of students traveled by plane (Niko Korhonen, Janne Jaakkola, Pasi Perkiö, Teemu Haila), while others decided to save money and the environment by using a ship (Juhani Hujala, Mikko Kähäri, Tuomas Järvensivu, Juho Hartikainen, Antti Salomaa). Even though the cruise path was consecutively longer and for example we journeyed the trip from Stockholm to Malmö in a bus for over 12 hours, this didn't demoralise any of us. The trip back to Stockholm went on smoothly as we got to ride the bus from Outokumpu Pelitalo, i.e. other game development students from Finland who conveniently stayed in the same hostel as we did.

Nordic Game in itself was really worth attending to. The speakers were cutting edge, so as listeners we just had to find our ways to topics that were most relevant to our interests, for there were a number of speakers and as such most of the seminars were being held simultaneously. Another key component of the event was networking among the game developers. Though we might have not gotten invitations to Norway this time, time will tell if the socializing sparks something concrete, either for the club or its members. At the very least, the coverage won't be hurting us the least bit.


The presentation from Unity 3D showed off their middleware game development platform and convinced many of us to lob it inside the School of Art and Media. The Degree Programme in Business Information Systems at Teiskontie Campus has already ordered 20 Unity licenses, so our wishes just might not be all that utopistic. Alex Evans, the developer of LittleBigPlanet shared some precious hints on how to structure a game development pipeline, and in turn, Bionic Commando Rearmed's development studio GRIN told their experiences with working on a remake from a classic game title. Besides these keynotes, the audience got to witness a vast number of different viewpoints concerning the future of game development, as well as other topics that were very relevant to us as students.

The overall supply that the conference offered got us thinking outside the box. All in all, we are very pleased that we got the chance to be part of an event like this, with little to no cost. During the journey, we also figured that in order to help the Nordic game community we must actively focus on enhancing the Finnish national game industry. It is somewhat ironic to go all the way to Malmö just to grasp this idea, but apparently this is turning into an annual trend, if we're to examine last year's trip to Nordic Game. Hopefully we can improve the matter until the next event!

Author: Juho Hartikainen, President of Score Game Development Club
Photo: Teemu Haila. Juho Hartikainen first on left

The Sink - an Animation by Students of Visual Design and sound design

Students of Visual Design: Tuuli Juntunen, Kiira Kalliomäki, Tuomas Korolainen, Kaisa Kukkonen and Sound Design: Veera Niemi produced an animation based on a touching "Darwin Awards"- winner story. The animation was a task for the Animation II course.

watch the animation on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI_zkYAt8Vc

Maria Kaurismäki invited to Moscow Film Festival

Sideline, written and directed by Maria Kaurismäki, has been invited to the 31st Moscow International Film Festival June 19-26 2009.

Sideline (Sivutyö) is a strong and topical story about a female student that drifts to be a prostitute. It’s a 13 minute short fiction movie, shot on 16mm film.

Sideline is the graduation work of Maria Kaurismäki at TAMK School of Art and Media.

Photo: Antti Reini and Krista Kosonen
Photo by Ville Salminen

Sideline home (featuring trailer)
Moscow International Film Festival
Sideline in this blog

Tampere Art Factory - more photos

Yesterday was the second and last day of Tampere Art Factory (TAF). A lot of people, a lot of art exhibitions, film screenings, parties, performaces, installations, game shows - everything the students of TAMK School of Art and Media are able to show and do.

On Friday evening the second part of the Fine Art student's graduate show Discourse Disco was opened at TR1 exhibition area at Finlayson.

While the graduating students celebrated their exhibition, the first year Fine Art students worked hard with street art outside the gallery.

The TAF Robot, by Mika Pettissalo surpriced people around the Finlayson area.
Photo: Sàra Köteleki

Chris Hales gave an Interactive Movie show, screening mostly films made by the exchange students of the Interactive Media Programme (IMP) during Chris' Interactive Film Workshops 2001-2008. After the show he met his former students, attending the show. From left to right: Franziska Emhardt (IMP 2008, Germany), Zoltán Szabo (IMP 2005, Hungary), Chris Hales (University of East London Smart Lab, Frequent School of Art and Media visiting lecturer 2001->) and Filipa Ruiz (IMP 2008 + Exchange Student 2009, Portugal)

One of the interactive installations made at the Responsive & Reactive Moving Image Workshop led by Robert Brecevic, Performing Pictures of Interactive Institute (SE) was a work by Tuija Lappalainen.
There were five international workshops and the seminar "Teaching and Learning with the Internet Generation" during the International Week of the School of Art and Media during the days before TAF"

Tampere Art Factory
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Welcome to Tampere Art Factory

Tampere Art Factory opened this morning and runs until tomorrow evening. Most exhibitions, films, performances, animations, videos, music videos etc. etc. are experienced at TAMK School of Art and Media Campus at Finlayson, the heart of Tampere.
Fine Art student's graduate show Discourse Disco is in two locations nearby, the Art Centre Mältinranta and the TR1 exhibition Centre.

The Silence is Golden Workshop you find at the top floor of our school. It is run by Bauhaus University Weimar. All visitors get their personal piece of art.

In the TAF lobby you can be a part of the Interactive VJ Workshop Nou & Herkauw, arranged by the Academy of Pop Culture, Holland (in the background). Here you can also enjoy videos, animations and music videos, and take a coffee break.

A group of international visitors at our rooftop garden. Our international week and TAF has international guests from 15 countries; Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, the UK, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Lebanon, Hungary, Iceland, Spain, Portugal, Malaysia and Italy.

Demola presents games and other interactive projects made by our students.

TAF is open 10-16 today, 10-18 tomorrow. TAF Clubs both evenings at Laterna.

Tampere Art Factory
Demola

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The International Week prepares TAF

The International Week of TAMK School of Art and Media really started this morning, most international guests arrived yesterday. The workshops of the week are:

• Responsive & Reactive Moving Image Workshop by Robert Brecevic, Performing Pictures of Interactive Institute (SE)
• Interactive VJ Workshop Nou & Herkauw by Adri Schokker and Frauke Lehberger, Academy of Pop Culture (NL)
• Editing Workshop by Elie Yazbeck, Institut d'études scéniques, audiovisuelles et cinématographiques (LB)
• Animation Workshop by Algimantas Taujanskas, Vilnius College of Technologies and Design
• "Silence is Golden" Photo Workshop, Alexander Lembke, Faculty of Media Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (DE)

Most workshops will present their results as a part of Tampere Art Factory programme May 15-16

On Wednesday there is additionally a series of presentations:

• Heli Tuksam, Tartu Art College will have a presentation on Tartu Art College and the student projects
• Aija Druvaskalne-Urdze, Liepaja University New Media Art Programme Presentation
• EUROPRIX Multimedia Art, Rainer Steindler, International Center for New Media
• Interactive Movies? Why and How? Chris Hales, SmartLab
• Academy of Popculture, Adri Schokker
• Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Aleksander Lembke

On Thursday there is the “Teaching and Learning with the Internet Generation – Methods and Solutions” seminar featuring:

• Aija Druvaskalne-Urdze, Liepaja University New Media Art Programme
• René Lansink, Utrecht School of the Arts (About the Crash Project )
• Alex Reuneker and Patrick Deters Haagse Hogeschool, Academie voor ICT & Media, Communication & Multimedia Design
• Albert van der Kooij, Hanzehogeschool Groningen, Academy of Popculture (About the Island Festival)
• Chris Hales, SmartLab, University of East London
• Wesa Aapro, TAMK (About Demola)
• Leena Mäkelä, Head of TAMK Film and Television Programme
• Juha Suonpää, Head of TAMK Fine Arts Programme

Photo: The Interactive VJ Workshop Nou & Herkauw arranged by the Academy of Pop Culture (Netherlands) started this morning.

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DISCOURSE DISCO Vernissage Launched Tampere Art Factory

DISCOURSE DISCO
Graduation show '09 by TAMK University of Applied Sciences Fine Art Degree Programme

Art Centre Mältinranta, Kuninkaankatu 2, Tampere
09.05 - 26.05.2009
Opening hours Mon-Thu 12-18, Fri-Sun 12-16
Artists:
Johanna Havimäki, Kaisa Kirsikka, Jani Kuivajärvi, Jenni Lahtinen, Maria Leppänen, Liina Mäki-Patola, Tiina Raaterova

Exhibition Centre TR1, Väinö Linnan aukio, Tampere
16.05. - 07.06.2009
Opening hours Tue-Sun 10-18
Artists:
Henna Inkinen, Jenni Leinonen, Ville Makkonen, Minta Metteri, Elise Mäkitalo, Laura Paavilainen, Erno Peltonen, Sanni Rajapolvi, Teemu Räsänen, Sanni Seppä, Matti Sälli, Noora Westerberg

Discourse Disco (Diskurssidisko) vernissage was celebrated yesterday at Art Centre Mältinranta, as seven of the graduating students from TAMK School of Art and Media proudly introduced their diploma works. Next Friday, after the official opening of the the second part of the exhibition will open.

The statement:

Stuart Hall says that by discourse he means a certain way of representing.

Anu Koivunen claims that discourses are the ways of thinking, conceptions and assumptions which different institutions reassert, merit and place in hierarchies.

Up until the 1960s, discourse was defined as speculative analysis or discussion, exchange of opinions.

Michel Foucault, the most well-known of discourse theorists, regarded discourse as “practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak.”

So what is discourse? The definition is up to you. (The above mentioned information can be found in Wikipedia or by googling the word “discourse.”) In any case, we are convinced that the word “discourse” should be the name or at least in the name of our exhibition. In its entirety, the word contains what we are or what we have been moulded to be. Just like when we use the word “discourse,” we are confronted with similar conscious lack of understanding every day, when we try to create something which could be called art. In the same way, we are trying to reach something, which eludes an unambiguous and universal definition. At the back of our heads we know what it is about, but it is impossible to state the absolute truth about it.

Unusually, in this case the truth might be the most uninteresting aspect. There is no perfect art or even a perfect definition of art. Only general information. No closely guarded secret of the essence of art exists; there are only separate, individual or overlapping concepts. There is no single enclosed art discourse.
But maybe only the open doors exist. Into an undefined space, governed by controlled chaos. A sort of disco, which has room for everybody to dance. A space where the noise is so loud that it is impossible to have complex but often meaningless discussions in an elitist tone of voice. You can only shout out the most essential things: “Do you come here often?”

Upper photo: The graduating students soon to be adorned with flowers, Head of the Degree Programme in Fine Arts Juha Suonpää addresing the event, standing last right Senior Lecturer Minna Suoniemi.

DISCOURSE DISCO is a part of Tampere Art Factory

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Performing Pictures Started our International Week

Next week is for School of Art Media the annual International Week. Five international workshops and a seminar will be arranged, and the results of the workshops presented as a part of Tampere Art Factory programme May 15-16.

We will be back with more details about the week later. Now we present the first worshop:

/Movies are no longer fixed in conjunction to one-way-viewing on the big screen or the television. Moving imagery is also open to viewer interception; movies can be manipulated while played according to the model of stop-play-overlay. With this palette in hand Performing Pictures address moviemaking that does not deal with experimental narratives but rather with the direct impact of the depiction of scenes combined with viewer involvement and contextual issues.

Film/video as in moving imagery is a challenging medium that involves a series of technical difficulties to succumb. What is possible and at what cost? Artistic practice within the field of moving imagery and digital media is as important as ever. Screens, projectors, computer parts, media players and peripherals such as microcontrollers and different types of sensors can be hacked and/or modified in order to display what is ultimately a series of images portraying something that is vivid for the artist and for the viewer.

With the workshop A STATE OF CHANGE for the students at TAMK School of Art and Media, Robert Brecevic from Performing Pictures will address all these parts required to make a visual experience that involves moving imagery/video and some kind of responsiveness. The responsiveness part means that the viewing experience is somehow connected to a physical presence or activity of the viewer and is facilitated through sensory input other than the visitor or curator pressing “play”, “pause” or “stop”.
/

Performing Pictures
Tampere Art Factory
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Photo: In this workshop the students also use quite exotic tools, like the soldering iron. From left to right: Filipa Geraldes (Lissabon), Robert Brecevic (Stockholm), Stephanie Stijkel (Groningen, Holland), Tuija Lappalainen (Tampere) and Timo Bredenberg (Tampere).

Villa Penguila Became the First Nordic Game Finalist

Antti Salomaa from TAMK game development club Score reports to our blog:

"We learned that our game "Villa Penguila" has been nominated the first finalist in Nordic Game Portal Competition! This means that the Villa Penguila team got VIP-tickets to Nordica Game Conference in Malmö May 19-20, where the cream of Nordic game developers annually meet. This year the speakers come e.g. from Deadline Games, EA DICE, Futuremark, Housemarque and IO Interactive."
Villa Penguila also made it to the second round of Imagine Cup.

More about this topic
More about Villa Penguila
Villa Penguila prototype (YouTube)
Nordic Game
About Score

You can test Villa Penguila at Tampere Art Factory May 15-16

Chepetto 2009 Japan trip

In October we published a story about a joint game project between TAMK and Okayama University students. Our team went to Japan again in April, this time the students of the School of Art and Media were accompanied by a group of students from the Degree Programme in Business Information Systems. Here's the diary:

We took off from Helsinki around half past five on a Sunday night, 5th of April. We first flew to Osaka and arrived there eight o'clock on Monday morning. From Osaka we took a Shinkansen to Okayama, and finally a cab from near the station to our accommodation. The place was a small hostel-like facility meant for visiting teachers at the Okayama University. We could use English there, as the receptionist spoke quite clearly considering we were in Japan.

After we all had settled in, we were told that there wouldn't be any presentations today. This came as a great relief, because most of us hadn't slept in over 30 hours. Our accommodation was really pleasing, and naturally everyone was ever so friendly. I tought this must've been the greatest culture shock to a grim and stiff Finn.

On Tuesday at one o'clock the university students came to pick us up and give us a tour around the Okayama castle and a nearby garden. At this point our communication wasn't really blazing, but we did manage to have a few conversations which lasted more than a minute or two. The weather in Japan was about the same as the Finnish weather during the highest temperatures of a typical summer. The pretty cherry blossoms were blooming and after the sightseeing we had free time, during which we all practiced a great load of cultural recognition each in our own way.

Wednesday was a game day and we started at ten o'clock in the morning (!). First we had a little tour around Okayama university, then lunch and then the presentations started. A Japanese professor had a presentation that really made our jaws drop. It was about teaching a task that requires great precision and coordination with robotics. To tell a long story short: First they see how a man who has practiced calligraphy 47 years does it, then they move to a novice. They followed, among other things, how the gaze moved as the person draw the lines, and how long did it take to draw each line. After this they attached the brush to a giant robotic arm which then guided the hand of the novice. The hand also reflected a red circle at the canvas to help anticipation. wat?

After the presentations of the Japanese professors and students it was our turn. The presentation went well, and after hearing a few comments it seemed that we were on the right tracks. After all the presenting we had a break and time to prepare for the party.

Soon after arriving at the university's canteen for the party, I noticed the mood was starting to be quite emancipated. We had all kinds of Japanese foods and drinks - including sushi of course. After the toast we gave the Japanese our gifts from finland and it was soon clear that the biggest bomb was definitely the Turkish Peppers. The peppers brought great pain and great fun at the same time for the Japanese. After a few beers and days together the Japanese turned out to be quite the conversationalists. Sorry to say the party ended our time together, which was too short as always. Luckily Heikki had the chance to visit a local ballroom dancing -student club and became the celebrated king for one night.

On Thursday we left to Nagoya and on Friday we visited Trident College of Information Technology, where they teach game design, programming, 3D, graphics and web-design. We presented our Imagine Cup entries and they presented theirs. The good people at the Trident seemed quite interested about a possible future collaboration.

Now playing Cherry Blossom Girl from Air as we soon arrive at Tokyo.

Story: Jani Palovuori

The delegation:
TAMK personnel
Perttu Heino, Ari Närhi
Project lead
Teemu Haila
Project group
Heikki Leppänen Jura Paatola Matti Särkikoski Tuomas Rinne Jani Palovuori Kaisa Kukkonen Nelli Telkkinen Jussi Salonen

Read the previous story about the project

British Premiere of The Electrician

In April 2008 ten students from TAMK School of Art and Media went to England to make a cooperative short film with the School of Media, Music and Performance of Salford University. It was pilot project for both schools and a leap into the unknown for the film crew. The road was bumpy but now one year has passed and everyone can be proud of the result, the short movie the Electrician.

The post production was made in Finland and April 27th 2009 the Electrician finally got the premiere it deserved. The Finnish crew made a screening of thanks at Salford University for the English crew, partners and cast.

The evening started with wine and crisp and moved on with some nice speeches before the screening. The most emotional part was the speeches that were made by the actors. The evening ended with toasts in a nearby bar with everyone who could make it.

Green light for future cooperation projects

The Film got good reviews already in Finland and now in England. Both schools also agreed that there is a need for more projects like this one.

The crew of the Electrician wants once more thank the School of Art and Media and everyone who had a part in this project either physically or mentally.

Story: Petra Välimäki, the producer

The Electrician home
More stories about the Electrician

Next chance to see the Electrician is at Tampere Art Factory May 15-16!

Some wine and crisp, Arto Koskinen, Colin Muir and Andy Walker

Miina Alajärvi, the director and one of the two producers, Tiia-Tuulia Tiensuu, giving a speach

Derek Melling ("Marvin"), director Miina Alajärvi, producer Tiia-Tuulia Tiensuu and Derek's wife