Tampere Art Factory 09 Online - Part One

Our annual festival - Tampere Art Factory (TAF) - was in May, but much of the student works seen there are still visible online. In this posting we present the films that were shown at TAF which can be understood without knowledge of Finnish language or with subtitles in English.

In our blog in Finnish we have published a story with presentations of all TAF films with websites and/or trailers online and/or the entire film online.

This blog will later publish stories about TAF fine art work, animations, music videos etc. online.

Up with attitude - Askel asenteella
The documentary follows the working process of bboy ÄTÄ and choreographer Reija Wäre.
Director: Jussi Autio
Trailer with english subs

Kun Liikun / When I Move
A film about moving and the fear of stopping.
Director: Ville Salminen
Co-produced with Obscure Entertainment
Trailer

The Electrician
A Story of Marvin - an executioner in charge of the electric chair, who has to find a new way to use his unusual skill when he becomes unemployed.
Director: Miina Alajärvi
Co-production with Salford University
Website with trailer
More about the Electrician in this blog

Burn-In
An office-like movie setting works as a scene for performance.
Artists: Mikko Rantanen and Päivi Viinikainen
The performance online

Ennustus / Rain Must Fall
"When I was a child, I heard a story I wanted to hear over and over again. It was a fascinating story, because they said it was true." – Rain Must Fall will share that story with you.
Director: Niisku Haapala
Trailer with English subtitles

Rotsi / Fat Rat Jacket
Fat Rat Jacket tells a story of 17-year-old Raimo and his growth from a boy to a man.
Director: Hanna Hurri
Music video/trailer No Fool

Katusoittaja/The Busker
"If you try to get everything you want, you may lose whatever is available."
Director: Joonas Selin
The Busker online

Ihmisiä tiellä / Hit the Road
The drama takes place in an efficient, faceless school environment, where three members of the school staff are feeling uncomfortable in the brutal embrace of this uncommunity.
Director: Arttu Haglund
Homepage&trailer with English subs

*****
Part one: Films
Part two: Fine Art and Animations
Part three: Music videos and games
All three parts on one page

There is more TAF online works in our blog in Finnish

Tampere Art Factory
More about TAF in this blog

Ubimedia Competition Deadline August 21!

One of the three focus areas of TAMK University of Applied Sciences research and development activities is Digital Services and Technologies. Ubimedia is one of the most interesting future area of digital media applications. Organising a worldwide competition in Ubimedia enables us to analyse the newest trends and innovations in this field.

The Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Award is a worldwide unique competition to award the best ubimedia products. The award ceremony takes place during the annual MindTrek Conference in Tampere, this year October 1-2. The competition is open to artists, producers, researchers and companies everywhere.

Ubi(quitous) Media is a form of human-computer interaction which is integrated into things and environments. It is technology that is embedded "everywhere".

The Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards is arranged by TAMK University of Applied Sciences, MindTrek, Nokia, EMMi Lab. – Tampere University of Technology (TUT)and the Tampere Region Centre of Expertise in Ubiquitous Computing.

The purpose of the competition is to encourage makers of digital media to generate ideas and develop new and innovative ubiquitous media products & services. The entries are expected to take a stand on the question, how ubiquitous computing affects intelligent media environments and what the future of location-and context aware media services might look like.

The entries are expected to take a stand on the following questions, for example:

• How does ubiquitous computing affect media environments?
• What are intelligent media environments like?
• What will the location- and context-aware media services of the future be like?

MindTrek Conference
Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards
Download the Ubimedia 2008 report
Wikipedia about Ubiquitious Computing

Pictured: In the centre 2008 First Prize Winner Peter Frohlich (Point-to-Discover, Telecommunication Research Centre, Austria), on left Head of Jury Björn Stockleben, RBB, Germany and on right Competition Chair Artur Lugmayr, Tampere University of Technology.

Hey Please! by Maiju Asikainen on TV2 July 29

Yritä ees! (Hey Please!)
Documentary film by Maiju Asikainen
YLE TV2 Documentaryproject
29 July 10:50 pm

The ninth film produced by TAMK School of Art and Media which is shown on YLE channels in July is Hey Please!, Maiju Asikainen's graduation work.

Hey Please! is a love story – and how everything goes like hell sometimes.

”Hey Please!” is the story about the young director Maiju Asikainen’s (26) first love Kaarlo, their shared rock-summer, choices, friendship and dreams. At the beginning of the story Maiju is moving back to Finland from Berlin due to her summer date Kaarlo. Kaarlo is dreaming to become a rock star, but he just messes around and is looking for himself, job and a student place at the same time. His relationship will be tested when the daily routines are getting boring.

Kaarlo and his girlfriend Maiju go through the crush, studies, fights, self-doubts, rock-gigs, parties, cohesiveness, longing, fear and falling in love. Kaarlo has the band called Miss Monster Truck and his dream involves in to the music, so what will happen to the relationship of Kaarlo and Maiju?

“Hey Please!” is a subjective movie where the storyteller is the director as well. Maiju Asikainen shares her life with the viewers with the help of her diaries and a part of the film is based on the home videos.

Duration: 42 minutes
Production: Nelivetotuotanto, TAMK School of Art and Media, Documentaryproject

Nelivetotuotanto
Miss Monster Truck

Pictured: Kaarlo
Photographer Maiju Asikainen

Fine Art Students' Exhibition in Tartu

MAAVARA (Ride Height) Galleria Ferrodrum
Tartu Kultuuritehas
Pikk 58/62, 2nd floor
Tartu, Estonia

Welcome to vernissage July 24 at 7 pm!

Four TAMK School of Art and Media Fine Art students open their exhibition Maavara (Ride Hight) tomorrow at the Ferrodrum gallery at Tartu Kultuuritehas (Tartu Culture Factory) in the second largest city of Estonia, Tartu.

The exhibition perceives meanings connected to habitation trough e.g. national celebrities, sense of security and political commentary. The works emphasize habitation as staying locally in a space of architecture as well as living in a broader cultural sphere.

The methods used to create the works are photography, drawing and installation.

The artists are Jussi Koitela, Jaana Laakkonen, Tanel Päll and Mia Saharla.

Picture: Sportlased ja linn 13 by Tanel Päll

Galleria Ferrodrum
Tartu

Seven School of Art and Media Documents on TV2 Wednesday

Finnish national broadcasting company YLE Documentary Project shows on July 22 seven TAMK School of Art and Media documentaries with the title "Tulevaisuuden tekijät"(Makers of the Future) on channel 2.

TV2 Wednesday 22.7.
at 23:00 Expensive Shit - Melko kallista paskaa by Antti Tuomikoski

from 23:45 to 00:48 six short documentaries:
Ilkka Rautio: Treasured Waters - Ei vettä rantaa rakkaampaa
Seija Hirstiö: Hiljaisuus (Silence)
Kristiina Lehto: Diary of a person with asperger's syndrome - Asperger syndroomaisen päiväkirja
Jussi Autio: Up with attitude - Askel asenteella
Up with Attitude trailer
Henna Inkinen: The Last Day - Viimeinen päivä
Experimental films by Henna Inkinen
Helena Yli-Kyyny: My Military Memorandum - Sotilasmuistioni

All the films are presented in our TAMK-TTVO blog in Finnish

On July 29 at 22:55 TV2 Documentary Project shows the graduation work by Maiju Asikainen Hey Please! - Yritä ees

Photo from Expensive Shit

EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards deadline July 31 2009!

Our friends at International Center for New Media remind us about the final deadline of EUROPRIX on July 31:

"All you have to do is to click on www.europrix.org, complete the registration process and you could fulfil all your hopes and dreams of recognition and success.

International recognition, exposure, business opportunities, peer support networks and fantastic opportunities await those who take the chance.

Find out how good you really are and have your work judged by an international jury of multimedia experts. Nominees will receive a host of benefits, including:
+ An all-expenses-paid trip to the EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival in Graz, Austria in November 2009
+ Presentation of their project in the EUROPRIX yearbook
+ Unique networking and promotion opportunities throughout Europe
+ Cutting-edge software packages

Enter your project to the EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards, Europe's premier competition for young professionals and students. The EUROPRIX honours outstanding digital media works and offers additionally a special award for the project with the best business potential. Take the chance to submit your project for free to the EUROPRIX Awards at: www.europrix.org"

TAMK School of Art and Media has been in close cooperation with the EUROPRIX network since 1999. It has not only been about the awards, but EU-funded projects, conferences and other activities within digital media. EUROPRIX has also been a vital part of our Tampere Art Factory festival and the most important annual digital media event in Finland, MindTrek, which is arranged by TAMK and friends.

Photo: School of Art and Media student Riikka Hiekkaniemi and graduate Kaisa Hakala present EUROPRIX nominee Operaatio Hurrikaani at the EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival in Graz last November.

Read more about EUROPRIX in this blog
EUROPRIX Multimedia Art

TV1 on Tuesday: If I Fall by Hannaleena Hauru

If I Fall (Jos kaadun)
TV1 Tuesday 14.7.2009 2:00 - 2:15 pm

If I Fall, a shortfilm written and directed by graduate from TAMK School of Art and Media, Hannaleena Hauru, will be screened on TV1 on Tuesday. The film is Hannaleena's graduation work. At the moment she continues her studies as majoring in scriptwriting in School of Motion Picture UIAH - in Helsinki.

If I Fall is one of the most successful films made at the School of Art and Media. It has won several awards and it has been invited to a number of film festivals not only in Europe, but in Brazil and China as well.

Producers: Samu Reijonen, Anni Pänkäälä
Cinematography: Jan-Niclas Jansson
Music: Anna Huuskonen
Editor: Sanna Ryhänen
Cast: Tanja Heinänen, Ville Majamaa, Mikko Joukamaa

Kaarina is a young woman working in a Finnish sawmill. She's repetitively falling down without anyone noticing her.

Major screenings, presentations:
- Festival de Cannes 2007, International Critics' Week (Premiere, Carte Blance);
- Cork Film Festival, Ireland, PRIX UIP –nomination;
- Tampere Film Festival 2008:
- International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany, award of the Cinema jury as best 35 mm film under 15 minutes.
- Uppsala International Short Film Festival (Grand Prix)

Awards:
- Tampere Film Festival 2008, award of the youth jury
- International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany, award of the Cinema jury as best 35 mm film under 15 minutes
- Uppsala International Short Film Festival (Grand Prix)
- Nisi Masa Script Award 2005, screenwriting competition for young European filmmakers.
- Baltic Herring, Finland 2. award in student category.

Earlier postings about If I Fall

Photo: Miina Alajärvi

Ars Viikinsaari 09

ARS VIIKINSAARI 09
Environmental Art Exhibition
12.7.-15.8.2009
In July daily, not on Mondays in August
Departure from Laukontori harbor every hour
Boat tickets: Adults 8 €, senior citizens and students 7 €, children (age 4–17) 4 €.

Welcome to the vernissage Sat 11.7. 19:00-00:30

Viikinsaari is a beautiful summer recreation island only 20 minutes boat trip away from Tampere city center. Every summer the Fine Art students of TAMK School of Art and Media host an environmental art exhibition on the island in cooperation with the City of Tampere Cultural Office. This year the exhibition is called Ars Viikinsaari 09.

The artists are: Vera Arjoma, Anni Hujala, Riikka Kunnari, Tuija Lappalainen, Petra Lukkari, Vili Nissinen, Karoliina Paappa, Kristian Tuomainen and Päivi Viinikainen.

The artists describe their work:
"The reality of the nature and human created culture meet at the Ars Viikinsaari 09 exhibition. Nine artists take in various ways advantage of the means of modern art in their works. The works open a dialogue with the environment and the viewer, inviting to reflect on the human relationship with nature, its meaning and essence.

The works communicate about the tension between the momentary and the permanent, about the effects of deeds and events, and the desire and longing of the human to be close to the nature, although grown away. The methods used include sculpture, photography and installations. In some of the works recycled materials, even waste have been used.

Nature does not consider which social class humans belong to, it is the same for everyone. And the human traces are ultimately the same."

Viikinsaari island


Pictures: Making of Ars Viikinsaari by Vili Nissinen

Meet Composer Michael Law

Looking at the credits of the short films made at Tampere School of Art and Media this and last year you notice that the composer is often Michael Law. This was obvious at Tampere Art Factory festival in May; the music score was made by him in six of the films screened. Michael Law has composed the music e.g. for Hera by Sanni Rajapolvi and Sideline by Maria Kaurismäki, both presented earlier in this blog. He has also done a lot of projects that are not related to our school.

Already as a child he knew he would work in film business. At the age of 12 he started composing, first game music, but later mainly film music. Today he has studied sound design at TAMK School of Art for two years, so he is half the way to graduate as Bachelor of Culture and Arts.

At his webpage he comments admission to School of Art and Media:

"I'm thrilled I got in! It's like my dreams are actually really starting to come true! It will be great to handle both music and sound professionally before making a jump into the big business :)"

You can learn more about Michael Law (his real name is Miro Laiho) and listen to his works at his website.

Michaellawmusic.com
Michael Law fan page at Facebook
Photo from MichaelLawMusic.com