Tampere - the Focal Point of Northern Europe

Where is Tampere? At the edge of the tundra? Why should one bother to move to Tampere to study or to do business?

Tampere is actually the central spot of Northern Europe. If you draw a circle with a radius of 1000 km, including the Baltic sea, Scandinavia, Finland, and northern Russia, your circle will hit the Russian capital Moscow, the Polish capital Warsaw, Rostock in Germany and Hammerfest in northern Norway. And there it is, the centre of this circle, Tampere in Finland.

This 1000 km circle includes capitals like Copenhagen (distance from Tampere 913 km), Oslo (726 km), Stockholm (394 km), Helsinki (160 km), Tallin (235 km), Riga (505 km), Vilnius (762 km) and Minsk (873 km). St. Petersburg (396 km) is really close.

Tampere is really accessible: Direct flights from Riga, Milan, Bremen, Frankfurt, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki, train from St. Petersburg and Helsinki, ferry + train from Tallin, Stockholm, Gdynia, Travemünde and Rostock.

Tampere is an attractive and international centre for students, 200 000 inhabitants and 40 000 students of higher education in four universities. The cultural life is rich, and the city is surrounded by beautiful lakes and forests.

Bachelor's Degree Programme in English at Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Photo: The Degree Programme in Media is located in Finlayson old cotton mill in the centre of Tampere

TAMK New Admission Website in English

The English admission pages for the new TAMK have been launched.

The pages mainly serve foreign applicants, so they focus on marketing the English degree programmes and giving information about TAMK and Finland. The application period for the English degree programmes is 11.1. – 12.2.2010.

TAMK’s and PIRAMK’s current English webpages remain as they are until the end of 2009. After the 1st of January, both the Finnish and English admissions pages are modified into TAMK’s official webpages.

One of the TAMK degree programmes taught in English is the Media Programme at the School of Art and Media.

The Media Programme started this year, and has students from China, Greece, Iran, Peru, Serbia, South Africa, the UK and of course from Finland.

The Media Programme
The English admission pages for the new TAMK

Electrician Team: First We Took St.Petersburg, Now We Take SiChuan

This is a note from director of Electrician Miina Alajärvi, sent to members of the Electrician group on Facebook:

Heihoi!

I'm writing from my vacation in Sweden. Good news reach even here! The Electrician keeps on compeeting around the world!

The Electrician is competing for student film award in Kettupäivät (Finnish for "Fox Days"), an annual Finnish short and documentary film festival in Helsinki. The 26th Kettupäivät will take place from November 4 2009 until November 7 2009. They haven't announced the schedule yet, but I'm inviting everyone in Helsinki to come and see it to Andorra! I'll be there for sure.
Kettupäivät

I got good news today,
The Electrician has been nominated for Special Jury Award of International “Gold Panda” Awards for Student of 2009 (10th) Sichuan TV Festival. The first website is amazing. Not a word in English. Totally psychedelic!
09年新晋3D主流网游《天下贰》，网易六年亿资打造
10th Sichuan TV Festival

And last but not least The Electrician is off to Italy!
THE ELECTRICIAN's been officialy selected for the next edition of Imaginaria’s festival. The 7th Imaginaria will take place in Conversano, Italy from 11 to 15 november 2009.
Imaginaria Film Festival

So Finland, China and Italy in November. In China they actually still do execute people with electric chair. How will they like Marvin?

puss ach kram
Miina

***
The Electrician won three prizes in the Beginning Film Festival in St.Petersburg.

The Electrician will be busy next weeks at following festivals:
4.-7.11: Kettupäivät, Helsinki
4.-8.11: Arctic Fury Film Festival, Rovaniemi, Finland
6.-8.11: 10th SiChuan TV Festival
11.-15.11: Imaginaria Film Festival, Conversano, Italy
17.-21.11: YOUKI 11 international Youth Media Festival, Wels, Austria
19.-20.11: Arctic & Fabulous Film Festival Jyväskylä, Finland
19.-22.11: Up-and-coming International Film Festival, Hannover, Germany
4.-12.12: Rencontres Henri Langlois, International Film Schools Festival, Poitiers, France

The Electrician, with premiere in February this year, has been shown at several festivals in Finland and in Norway, Switzerland, UK, Germany, Portugal, Czech Republic, Puerto Rico and Russia.

The Electrician home
Electrician group@Facebook

Electrician in this blog

Enthusiastic Adventurers: Come to Demola!

Demola is seeking enthusiastic adventurers to research and development projects.

Act now, and gain:

• company contacts
• project experience
• credit points on learning by doing
• multidisciplinary teamwork
• business opportunities
• reward from the job well done

Demola is currently seeking agile and active students to R&D projects for local and global companies. Projects available on following themes:

• software and service development
• Ubiquitous Computing
• web technologies
• usability and user interfaces
• creative content design
• games development
• mobile and social media
• new communication models
• business development

Check the projects and join us!

Demola is an open innovation environment for university students and ICT and media companies operating in the Tampere Region. It is a service provided jointly by Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere University and Technology Centre Hermia Ltd.

Demola provides students with business relevant and challenging topics for project courses. For the execution of the projects students are encouraged to team up on a multi-disciplinary basis. World class couching for the teams is provided by partners of the Demola community.

Demola
Read more about Demola in this blog

Arctic Film Festivals Like Our Films

Arctic Fury Film Festival
4.-8.11.2009 Rovaniemi
Invited School of Art and Media Films:
Alone
The Electrician
Rain Must Fall

Arctic & Fabulous Film Festival
19.11-20.11.2009 Jyväskylä
Invited School of Art and Media Films:
Adaption
Diary of a Person with Asperger’s Syndrome
The Electrician

The School of Art and Media student films are touring this autumn on film festivals all over Europe. Two festivals focusing on Nordic Films have invited three films each from our school.

The Electrician was invited to both festivals.
It is already introduced in our blog several times.

Diary of a Person with Asperger’s Syndrome was introduced ten days ago in this story.

Follow those links to read more about the Electrician and the Asperger Diary, now this blog introduces the films only mentioned here before:

Piilo/Alone, directed by Aleksi Närvä is a short thriller. A young boy, Kasper is going home alone, while her mother is once again working all day. Suddenly, Kasper must begin to hide and search a way out, when two burglars break in to the house. The film asks a question: Can a child survive a number of horrible and traumatic events all by himself?

Alone website with trailer

The short film Rain Must Fall (Ennustus) is written and directed by Anna-Kaisa Haapala. The story takes place in post-war Finland during the rebuilding years 1948 - 1956. The film is based on a real story and shows the tragic struggle of a family trying to survive one day at a time.
Director's comment: "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.

Trailer with English subtitles

Adaption is the graduate film of our Fine Art Programme student Henna Inkinen, shown at Tampere Art Factory last spring. The director tells the story about the film:

"In my film series Suicidal Tendencies, I examine the manifestations of suicidality. The first part dealt with the suicidal aspects of the physical existence and the anxiety created by the body image. In the second part, Adaption, I sink my teeth into the romance of death, the Gothic conception of beauty where cruelty and beauty intertwine.

The main character of the film is a 30-year old woman who is making the decision of her life. She is one of the many burnt-out workers of the modern day, of whom the society expects more and more unrealistic results. Adaption takes place in a Finnish scenery of the mind: the wintery period of darkness. The locations include a dark seaside, a sauna and a forest at night.

Every now and then our subconscious writes our dreams as cruel horror stories. The self-inflicted fear we face there is near to the core of the film Adaption. A powerful sense of panic creates a strong atmosphere for the film. The desire and dread for death are beautiful in their horror. There is a strong presence of otherness, which is visualized as transitions from one time and era to another.

The displacement between reality and the dream or fantasy can also be interpreted as a kind of inter-generational Déja vù phenomenon. On the other hand, it depicts the workings of a suicidal mind; the sense of one’s existence is being shaken up and the mind and the personality are overwhelmed by the uncontrollable otherness."

Experimental films by Henna Inkinen

Photo from Adaption

MindTrek 2009 Now Online

The international MindTrek Conference 2009 is now over. While waiting for the 2010 conference next October, you can enjoy the contents of the 2009 online. Even if you were one of the 800+ participants, you could not be present on every track of the conference nor the many parallel workshops on the pre-conference partner's events day.

Following the materials link below, you'll find a huge resource of videos and presentations.

MindTrek 2009 materials

View MindTrek 2009 Photo Albums at MindTrek Fan Page on Facebook

MindTrek is the leading Nordic digital media and business conference, focusing on social media & Web 2.0. At MindTrek you always see the newest trends, innovations, revolutionary business phenomena and hear insights from the most high-spirited visionaries.

MindTrek is arranged by the MindTrek Association, which is a non-profit umbrella organization for societies working in the fields of digital media and information society. The association organises the annual MindTrek conference and the MindTrek competition and arranges different kinds of seminars and workshops on important themes in the field.

The association consists of university partners, non-governmental organizations and companies. It is unique in the sense that it does not only cover the field of commerce but also science, research and citizens.

TAMK School of Art and Media is one of the founders and most active players of the association.

MindTrek
More about MindTrek in this blog

Photo: MindTrek Conference is a great opportunity for School of Art and Media students to meet the best experts and designers of interactive media. Not only the conference, but also the numerous side-events. Here our Media Programme students follow presentations of the three winners of the Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards.

DETVET Had a Brilliant Start

The kick-off session of the DETVET project was rounded off late Thursday afternoon with a tour to Klaipeda's old brewery.

Earlier all the important decisions to make the project running efficiently over the next two years. The project plan was scrutinised in detail and many specifications made.

The main form of activities is partner meetings, to be arranged January 2010 in Malmö/Lund, Sweden, April in Sant'Angelo, Italy, October in Odense, Denmark, January 2011 in Olomouc, Czech Republic and May 2011 in Tampere, Finland.

The meeting also started the DETVET blog to be launced in November and the DETVET Google-group for communication and work between the meetings.

The steering committee members were chosen, dissemination plan made and the tools for investigations discussed.

The aim of the project is to form an international sustainable partnership in order to improve VET teachers’ competencies in education techniques.

The objectives of the project are:

• to make an inventory, exchange, evaluate and disseminate the best in-service training practice, methods which enable VET teachers to acquire and develop their competencies focused on education techniques,
• to compare educational competencies development needs of VET teachers in participating countries,
• to test a chosen method in the partner institution or silent partner,
• to produce a Common Methodology Framework for the teachers from various fields of VET system enabling to reach an optimal efficiency when assisting students in learning process, also helping them in choosing adequate material and tools for their knowledge practical implementation.

The project will run until end of July 2011. DETVET is a partnership project funded by the EU Leonardo da Vinci Programme.

The role of TAMK Teacher's Education Centre and the School of Art and Media in this project is to contribute to the expertise of using Social Media in education and training.

VET = Vocational education and training
DETVET = Development of Educational Techniques in Vocational Education and Training

Pictured: Most members in a DETVET family photo. Standing in the back row on right TAMK delegates Sisko Mällinen and Jarno Tolonen.

manSEDANse Played

On Wednesday afternoon, students of the International Media programme took part of manSEDANse, an annual festival of electronic music, art and culture taking place at Tampere. Even though the festival also consists of various club nights and workshops, we only attended the "Play!" seminar, a lecture and a panel talk about game development and research.

Jaakko Stenros, a game researcher at the University of Tampere, introduced us to "Lucid Society", a lecture that focuses on game's social and cultural development, as well as the impact on people's everyday lives.

The seminar continued with a discussion of "Games as Art" with panelists Jaakko Stenros, Jussi Holopainen (a game researcher at Nokia Research Center) and Arto Koistinen (Dicework Games). The talk raised a number of interesting questions among the audience, who actively took part in the discussion.

Last but not least, Juho Hartikainen, Teemu Haila and Juhani Hujala presented Game Development Club Score's recent activities, such as projects and gamedev trips abroad. They also talked about the actual process of game development and the techniques involved.

So far the IMPs have had pretty hectic consecutive weeks as we've visited FinnGraf, Mindtrek and now manSEDANse. Let's hope all these conferences and seminars give us a lot of inspiration for future projects. Here we come EUROPRIX! ;)

Story and photos: Anna Tikkanen

IMPs are students of the Degree Programme in Media of TAMK School of Art and Media (Interactive/International Media Programme)
More stories about IMPs
Media Programme home

Postcard from Klaipeda

Hello from Klaipeda, Lithuania! The TAMK delegation travelled here today via Riga, Latvia. Soon we will meet our partners representing educational institutions from Lithuania, Czech Republic, Italy, Denmark and Sweden.

Our meeting is the kick-off for the DETVET (Development of Educational Techniques in Vocational Education and Training) project. Educational institutions have to find new ways of addressing the needs of education in the networked globalized world. The main task of TAMK in this project is to research and demonstrate the possibilities social media has to give.

The project is funded by the EU Leonardo da Vinci Programme.

Members of TAMK delegation are Sisko Mällinen, TAMK Teacher's Education Centre, Jarno Tolonen, e-Edu learning technology centre and Cai Melakoski, TAMK School of Art and Media.

You will read more about DETVET soon!

Pictured: Cai, Sisko and Jarno in sunny Klaipeda today

manSEDANse Opens Tomorrow

"manSEDANse is a festival of electronic music, art and culture taking place in Tampere, Finland. In it's fourth year, manSEDANse keeps gaining momentum and magnitude to bring forth electronic culture of the highest order!"

manSEDANse is clubs at Klubi and Telakka October 8-11, see
manSEDANse Lineup

manSEDANse is also a week long day-time exhibition at Finlayson focusing on electronic culture. The exhibition takes place from Tuesday 6th to Sunday 11th of October at Media Museum Rupriikki, located in the Finlayson area. Entry to the exhibition is free throughout the week.
Exhibitions and events

Tampere School of Art and Media is manSEDANse partner since 2007, and this year we have an active role in two of the events; manSEDANse Play on Wednesday and TTVO Showcase on Friday.

manSEDANce Play! Wed October 7:
14:15-14:45 Jaakko Stenros: Towards a Ludic Society
15:00-16:00 Games as Art panel discussion, led by Olli Sotamaa, participants Jaakko Stenroos, Jussi Holopainen (Nokia), Arto Koskinen (Dicework Games) and Juho Hartikainen (Score/School of Art and Media)
16:15-18:00 Game Development Club Score presentations: Juho Hartikainen, Teemu Haila and Juhani Hujala. You can try out games designed by Score Game Development Club.

TTVO Showcase Fri October 9 10-16:
(TTVO = Tampere UAS School of Art and Media)
Media Art by the present and graduated students of the Degree Programme in Fine Arts

manSEDANse venues (map)

Photo: The events are at Finlayson in the Vooninkisali hall of Rupriikki Media Museum

Documentary Maker Swanhilde de Jong from NHL

Swanhilde de Jong made a staff exchange last week to TAMK School of Art and Media. The students of our MA in Screenwriting Programme work with a course on genres, and Swanhilde brought the expertise of documentary scriptwriting to this course. She said she enjoyed her work very much, the students showed a very professional attitude.

Swanhilde came from Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. She is Senior Lecturer in Multimedia Design at NHL. The university is one of our five partners in the Netherlands.

Swanhilde has been project manager for documentary film projects in Uganda and Namibia. She also directs documentaries for her own company, Swanhilde de Jong Produkties, and for Omrop Fryslân.

She also had some time to participate in the MindTrek Conference during her visit.

Swanhilde de Jong (LinkedIn profile)
NHL University

MA in Screenwriting

Pictured: Swanhilde de Jong at the entrance to TAMK main campus, where he was hosted by the Head of TAMK International Office, Riku-Matti Kinnunen

Three Questions to Andy Walker, the Scriptwriter

MA in Screenwriting is a joint programme of TAMK UAS and University of Salford, UK. The third edition of the programme started in September.

Some of the lecturers of the course have already been introduced in this blog. When Andy Walker was about to leave after his three week long period with the MA in Screenwriting students I managed to steal two minutes of his time for a photo on our roof garden, but there was no time for an interview. So it was made in Facebook afterwards:

Who are you and what is you job in general?
My name is Andy Walker and I'm a scriptwriter. I've worked on numerous unmade feature film scripts that are probably doomed to sit in offices around Europe and nearly, but not quite, get made. This doesn't stop me trying! Fortunately, BBC Radio 4 have been very kind over the years and I've had several original plays broadcast. I've made several short films and have shown them at festivals in London, Paris, New York and, of course, Manchester.

What do you do with MA in Screenwriting?
I'm currently an Honorary Visiting Fellow (in Screenwriting) at the University of Salford where I teach part-time. On the MA Film Screenwriting, I encourage the students to take a fresh look at genre and realise the power-of-the-premise. I lead workshops throughout the year where we critique student scripts and also supervise the writing of final project scripts; several this year have gone on to receive funding and reach the latter stages of Hollywood script-writing competitions.

What do you think about MA in Screenwriting?
I think it's a terrific course for anyone who wants to focus and get down to some real, professional level screenwriting and produce cinematic scripts that are not only original, visually breathtaking and beautifully written but have a chance of finding their place in the international marketplace.

Read all stories about MA in Screenwriting

Pictured: Andy Walker

Kristiina Lehto's Asperger Syndrome Document Now with English Subs

Diary of a Person with Asperger’s Syndrome is a documentary film written, directed and produced by Kristiina Lehto. She made this document, because Asperger's syndrome is present in her family. Kristiina wants to help people to understand what Asperger's syndrome is about. Every day person's with AS experience much injustice, because people don't understand their behaviour.

The film has been shown on a number of festivals, and it was one of the "Creators of the Future" films screened by the TV2 Documentary Project last summer.

Kristiina studies film and television at TAMK School of Art and Media.

Synopsis: The document describes how a person with Asperger’s syndrome sees and experiences this world. We learn how a person with Asperger’s syndrome regards living in this society and how difficult it is for them.

You can now enjoy the film online with subtitles in English:
Diary of a Person with Asperger’s Syndrome

Asperger Syndrome (Wikipedia)

MindTrek Diary, Day Two: Celebrating Aleksi, Joost and Frank

MindTrek is a world class conference with famous keynote speakers and sessions that deal with the most important issues of the digital future. If you want to learn more, check out the MindTrek website.

TAMK is one of the proud key institutions behind MindTrek, we are really happy to be a crucial part of this stunning event.

This blog does not however monitor the big stars of the global event, we keep in touch with the grassroot level.

IMPs, the international Media Programme students of TAMK School of Art and Media were there having breakfast in time before the shows started. Aleksi, one of the IMPs (in center), had his birthday, all the fellow IMPs sung the birthday song, and Aleksi's muffin was powered up with whipped cream and strawberries,

Our previous post presented the Innovator project, showed this week at MindTrek and next week in Cannes.

Pictured find Pauli Kopu, the driving force of the Innovator project, and Professor Jukka P. Saarinen from Nokia Research Centre in Tampere, the Brain behind Demola and God Father of the Innovator at the Innovator stand at MindTrek.

Matti Särkilahti and Tuomas Rinne, Business Information System students and Antti Salomaa, Interaction Design student at TAMK UAS, who have been envolved in successful Demola projects, presented their work to MindTrek participants.

The day was wrapped out with the MindTrek Awards Ceremony. Here you see the winners of Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards, from right to left: Third Price winner Jan Roters, Traffic Light Detector (Germany), second prize winner Katrina Bekessy, PING, the Smart Trash Bin (USA), and the winners with Donkeypedia Frank Alsema and Joost van Eeden, the Netherlands.

Mirette Kangas (left) from YLE New Media and Hanna Puro, Zento Interactive are frequent MindTrek visitors, but surpricingly they met today for the first time at MindTrek after they worked together at the EUROPRIX jury in 2002 in Salzburg.

MindTrek
Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards

Donkeypedia
PING: The Smart Trash Bin
Traffic Light Detector

Meet the Innovator in Tampere or Cannes

October starts today and that means two awesome events. First MindTrek at Tampere. And next week: The MIPCOM at Cannes.

If you are participating in Mindtrek you can meet us at the hotel Rosendal on Demola stand and if you'r visiting Demola you can find us somewere around Innovator and Cameo Agency corner.

At MIPCOM we are having fun with outher Finnish indie producers at Favex stand.
Innovator goes public in both of these and the main focus is to meet people interested in R&D stuff, new ideas and of course TV-formats and social media.

Yesterday we met important people at Yle and luckily all of them were thrilled about Innovator! That means: Innovator and us are feeling great!

Innovator is joint production with Demola, PAKO Studio, Prame, Pakastin and Yle.

Contact: Pauli Kopu, PAKO Studio
More news about Innovator

The members of the Innovator core team are TAMK School of Art and Media students