Arts Council of Finland and AVEK grants for ”Youth as a Refugee” project

Youth from Härmälä group home and Schoool of Art and Media  students in a festival against racism in Tampere 21 March at Kuusela Centre for Seniors

The community art project being made for Europe’s Capital of Culture year 2010 exhibition in Dortmund has received a grant from Arts Council of Finland and R&D grant from AVEK (The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture).

Going by the working title ”Youth as a Refugee”, the project is is being made by artist Pekka Niskanen and the art students Anna Knappe, Timo Piikkilä and Jaana Riistola together with young refugees from Lammi reception centre and Härmälä group and group family homes.

AVEK’s R&D subsidy , Vieteri, is meant for the development of new forms of audiovisual expression and narrative potential.  ”Youth as a Refugee” project has also been supported by the Finnish Labour Museum Werstas and Finnish Refugee Council. During the project the team teaches the young to film and edit videos, in which they get to tell about their life in the reception centres. The finished videos will be gathered into a website that opens in summer 2010.

There will be eight art projects by TAMK Fine Art students at Dortmund’s Inter-Cool 3.0 exhibition. You can learn more about Inter-Cool 3.0 exhibition from the blog post "Art students join Damien Hirst in an exhibition".

The Inter-Cool 3.0 exhibition opens 17 September in Dortmund, after which it will be also shown in Wien, Leeds and Tampere.

Text: Pekka Niskanen and Anna Knappe

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Inter-Cool 3.0
RUHR.2010
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Whistle While You Work nominated in Brussels

The directional debut of Jussi Sandhu and Ville Hakonen, "Whistle While You Work", has been chosen to the international competition of the 13th Brussels short film festival (29.4-9.5). It's nominated with 53 films from around the world and is one of the two Finnish films competing this year.

The movie tells the story of Tommi Virtanen, a brave workhorse who doesn't mind doing any extra hours earning his managers trust. However, he doesn't intend to get stuck in his current position but wants to ascent in his career. One day Tommi has an idea.

Whistle while you work is a film about work, family and obsession - in short, a film about Finns.

Story: Jussi Sandhu
Picture: Screenshot from the film (Anne-Mari Musturi)

Helvetin hyvää työtä / Whistle While You Work Fiction, 10 min
Directors: Jussi Sandhu, Ville Hakonen
Script: Jussi Sandhu
Cinematographer: Anne-Mari Musturi
Sound: Markus Aaltonen, Tomi Pietilä
Editor: Ville Hakonen
Music: Ville Rauhala, Ville Hakonen
Set designer: Aino Suni
Costume designer: Tuuli Pollari
Makeup: Anita Ahola
Graphics: Anne-Mari Musturi
Production: Mikko Helmanen, Mirva Savolainen, Juha Lindstedt
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Facebook group
List of films nominated in Brussels (international competition):
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"Connection Lost" Victorius in the Languages Through Lenses 2010 Competition

Outi Hartikainen directs actor Pertti Hokkanen at the demo video shoots

The film competition Languages Through Lenses 2010 organized by European Commission, ELIA in partnership with PRIX EUROPA and in cooperation with CILECT brought victory to "Connection Lost", a short film script written by Hannu Koivuranta and Outi Hartikainen.

An international jury chose 15 best scripts from over a 100 participants from 18 EU-countries. Each script will be given a 5000 EUR grant for the production. The main themes of the scripts are about motivating people to learn languages and raising interest in different cultures.

A demo video was produced for "Connection Lost" and it was presented to the international jury. You can watch the video at http://vimeo.com/9813376. The video was made at the school studio in front of a greenscreen, but the final short film will be shot on location. Plans for using a motion capture -suit with live action filming are underway.

2nd year film students Hannu and Outi - together with scriptwriting lecturer Arto Koskinen - are headed to Amsterdam on the 15th and 16th of April to develop the script to its final version with international professionals. The competition itself is far from over since the short films to be produced from the scripts will compete at Prix Europa next October as a part of the Berlin Film Festival.

Story: Hannu Koivuranta

TAMK is ELIA and CILECT member
ELIA (The European League of Institutes of the Arts)
CILECT ( International Association of Film and Television Schools)

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Prix Europa
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Tampere Art Factory Programme Published

TAMK School of Art and Media
3rd International Week May 3-7 2010
3rd Tampere Art Factory (TAF) Festival May 7-9 2010

The programme of the third Tampere Art Factory is now online on the TAF blog. The blog has pages for TAF programme both in Finnish and English.

Also the International Week, attracting 50 participants from 17 institutes from 10 countries has its own page on the blog.

Go to:
http://tampereartfactory.blogspot.com

Swallow Your Fears, Raven’s Song and Whistle While You Work are screened in Kinos10 film festival this weekend

From Raven's Song

The seventh annual Kinos –film festival in Lahti this year presents stories about what dreams are made of.

TAMK School of Art and Media is well represented throughout the four-day festival. The student’s short films, documents and animations are shown side by side with the ones of prestigious artists and filmmakers such as Jani Ruscica, Teemu Mäki and Anssi Kasitonni.

The TTVO-films shown are second year art student Laura Rytkönen’s animation Swallow Your Fears, third year students Aino Suni’s and Kerttu Hakkarainen’s Raven’s Song and Jussi Sandhu’s and Ville Hakonen’s Whistle While You Work.

Some TTVO-graduates’ works are also represented, such as Helena Yli-Kyyny’s Sotilasmuistoni, Anna-Kaisa Haapala’s Rain Must Fall and Hannaleena Hauru’s Catching.

The Kinos10 –festival is held 25.-28.3.2010 in the best movie theatre in Lahti: Kino Iiris, Saimaankatu 12.
And what’s best, the festival is free of charge!

Story: Aino Suni and Laura Rytkönen

From Swallow Your Fears

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Kinos10 Festival
Raven's Song
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Also Interactive Media Students Paint

Tuesday evening painting classes take place in TAMK School of Art and Media every week. Students from different degrees such as Media, Fine Arts and also exchange students are welcome to release their feelings through a canvas with oil paints. The course is designed to develop and enhance the use of shape, color and value in oil painting.

Tarmo Paunu is a fabulous teacher who is easy to learn from, easy to talk to, and gives honest advice and remarks of work.

In addition, painting course is one of the many optional studies for Media students who wish to improve their traditional art skills besides learning latest graphical software in digital world. 

Story and Photos: Amir Abdi
The writer is a first year Media Programme (IMP) student

International Week Workshop and TAF: Nou&Herkauw

The result of the workshop will be experienced at TAF Party May 7

Nou&Herkauw is a collective of artists and students who work in several disciplines such as media art, graphic design, illustration, and theatre. In collaboration with students of the Academy for Popculture they develop all kinds of interactive VJ performances for cultural events and dance events through out Holland.

The setup of Nou&Herkauw is most similar to an OpenLab. The basic idea of a performance is that it starts with totally nothing and that all the visual content is created on the spot during the event. This can be anything! What starts with nothing evolutes to one big dynamic composition of animations, looped sketches, errors, mobile phone streams, live paintings, and so on. Projected on screens or walls in the rhythm of the music of the DJ’s or musicians. The visitors of the event are invited to participate and become makers in this collective creative process.

Idea for TAF
In the workshop during the international week of TAF, Nou&Herkauw will develop a live performance for official TAF party at Friday the 7th of May. The Lab of Nou&Herkauw is a collection of different low-tech/high-tech techniques and modules, that all together form the setup in which artists and visitors can create their visuals. 
Examples of different modules are: Animation tools, cameras, twitter based vj tools, etc. The objective of the workshop is to develop a collection of modules and techniques, which combined form an OpenLab at the TAF party. The students will develop and also perform their concepts.


The objectives of the workshop are:

• An exchange of ideas, experience and knowledge between international students.
• Gaining more knowledge of developing and realising interactive performance concepts.
• An introduction to VJ techniques and culture, creative programming (Isadora, Processing, Max/Msp Jitter), and theatre performance.
• Establish a durable collaboration trajectory between the participating students and universities.

Adri Schokker, teacher at the Academy for Popculture and creative artist at Nou&Herkauw will host the workshop. There will also be students from the Academy of Popculture and other international students.
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There are now seven registered workshops led by our international partners during our International Week. We will introduce them all, until now we have presented:
Interactive Cinema Workshop
"Are You Talking to Me?!" -workshop
Design Spam Workshop
Creative Editing Workshop

Happy Ada Lovelace Day 2010!

Today blogs all over the world celebrate Ada Lovelace day, so does this blog.

Many of us find computers quite boring. What fascinates us is all the fabulous stuff we can create using software run by computers. For a long period of time computers were however mostly used for quite dull duties, like calculations for business and engineering, and later for designing optimal trajectories for missiles.

Today our students still claim they are "computing", although they in fact practice impressive creative and artistic work - using software as their tool.

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) wrote the first computer programmes in world for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine (which never was built). But the history (and presence) of computers and software is a very male scene.

History and present could be more magnificent if Ada had continued her work longer (She died 36 years old), or if her work would had got more open minded successors. Ada Lovelace was not only the first programmer, she was also the first to see that this technology could be applied to music and other creative fields.

Now computers are serving a large variety of human needs and dreams, but we have all reason to celebrate Ada Lovelace day March 24 each year to remind ourselves, that we need both genders to create a better world.

So congratulations to all on the occasion of the Ada Lovelace day, especially to all ladies working with creative digital art and media!

Ada Lovelace Day
Ada Lovelace (Wikipedia)

Cai Melakoski

DobleClick-cooperation paid off

TTVO-tourists in front of the university

The DobleClick-festival of University UVic was organised internationally for the first time this year, as a bunch of TTVO-students headed towards Barcelona and the town of Vic to change experiences with the university. The three-day festival consisted of not only screenings of both of the schools' films, but also of workshops given by students.

Director Minna Korhonen, cinematographer Nalle Mielonen and editor Nina Forsman were there to represent their film Family Portrait. On their workshop they focused on the use of stop motion animation in a film. In turn, the directors Ville Hakonen and Jussi Sandhu and the assistant director Milla Kaski of the film Whistle While You Work, handled green screen technique, and what they had overall learned from making the film - both in good and bad. The UVic-students' workshops consisted of everything from photography to copyright-issues.

The students thought the workshops to be very informative - even when they had been closely involved with the project in question. "Although I was a set assistant in Whistle While You Work, I hadn't known any details of using green screen in a film, until now", says Korhonen. Many of the students felt that just having given a workshop was a valuable learning experience.

TTVO-films also had success in the festival competition: Whistle While You Work grabbed the win for "Best audiovisual work" and a shared first place for "Commited Subject" with a UVic-film Hoy tampaco. Vesa Jokinen's animation Jack in a Box took home the prizes in "Best audiovisual credits" and "Creativity".

The students that took part of this trip wish all the best to the DobleClick-festival in the future and hope that the event will grow even bigger and more international. The event was filled with exceptionally good team spirit, so we believe that there will be no lack of motivation!

Story: Jussi Sandhu and Milla Kaski

The delegation was led by senior lecturer Pertti "Peeko" Näränen

Up: Ville Hakonen and Milla Kaski analyzing the green screen -process / Down: Teacher Cristina Perales and Festival organizer Miquel Cornellà capturing the workshop

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DobleClick
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Ghost Ride - Part 1 of Timo Bredenberg's Graduation Work Online

Sold Out - TAMK fine art graduation show 2010
8.-30.5. Exhibition Hall TR1 (Finlayson)
8.-25.5. Art Centre Mältinranta
Lue tämä juttu suomeksi (Read this story in Finnish)
Sold Out is the exhibition of 17 artists who graduate this spring from the Degree Programme in Fine Art of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK). The opening of the exhibition is one of the highlights of Tampere Art Factory festival.

Timo Bredenberg is one of the Sold Out artists. He has published the first part of his final thesis work online. Your comments are welcome.


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Preface by Timo Bredenberg:
In my recent practice I have observed youth cultural phenomena and social attitudes spreading in the Internet. I'm interested in the ways identity is represented in media spaces and how mediated publics affect our social behaviour.
This video is a part of two channel installation observing ghost riding phenomenon.
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Timo Bredenberg's channel Social Media Art on YouTube (Give feedback here)
Tampere Art Factory
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International Week Workshops: Creative Editing

Elie Yazbek teaching at International Week '09

Elie Yazbek, responsible of cinema studies at Saint Joseph's University, Beirut, will host the Creative Editing workshop of our International Week May 3-7. Elie comments his second visit to Tampere: "I'm very happy to join TAF team again in May 2010 during the international week, TAF students are really full of energy and need to express themselves!"

The workshop Creative Editing will start with a lecture, the first day, about the multiple theories and practice of editing through the history of cinema. This will provide the students the tools for the second part of the workshop: each student will have to create, through testing and experimentations, a video with footage imposed by the lecturer to the entire group. The main objectives are to train the students to be creative in the editing process and to understand the relationship between storytelling and editing.

Parallel to the work on the videos, students will be asked to show some of their previous short films made at TAMK and to discuss the editing choices with the lecturer and the other students.

Saint Joseph University 

There are now seven registered workshops led by our international partners during our international week. We will introduce them all, until now we have presented:
Interactive Cinema Workshop
"Are You Talking to Me?!" -workshop
Design Spam Workshop

International Week Workshops: Design Spam

Interaction designer and lecturer Pawel Pokutycki from the the Design & Communication department of the Hanze University Groningen (Academy Minerva) will host a one day workshop on day two of our International Week (May 3rd) titled:

Design Spam - workshop on conceptual and experimental approach to interaction design

Pawel explains to contents and targets of the workshop:
88% of all e-mails sent worldwide is spam, what gives about 130 billion messages per day, 84 million per minute, 1.4 million per second.

Why waste the potential of this powerful media concept and focus only on anti-spam defense instead of appreciating its beauty, improving its functionality and creating a new on-line communication tool of tomorrow?

In times when new media concepts die as quickly as they are born (and social media, augmented reality, spimes etc, are no exception!), interaction designers should never blindly follow any trends, nor should they entirely ignore the vanishing inventions of the past. Instead, they should experiment more, be critical, question the logic of contemporary communication tools, hack media reality as it is now and prototype unexpected solutions for the future.

We take spam not as a destination, but only a departure point for an inspiring, creative session based on:

• learning efficient methods of concept development for interactive media
• exploring the boundaries and experimenting with various applications of interactive media in the field communication design
• discussing contemporary trends and future scenario's related to the discipline of interaction design
• questioning the functionality and aesthetics of selected communication platforms and media environments

Academy Minerva
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TAMK School of Art and Media wraps up the academic year arranging the third International Week (May 3-7) and Tampere Art Factory festival  (May 7-9).
Read more about our International Week and Tampere Art Factory in our blog http://tampereartfactory.blogspot.com

So in TAMK, you can really earn credits by arranging Speeddates?

Well, I guess you can. At least we do.

Our project group, consisting of TAMK students, have put together two nights of mischief and mingling in which some 20 people of the opposite sex are going to have miniature dates of 3-4 minutes with all the other 20 persons. 

The first speed-date night will be held at Groove on the 17th of March and the second, a week later, on the 24th of March at Tabu. The night at Groove is targeted for people between the ages 19-27 and the Tabu night for the ages 25 to 35. Check out our website http://www.deiteille.com . From the “ilmoittaudu” section, you sign yourself in. We already have enough women, but for men there are still couple free spots.

Both of out events have stunning afterparties in same locations, so feel welcome to join the fun! Doors will open at 10 pm.

Events:
17.3. Groove Bar & Cellar, Aleksanterinkatu 22
24.3. Tabu Wine Bar & Ultra Lounge, Hämeenkatu 10

Speeddates 8 €
Afterparty 4 €, (free for our daters)

Our site is only in finnish, but in case of questions, you can reach us by email from info@deiteille.com.

Story: Tiina Heikkilä and Teemu Oikkonen

Ikuinen Gallery Presents: Alpo Nummelin's STROBE LIGHT HOME

Ikuinen Gallery
March 18 - April 1
Alpo Nummelin: Strobe Light Home
Open Mon-Fri 12-16
Finlaysoninkuja 3 Tampere

The artist, third year student of lighting design, introduces the exhibition:

"In this exhibition I explore the blurring of the borders of physical space amidst spiritual and virtual spaces. The gallery room is transformed into a regular, urban studio-sized home. Using light I bring out and actualize the metaspace in the home of a modern human. The exhibition isn't comprised of highlighted external objects, but instead it's a space meant to be experienced as a whole. Like light and thought, my exhibition is also - at its basis - immaterial."

Ikuinen gallery is a contemporary art project space located in the old factory complex Finlayson in central Tampere. The gallery is run by a board of fine art students in Tampere UAS School of Art and Media as part of their study program.

Ikuinen gallery’s main focus is in presenting interesting and high quality student work, whereas work from other art school students and teachers as well as visiting artists are regularly also at show.
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Previous Ikuinen Gallery posts
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Today and Saturday on TFF: When I Move

A film about the fear of stopping

Two TAMK School of Art and Media Films were invited to the national competition of Tampere International Film Festival. Memory of Tomorrow directed by Pekka Saari was introduced yesterday. Now When I Move by Ville Salminen is in turn:

"A barefoot girl stands on a downtown street. Her feet don't touch the ground. The girl starts to dance. She feels like flying. Meanwhile, a footballer bounces a ball in the rain on an empty football field. The ball drops in a water puddle. The footballer stares into eternity while rain runs down on her face. She picks up speed and kicks the ball into the night. It doesn't fall down..."

Kun Liikun (When I Move) is an experimental short film which combines documentary, advertising and fiction in storytelling. The 6-minute-long film introduces four people who each are devoted to moving in some way. The main characters describe their relationship with movement, how they experience surroundings when they move and what makes them give up and continue again.

When I Move was invited to many festivals in the year of its premiere:

• International Festival Signes de Nuit 2010
• Soul 4 Reel Film Festival 2010
• Minimalen Short Film Festival 2010
• Tampere Film Festival 2010
• International Short Film Festival Shnit 2009
• Reikäreuna Short Film Festival 2009

It was of course screened at the Tampere Art Factory festival 2009.

When I Move is a co-production of School of Art and Media and Obscure Entertainment

The shows of When I Move at Tampere Film Festival are:
Fri March 12
14:00-16:00 When I Move...  Plevna 5 (National Contest 10)
Sat March 13
16:00-18:00 When I Move... Plevna 2 (National Contest 10)

http://www.obscure.fi/whenimove/
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TAMK School of Art and Media at Tampere Film Festival
Tampere Film Festival March 10-14 2010
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Today and Saturday on TFF: Memory of Tomorrow

- A Story of Memories, love and letting go

Two TAMK School of Art and Media Films were invited to the national competition of Tampere International Film Festival. The documentary film When I Move directed by Ville Salminen will be introduced tomorrow.

The premiere of Memory of Tomorrow directed by Pekka Saari will have its premiere today. The shows at Tampere Film Festival will be:

Thu March 11
14:00-16:00 Memory of Tomorrow  Plevna 5 (National Contest 9)
Sat March 13
12:00-14:00 Memory of Tomorrow Plevna 2  (National Contest 9)


Director Pekka Saari comments his film:
"The film tells about Aleksi, a man who loves his wife and photography and fears death and bad lifestyle choices. After his wife’s death, Aleksi gets a chance to participate in a medical experiment, which could stop him from dying. The film’s events stretch from the 1960’s to the present day and onward into the future. In the year 2142 Aleksi is still alive. The memories of his past have been preserved in photos and video clips , but the feeling wihin them has slowly seeped away through the years.

With this film we wanted foremost to explore the questions about what are lives are made of and what in life is truly important to us. We wanted to convey  this in a way that is beautiful and hazy, liberating rather than distressing.
The film has been made with a tight budget, by students, professionals and amateurs alike. It is also the final thesis work of four students from Tampere School of Art and Media. The making of this film has required a lot of time, love, spirit and sweat. The sets were made using the the combination of digital effects  and traditional ”chipboard and duck tape” approach to set building . The film was shot both in digital RED-format, which allowed a more freedom  in the editing and effects process, and on 16mm film, according to what sort of mood and feeling the scene needed."

The leading actor of Memory of Tomorrow, Heikki Nousiainen was recently awarded Jussi, the Finnish Oscar for best leading actor.

Memory of Tomorrow is a short film produced by the School of Art and Media of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK).

Memory of Tomorrow home (in Finnish, but will shortly be in English too)
Memory of Tomorrow on Facebook (bilingual)

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TAMK School of Art and Media at Tampere Film Festival
Tampere Film Festival March 10-14 2010
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TAMK Goes Tampere Film Festival 2010

From the film Adaption

The students of TAMK School of Art and Media are annually involved in Tampere Film Festival in many ways. There are a lot of students active with the practical arrangements and duties; working or doing their work practice or voluntary work. The film and television students are also responsible for the broadcasts of the Film Festival Studio and organisation of the Film Fest Party.

The film festival is for many students a part of their studies, a considerable number of study points will be gained. The Film Festival studio is part of the Multicamera course, and participation in Film Festival seminars and workshops add to study points as well as work practice does. The biggest amount of study points is however collected in the process of shooting the films that are seen in the national competition screenings and the special show of School of Art and Media new student films.

This is how TAMK students show on the Film Festival programme:

Wed March 10
14:30-15:00 Film Festival Studio, Dina TV

Thu March 11
14:00-16:00 Memory of Tomorrow D: Pekka Saari Plevna 5 (National Contest 9)
14:30-15:00 Film Festival Studio, Dina TV
16:00-17:00 TAMK New Student Films, Pakkahuone
21:00-04:00 Film Fest Party, Klubi

Fri March 12
14:00-16:00 When I Move... D: Ville Salminen Plevna 5 (National Contest 10)
14:30-15:00 Film Festival Studio, Dina TV

Sat March 13
12:00-14:00 Memory of Tomorrow D: Pekka Saari Plevna 2 (National Contest 9)
16:00-18:00 When I Move... D: Ville Salminen Plevna 2 (National Contest 10)

Additionally many film professionals graduated from TAMK are visible at the Film Festival. E.g. five of the thirteen directors of the Finnish Music Video Show have studied here; Teemu Niukkanen, Jussi Kärnä, Iiro Hokkanen and Miikka Lommi in the Degree Programme of Media and Sami Sänpäkkilä in the Degree Programme of Fine Arts.

The films of the TAMK New Films Special Screening:
    * Adaption, D: Henna Inkinen
    * Asepussi/Gunbag, D: Jukka Hautajärvi
    * Esso, D: Petri Uusitalo
    * Helvetin hyvää työtä/Whistle while you work, D: Ville Hakonen/Jussi Sandhu
    * HERA D: Sanni Rajapolvi
    * Herääminen/The Awakening, D: Miro Laiho
    * Jackpot D: Petri Uusitalo
    * Kahvia ja tupakkaa/Coffee and Cigarettes, D: Tomi Pietilä
    * Korpin laulu/Raven's song, D: Aino Suni
    * Limppu/The Loaf, D: Pauli Kopu
    * Niin paljon sinua halusin/All that I wanted, D: Aino Suni
    * Oman onnensa leipuri/Lucky Baker, D: Markus Aaltonen
    * Perhepotretti/Family Portrait, D: Minna Korhonen
    * Pitkän päivän aamu/Finding Frank, D: Joona Sarisalmi
    * Toivon murusia/Crumbs of Hope, D: Emmi-Sofia Markkanen
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Tampere Film Festival March 10-14 2010
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Raven's song showing at Tampere Film Festival

 Seven-year-old Iiris is abandoned by her mother and thrust in the care of her relatives. The girl finds a safe haven from the world of adults in the company of her new raven friend in a cosy barn. Caring for the bird lands the girl in trouble with her relatives and she decides to run away.

Korpin laulu (Raven's Song) is a story about a child who gets overlooked and mistreated in a world governed by adults. The subject is especially topical in our busy and work-centred culture, where we children and adolescents alike are showing the symptoms of their ill feelings. Standing up for the weak is a truism that realizes itself surprisingly seldom. Good will is not always enough, for in the end it is our actions that matter.

The film was produced by the third year media students of Tampere School of Art and Media as their student project in 2009. 
Story: Aino Suni

Korpin laulu / Raven's Song
Fiction, 14 min
Director: Aino Suni
Script: Kerttu Hakkarainen
Photography: Kerttu Hakkarainen
Sound: Miro Laiho
Editing: Jussi Sandhu
Music: Miro Laiho
Production: Aino Suni, Pauli Kopu, Kerttu Hakkarainen, Linda Haapanen
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Raven's song is one of the films that will be showed at the special screening TTVO (=TAMK School of Art and Media) New Student Films at Tullikamari, Thu March 11 4pm.
Tampere International Short Film Festival
TAMK School of  Art and Media New Student Films Show
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Tampere Film Festival Studio 2010 Up and Running Today

Filkkaristudio is here again! You can follow the broadcast live through DINA or watch the recording later at www.filkkaristudio.fi.

The Film Festival Studio is one of the many projects the students of School of Art and Media carry out during the FilmFest. This year the studio is produced and made by second year students of media production and film&tv.

Wednesday 10 March
Tampere Film  Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary, and that will also be our topic of discussion at the studio. Joining us in the discussion will be Raimo Silius and Tuija Halttunen. The broadcast will also feature a look at the Festart exhibition at TR1 and culinary tips for festival visitors.
Reporters: Lotta Pelkonen and Henna Seppälä
Director: Iiro Peltonen

Thursday 11 March
Music is an essential part of films. Thursday’s broadcast features guests from this area of subject: Festival Director of World of Tango Festival Simón Riestra and members from the Poutatorvi band. Poutatorvi will be the main act at the legendary FilmFest Party. We will also tell about the operation of Obscure Entertainment co-operative and the live accompaniment of films.
Reporters: Lotta Pelkonen and Turkka Korkiamäki
Director: Marie Syrjälä

Friday 12 March
Friday’s topic is the distribution of films in all its variety. Joining us in discussion will be Head of Marketing at Sandrew Metronome Distribution Finland Peter Toiviainen and movie director Arto Halonen. We will also get to follow the work of Future Shorts and Pirkanmaa Film Centre.
Reporters: Lotta Pelkonen and Teemu Tervo
Director: Toni Anttila
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Special screening of TTVO (=TAMK School of Art and Media) New Student Films at Tullikamari, Thu March 11 4pm.

Tampere International Short Film Festival
TAMK School of  Art and Media New Student Films Show

Martin Breindl, curator of media art in Fluss museum visited Art and Media

Martin Breindl (left) and Fine Art student Jussi Koitela having a portfolio session

In the middle of February Austrian curator Martin Breindl came to TAMK, Art and Media to see the portfolios of a group of fine art students, students of the specialization studies on photography and recently graduated artists in order to choose some to a show called Young Finnish Photography.

The show is going to take place for example in Vienna art scene in Fluss museum. The curatorial group include also Ângela M. Ferreira from Porto Art Academy, Portugal and Ulrich Haas-Pursiainen from Photographic Centre Nykyaika. Ferreira comes to TAF International week in May to look the portfolios of students.

The Young Finnish Photography -exhibition is a project of Gallery-Network of Backlight and also a TAF on Tour project. The organizer of this project is Ulrich Haas-Pursiainen. Video artist Arttu Merimaa chose the new artists graduated from TAMK to the portfolio sessions.

Breindl saw 39 portfolios of the participants, and asked them to send digital portfolio for the curatorial process.

Breindl also visited The Finnish Museum of Photography, Aalto University (Department of Photography) and AV-archive.

Juha Suonpää, the Head of our Fine Arts Programme, considers the visits of the international curators as an essential part of the studies. There will be more curators to have a portfolio session with the students in the near future. The aim is to offer students a real connection to the international contemporary art world.

Story: Sari Tervaniemi
Photo: Juha Suonpää
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Kahvia ja tupakkaa: Time for the Premiere

A different kind of movie Kahvia ja tupakkaa – a pastiche to the famous movie Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) by Jim Jarmusch – was shot last autumn and now it’s the time to celebrate the premiere which is going to take place March 11 as a part of Tampere Film Festival.

Kahvia ja tupakkaa is directed by Tomi Pietilä and Jussi Sandhu is the screenwriter. The script is original and written particularly for the movie; only the style has been borrowed from the original motion picture. The story is about two men (and a waiter) who meet after many years to solve a problem that one of them is struggling with. Everything takes place in a corner table of a coffee shop. Besides cool casting - Ilkka Vieru, Kari Peitsamo and Dave Lindholm all being famous Finnish artists - is the set design a key element in the film. This was taken care of well by the set decorator Henna Seppälä.

Kahvia ja tupakkaa is one of the films that will be showed at the special screening TTVO (=TAMK School of Art and Media) New Student Films at Tullikamari, Thu March 11 4pm.

Story: Niilo Gustafsson, Media Production student
Photo: Pauli Kopu

Kahvia ja tupakkaa / "Coffee and Cigarettes"
Fiction, 4 min
Director: Tomi Pietilä
Script: Jussi Sandhu
Photography: Heidi Jokinen
Sound: Michael Böger
Editing: Anne-Mari Musturi
Music: Michael Law
Production: Pauli Kopu

Kahvia ja tupakkaa Facebook group
Coffee and Cigarettes at IMDb

Tampere International Short Film Festival
TAMK School of  Art and Media New Student Films Show
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On Tampere Film Festival: All that I Wanted

Pirjo is a woman who demands pure perfection from herself as well as others. With unusual methods Pirjo is going to secure the future of her perfect genotype as well. This short film contemplates the modern demand for flawlessness which affects us all. An absurd story told with vivid comic-like images will definitely make the viewer think.

All that I wanted is a short film made by media students of Tampere University of Applied Sciences. The crew consisted of students of cinematography, editing, lighting design, sound design and production. Professional costume and make-up designers as well as professional actors were also involved. The movie was filmed in Tampere, Finland in December 2009 and it will premiere in March 2010 in Tampere Film Festival. After this the movie will be sent to Finnish and foreign movie festivals and competitions.

If you’re interested of the movie making process, visit our blog to find out more; niinpaljon.blogspot.com
Unfortunately the blog is in Finnish, but we have a lot of interesting photos of the pre-production, location hunting, film shooting, etc.

Story: Niina Virtanen

Niin paljon sinua halusin / All that I wanted
Finland / Suomi 2010
Fiction, 4 min
Director: Aino Suni
Script: Niina Virtanen
Photography: Kerttu Hakkarainen
Sound: Arttu Hokkanen
Editing: Jussi Sandhu, Ville Hakonen
Music: Arttu Hokkanen
Production: Niina Virtanen
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All that I wanted is one of the films that will be showed at the special screening TTVO (=TAMK School of Art and Media) New Student Films at Tullikamari, Thu March 11 4pm.

Tampere International Short Film Festival
TAMK School of  Art and Media New Student Films Show
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International Week Workshop: Interactive Cinema by Chris Hales

Chris Hales will be back again in Tampere to run a self-contained workshop about the 'interactive moving image' - involving the design and actual production of a prototype in which interactivity and video imagery are combined.

Chris has run many successful workshops around Europe, including several at TAMK Art and Media which have resulted in memorable results. Interactive films involving sauna culture, the streets and pubs of Tampere, a murder mystery, and even Santa Claus, have emerged from Chris's workshops, which often take inspiration from the unique location of Tampere.

The workshop commences with lectures and case-studies in order to provide background about the ways in which moving images have been, and could be, made interactive - and why. Interactive television, mobile phones, iPods, DVDs, computers, websites, ‘live’ performance and cinematic display will all be mentioned as possible means of showing interactive moving imagery. Different types of content such as fiction, advertising, music-related, artistic, educational and documentary will be considered.

Students will be expected to present a concept for an interactive film in response to the techniques and ideas shown, and several of these will actually be produced as functional prototypes. Depending on the class size it will be possible to work as an individual or in small groups. Video cameras will be used to create footage which will be digitised and prepared and subsequently combined with interactivity. Adobe Director will be recommended, demonstrated and fully supported as a suitable authoring tool, although students are welcome to use other software such as Flash, DVD Studio Pro or Quartz Composer. Interaction technology might involve audio input, sensors/Arduino, keyboard, fiducial markers, or video imaging.

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The results of the workshop will be shown at Tampere Art Factory.

The author has visited TAMK School of Art and Media annually since 2001 with his Interactive Cinema workshop. Chris Hales has also frequently visited Tampere Film Festival, MindTrek and Tampere Art Factory performing the Interactive Cinema show "Cause and Effect" together with Teijo Pellinen. Cause and Effect has been shown on numerous Film and Media Festivals around Europe.

Our International Week will be May 3-7 and the opening weekend of Tampere Art Factory May 7-9 2010.

Read more on Tampere Art Factory blog
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Creative Cooperation with Tartu

Raul Oreshkin and Külli Hansen on our snowy roof top garden

We welcomed again visitors from the Estonian twin city of Tampere, Tartu. Külli Hansen and Raul Oreshkin, representatives of Tartu Centre for Creative Industries were guests of Creative Tampere for two days to learn about creative institutions in Tampere. Tampere UAS Finlayson campus with the School of Art and Media and the proAcademy were targets of the tour.

The contacts between different cultural institutions in Tampere and Tartu are very intense. Also TAMK School of Art and Media and Tartu Art College have close cooperation including staff and student exchange.

Last year students of our Fine Arts Programme had the MAAVARA (Ride Height) exhibition in Tartu, and the Tartu College of Fine Art Graduation Show Lend n 2009 exhibited in Tampere.


Tartu Centre for Creative Industries
Creative Tampere

Lend n 2009
MAAVARA (Ride Height)

GUEST POST: What ever you have done before, has brought you here

Written by Albert van der Kooij

Arriving at the International Week smoke sauna evening 2008: Albert's colleague Adri Schokker, Albert van der Kooij, Interactive Cinema Doctor Chris Hales, lecturer Sohvi Sirkesalo and Head of Film and Television Programme Leena Mäkelä, TAMK

My first trip to Finland included a visit to Mindtrek, the Nordic digital media and business conference, focusing on social media & Web 2.0.

I met Cai Melakoski, head of the Media Programme of TAMK and involved in the organisation of Mindtrek. He invited me to come to the International Week and TAF. And so I did… on one condition: I wanted to take some students with me. Internationalisation is not only for international officers, but especially for the students and their future perspective.

TAF and the international week were great. Besides enjoying the visit to Finland and – climax – the authentic smoke sauna, I’ve met several partners from TAMK. The result: some of them are now appreciated partners of the Academy of Popculture. For instance:  Chris Hales came to our School to do a workshop with students of three universities in Leeuwarden.
Last year we’ve visited Liepaja University and did a project with students of the media & art department: ‘What ever you have done before, has brought you here’.

We even met colleagues from the School of Arts from Utrecht/The Netherlands :)
Now we have a warm relationship with them.

The VJ/Audioworkshop and presentation at TAF with our students and students of TAMK was a great success:
Video 1 
Video 2

So successfully that we went to Tampere again in 2009. Students from TAMK came to Leeuwarden last year November for a workshop and presentation at our open day, called Brick by Brick.

What started as a one-to-one conversation, is now one of the basics of our internationalisation strategy: looking for people who are open minded, are willing to share connections and knowledge and realising a natural growing, open source network.

This year we’ll be back at the international week. With again enthusiastic students and lecturers.

See you and your students in May 2010

Albert van der Kooij
Director Academy of Pop Culture
Leeuwarden/the Netherlands
The Academy of Popculture is a department of Academy of Fine Arts, Design & Pop Culture MINERVA from the Hanze University Groningen of Applied Sciences

Fine Art Students in X-OP-project

Mikko Keskiivari in Hagia Sofia

X-OP Festival, Event of the border areas of Europe
Art School Maa, with the head of the school Bo Karsten, organizes X-OP Festival. The festival is taking  place in Helsinki in November 2010. It is a Contemporary art festival (fine arts, performance art and experimental music). In this year there will be also other events by X-OP-net for example in Balkan area, which aims to give opportunity for Finnish artists to show their artworks abroad.

Katri Kainulainen, Bo Karsten, Kari Yli-Annala and Sami Maalas

 X-OP European Studies

A part of the festival is X-OP European Studies offered by Art School Maa. In this group there is six young artists among them Paula Lehtonen, Outi Yliviikari and Sami Maalas who graduated from TAMK and also some third year students for example Martta Tuomaala and Mikko Keskiivari.

X-OP European Studies offers a possibility to study what Europa represents – and what could be the role of an artist as an active participant in European society. In X-OP Festival the students curate artists to the event and also show their own projects that they have been working with during the studies.
The festival includes a seminar that offers a forum to discuss the possibilities of alternative art education. The new forms of art education often appear as an alternative to academic and hierarchic organizations. The seminar is organized in collaboration with the Finnisch Academy of Fine Arts, Theatre Academy Helsinki, Aalto University and Tampere University of Applied Sciences (Art and Media).
Istanbul Biennial 2009 curated by WHW-curator collective was the subject of the first part of the X-OP European Studies. Below you can find short  comments about Istanbul Biennial -section by Martta Tuomaala and Mikko Keskiivari.
 

X-OP is a gradually growing network of artists, researchers, operators, producers and cultural institutions with the aim to establish an European platform for the creation of art. With it’s places, spaces and it’s user accustomed technological infrastructure it fosters the mobility of the participants, while strengthening the Inter-European collaboration, common production and interdisciplinary approach to art.

The X-OP partner organizations include Kibla (SI) , Art School MAA (FI), Media in Motion (DE), Apartment Project (TR), Egon March Institute (SI), Instituto Politecnico de Tomar (PT), Transforming Freedom (AT), Muzej-Museo Lapidarium (HR), CIANT (CZ) and MOKS (EE).

Story: Sari Tervaniemi, X-OP –project contact person in Art And Media

Mikko Keskiivari and Martta Tuomaala:

Our trip to Istanbul in 4th - 8th of November 2009 was arranged as part of the X-OP (eXchange of art Operators and Producers) studies. Besides us there were five already graduated artists and producer Bo Karsten in our group.

During the four days we met local artists and X-OP students from other countries. Also the artists Canan Senol and Inci Furni presented their way of working and their artworks exhibited in the biennial. The difficult but significant position of female artists in Turkey played a major role in the conversations.

One of the goals of X-OP studies in Istanbul was to get acquainted with the biennial; to discuss about the artworks in theoretical level and to learn to understand the contents of different artworks. For us the artworks of biennial were strongly politically charged speaking out for the human rights and against the flaws of our society.
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X-OP project and exhibition are part of  "TAF on Tour" and part of the Art project course.
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TAMK co-produces a Village of the Future to Keskustori in August 2010

August 28-29, a vision of a future city presents itself at Keskustori central square in Tampere. The main aim of the event is to bring information from experts to everyone through art and fun
experiences. The event will host art exhibitions, workshops as well as discussion panels.

Have you always wanted to taste what tofu is like but never had the experimental budget for it? How can you build a house of straw? Does it really matter if I recycle when others still don't? Where do they take all that garbage anyways? Are led lights any good?

Tulevaisuuskylä (Village of the Future) is produced by Sanataideyhdistys Yöstäjä ry with Pispalan kulttuuriyhdistys ry,  Tampereen Maan ystävät ry  and TAMK. Tulevaisuuskuvia (Visions of the future) -exhibition is co-produced with Arts Council of Pirkanmaa.

Other partners in the project are among others: Juurielo ry, Tilanne ry, Dodo ry,  Polttava Kysymys -campaign Tampere division, Vegaaniliitto,  Gaija community,  Vaihda virtaa -campaign, Ekokumppanit Oy, Tampere Regional Solid Waste Management, Ikaalinen College of Crafts and Design,  Profession Institute Iisakki, fire performance group Flamma  and theatre Teatteri Telakka.

Text: Essi Santala
Graphic: Saana Karala

Joint application for study programmes in Finnish begun

The joint application for universities of applied sciences begun today, and there are 2012 study places available in TAMK for degree programmes beginning in autumn of 2010. In addition to Tampere, there are study places available in Ikaalinen, Mänttä-Vilppula, Sastamala and Virrat.

The joint application for degree programmes run in English was January 11 - February 12.

The majority of the study places, 1465, are in the youth education degree programmes. There are 312 places available in the adult education degree programmes and 235 places in the Master’s degree programmes. The most number of study places, 776, are offered by the degree programmes of technology. There are 475 study places available in the degree programmes of social services and health, 275 in business and administration, 171 in culture, 140 in tourism, catering and domestic services, 138 in business systems administration and 37 in forestry.

The application for the degree programmes beginning in the autumn of 2010 is carried out as an on-line application in www.amkhaku.fi. The application period is 1.3-16.4. For the first time, the national joint application covers youth education degree programmes, adult education degree programmes and Master’s degree programmes all at the same time.

Five programmes in the field of culture

TAMK School of Art and Media has three degree programmes participating in the joint application:

• Film and Television
• Fine Art
• MA Degree Programme in Media Production

Due to the merger of TAMK and PIRAMK TAMK now has two new Finnish degree programmes in the field of culture:

• Media (in Virrat)
• Music

More infos on application to TAMK (in Finnish)