'8' - a horror movie by Miro Laiho

Director Miro Laiho's 30-minute short psychological horror film is produced by Blind Spot Pictures and currently in pre-production. It is part of the final thesis of Laiho, cinematographer Jaakko Tuure and film editor Ville Hakonen. It is currently applying for funding and searching for collaborators.

The film's original website is http://shortfilm8.com. There you can view the teaser, concept art, pre-production making of - material and much more! The website and the interactive teaser are part of production design student Juha Lindstedt's final thesis work.

The marketing methods of the film has been innovative by using an interactive teaser and the social network, for example. Visit and like the film's Facebook Page.

Logline

“8” is a short psychological horror film about people, who have to relive their worst memories and re-experience their most horrible traumas all over again.

Synopsis

Linda is a young psychology student, who wants to help his boyfriend Riku, who has fallen into a state of psychosis by taking him to a mystical cave, where human subconscious and memories start to live their own life. Linda soon realises that she can’t help Riku, before she has faced her own most painful traumas.

Word from the director

Do you really know a person before you know his darkest secrets? Can you see a human being behind his actions and forgive him? Are you capable of reaching a peace of mind before confronting your most painful memories?
These are the themes I wanted to explore in the 30-35 - minute psychological horror film “8.”

“8” looks inside the fractured mind of man and through the darkness that lives in us all. It also explores the powerful defence mechanisms that protect us from going insane. We all have a trauma we don’t want to remember, so we deny it, alter the memory or forget it completely. What happens if the defence mechanisms fail and when reality and chaotic illusion both start to fight for their existence?

The film is based on the theory of 8 circuits of consciousness created by Timothy Leary in the 1960’s and 70’s. He believed that the human mind could be divided to eight circuits, the active four on the left hemisphere and four hidden circuits on the right one. When opened, the hidden circuits would allow man to use telepathy, join a universal collective consciousness and finally reach an enlightenment exceeding time and space.

Leary’s experiments involved meditation, yoga and a heavy use of psychedelic drugs. Even though the film adapts ideas from the theory, it still doesn’t stand behind Leary’s methods or experiments and doesn’t want to glorify drug use in any way. Also, the violence in the film is shown in its brutality and is not romanticized.

My dream is to raise the awareness of Finnish genre film on an international level, because I think that we Finns have the potential to create not only the everyday drama or comedy films but something more out of our crazy imagination. “8” merges dark drama to psychological horror reaching surreal levels. In the film, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” meets David Lynch and, in places, a crude realism.

I’ve always been fascinated by the structure of human mind and how we maintain defence mechanisms and therefore a certain false identity, unable to find our true selves. If we could face difficult things and have the courage to be ourselves, it would be much easier to live. I hope that “8” evokes thoughts about finding one’s self, seeing humanity and believing in the healing power of love. As humans we are all alike and we must learn to help one another.

Miro Laiho
Writer / director
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Brilliant iweek in lovely Liepaja, the final notes

 

Yesterday our day started with the univeristy/degree programme presentations. Pictured Lenno Verhoog from Utrecht School of the Arts, the Netherlands.

Then we started to discuss about networking, student and staff exchange, projects and shared online classes.

We put stickers on the white board to indicate what kind of cooperation we would like to do with whom. Then we had discussions in smaller groups about the implementation.

Of the universities present we already have cooperation with Liepaja University, Latvia, Minerva Academy of Popculture/Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands, Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany, Vilnius College of Technologies and design, Lithuania and the Academy of  Media Arts Cologne, Germany, but we found new areas of cooperation.

Mutual interest in establishing a new partership was found by TAMK with Art and Technology Programme at Aalborg University, Denmark, Siauliai University, Lithuania, and RISEBA university, Latvia.

I made an invitation to our Tampere Art Factory International Week April 11-15, and everybody is happy to come.

In the evening we participated in the iweek electronic music consert at Liepaja Museum. Had afterwards dinner with colleagues at Pastnieka Maja (recommend to anyone visting Liepaja) and then skipped the iweek disco.

Today the iweek programme features open lecturers/artist talks. One of the speakers is Chris Hales, SmartLab, who will host an interactive movie workshop at our International Week.

The iweek will be wrapped up at the Dinner tonight, but simultaniously I will already be flying from Riga to Tampere.

A big hand to Santa Mazika and Anna Trapenciere, the main organisers of the iweek, and to entire MPLab staff. This has been a brilliant week! We will be back in lovely Liepaja next year!

Cai Melakoski

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International New Media Art Week
Art Research Lab 
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Read the first iweek story
Read the second iweek story
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Liepaja New Media Art Week, post 2

 

Yesterday morning we made an excursion to Karosta, the former Soviet military base and to the old Russian Empire fortress in Karosta. That really was the end of the world.

In the afternoon of the iweek we started the presentions of all ten universities and art / media programmes present from Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Finland present.

Speking Vytautas Zalus from Siauliai University, Lithuania

Today we will discuss networking, cooperation and new education platforms.

In the evening we became familiar with Latvian sauna and hospitality!


Cai Melakoski
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Read the previous story
International New Media Art Week
Art Research Lab 
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More photos from "the end of the world"
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The Board Game Workshop – UHKA

Enthusiastic gamers planning their next step

Once again our beloved game club Score gave us enthusiastic students an interesting chance to meet game developers. This time the main topic was board game development and one particular game, UHKA (Threat). Special thanks to Eevi Korhonen who organized the cool event!

At first the two creators of the game, Mikko Erjo and Mikko Oinonen, told briefly the history of the game’s development. It was interesting to hear about all these changes and testing of the game for example in RoPecon and Tracon during the years. They also gave good tips for game developing. To be honest, I actually got interested into creating an own game just for fun!

We also got an opportunity to try out the game. UHKA is still in the demo version; some details in the mechanics have and will be changed. The goal of the game is to play with 6 human space rangers (all having a special skill) and accomplish the given mission without getting killed by aliens. The creators emphasized on the feeling of the game play; the threatening atmosphere with the fact that no one knows when and where from an alien will jump at you next.

The first round was practicing. We played with 7 people (6 played the humans while one took care of killing others with the aliens, called xenoids.) The humans died soon because the strategy was missing. The second round made the game much more interesting now that we had learned the logic a bit. Now we could almost accomplish our mission and prevent from getting killed by xenoids.

We had so much fun playing the game that I personally would like to play UHKA again as soon as possible.  All the ironic happenings during the game were really amusing (like the place you could gain more health turning into slaughter house.) Let’s hope that the creators are able to publish UHKA in the near future!


In the photo:  Enthusiastic gamers planning their next step.

Story: Emma Kiiski
Photo: Mikko Erjo, UHKA-Team
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3rd year students taught village school pupils filmmaking

Pupils of Vilpeilä village school during shootings

The “3 minute films” which take place every year were once again very different in the ways they were produced. This applied specifically to the shortfilm “Oppitunti” and its heads of department: director Outi Hartikainen, cinematographer Hannu Koivuranta, sound designer Mikko Koskinen, gaffer Jenni Riutta and producer Joni Luomanen.

The location scout for “Oppitunti” started early in September since the film features a small village school in the early 1960s. After scouting several possible and prominent locations it was decided that the film would be shot in Kangasala, at the local village school of Vilpeilä.

“If we are going to make a film with children they have to know something about filmmaking,” the crew pondered. An idea was born to visit the school actively before the initial shoot and teach the students about the basics of filmmaking. The principal Vesa Saarinen of Vilpeilä school was excited and welcomed the TAMK students with delight.

For the next four weeks the crew went on teaching students in their 3rd - 6th year with the goal of inspiring them to make their own movies by offering them the basic knowledge of e.g. storytelling with pictures.

The teaching sessions lasted variably from 45 minutes up to two hours since the sessions were part of the children’s official curriculum. “Oppitunti”-crew started the sessions every Wednesday as any teacher would: at 8.30 in the morning.

In the first sessions the crew befriended with the children by talking about the different roles that appear in a filmmaking crew and why they exist. Because the film’s director had to form a special bond and trust with the children it was decided that she would go alone the next session. The decision was right one.

During the last visits before the shoot the children learned about framing, lighting, editing and the goal of directing. They were also briefed about work-safety and technical equipment. These visits also made possible for the director to direct the children for the first time in a scene rehearsal which were also recorded on video. The videos were used as casting videos when the director selected Anette Salo, Matti Hölli and Laura Kurki to play the main parts of the film. In addition the film also feature 10 other students as extras.

The role of the teacher was played by Ulla-Maija Siikavire who has also acted in the television series “Lehmän vuosi” and in the thesis film “Ihmisiä tiellä” by a former TTVO-student Arttu Haglund.

“Oppitunti”-shortfilm was shot at the village school of Vilpeilä and its surroundings during 19. - 21. of November. Check back frequently: a story about the shoot is on its way to the blog!

Story and photo: Hannu Koivuranta
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Liepaja New Media Art Workshops

Make Liepaja Happy performance

Arrived in Liepaja, Latvia on Tuesday for the International New Media Art Week, the iweek, of the Art Research Lab of University of Liepaja.

The international workshops of the event started already on Saturday and Sunday, and yesterday the workshops exhibited their results.

First there was a jolly, singing parade trough the city center, ending up at the main street, raising up a huge banner where the citizens can write their opinion on what is needed to make Liepaja happy.

The workshop was conducted by Agnese Ivane (LV) and Rutger Middendorp (NL).

Albert van der Kooij, Academy of Popculture (NL) is getting high

The second workshop presenting the results  'The red pill – ways into the physical world' was conducted by Stefan Hermann (DE).

The workshop taught the basics of electronics, Arduino and physical computing and showed many small interactive installations.

Lotta Kallio from our Degree Programme in Fine Arts did programming first time

Breaking the Timeline workshop by Max Neupert (DE) demonstrated the third dimension of the moving image - time.

The Programming Creatively with Max conducted by Shawn Pinchbeck (CA/EE) showed how to play  with interactive sound and video art.

AUGMENTING LIEPAJA - Programming interactions in urban landscapes workshop conducted by Pawel Pokutycki (PL) made a demonstration on how citizens can interact with the city environment using simple electronic objects.

All the projects made by students from Liepaja, Leeuwarden and Tampere were awesome, and I got many ideas to bring with me back home.

Today and tomorrow we have seminars and other events, you will hear from those later.

Cai Melakoski

International New Media Art Week
Art Research Lab 
Make Liepaja Happy pics
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Fall Down selected to the Bang! Short Film Festival

The film, Fall Down, written and directed by Janne Keränen has been selected to the HEdge-screenings of Bang! Short Film Festival held in Nottingham, England on 26th to 28th of November 2010. The film was made in connection with Fanni Niemi-Junkola's Film Art course in May 2010.

The film tells a story of a man that drifts in the depths of his memories reminiscing a lost relationship. Fall Down is a surrealistic & subjective study of a man’s inner feelings utilizing point-of-view cinematography.

The production team consisted mainly of class 2007 students: Producer Santtu Jaakkola, Cinematographer Joni Ulmanen, Editor Markus Aaltonen, Sound Design/Composer Jarkko Hietanen, Gaffer Jaakko Tuure, Props Anne-Mari Musturi, Camera-assistant Hannu Käki and Grip/bestboy Juha-Pekka Virtanen. Anu Seppälä and Risto Ulmanen as actors.

The festival's HEdge-screening category is for artist based films that explore the medium - conceptual, abstract, silent & experimental.
Fall Down will be screened on Saturday 27th at 7.30pm + 9pm.

Bang! Short Film Festival home

Story: .Janne Keränen
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Installation 'November' by Liisa Ahlfors at Ikuinen Galleria

Ikuinen Gallery
November 25 - December 3 2010
Liisa Ahlfors: November, installation
Open Mon-Fri 12-16
Finlaysoninkuja 3 Tampere

Welcome to the opening at Wednesday 24.11.2010 4-6 p.m!

In November, the darkness grows in to the scenery. But darkness can be soft like velvet, and on the other hand, it never lasts forever. So strike it while you can.

Days of November is second part of a dozen, which creates alternative narratives in spaces via different sort of materials and processes of time.

Liisa Ahlfors is fourth year student in Fine Art at School of Art Music and Media, TAMK University of Applied Sciences.

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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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The IslandCQ experience in Ameland

45 students, 9 workshops, some tutors and organizers and an idyllic island in the North Sea were the main ingredient for the Island Creative Quarantine, an international and interactive meeting at Ameland.

According to the keywords play, sustainability, innovation and interaction we were working on nine different workshops with people from Hungary, Latvia, the Netherlands and of course Finland.

The week was filled with hard work, gaining new knowledge through participating at different workshops and lectures held by professionals, exploring the island and not to forget, getting to know the other students and handing out together after the busy working days.

Though we were all working a lot on the workshops to get our projects done on time, we also had time to enjoy the amazingly beautiful landscape of the island and to socialize with others.

Adri Schokker, the key-figure of the whole event, was leading us helping us with the entire arranged beforehand likewise he was available anytime on site all week long for us.
Special thanks to Satu Leskinen, she was the one making the trip happen - informing us, keeping us updated and leading us safe to the Island and back again.

The workshop were a success, the organizers were satisfied with our projects and the local people responded very positive to our work.

For those who wanna know more about the island and its workshops, here are a few links:

Main IslandCQ event site
One project from TAMK students
Blog by the Hungarian delegation 

Story: Sabrina Seidl
Sabrina Seidl is a student of our international media programme
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Read more about the IMP students
Degree Programme in Media (International Media Programme, IMP)
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Whistle While You Work best student fiction at Kettupäivät

TAMK film students were successful at Kettupäivät Film Festival last week-end. Whistle While You Work by Jussi Sandhu and Ville Hakonen won the student fiction competition, and Raven's Song by Aino Suni got a honorary mention.

Kettupäivät (Finnish for "Fox Days") is an annual Finnish short and documentary film festival in Helsinki.

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Whistle While You Work
Raven's Song
Kettupäivät on this blog
Kettupäivät home
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Night of Communal Animation in Gallery Rajatila on Friday

Rakennetun ajan esitys
Gallery Rajatila
Hämeenpuisto 10
19.11.2010
19–22

Two communal animation projects are presented in Gallery Rajatila on Friday night: stop motion project Family Act by Laura Rytkönen and drawn animation event Neutraalipiste by Heidi Saramäki. Both works welcome audience participation.

The night is a part of series of art events called MediaPyhät, organized with the support of Pirkanmaan taidetoimikunta.


Laura Rytkönen
Family Act – communal stop motion project

A puppet family will slowly create a scene of a family life in the gallery. During Friday night the audience may affect the puppets actions. The audience becomes a part of the animation in a concrete way, as the camera shooting the animation captures the gallery space as a background for the images. As the story develops, the animation is projected on screen throughout the night.

Family Act is a communal stop motion project that studies issues of family, community and animation as an art form. Family Act consists of animation performances and independent video works shot during the performances. The animation puppets are caricatures of artist’s own family.
(If you wish to sneak a peek Family Act will start shooting on Thursday evening from 8-12pm in Rajatila.)
Teaser of a previous Family Act

Laura Rytkönen studies Fine Arts in Tampere University of Applied Sciences. Family Act – communal stop motion project has previously exhibited in Ikuinen Gallery.

Laura Rytkönen projects on this blog


Heidi Saramäki
Neutraalipiste (= neutral point)
Drawn animation (as an) event

Neutral point connects dualistic oppositions; good and evil, fear and hope, ugly and beautiful are connected at one point, creating new interpretations.

For three hours the audience may participate in making of drawn animations in MediaPyhät event in Gallery Rajatila. Those participating may draw an animation, that one way or other deals with the theme of neutral point. The drawings are scanned and projected on screen as a loop video in the gallery. During the process the neutral point grows, varies, and changes by the effect of participators.

Heidi Saramäki is making her Masters Degree in Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. Her communal animation works have previously exhibited in Kunsthalle Helsinki and exhibition space Lasiboksi.


Facebook event
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Family Portrait short film at Kettupäivät Film festival

The next opportunity to see the short film Family Portrait is at Kettupäivät Film Festival at Helsinki. Family Portrait, directed by Minna Korhonen and written and cinematographed by Nalle Mielonen, is one of the 3-minute short films made by the class of 2007.

Last spring the main crew of Family Portrait represented the film in the university of Vic at their DoubleClick festival and in the summer the film competed in the Nordic section of Nordic Youth Film Festival in Norway. In Finland the film has been shown for instance at Tampere Film Festival and Reikäreuna festival.

Family Portrait is a story about hidden problems, which can tear a family apart. An ordinary dinner turns nasty, when the food starts to react to the fathers excessive drinking. The film is part live-action, part stop-motion animation. Scenes with actors were shot on 16 mm film and the animations with digital system camera. The animator, Niina Mielonen, came all the way from Wales, where she studies animation.

Family Portrait screens at Kettupäivät on 18.11.2010, 3.00 pm. It is part of the student competition section titled ”Family idylls”. Kettupäivät festival is held at Culture complex Andorra, Helsinki, 17.-20.11.2010

Nalle Mielonen

Previous posts on Family Portrait
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Students learn best from the best

EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival, Graz November 11-13 2010

I've spent three days at the EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival in Graz with nineteen students of our Degree Programme in Media. My colleagues from universities all over Europe did frequently asked me, why does our university spend so much in travel and accommodation of the students. Is it not enough that professors travel, and report to students after-wards what happened?

My answer is: I want to offer my students the best possible education with the limited means we have. I can save on less important costs, but the presentations of EUROPRIX Award nominees at EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival is the most valuable educational content I can offer my students. All multimedia lecturers and students should take advantage of this show, it's the ultimate resource of knowledge and wisdom in Multimedia production.

What surprises me most is that the teams whose projects are nominated because of their excellence in multimedia creation are also top level presenters. One of my students said that only the ideas he got about project presentation justifies the effort of traveling here. Another precious feature is the premium moderation of the show. The Head of Europrix, Peter A. Bruck, has amazing gifts in squeezing out the last drops of experience and wisdom from nominees for the audience to share.

I can tell my students every day about the importance of research before implementing a project and pay fortunes to high ranking experts for convincing my students about this. It does not really pay off. But when my students listen to talents of the same age reporting about the significance of research, they become believers.

I'm convinced my students (they have started their second year) learned at least the following rules:
Do the research carefully before kicking off the project. Make sketches and demos. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, but recognize them in time and learn from them. Document carefully what you do, or you might not be able to repeat successful solutions nor avoid failure. Make time-lines. Collaborate with people who manage what you are not able to do. There is no short cut to fame, hard work and again hard work is the key to everything.

The "lessons learned" reports heard during one day had more value than weeks of regular education. Thus the trip to Graz with my students was most affordable.

Added value was of course gained from networking. Every student had an assignment to interview one of the nominee team members. Most students created also additional contacts. At least one of my students seemed to network with all 23 teams. Media production is international, and having a friend and colleague in every country is vital. My students have excellent opportunities to make contacts with established international academics and multimedia professionals at our school and during events in Tampere like MindTrek, but the best place to meet the future researchers and producers is the EUROPRIX festival.

I will be there again with the next group of my students, for sure.

Cai Melakoski

Read all stories about IMPs at EUROPRIX Festival 2010
IMPs are students of our international Degree Programme in Media
Read more about the IMPs

Photo: Entrance to Berg in Dom, the venue of EUROPRIX Gala
Graz2010

EUROPRIX: IMPs learning from the best

Yesterday was the most important day of the festival. The 23 EUROPRIX Award nominee teams presented their projects and how they did them. On the photo Klaus Hammerum Gregersen and Troels Johnsen, Press Play, Denmark, introduce "Max & the Magic Marker" which was one of my favourites and the winner of the Games category.

Graz2010

During the breaks our IMP-students got familiar with Graz tourist attractions and socialized in the fancy lobby of hotel Daniel. Here Tero Koskela, Anayte Delahay and Mikael Korpela preparing for the take off to EUROPRIX gala.

Five minutes before the opening of the gala. The nominees have their own area in the Dom in Berg, a huge cave in the mountain in Graz city centre. Who will be category winners, who will win the Grand Prix?

Graz2010

The TAMK Degree Programme in Media students (the IMPs) at the gala. Will we see some of them sitting among the nominees one of the next few years?

The overall winner: Whispering Table by the GreenEyl

On stage from left to right: Adam Mondanton, the Master of Ceremony, Dominik Schumacher, the EUROPRIX 2010 overall winner, Beatrix Karl, the Austrian Minister of Education and Peter A. Bruck, head of EUROPRIX.

 

Eevi Korhonen was the exemplary networker of the TAMK delegation. She was all the the time everywhere. Here she demonstrates the EUROPRIX tie, developed at the gala, to the Head of EUROPRIX Peter A.  Bruck.

Today it is another lovely summer day in Graz. In the evening we head for wintry Tampere again.

EUROPRIX

Read all stories about IMPs at EUROPRIX Festival 2010

Cai Melakoski
IMPs are students of our international Degree Programme in Media
Read more about the IMPs

Graz2010

IMPs at EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival - day 3

The third day was again warmer and sunnier - like a normal nice day in June in Tampere. But not exactly, the trees are all naked. Pretty challenging to go inside to listen to key notes. But it was a good decision to go inside anyway.

The morning keynote was presented by Adam Montandon, the president of the festival. Adam is a EUROPRIX winner himself in 2004. Today he is lecturer in our partner school in Odense, and the chances are good we see him in Tampere soon.

The highlight of yesterday's keynote sessions was the Space Inviders game, this time live with the participants as the aliens, bullets, the player and the play control console. On the photo Tero Koskela as bullet targeted to defend earth against the invaders featuring Eevi Korhonen. IMPs did quite well, Eevi was the last Space Invader standing.

During the breaks IMPs had time to work with their assignment. Miska Wilhelmsson (on left) doing the interview with Stefan Wasserbauer from zapDial.

Instead of chairs the seats at Landloft were boxes, easy to move to arrange for different kind of activities.

Today EUROPRIX Award nominees will present their projects, and in the evening we will know the winners.
Read all stories about IMPs at EUROPRIX Festival 2010
Graz2010

IMPs in Graz - day two

Joanneum open learning environment on top floor

The first morning in Graz was sunny and warm, so we walked to FH Joanneum which is close to Europa Plaz, where our hotel is. Joanneum was the venue of the Academic Network Conference, our main activity yesterday, but we made an early start to do a tour at Joanneum hosted by Paul Pivec and International koordinator Michaela Bernreiter.

Academic Network Conference introduced presentations fitting into the main theme "Teaching & learning with digital natives". Zsófia Ruttkay (on right) from Moholy-Nagu University of Art and
Design talked about the digital Renaissance.

In the evening the EUROPRIX exhibition was opened at the Austiran Boradcasting Company (ORF)
studios. The main activity after the short opening speeches was networking, first done systematically by speed dating. The participants rotated in circles on the stage, every circle made an introduction of its all seven members in four minutes, then a new circle was made. After the speed dating participants had a chance to continue the networking with sandwitches and drinks.

Pictured IMP Antti Kareinen on left, Eevi Korhonen introducing herself on right at the speeddating.
All 19 IMP students have an assignment to interview one of the teams nominated for EUROPRIX award.
Most IMPs met members of their team to interview during the speed dating or afterwards. Today the EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival will actually start, it's another sunny day in Graz.

Read all stories about IMPs at EUROPRIX Festival 2010
Graz2010 

IMP on tour: EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival

Yesterday 19 09IMPs and one programme leader came to Graz, Austria, to participate in the EUROPRIX Multimedia festival.

Paul Pivec from our Partner FH Joanneum (second from left on the photo) took us to the old city centre to have a traditional Austrian dinner.

Today we make a tour at FH Joanneum, take part in the Academic Network Conference and the opening of the festival in the evening. You will soon hear more.

Photo: The group in the lobby of lifestyle hotel Daniel, where we are accommodated. Daniel is a design hotel, and everything is not made and arranged according to normal hotel standards. The design and functions of the rooms triggered vivid discussions. Many references were made to the User Experience course that has been running this autumn.


Cai Melakoski
IMPs are students of our international Degree Programme in Media
Read more about the IMPs

Read all stories about IMPs at EUROPRIX Festival 2010
Graz2010 

Connection Lost among top 3 in Prix Europa

Outi Hartikainen directs Raimo Grönberg while cameraman Hannu
Koivuranta checks the composition (Photo: Eero Alava)

The Languages Through Lenses 2010 -competition is over.

Languages Through Lenses is one of Prix Europa's film competitions. Last spring the international jury chose 15 best scripts among 100 competitors from over 18 EU countries. The chosen fifteen got a 5,000€ grant each to produce a short film from the script. The underlying theme of the competition scripts was to motivate people to learn languages and get people interested in learning more about other cultures.

"Connection Lost", a script by TAMK's very own Hannu Koivuranta and Outi Hartikainen, was among the chosen and was filmed last summer.

After all the 15 films were finished, three of them were chosen as finalists. In addition to "Connection Lost", the top three consisted of "The Forest of Babel" by Aalto university and "Langbeat" by Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.

The 1st place went to The "Forest of Babel". Getting to final three from among 100 film schools is still a huge achievement, so the blog would like to join in congratulations for the production team.

Watch "Connection Lost"
Read blog posts about the earlier phases of the competition
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Prix Europa
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Score Game Night

It was a dark and gloomy evening. Only a few people were walking in the rain, heading to the secret meeting place … which was filled with games, food, drinks, people and LOTS OF FUN!

TAMK’s own pride, the Game Club Score, organized once again a gaming night for club members and some friends at Demola. This time everything was a bit different since the Score had taken contact with the TAMK main campus and their game club. So now both of the campuses are going to join their forces together! Who knows what awesome things we can do with more people!

During the evening there were games to play and three challenges: you had to make a high score in three selected games. There were three winners and they got an awesome price: A POKÉBALL! While playing you could make new contacts with people from other campus and talk about Score, games or whatever you wished.

There was a competition where you had to design a t-shirt for Score. If you are still interested to take part in the competition and are a member, you have 2 weeks time to design and send the idea to Score. We members have a possibility to make Score look like we want it to look like!

More fun is coming up! Score is about to organize more regular meetings to the members. Also the web pages should be updated soon. Stay tuned!


Emma Kiiski
The author is a student of IMP, our international degree programme in Media
Read more stories about IMP activities

Score home
Demola

'Youth as Refugees' at Arctic Fury November 3-7

Youth as Refugees community art project has been invited to INSIDE / OUTSIDE media art exhibition showing as a part of the Arctic Fury Film Festival this weekend November 3-7.

"INSIDE / OUTSIDE brings together artists from around the world in an exploration of boundary-related dichotomies such as inclusion versus exclusion, and interior versus exterior. The video and media works will be exhibited during the darkest time of the year in empty shops and storefronts around Rovaniemi, with a guide available from the central information center and exhibition in Sampokeskus."

The exhibition is curated by media artists Minna Rainio & Mark Roberts.

Youth as Refugees website has been made together with young people from Afghanistan, the Congo and Somalia, who seek asylum from Finland. The site tells the story of the homelessness of young refugees, their lives in refugee centers and attempts at integration into a foreign society. The same questions about the right for an education and a life in the community as an equal with other young people rise over and over again.

Youth as Refugees is made by our students and supervised by artist Pekka Niskanen. Youth as Refugees
INSIDE / OUTSIDE
Arctic Fury Film Festival
Read more about the project (this blog)
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Who owns the space in our city?

We will own it on Friday 5.11.2010 when 27 students will be walking around Tampere centre wearing bullet boards.

Come and write your message, glue you stickers, tag your posters or just to leave you own print.

We are the first year fine art students of TAMK and we want to emphasise a question: Where is the street forum, which lives and develops in an interactive relationship with us, the citizens?

Until now, only temporary plywood of construction sites have granted free space for street artists, poets and event planners, and in time all these walls were torn down. We want something long lasting!


12:00 TAMK Finlayson Campus entrance and cafe
12:30 TAMK (Tampere University of Applied Sciences) Main Campus
13:00 University of Tampere
14:00 Railway station
16:00 Central Market Square Keskustori

You can also see us walking around the city!

We are offering you a chance to make this point heard, so you are warmly welcome. Not just you, but also your friends and their friends, so spread the word!

The performance on Facebook
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Island CQ -festival is getting close!

Testing the "Won't Stand By" workshop. Photo Satu Leskinen

Island Creative Quarantine is an international, interactive meeting place between students, teachers, scientists and artists from the various partner universities from Finland, Latvia, Hungary and the Academy of Popculture in the Netherlands.

From November 4 to November 15 2010, the Dutch island Ameland forms a temporal laboratory for all kinds of workshops and exhibitions on media, art, technology and sustainable innovation. This year leading themes are play and sustainability.

A group of about 45 students collaborate in 9 intensive workshops, of which the results will be exposed during a two days exhibition on November 12 and 13 @Ameland. Additional to the exhibition there will be a program of lectures and performances from artists such as Eboman and Tobias Leingruber.
There will be altogether 15 students from TAMK (Finlayson and Virrat campus) contributing to the festival with four very different type of workshop ideas varying from installations to websites.

More info on the Island CQ festival, workshops and other program can be found online:
www.islandcq.nl 
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Greets,

Satu Leskinen
Student of Theatre and Event Lighting Design '08

IMP report: Horrible Halloween

We IMPs take studying seriously, but other things too. In this year’s horrendous Halloween party there were mortals and immortals from six feet under as well as the seventh heaven – and everything in between.

The nun and Jesus are not always so serious. A monk was also present.

Zombie pirate with an inmate, rastafari, bee and something mysterious.

Jesus feeling up the pimp, surgeon is not too pleased.

In need of treatment.

 

Bloody happy

In addition, there was some real people as well as a bee and a black panther. The host of the evening, Death himself, probably agrees that the night was a success for both the living and the dead.

Story: Tia Tuovinen
Photos: Maria Haere and Tia Tuovinen
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The author is student of Degree Programme in Media
Read more stories from/about IMPs, the Media students