Kevin Pontuti - new partner from UW-Stout, Wisconsin

The partnership between University of Wisconsin and TAMK has now been extended to involve Fine Art and Media. Professor Kevin Pontuti will participate in our International Week and Tampere Art Factory in April. We asked him to introduce himself and his department:

I am a transmedia artist and photographer currently in my 2nd year of teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. I received my MFA from Syracuse University in 1993. Presently, I teach Digital Narrative, Animation, Video and Digital Painting courses, as well as, the Senior Project course for our Multimedia Design Concentration.

Prior to moving to Wisconsin, I lived in Los Angeles for 13 years where I founded Studio P Inc., a digital art production studio that collaborated with Advertising Agencies, Entertainment Studios, Artists, Designers, Galleries and Museums to create a wide range of art and media related projects.

My creative research, pedagogical and curricular interests include transmedia narrative and entertainment design, primarily within animation, digital cinema, photography and games. I am currently developing and producing a number of projects including a short film, a motion comic, as well as, a continuous stream of photography related projects.

I am pleased to be participating in the TAMK School of Art and Media International Week. One of the main goals for my trip will be to explore exchange opportunities and to look for ways to foster collaboration between our respective universities. I’m also very excited to see what the students at TAMK School of Art and Media are up to and learn about their creative interests, as well as, the interests of the faculty. This will be my first trip to Finland and I greatly look forward to visiting Tampere.

UW-Stout, is located in Menomonie, Wisconsin, which is about an hours drive from Minneapolis/St. Paul. As a member of the University of Wisconsin System, one of the largest systems of public higher education in our country, UW-Stout is a Polytechnic University that offers of 40 undergraduate and 17 graduate programs across a wide range of disciplines.

The Department of Art and Design is one of the largest units on the UW-Stout campus with a fall 2010 enrollment of 887 students, providing a 4 year Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with 5 concentrations: Studio Art, Multimedia Design, Industrial Design, Interior Design and Graphic Design. We also recently added a new and very popular Game Design and Development major, which is taught in collaboration with our Computer Science Department. We’re launching a new MFA in Design Program, which will start in 2012.

Kevin Pontuti
Assistant Professor
Department of Art and Design
University of Wisconsin - Stout
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Tampere Art Factory  
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Vettä sakeampaa - Thicker Than Water DVD & TRAILER

Vettä sakeampaa was filmed in autumn 2010 at Vehkajärvi church. Film´s DVD and TRAILER are now ready. Shortfilm is made by film & television students from TAMK University of Applied Sciences. The film tells a story of love, addiction and difficulty of letting go.

DVD´s cover and the film´s poster was created by Petri Saari. "I designed the idea of the poster and dvd-covers together with director Turkka Korkiamäki and producer Robert Niva. We wanted that our visualizations talk more about the film´s theme than it´s religious milieu. After the first meetings where we shared our ideas I made the first sketches. Turkka chose the best ones and here is the final result."

As a film´s producer I´m very satisfied with the dvd covers and the final poster of the film. From the early begin we decided that we would send our film to quite a few film festivals and associates so it´s good to have appropriate dvd covers and posters. Our graphic artists Petri Saari and Heta Tepponen did a very good job.

Vettä sakeampaa - Thicker Than Water starts it´s festival tour from Tampere Film Festival. Screening called KINO TAMK is held in 10th of march at 4 p.m. at Tullikamari. In the same screening will be shown also 11 other shortfilms produced by TAMK.

Check out Vettä sakeampaa - Thicker Than Water Facebook Page. You will find there the film´s trailer and much more.


Robert Niva


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Vettä sakeampaa @ Facebook
Trailer @ Vimeo
Kino-Tamk @ Tampere Film Festival
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Coming soon: A beautiful death

A beautiful death is a short film which is a graduation work for three students from the School of Art and Media. A beautiful death is an experimental film that deals with emotions about losing someone really close to you.

A beautiful death became a longer project than we initially thought. The first script was written in 2008 and it focused more on medical ethics. It was supposed be a small project with only a few students. Unfortunately at that time there were some changes within our school system which halted the production.

Time went by and the students who had been confused first year students started to think about their graduation works. When I was thinking about new scripts I remembered A beautiful death again. We started the scriptwriting process again with Jaakko Sorja. Sorja is the original scriptwriter. This time we wanted to make it big. We wanted that A beautiful death was going to be our graduation work. So it was the beginning of a somewhat chaotic pre-production. At that point Heidi Jokinen came along as an Art Director. Jokinen is responsible for everything you can see in the movie from the props to the make up (of course with the help of many enthusiastic assistants).

Now in the year 2011 A beautiful death finally achieved the first public performance at the Tampere film festival. The movie has been through as many changes as the shades of color in the face of Michael Jackson. I shouldn't try make jokes because I suck at it.

Go and check out our own blog where we're gonna add more information about the hole process and maybe some intimate gossip also. Our promotional websites are also opened. The actual websites will be opened in the beginning of April. I hope we can honestly touch the emotions of the viewers or raise some thoughts through our short film. So it wouldn't be ”yet another experimental-art-film without any ideas”.

A beautiful death web site
On Facebook
On Blogger (in Finnish)

With best regards: Minna Orvokki Korhonen, the Director

The title of the film in Finnish is Kaunis kuolema

See Beautiful death:
Tampere Film Festival, Kino TAMK Screening, March 10 4pm Tullikamari
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Nordicil: The Day of Filmschools, 1. - 3.2.2011

Hannu Koivuranta is the cinematographer of the film "Lesson",
showed in Gothenburg

Tampere University of Applied Sciences sent eight students to Gothenburg (SWE) to take part in a filmschool student meeting organized by Nordicil. Nordicil operates under CILECT and is an association for Nordic film schools. The attending filmschools this year were TAMK, TAIK, Dramatiska Institutet (SWE), Göteborg Filmhögskolan (SWE) and Den Norske Filmskolen (NOR). The Danish film school couldn’t unfortunately attend this year due to the students’ graduation film schedules. The point of the meeting was to network with new people, share experiences about works-in-progress and completed works and also have a discussion about the work flows each student had.

Laura Rytkönen, Lotta Kallio and Talvikki Tenhunen represented the Fine Arts program while Hanna Lappalainen, Henna Seppälä, Toni Anttila, Outi Hartikainen and Hannu Koivuranta represented the Film and Television program.

Since we arrived to Gothenburg the day before the meeting we had time to attend the Göteborg International Film Festival and got to see e.g. John Cameron Michell’s latest film “Rabbit Hole” and some Swedish short films.

The student meeting was held in Göteborg Filmhögskolan’s facilities. The students were divided to five different random groups. The groups would rotate in 30 minute cycles in different rooms where the students had the opportunity to tell everyone about themselves and their works. The atmosphere was all in all casual, open and supporting. It seemed to be very important for the students to get to know how things were done in a different school. Hopefully next year there can be more time arranged for these discussions.

After lunch and the last rotations the student had the opportunity to partake in two master classes. The first one was held by Tomas Eskilsson who talked about the radically changing field of film financing and how we - the new talent - should react to it. An interesting and compact lecture which arose several thoughts about the future of film making.

The second master class was held by the legendary Ann Kroeber who has worked as a sound effect supervisor and as a sound effect recordist in several feature films (e.g. The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Gladiator, Star Wars) and who has also had the honor of working with Ben Burtt and David Lynch. She presented her works and working methods very enthusiastically keeping the balance of the lecture in working with animals she so dearly loves. It’s a pity there weren’t any students who majored in sound design.

After a tight scheduled day the students headed, like last year, to a nearby restaurant to get to know each other even more and to meet the representatives of e.g. Film i Väst - the regional film fund in Sweden. The evening was pleasant.

Thinking back about the meaning and effect of the student meeting I can’t help but to think that it should last longer. Building a mutual communication over several days would possibly result in even longer dialogues in the future while making it possible for the schools to collaborate on a more serious level. It feels as if this was only a scratch revealing a tiny light at the end of the tunnel. Nevertheless the trip was excellent and getting to know new people as inspiring as ever.

Hannu Koivuranta

International Media Programme: Increased number of applicants

The entrance exam will be composed of an interview, a pitch and two design assignments.
Pictured an applicant working with her design assignment last year

The national joint application for English degree programmes of Finnish UAS ended on 15 February.

TAMK had 1119 primary applicants this year. The most popular degree programme was Tourism with 258 primary applicants (12.9 applicants/study place). The Degree Programme in Media had 195 primary applicants (9.8 applicants/study place), International Business 366 primary applicants (9.2 applicants/study place), Nursing 136 primary applicants (8.5 applicants/study place), and Environmental Engineering 164 primary applicants (5.5 applicants/study place).

In all, there were more than 3000 applicants for TAMK’s five English degree programmes. The educations starting in the autumn 2011 offered a total of 126 study places. The joint application data are based on the Finnish National Board of Education’s current statistics.

Authors of the 60 best pre-tasks will be invited

All together 'Degree Programme in Media' got 412 applicants, 195 of them had Media Programme as their first choice (last year 181) and 143 applicants sent the pre-task by the deadline. The pre-tasks are now assessed and the creators of the 60 best will be invited to the entrace exam May 3-4. Twenty applicants will be admitted and they will start their four year studies on August 16th.

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Degree Programme in Media home
Read posts about the life of Media students
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Fishy Business – Surreal Sundays is here again!

Have you got enough of ice(y) fishing? Are there no goldfish in your pond? Do not worry! Surreal Sundays is back in Club Volume Sunday Feb 20th.

We guarantee you the best fish in this town has to offer, everything in a reasonable price of course.
Fishermen have friends, and we are proud to bring you all together.

If this post makes hardly any sense you definitely should come to check the event out. It will explain a lot of things, but also raise more questions about the Finnish way of life.

Finns did well in Global Game Jam 2011

Rhythm of the Stars team

The Global Game Jam 2011 was a fantastic success for Finnish developers – a whopping number of four Finnish-developed games (with one strong runner up) from the total number of ten winners were chosen by Game Sauce for best of Global Gamejam 2011. The ten teams behind the games were invited to have their titles showcased at Casual Connect Europe in Hamburg on Thursday, February 10.

Among the winning Finnish games was Rhythm of the Stars from Tampere. The team behind the game consists of Aki Jäntti (Gameplay programming), Pekka Kujansuu (Audio programming), Olli Etuaho (Graphics, Graphics programming) and third year TAMK Interactive Design student Juho Korhonen (Music, Original Concept, Graphics).

Finnish Game Jam – Finland's branch of Global Game Jam consisting of sites in Tampere, Oulu, Kajaani and Turku – awarded Snobli Run from Kajaani for Best Game of FGJ '11 and Jammers Favorite. The title of Best Windows 7 Phone Game went to Omniludens, also from Tampere.

Juho Korhonen

Sources:
Gamesauce: “Gamesauce Challenge Announces Global Game Jam Winners”
FGJ11: “And the winners of FGJ 2011 are...”
GGJ: Snobli Run
GGJ: Rhythm of the Stars
GGJ: Omniludens
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Read more about Game Jams on this blog
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Ice Screen Project video report (filmed in -32,4 °C)

Photo by Professor Alexander Lembke, Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Germany

While waiting for the actual report to come later, please view the video report by Albert van Zyl from our Ice Screen show in Savukoski, Lapland last week.

The students made experimental films supposed to be shown on a screen on ice. Due to the fast changing temperatures the ice of the lakes in Tampere region was not suitable anymore, so the lecturers and students had to travel 860 km north-east to Savukoski, Lapland, to make the screen and the show.

This project is a part of our Future Film Studies module, designed especially for exchange students.

Read the previous post by Albert van Zyl
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Albert is a student of our international media programme
Read more about the IMP students
Degree Programme in Media (International Media Programme, IMP)
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Accredited Online Colleges: Our blog is awesome & inspiring :)

Accreditedonlinecolleges.com has featured our blog in one of the recent articles on their own blog.

The article "50 Awesome & Inspiring Blogs for Art Teachers" lists our blog as one of the seven blogs in the category "Secondary and Higher Ed", commenting that our blog "shares the work of its interactive media and art students through this blog – inspirational for others in art ed as well."

We are happy and proud to be on this list and wish Accredited Online Colleges blog all the best!

50 Awesome & Inspiring Blogs for Art Teachers

Only two days to go: Application time closes Tuesday!

Degree Programme in Media - 20 seats available!

The joint application for degree programmes run in English of Finnish universities of applied sciences  will be closed on Tuesday February 15th 16:15 Finnish time.

Applicants to the Degree Programme in Media of TAMK (Tampere UAS) will complete and send a pre-task in addition to filling in the application form.

The designers of the sixty best pre-tasks are invited to participate in the one day entrance exam May 3 or 4. Twenty applicants will  start the studies  on 16th August 2011.

The four year studies lead to the Bachelor of Culture and Arts degree.

The Degree Programme in Media, also known as IMP (International/Interactive Media Programme) has students from fourteen countries.

The main focus areas of the programme are visual design and interaction design. The students work with web services, games, animations etc.
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Degree Programme in Media home
Read posts about the life of Media students
All details about the application
Download the pre-task
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Ikuinen Gallery shows: Pintandwefall

Ikuinen Gallery
February 11 to 24 2011
Pintandwefall
Open Mon - Fri 12:00 am to 4:00 pm
Finlaysoninkuja 3 Tampere

What does our band, Pintandwefall, have to do with fine arts?

Whoa, almost everything! The same rules and liberties control both: our music and our art of making music. If there ever were borders between different kinds of creativity, I'd say those borders died a long time ago.

Music IS art. We're here to prove it right.

This January we have released our new Time Is Right for Romans, Baby album. It's our third.
This time we wanted to give the audience more than the plastic object in the form of CD. We also wanted to give ourselves a clearer image of our new songs and make them even more alive. In the exhibition there will be music videos for all of our new songs. Videos are mostly made by the four of us but luckily we have got the best guest directors to do a few videos too: Aki Roukala, Pasi Viitanen, Kaija Papu and Minna Komi.

Paintings and installations made by the band will be also seen in the Ikuinen Galleria.

Pintandwefall is a media performance, play school, profession, sewing club, relationship, theater group, art collective and rock band.

Or whatever.

With love,
Iiti Yli-Harja, Ringa Manner, Sanna Komi and Ninni Luhtasaari / Tough Pint, Cute Pint, Crazy Pint and Dumb Pint
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Pintandwefall
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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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D²-Seminar: Angry Birds & Fresh Talents

Ville Heijari from Rovio Mobile shares the success story of Angry Birds

D²-seminar was held in Valkoinen Sali in Helsinki last week. The event was arranged by AVEK, the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture and was divided in two parts, the pitching competition and the seminar. The event brought together the old and new skills in the field and offered food for digital media –driven thought.

Many of the contestants left with 2,500 euros in their pockets as the best ideas were rewarded with a prize. One of the concepts, StarEyes, hit the bull’s eye and was rewarded with another 2,500 euros for the best pitch.

StarEyes is an innovative concept that teaches users the art of playing guitar by combining the real instrument with a video game and is currently being developed in Protomo. Congratulations, guys!

Ville Heijari from Rovio Mobile shared the success story of their massively popular mobile game Angry Birds and was one of the most anticipated guests of the evening. Rovio Mobile started as a three-man game company and has today grown into a firm of 45 employees.

The brand keeps growing as the plush toys and other merchandise have hit the markets around the globe. The story behind the cute and engaging creatures is a unique one and the success story didn’t come easy as Angry Birds is number 53 on the list of games the team has created.

The big-hits-to-be were created several times with determination and then one day it was there: 50 M downloads. 200 M minutes of playtime every single day. What kept these guys going? Love for games. You gotta love that.

AVEK allows subsidized funding for digital media content development twice a year. Check out more information on DigiDemo-funding.

Photo and story: Johanna Peltola
Johanna 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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Want to join the IMPs in August?
We are looking for 20 new students. Apply by February 15:
Download the pre-task
All details about the application process
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Languages Through Lenses 2010: Experiences

The Prix Europa -festival opening gala, Berlin

Third year film students Outi Hartikainen and Hannu Koivuranta took part in a shortfilm competition Languages Through Lenses last year organized by the EU and European League of the Institutes of the Arts (ELIA). The mission was to produce a 60-90 second shortfilm promoting the importance of foreign cultures and languages.

15 scripts were selected to the competition and all received a 5000 EUR production grant. Three works from Finland were selected: “Connection Lost” from TAMK, “The Forest of Babel” from Aalto university and “Pancakes” from Turku Arts Academy.

Getting selected to the competition turned out to be a bigger thing than expected. In addition to the production grant the main applicant student were sent to Amsterdam to a two-day scriptwriting workshop held by BBC screenwriting veterans Guy Meredith and Roger Gregory. During those two days students presented their projects' scripts while Guy and Roger helped to develop them even further. In the meantime Amsterdam presented a great opportunity to meet fellow filmmakers and art students.

The featured projects were very diverse. The competition had selected more art students than film students and it was clearly reflected in the projects. Several art projects found it difficult to be developed in a more traditional scriptwriting way.

"Connection Lost" team members at the Prix Europa festival. From left
director Outi Hartikainen, cinematographer/script writer Hannu Koivuranta,
sound designer Arttu Hokkanen and producer Niilo Gustafsson

After Amsterdam each project went on to develop independently. “Connection Lost” was shot in July and it employed approximately 25 people. One month was spent in post-production. During the production ELIA was kept up to date about the project and the use of the production grant. Screenwriting lecturer Arto Koskinen served as a tutor for the project.

When the collective deadline was due the final projects were supplied to Berlin on DVDs where they would take part in Europe's largest TV- and radio festival Prix Europa. Four students from Tampere went on to represent Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Art & Media: Outi Hartikainen, Hannu Koivuranta, producer Niilo Gustafsson and sound designer Arttu Hokkanen. They were accompanied by Senior Lecturer Arto Koskinen.

All the 15 selected projects competed in their own category (Languages Through Lenses). During the three days in Berlin the students had the opportunity to take part in workshops, cocktail parties and film screenings at e.g. The French Embassy.

The students and ELIA representatives rated each project in order to shortlist top three projects. Among them was “Connection Lost”, “The Forest of Babel” and “Langbeat” from MOME(Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design*) ,Hungary. The stay of these students was then extended until the end of the festival and the closing gala where the festival would present the winning productions. These three days were quickly spent watching documentaries and films, getting to know Berlin and meeting new people.

The main prize of Languages Through Lenses -category went to “The Forest of Babel” (dir. Elina & Mike Pohjola) while the other two projects received special commendations.

It is important to understand how magnificent the six month journey with Languages Through Lenses was and how much it taught about handling a project with this size budget and resources. In the end the final productions were meant for use by the European Union and ELIA. Having enriched our lives with some new experiences we definitely want to encourage our students to take part in competitions – not necessarily because of the winning but because of the experience. We hope to see you in this years Languages Through Lenses!

“Connection Lost” is will be shown next time at Tampere Film Festival's Kino TAMK -screening.

Languages Through Lenses 2011 competition is now active and the deadline for scripts is 25th of March. For more information check out the link below:
http://www.languages-lenses.eu

Hannu Koivuranta

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Read the previous stories about the competition
Watch "Connection Lost"
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Prix Europa
ELIA
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* happy comment by the blog editor: MOME (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design) and TAMK are about to sign an agreement about staff and student exchange. Zsófia Ruttkay from MOME will give a workshop during our International Week April 11-14.

Strange Walls by Martta Tuomaala and Mikko Keskiivari

Ella Tarmo, Elihu Galvan and Heikki Nousiainen

Last week we told that two films by our fine art students are invited to the domestic competition of Tampere Film Festival. (Read the story) Swallow your Fears by Laura Rytkönen was earlier introduced on our blog. Now it is time to introduce Strange Walls by Martta Tuomaala and Mikko Keskiivari:

Strange Walls tells a warm-hearted story of a teen-age girl and her grandfather. They live quiet life together in a small village in the countryside. Though they care about each other very much, communication between them seems difficult. The stagnant atmosphere suddenly changes when unexpected guests arrive.

Strange Walls talks about different attitudes and similarities between generations and cultures. It is also a story about expectations towards family concentrated on the research of social structures and communication.

The project is supported by AVEK, The promoting Centre for Audiovisual Culture, Heidi Tikka 2010.

Actors:
Grandpa - Heikki Nousiainen
The Girl - Ella Tarmo
The Guest - Elihu Galvan
The motorcycle man - Lasse Rantanen
The VJ - Paula Lehtonen
The Cat - Bancha

Directed, produced and screenplay by Mikko Keskiivari and Martta Tuomaala
Cinematographer: Kerttu Hakkarainen
Editor: Ville Hakonen
Music: Mikko Keskiivari
Costume Designer: Liisa Ahlfors
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Tampere Film Festival March 9-13 2011
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IceP!

Disney on ice

Future Film Studies
The Ice Screen project (IceP)

This week the media exchange students and a few IMPS will be in Lapland with chainsaws and axes cutting blocks of ice out of a frozen river. WHY? Well, with the help of an ice-sculptor and our leader for this part of the course, Vesa Toukomaa, we will construct the ice into different shapes and sizes depending on our mood and many other unforseen things that might happen. We will use lights, maybe a smoke machine, some VJ equipment and a few projectors and project our latest experimental short films onto the ice structures. WHY? Coz it's awesome that's why!

Melting cubes

Oh and there will apparently also be yoga, ice-swimming, sauna action and hopefully some northern lights. We will try to document this expedition into Saami land via filming and the interwebs, so if everything goes smoothly, expect to be updated with a link to a live feed or a website or... something! Hopefully we will come back with no casaulties or lost limbs.

Wish us luck!

Story and photos: Albert van Zyl
Albert 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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Want to join the IMPs in August?
We are looking for 20 new students. Apply by February 15:
Download the pre-task
All details about the application process
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The first 1/8 of the IMP experience

I’m almost sad we’re this far along, only 3 years and some months left of IMP goodness!

Looking back at the first 2 periods it’s amazing how many courses we have already finished. We’ve learned a lot. The basic studies have included Visual Design, Introduction to Media, Computer Skills and Finnish (for foreigners or native speakers). We got to choose between Print Design and Programming and there have been many possibilities outside the mandatory courses, like one week of intense Video Techniques and Expression. Some of my class mates have already studied 2nd year courses and participated in some projects.

There are many possibilities and so much to learn. I myself took part in Oil Painting on Wednesday nights, getting paint all over my hands, clothes and sometimes the canvas in the third floor art rooms.

Experimental oil painting techniques

I’ve already studied at one university of applied sciences and had no idea school could be so much fun! Sometimes students forget to go home because they feel so comfortable at school, or they just play games with friends or design posters or cut out Ceiling Cats.

I’ve had plenty of welcome spare time especially this third period because I’ve already studied the basics of Web Design and Animation & Multimedia, which started in the beginning of January. They are my favourite subjects and I expect a lot from the courses.

The best thing is, we always have one subject all day or at least half the day, so if you don’t need to participate, you get the whole day to yourself! I like to spend that time doing or at least thinking of school projects. Studying the things you love gives you motivation and you can do and study so much here at TTVO. The teachers are friendly and care for us, and the tutors are always online if needed.

Video entry from our away-team in the Global Game Jam @Demola

I still think our class is the best group of people, and getting to know new exchange students is always exciting. I’m not a social person at all but I’ve liked the way we do things together. Many courses have their own blogs where we can all contribute and bits of the homework are done together as a group in addition to the many 2-3 people group assignments.

Normally I would dread such group work but with these talented individuals it’s been great. I feel at home. There are also many group parties at school and outside it. Demola near our school and our own Game Development Club SCORE promise loads of fun projects and free time activities. But this is only a small part of what IMPs can do, you have to experience it yourself.

Story and photos: Johanna Lievemaa
Johanna 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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Want to join the IMPs in August?
We are looking for 20 new students. Apply by February 15:
Download the pre-task
All details about the application process
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Tulevaisuuskylä -project presents a village of the future

Village of the Future will build up on Tampere Keskustori (central square) and the event takes place September 2nd and 3rd, 2011. The village will give information on climate change and sustainable living in an out-of-the-ordinary way.

The village is a collaboration of many different fields of sciences and arts and aims to be a meeting point for young people and urban planners, nature activists and business professionals, as well as futurologists and anthropologists. The event will bring together people with differing world views in order to build a sustainable future.

The Village of the Future aims to unite future technology with a simplistic lifestyle. Eco-efficient living, nutrition, transport and energy production are not distant matters: building your own wind mill is not impossible. The village takes young people and children under special consideration, as they are the builders of the future cities and villages. Children and young people will have their own events including workshops and The Future of Tampere live action role playing game.

The future oriented atmosphere for the village is created with constructions specially designed for the village and its needs. The village also prides in eco efficiency by creating its own energy.

The Village of the Future -project is produced by Creative Writing Association Yöstäjä with the help of TAMK and Friends of Earth Tampere. The project is financed by Arts Council of Finland, Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and the ECO2-project of the City of Tampere.

http://tulevaisuuskyla.net/

Story: Essi Santala
Essi Santala is a student of lighting design at TAMK
Read previous stories about Village of the Future and about Essi's other projects

Sadri Cetinkaya nominated for Jussi, the Finnish 'Oskar'

It’s  again that time of the year when Americans are celebrating the past year of cinema and awarding those few lucky ones – first with Golden Globes and then with Oscars.

Most importantly, before Oscars it’s time to select the best Finnish films at the annual Jussi-gala next Sunday. This year all students of TTVO* should be glued to the screen on Sunday night since our school’s own boy, Sadri Cetinkaya has been nominated for a Jussi for best editing in the documentary film Reindeerspotting.

Reindeerspotting is also nominated for best documentary film and over 65 000 people saw it in theatres last year. TAMK should be very proud of this great achievement of their own student. Lets keep our fingers crossed for Sadri!


// Nina Forsman

*TTVO is the Finnish short name for TAMK School of Art and Media
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Jussi Awards Gala broadcasting Sunday, February 6th 9pm-11pm on Nelonen
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Reindeerspotting home
Jussi Award
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Two works by our fine art students to Tampere Film Festival

From Swallow Your Fear

Altogether about 300 films were offered for the national competition of Tampere International Film Festival this year.

There are 29 films competing in the under 30 minutes category, nine of animations and fictions each, six documentaries and four experimental films.

This time our fine art students were very successful with two invitations:

Swallow Your Fears by Laura Rytkönen competes in the animation category. The animation has already been shown at many festivals.

Read the story about Swallow your fears on our blog

Strange Walls by Martta Tuomaala and Mikko Keskiivari competes in the fictions category. We have not had a story about the film yet on our blog, but it will come soon.

Tampere Film Festival March 9-13 2011
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Visiting lecturer Arnau Gifreu

The IMPs had a great chance to hear about interactive multimedia this Tuesday from a guest lecturer from the University of Vic: Arnau Gifreu. The first half of the day focused on more theoretical aspects, but after the lunch break the most enthusiastic of the IMPs got to try out some video editing using Final Cut and Flash.

Unfortunately the day passed too quickly and the implementation of videos into an interactive part of a website could only be briefly explained, but Gifreu gave us his contact information in case we became interested in the subject and promised to help all he could. The day was surprisingly productive and inspiring for all of us who stayed till the end, and some of the examples Gifreu showed us were incredibly inventive.

Knowing the skills of the IMPs, surely something as great as them will be created in the near future! Gifreu himself said he will spend the rest of his time in Finland going swimming in one our warm lakes. We all wished him good luck, and hopefully we will see him again during the International Weeks of TAMK.

For those who didn’t have the chance to enjoy Gifreu’s lecture, here are some of the great examples of the interactive websites he showed us:

• http://thewildernessdowntown.com/  (A Google Chrome experiment featuring Google Maps)
• http://www.ourfirstloves.com/ (The users send in stories of their first loves, whatever they may be)
• http://www.jazzloftproject.org/ (Streaming radio with an amazing interface)
• http://www.soul-patron.com/ (Flash-components used originally in an interactive documentary)

  The Wilderness Downtown uses pictures from the user's hometown

If you want to know more about Gifreu, here is a link to his personal website: http://www.agifreu.com/

Written by: Heidi Mäenpää

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Meet Timoteus Tuovinen, our advisory board member

Timoteus Tuovinen

One of the secrets of our success is our close connections to the working life. One expression of these relations is our professional advisory board. The members of the board are professionals in fine arts, film and television and different fields of media.

We will introduce the members, beginning with Timoteus Tuovinen. We asked him who are you, what do you do professionally and why do you bother to give your precious time to TAMK art&media professional board?

Timoteus Tuovinen, Media consultant:

All my life I have been interested in writing and media. I started off as a journalist, like many others in the media business do, gradually moving towards what then was called telecommunications.

Currently, I am partnering with four others in Digital Media Finland, which is the leading consultancy on, well, - digital media. We do product development and help companies have better strategies. It is like creating survival tactics for companies in the media jungle.

We mainly work with small to medium size companies, who strive to produce content for multiple platforms. Often it is moving image, music, animation, games, or a combination of these. We help the creators to see how to finance their stuff, to whom to sell it and how to take it outside of Finland. The work is very challenging, but never dull.

We also work for public entities, like regional Centers for economic development or Tekes, the Finnish funding agency for technology and innovation. Sometimes we prepare papers for the ministries to help them make sense out of the digital world. It is more than haphazard predictions, rather like interpreting the current signals and working out future scenarios. - But it would be nice to have a real crystal ball.

I think the above explains why I feel it is important to participate in the TAMK advisory board. The students will make the future. If I can contribute to their understanding, even a little bit how the media, entertainment and communication businesses work, it will shape the future.

So in a way, I do have the crystal ball!
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