Story: Teemu Markkula
 At first the idea was that I would go to Germany and play couple of shows as a warm-up artist for Pintandwefall. Then it turned out that they would need a sound engineer also. I was hired for the job with the condition that I wouldn’t have to work as a sound engineer on those gigs I was playing as a warm-up.
Then it turned out that they would need a tour manager too. I was hired for the job. I just can’t say no can I? Well no problem. A little bit of extra work can’t do any harm. 

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Artmedia blog spotted on Twitter the note:
@heidi_maenpaa Got into Wooga Training Program at #Demola with @DhTier, hope we see @silliet on our visit to Berlin! Whoop! #tamkmedia
...and made the following interview on Facebook:

Question 1: What is Wooga?
Emma Kiiski (@DhTier):
Wooga is the world's third largest social game company, based in Berlin. Their main focus are Facebook and iOS games that attract all kinds of people, not just the usual gamers.

Heidi Mäenpää (@heidi_maenpaa):
-Wooga is Demola's newest, and the first, training program provider. They are Europe's largest social games developer and their offices reside in Berlin.

Emma at Demola

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Parasites, 2010, silk flowers, approx. 3 x 2 x 4 m

Story and picture: Maija Kovari
Skulpturenpark Berlin Centrum is a part-time sculpture park in the very heart of Berlin, on the ancient border of the eastern and western parts of the city. The park consists of two separate lots, one big savannah-like wild park, while the other has piles of old bricks and sand among the grass and trees. Between art exhibitions, the sites wait for a new owner offering the locals a nice place to walk their dogs.

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Black Line video screening in The Finnish Institute, Berlin 8.11.2013
By Hinni Huttunen

In the spring 2013 arranged video screening Strange Walls got a sequel titled Black Line. The screening consisted video works from current students, alumni and teachers.

Lecturer Minna Suoniemi and two final year students Hinni Huttunen and Elina Ylhäisi formed the working group of screening.

Minna Suoniemi (right), Elina Ylhäisi (middle) and Hinni Huttunen (left) considering how to solve the technical issues.

The theme of screening was heritage and it was observed from many different points of view. Some of the work focused on spiritual heritage and other works were based on the heritage we leave for upcoming generation: how we treat this planet and how DIY –culture helps to survive.

In the evening of screening things got heated when the working group encountered a senseless technical problem. All the technical equipment’s had worked well during a test play, two days before the screening. After four hours of testing and testing things seemed hopeless. The working group had tried to make the screening happen with at least 3 HDMI-wires, 2 beamers, 1 media player and 2 computers, and nothing helped.

The screening attracted full house of audience!

Finally the problem was solved in the way of a performance: moving image and sound were played from different computers. Minna Suoniemi beat time and Hinni Huttunen and Elina Ylhäisi tried to press play as simultaneously as possible to make sound and image sync. The lesson learned was that when technology plays tricks and doesn't work creative problem-solving method is the saviour.

In the end of video happenig there was an Q&A –section, where the audience was able to ask questions from the working group

Both of the screenings have been successful and there has been lot of audience present. This time the audience included also some of the members of the board of The Finnish Institute in Berlin.
Working with The Finnish Institute has been rewarding and educational on both times.

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Berlin is a very popular destination for art&media students - all kinds of activities have been there
Read more stories about our students in Berlin

by Emilija Veselova
On the 6th of February started the most extravagant project I have ever taken part in. So far I have survived the pre-camp, and 3.5 days at Camp Berlin and could not be more exited and tired at the same time.

Camp Berlin re-thinking television is an ambitious project brought to life by Digita, company that transmits radio and television programmes to all people living in every corner of Finland every day of the year, along with 15/30 Research, RayQ and Insano

Campers leaving to the Helsinki airport to catch the flight to Berlin

In December 2012 in group interviews 15 young people were chosen to join the crew for a 9 day long journey to Berlin, Germany where they would have to re-think the concept of the television. I was lucky or unlucky enough to be selected.

Elina, Jenni and Martins listening to the first briefing

At the moment, it is the morning of Day 5. We work hard every day for hours. Connecting started by working in groups of 5, then we were switched into pairs and in a few minutes we will be pitching our ideas to the CEO of Digita. Very exciting.

So far we have had 3 visitors. The most memorable has been the lead singer of band OK, Go Damian Kulash, who visited all the team and gave hints and his insides to the process.

Damian Kulash giving his opinion about concept to the team Sneaky Warriors

This camp is not about someone telling us what to do and how to do. It is about guidance,  mutual help between participants and the crew and sharing ideas.

There are a lot of things I have learned so far. The main one - TRUST THE PROCESS.




Webpage
On Facebook
Twitter:  #campberlin
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The author is a student of TAMK Degree Programme in Media
Read more stories by and about IMPs, the international media programme students
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Story by KYKY

KYKY, a brand new short film event was held in the Finnish Institute in Berlin, Germany. A group of students from TAMK UAS School of Art and Media and Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences organized an evening that included six finnish short films and a panel discussion with two directors, AJ Annila and Maria Kaurismäki. Pekka Ollula, who is studying producing and creative thinking, and sound designer/composer Miro Laiho a.k.a. Michael Law joined the discussion about the films that were shown, culture export and finnish short films in general.

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The Prix Europa -festival opening gala, Berlin

Third year film students Outi Hartikainen and, author of this post, 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.

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Our big hand to Eevi Korhonen! Bachelor's thesis on usability in Facebook games.

Eevi Korhonen

The International Media Programme started in 2009 and the first students of this 4 year BA programme are supposed to graduate in June 2013. But Eevi is fast and efficient - she has now done her Final Thesis and after the final touch on one course she has got the required 240 credit points to graduate.

Wilhelm Österberg giving his feedback, Emma Kiiski making notes

Eevi did her internship at Wooga (World's third largest developer of games for Facebook platform) in Berlin, got then permanent employment and did her final thesis to the company. The thesis work deals with researching usability of games and will be online for you after some weeks. (Yes, you can find the link on this post later.)

Douglas Symon memorialised the event with his iPad in Tampere

The review of the Final Thesis happened in two locations simultaniously: Eevi Korhonen, the reviewer Wilhelm Österberg (Wooga), IMP student Emma Kiiski (intern at Wooga) and head of IMP Cai Melakoski (in Berlin for Online Educa Berlin) sat at the Wooga office and Ari Närhi (the tutor of the thesis work) and IMP students and lecturers took part at our campus at Finlayson.

Nobody needed to enter the panic room on right hand

Eevis presentation of the work was as brilliant as her thesis, and Wilhelm Österberg's feedback was competent and insightful. A fantastic start to a series of bachelor's thesis review sessions it was!
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Read stories by and about Eevi Korhonen on the ArtMedia blog
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Get ready for INTAC - International Art Collaborations Course

Intac was born in 2010 as a tandem project between two schools, TAMK University of Applied Sciences and OCAD University in Toronto, Canada.
The core idea was that students from the two universities would ideate and realize art projects working together, using skype and other social media to communicate, and at the end they would organize a joint art exhibition.

Five years passed by, and Intac is stronger than ever. Six universities are taking part in the project right now(TAMK, OCAD in Canada, Chung-Ang University in Seoul, Osaka University of Arts in Japan, BTK from Berlin and NID from India)and for the first year this year, the international students from the new Fine Arts study path are taking part in the project.

Intac is a non conventional course. You might find yourself working late in the night as there might be seven time zones in between you and the person working on the same project.
Even lessons have  to be scheduled according to other partners availability, as we're dealing with the full extension of time zone, from extreme west to east(and I might add we and the guys at BTK are the lucky ones, as we all live roundabout in the middle).

It was pretty exciting to meet all the other people from the other universities! Here you can see our first contact with the students from Canada:

By Emilija Veselova

Just hours ago 16 participants of Camp Berlin shook up the worlds of Finnish broadcasters. 

Television has been in the life of many people for years and still it has not changed in decades. So 16 young people (average age 25) taken to Berlin for a week. Seems quite stupid. None of us had any idea what they are in for.

Campers never knew what is going to happen next. Marko Kulmala giving the brief for Day 6

There is one word that describes the whole camp - SHARING. With every day I believe in this stronger and stronger. During the 9 days I had worked in 4 different groups, almost every day coming up with new things.

Andres and Hannu sharing a very plausible revenue f or Backstube idea

Almost every day we were sharing with each other. Only a clash of two, three, sixteen ideas and ways of thinking made everything happen. In all three concepts: TVJ - Prime time, all the time , Touch - Feel. Share. Unite., MINE! - Every one counts - are a sum of the ideas of all of us. Sharng inspired us. Sharing helped us. And sharing shaped us.

Campers working hard

There is no point of holding in your ideas, because no one can steel them. People around you can only enhance them.

Andee presenting concept MINE!

On the train back to Tampere I realized that in these 9 days I have made an impact on how the future of television, I have grown up and most importantly I have gained at least 20 new friends.

Share and you will gain!

Hemppa presenting the TVJ concept

Emilija presenting the Touch concept

Webpage
On Facebook
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The author is a student of TAMK Degree Programme in Media
Read more stories by and about IMPs, the international media programme students
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Video:
Julliette Powell, guest coach at the camp, shares her thoughts about concept created at CampBerlin

EEVI KORHONEN:
Evaluating Usability of Games
A study of four Facebook games using heuristic evaluation
Bachelor's thesis 68 pages
September 2012

Eevi Korhonen presenting her thesis at Wooga, Berlin

TAMK Degree Programme in Media (alias IMP, International/Interactive Media Programme) started in August 2009. The first students of this four year Bachelor's education are supposed to graduate in May/June next year.

Eevi Korhonen did it in three years and a half, and her final thesis review was arranged in November in a session running simnultaniously in Berlin and Tampere.

Now you can find the thesis at Theseus.fi, the Open Repository of the Universities of Applied Sciences in Finland:
http://publications.theseus.fi/handle/10024/52055

Read the report from Berlin "The first IMP thesis reviewed"
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WANTED: 30 New IMPs
The application period for Finnish UAS programmes run in English will kick off on January 7 2013. If you want to study interactive media or music production in Tampere, check this story!
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By Minna Suoniemi
Strange Walls –screening in The Finnish Institute in Berlin was very successful last Thursday. There was a full house and The screening was picked out in Die Tageszeitung.

In discussion interpreter Lauri Peltonen,intern at the institute, student Elina Ylhäisi, senior lecturer in fine art Minna Suoniemi, student Hinni Hiltunen and Mikko Keskiivari, graduate in 2011, came to the screening from Vienna.

The evening began with speeches of The Director of the Institute, Anna–Maija Mertens and our senior lecturer in fine arts Minna Suoniemi. Both were very pleased with the collaboration and talked about the importance of cultural exchange. After the screening followed an active discussion about the work.

The project will continue next fall with the second screening, and also before that, as Strange Walls has raised interest in other co-operators in German-speaking Europe. The project will be joined in Finnland .Cool website, which is a satellite project of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2014. Finland as the guest of honour in the Book Fair, there will be a buzz in the cultural field in Europe, with emphasis Finland.

http://finnland-institut.de/cool/
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Read the previous Strange Walls story
About the exhibition (in German)
More about the exhibition (in German)

The exhibition on Facebook
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By Minna Suoniemi

TAMK Degree Program in Fine Art will present a Short Film evening STRANGE WALLS - Contemporary Video Art from Finland in collaboration with the Finnish Institute in Germany .

The Screening takes place at the Berlin gallery of the Finnish Institute on Thursday the 7th of February at the time of Berlinale Film Festival.

Community is in the central focus of this film evening. Questions these films often raise are how can you live as a part of a community or as an outsider, or how multilayered can relationships between people be? The scenes vary from conveyor belt to Finnish countryside house or to a traditional dancing hall.

The significance of contemporary art, visual art and media are especially emphasized in the Fine Art Studies at the University of Applied Sciences of Tampere (TAMK).
The short film selection presents among others performance art, narrative film, animation and documentary film. The films directed by the students and staff of the university of applied sciences analyze identity in relation to community and society: Past, history, family and community define the place and roles of a person.

The films will be shown in Finnish language with subtitles in English.

The artists in the screening are: Riikka Kuoppala, Päivi Hirsiaho, Fanni Niemi-Junkola, Tiina Lehikoinen, Martta Tuomaala, Viika Sankila, Mikko Keskiivari, Minna Suoniemi and Hinni Huttunen.
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About the exhibition (in German)
More about the exhibition (in German)

The exhibition on Facebook

During my last week in the amazing city of Berlin and within all the art and cultural happenings,

Our four year BA Degree Programme in Media - known as IMP (International/Interactive Media Programme - started three years ago. The last year of the first edition of students kicked off today with the Media Analysis and Research seminar, aimed at helping the students to process their final Thesis project.

Eevi Korhonen works with Wooga in Berlin

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During my last week in the amazing city of Berlin and within all the art and cultural happenings, I was pleased to meet with our head of Fine Art study path, Fanni Niemi-Junkola; presenting her new video work. The installation The Body and Protection consists of two video works Breath and Protection (2016). The artist is interested in presence, body and power & notions of freedom and safety.

Story: Nalle Mielonen
The Murder Chairs, the experimental short film by Nalle Mielonen, won the Jury Award at the Emergeandsee festival at Berlin in the beginning of June.

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The winner of "The best thesis at Tampere University of Applied Sciences" was announced yesterday at TAMK's Graduation Ceremony. The 1000€ went to Eevi Korhonen's "Evaluating Usability of Games: A Study of Four Facebook Games Using Heuristic Evaluation".

Eevi presenting her Thesis in Berlin

The jury statement: "In her final thesis Eevi Korhonen applied one of the most common usability study methods - heuristic evaluation - to game research in an original, innovative and logical way. She has used wide ranging source material very well and the thesis is of interest to anyone working in the game industry."

Eevi was the first student to finalise and present a Final Thesis work in the international Degree Programme in Media which started in 2009.

Read the Thesis 
Eevi presenting her thesis in Berlin

Also Honorary Mention in the National Game Thesis Award

The first ever Finnish Game Industry Thesis Award went to the Master's Thesis by Gabriela Rodríguez (Turku University) "Learning in Digital Games: A Case Study of a World of Warcraft Guild".
In addition one honorary mention was given - to Eevi's work. The jury considered that Eevi Korhonen's Thesis was best of all works participating in the competition in highlighting the topical research needs met in the everyday life of the current game industry. "The Thesis, exceptionally extensive to be a university of applied sciences Thesis, expresses genuine enthusiasm for the topic and the game industry over all".

The Game Industry Thesis Award is arranged by DiGRA (Digital Games Research Association) Finland and Neogames, the hub of the Finnish Game Industry.

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Degree Programme in Media
Read more stories by and about IMPs, the international media programme students
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Story: Emma Kiiski

At Wooga's lobby.

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