University of Liepaja in Latvia, by the Baltic Sea, is one of TAMK's partner universities. Last week they had the opening of the New Media Art study and research environment and International New Media Art Week with workshops, presentations and lectures.


From TAMK to Liepaja travelled two lecturers, Björn Aho from Fine Arts and Sohvi Sirkesalo from Media, to attend the event. On Thursday, 6.11. in the programme were presentations and discussions about New Media and Art education, including, among others SMARTLab From London, Academy of Popculture and Utrecht School of Media and Technology from the Netherlands and Estonian Academy of Arts from Tallinn. Björn Aho gave a presentation about Media Art education at TAMK.

On Friday 7.11. there was a series of open lectures about different topics around new media and research; Rob van Kranenburg talked about "The Internet of Things", Chris Hales presented world's first interactive movie, Kinoautomat, and Carole Gray's theme was reflective practice on research of creative disciplines. Sohvi Sirkesalo's presentation was about social media tools as part of a content creation process.

Presentations raised plenty of talking and also ideas for new international projects and new ways for cooperation. Evening programme was also inspiring with an unique experience of Latvian wet sauna - and on the last evening there were two Finnish rock bands in the club next to our hotel!

Photo: Rob van Kranenburg introducing "the rebel road" through the jungle of RFID tags.
New Media Art at University of Liepaja