Story: Teppo Nieminen
It was 30th of August. A brave group of media students prepared to face the mysterious woods of Halimasjärvi. The other half of the class had already aborted their mission, scared of what they might confront.

The goal was to use the nature as a source of inspiration

At 9 am we took a bus to our destination. The first impression was chilling as the bus went on and on, deeper into unknown. Even Tampere natives of the group had lost track of our location. Finally, we reached the bus stop and we stepped outside into the middle of… a clean Finnish suburb. Halimasjärvi nature reserve was still a tiny walk away.

Our teacher, Carita, was leading us in. The first steps in the woods were exiting as this was the first time in the Finnish forest for some of us. The more natural forest-goers had changed shoes to rubber boots, and walked in the pools of mud, while some stayed on a ready path.

Here’s a good example of proper footwear

The first task was to wander around aimlessly while searching for interesting visual elements

The path around the lake was long or painful. We almost ran out of food, water and beer. Some of us were almost lost. Many sounds of wild animals were heard, most of them, however, were made by Teppo and Joel. After floundering through bushes and climbing over a hill, we reached the starting point.

Carita explains the last task, which was to design a composition on the ground using elements from the woods. Notice our keen furry student in the middle

The mission was accomplished at 11 am and we could head back to Finlayson. We were tired, hungry and our bus was late, but deep inside we knew that we were alive. We made it back after facing the dangers of the wilderness. We were survivors.

Photography: Carolin Büttner
Editing: Krista Erkkilä
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The authors are students of Degree Programme in Media
Read more stories by/about IMPs, the International Media Programme students
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