Here’s is an example of the course work of two of our students: Fernando Otero Martinez & Pablo Sánchez Hidalgo. Enjoy! 

Are you interested in video games and interactivity? Or is your passion in producing amazing music? Perhaps your heart beats for things like drawing, painting and animation?

If you answered yes for at least one of the above, you have come to the right place! It’s time to fill in your application for the TAMK degree programme in Media and Arts, located in the beautiful and modern city of Tampere, Finland.

As our student you will get access to the exciting international work environment of Mediapolis, where students and companies coexist and interact with each other on a daily basis. You’ll learn the latest workflows and production techniques of your field and get an amazing chance to network with skilled and passionate students like yourself from all around the world.

The application period is 8 - 27 January 2016.

Applicants will be invited to the entrance exam based on the quality of their pre-task. The pre-task is evaluated on the scale pass/fail.
Here are the pre-task instructions by study paths, please select the one that interests you the most:
Fine Arts
Interactive Media 
Music Production

Submit the official online application AND the pre-task by 27 January 2016 at 15.00 Finnish time to TAMK. If you pass the pre-task, you will be invited to the entrance exam.

You can find detailed information on the application steps here.

Apply now and get ready to take your creativity to the next level!


For one week most of our class travelled to Berlin for fun...

...But also to create an amazing exhibition with our fellow INTAC classmates! 

Walter from Berliner Technischer Kunstschule had provided us with a great space in Kreuzberg in the Bethanian. 

Juuso Kuivila
For three days before the opening everyone worked together to organize the placings and set everything up. Unfortunately everyone wasn’t able to make it, but we found enough space and volunteers for all the works to be put up. It was such an experience to fill the empty white rooms with our art pieces and see the atmosphere progress. 
Juuso Kuivila

Juuso Kuivila

Juuso Kuivila

Everyone was full of anticipation on the opening night. It was so exciting to see the gallery gradually fill up and realize what a success our event had become. Here is a video so you get a glimpse of the evening:


Our exhibition stayed there for the rest of the week and we took turns being hosts….until Monday came and it was time to empty the place. Mikael Seidler took a time lapse of the de-installing of the works in each room. Here is a video from one of them:


This project with Intac was all about challenges, bonding, inspirations and establishing ourselves as artists. I am looking forward to continuing with this course and seeing all the creations that will come out of it!




For more pictures and information, visit our facebook page




Text by Alexandra Mitiku



There are many exciting application rounds for TAMK going on right now!

If you want to become a Bachelor in Culture and Arts, you can apply to our Media and Arts study programme. The pre-tasks should be sent during January.
http://www.tamk.fi/web/tamken/media-and-arts-bachelor

Here's a really fun application-themed video, made by Pablo Sanchez Hidalgo and Fernando Otero: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK3whpTRkkw

 If you want to see more works done by our students on the same theme, type the search words "TAMK Infographics" into YouTube...

And this is NOT all! Now it's also time to apply for MA Studies in Screenwriting at TAMK!
Check this link and see the excellent tutors they have:
http://uutiskirje.tamk.fi/a/s/49471857-39f63238700e410c6b1ec376a8b8d318/773109

Both of these study programmes are taught in English, and we have students from five continents, so the studying atmosphere is very international.

What do these AMAZING study programmes cost? Nothing, at least if you're a citizen of the EU. Finland is a nice, quiet country, and the level of education is considered to be one of the best in the world. The TAMK Mediapolis campus is by a lakeside, some 15 minutes by bus from the city center of Tampere. Tampere itself is a vibrant student city, 160 km from the Finland's capital Helsinki, with a lot to do for young people. And almost everybody knows how to speak English.

(Notice how the Finnish weather wasn't mentioned at all... You can look it up if you really want to know and don't know about it already. It can be very nice here in the summer, lots of daylight. Often we don't even get snow during summer.)

- Text by Carita Forsgren 2015 -

The application period for TAMK Media and Arts has started!

Applying to TAMK's English Bachelor's degree programmes is possible only once in a year.
The application period is 8 - 27 January 2016. 
The electronic application form is available during the application period at www.studyinfo.fi.

All TAMK's Bachelor's degree programmes are organised as daytime studies.


http://www.tamk.fi/web/tamken/media-and-arts-bachelor#application-instructions



 Sixteen second-year Interactive Media students participated in the European Youth Award festival in Graz, Austria, 18.-21. November. The students worked in international student teams to evaluate the winning projects and to design posters and handouts for the project exhibition. The winning project of this year was "Aprendices Visuales - Visual Learning for children with autism" from Spain.

Christmas Sale!

7th - 8th December
11am - 1.30pm
Mediapolis TAMK-lobby
Tohlopinranta 31, 3270 Tampere
Cash only

Welcome!


Ikuinen gallery is a contemporary art project space located in 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.

Temporarily Ikuinen Gallery does not own any space but is still hosting various Pop Up events and exhibitions.


Ikuinen Gallery
Tampere, Finland
ikuinengalleria@tamk.fi


You can also find us on:

Facebook: Ikuinen Galleria

Twitter: IkuinenGalleria


It's time for the Mediapolis Game Jam, where people who like to make games gather together for one hectic weekend.



Each participating small team consists of people with various skills, like programming, level design, visual design, animation or sound design, and the goal is to get a game done within 48 hours, no more no less.



The participants of the Mediapolis Game Jam have a score of virtual technology they can use for their games: a technodolly, a technocrane, a virtual studio, several brands of virtual reality goggles, and as a cherry on the cake, a motion capture studio.



The Mediapolis Game Jam is organized by Finnish Game Jam ry, Technopolis and The Tampere University of Applied Sciences. YLE online is there for the whole weekend, showing the highlights of the jam. New articles and videos will be added to the YLE web pages up until the end of November 2015.



...
Suomeksi:
Mediapolis Game Jameilla 20.-22.11. pelintekijät kokoontuvat yhteen suunnittelemaan ja luomaan uusia pelejä jamihengessä. Osallistujat jakautuvat pieniin ryhmiin, jotka koostuvat pelisuunnittelun eri osa-alueiden taitajista. Kunkin ryhmän tavoite on tehdä peli valmiiksi 48 tunnin aikarajan puitteissa.
Mediapoliksen jameissa ryhmät hyödyntävät pelin tekemisessä virtuaaliteknistä elokuva-alan laitteistoa. Mukana on Technodolly, Technocrane, virtuaali- ja motion capture-studiot sekä virtuaalilasit.
Tapahtuman Ylen kanssa yhdessä järjestävät Finnish Game Jam ry, Technopolis ja Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu.
Ylen verkkotoimitus seuraa hektistä tapahtumaa paikan päällä koko viikonlopun ja taltioi jamien kohokohdat. Sivustolle päivitetään uusia artikkeleita ja videoita aina marraskuun loppuun saakka.

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:



So, basically Intac has a blog on tumblr ( http://intac.tumblr.com ) which is where most of the action happens. Every participant publishes a presentation at the beginning of the year, and then a Project Proposal. Every participant has to take part in three different projects, so everyone needs to contact and work with people from different countries. Before the exhibition all the works will go through the screening and evaluation of the teachers. 

This year the exhibition is going to be in Berlin, in Bethanien Gallery(http://www.bethanien.de/en/) and we'll be there the 1st and 2nd December to set it up, and we'll have our opening on December, 3rd, 2015.

Another important feature of the Intac course is that we're self funded. While in December the exhibition is going to be in Berlin, which is a pretty cheap destination from Finland, next year it might be in Canada, or India, and of course being art students we really can't afford flying all over with our own money; for this reason we have to take commissions and work to get the Intac course going on. 
Right now, we're working for Technopolis(who own the Mediapolis premises, where our school is located); we're planning a 16 meters high artwork which will be used in one of Technopolises main business building, Yliopistonrinne in Tampere. The building offers high class facilities for few very known companies in Tampere. We had few meetings with Mediapolises manager Saara Eskola , the architects who have been planning the building and we even went to visit the printing shop where the final artwork will be printed!








This is Intac, and we'll keep you updated as soon as events are happening! 

If you want to follow us more closely, visit:  http://intac.tumblr.com 
If you are interested in the Fine Arts Study Path, follow us on facebook  or Instagram on our page Art Media TAMK  with always fresh and updated infos on our courses! 




                                                                                                                                                                  


5 days and 1 empty gallery. This is what we were given to realize our projects for the course ‘Art and Environment Workshop’. I had never worked in a gallery before, so it was a wonderfully new experience. It was a different atmosphere to create something – a recycled space that had seen many different artistic settings. Although it cut into our autumn holidays and we couldn’t be physically present during all of the days, we managed to put together a unique exhibition-type event in Rajatila.


Creating the title for our event was a bit tricky, since we were not sharing a common theme. After an hour of brainstorming, cookies and playing word games, it came down to ‘Fleeting Space’. Lavinia took the photo for the flyer, instructing us to walk around aimlessly and throw the pillows around. It felt silly, but we got the image we wanted!



During the event itself, we presented our works-in-progress and the audience was welcomed to give suggestions and feedback. Our event had a handful of guests, besides our class, and it was interesting to hear their opinions of our pieces.


Jade Vesto created a magazine consisting of photos from her film camera and poetry that she had written, exposing her vulnerabilities and nostalgic moments with her friends. Her written pieces were all in caption and punctuations were left out, giving the viewer a unique reading experience.



Lorenco Soares here is explaining about his installation, a video of leaves falling to a composed rhythm. The piece is meant to be viewed from outside, giving us an insight on nature in different space - and goosebumps for those who went to see the video without a jacket..


Annina Pasanen presented a political, yet playful, painting of a bear having a victory tea party after the defeat of humans.


Konsta Koivisto had a vision to create his own fashion brand made solely from recycled fabrics. His long term plan was to sell his company and use the money to buy a forest. Here he is showing some of his designs..which were pretty impressive considering he had never sewn before!



If you are interested in more about what our class is up to, look us up on one of these social media channels:

Facebook- Art Media TAMK
Instagram- art_media_tamk 


By Alexandra Mitiku

14 Art Media takes over Rajatila for a while


Text by  Alexandra Mitiku
Photos by Lavinia Colzani & Alexandra Mitiku

5 days and 1 empty gallery. This is what we were given to realize our projects for the course ‘Art and Environment Workshop’. I had never worked in a gallery before, so it was a wonderfully new experience.

It was a different atmosphere to create something – a recycled space that had seen many different
artistic settings.

Although it cut into our autumn holidays and we couldn't be physically present during all of the days, we managed to put together a unique exhibition-type event in Rajatila.





Creating the title for our event was a bit tricky, since we were not sharing a common theme. After an
hour of brainstorming, cookies and playing word games, it came down to ‘Fleeting Space’. Lavinia took the photo for the flyer, instructing us to walk around aimlessly and throw the pillows around. It felt silly, but we got the image we wanted!



During the event itself, we presented our works-in-progress and the audience was welcomed to give
suggestions and feedback. Our event had a handful of guests, besides our class, and it was interesting to hear their opinions of our pieces.




Jade Vesto created a magazine consisting of photos from her film camera and poetry that she had
written, exposing her vulnerabilities and nostalgic moments with her friends. Her written pieces were all in caption and punctuations were left out, giving the viewer a unique reading experience.



Lorenco Soares here is explaining about his installation, a video of leaves falling to a composed rhythm. The piece is meant to be viewed from outside, giving us an insight on nature in different space - and goosebumps for those who went to see the video without a jacket..



Annina Pasanen presented a political, yet playful, painting of a bear having a victory tea party after the defeat of humans.



Konsta Koivisto had a vision to create his own fashion brand made solely from recycled fabrics. His long term plan was to sell his company and use the money to buy a forest. Here he is showing some of his designs..which were pretty impressive considering he had never sewn before!



If you are interested in more about what our class is up to, look us up on one of these social media

channels:

Facebook- Art Media TAMK

Instagram- art_media_tamk


Photo: Alexandra Mitiku
 I arrived with Lavinia on a wet Tuesday morning in Leeuwarden. We were running late for the opening of the international week at Leeuwarden and managed to get slightly lost. Eventually we stumbled into the presentation room of Minerva Academie voor Popcultuur. My first impression of the school was how liberal they were, from discussions to interior design. Also, how kind they were to offer free coffee.

Photo: Fanny Niemi Junkola


We were a part of the Urban Exploration Workshop. Originally we were supposed to make only installations based on the environment, but we ended up joining another workshop ‘Future City planning’ and consequently our workshop description was a fusion of planning a future Leeuwarden and making an art installation. It was an interesting twist in the program!

During the two days of the workshop we interviewed strangers in the street about their ideas about their town, had interesting discussions about the history of the town and the existence of its society, and created a quilt-like installation in the end. The old man with the walking stick in the image below was the most striking character. Isa arrived right when we had come back from our excursion the first day, but she adapted swimmingly into our discussions. We got another arrival on the second day by our teacher Fanny. She helped organize the proceedings of our hybrid workshop so that everyone was content with their projects.

Photo: Fanny Niemi-Junkola
Photo: Lavinia Colzani

Photo: Lavinia Colzani

The intriguing electronic part of the installation was the loudest. A program that translates images into sound presented photos taken by Lavinia Colzani. The interactive live stream on the MacBook had a similar idea where it recorded the movement of passersby, the video of which was translated into sound.

Photo: Isa Hedez

Now if you are wondering about the box with the patterns, there is an interesting story behind it. Tibor Kecskes, a teacher from Hungary, projected the pattern of a broken security glass onto the cardboard boxes and started to carve. He had much to say about patterns that occur by happenstance.
Photo: Fanny Niemi-Junkola


The last day! The day we got to see what all the other workshops were up to. We also listened to very informative lectures about sustainable living, with follow-up debates on how to improve our atmospheres – both social and environmental.

Photo: Isa Hedez

Photo: Isa Hedez

This guy spun the wheel of fortune, a wheel of solving random problems, like how to talk to the dead.

The last presentations were from the music side of the Academy. There were five students from TAMK who had also been participating in a music camp for the entire week, making so much as four songs per day! The atmosphere was like that of a talent show, with the judges voicing their opinions. We were all impressed by their tunes and versatility in styles.

























Text by Alexandra Mitiku 2015



I was lucky to participate in this year's Cartoon Forum event, which was held in Toulouse on the 15.-18.9.2015.
Picture taken by Brown Bag Films
 
What is Cartoon Forum? It's a yearly happening where (mostly) European production companies are pitching some of the animation series they are developing or planning to develop. The purpose of these pitches is to attract broadcasting companies and other potential buyers to invest in the series-in-progress by pre-sales, and to get coproduction deals with other companies. Well, that is the main purpose, but many of the visitors of the event were young animators just out of university, as well as young companies which want to see what kind of series are being developed. Representatives of media foundations for various EU countries were also there, watching this year's trends, as well, and of course networking like everybody else.

Being there, I took a lot of notes from how the pitches were structured, and listened keenly what people were saying. I wasn't shy of talking to strange people as though I've known them for years, because in four short days, it makes no sense just to wait for someone to introduce you to interesting people. And being over 40 means to me that I'm not as afraid of making myself ridiculous in public as before - partly because I think everyone over 40 is a bit ridiculous anyway.

Typical street view from Toulouse
 
What were the trends, then, with animated series? Well, I noticed that there were a lot of series for very young children, meaning age groups 0-1, 2-3, 3-5. And yes, the age groups are quite tight when you talk of kids programming. School kids also got their fair share of shows, but there weren't that many proposals of series for younger or older teenagers, partly because the older kids already watch stuff in the internet, or programming intended for young adults such as sitcom series.

That said, many school kids' series also used a kind of mini sitcom structure, or at least sitcom-like elements. You know, the kind of show where there's a recurring cast of characters, often friends or family members, and funny situations arising from the differencies of these characters. Many shows combined this with fantasy or science fiction elements.

Sometimes, when I ask students on our animation courses to generate ideas for animated series for children, some people come straight away up with some educative content. But usually it's a good idea not to have the educational elements jump on your audience's face, so to say. Children are smart - they usually know when an adult is trying to preach or teach them something, and they get enough of that in school. 

Interstellar Ella by Zooper Film

There were a few show concepts at Cartoon Forum with educational content, too, such as Interstellar Ella, which is a story of an 8-year-old girl and her little sister who go to adventures in space. The log line for that was "Astrophysics for preschoolers!" Then there was Dougie Noir, a 9-year-old circus boy who wanted to be a great detective - only his hyperactive nature prevents him of noticing important clues for solving the mysteries. Dougie Noir had a package of apps and games designed to train kids with attention deficit disorders, so that they wouldn't need to take so many pills.
 
Dougie Noir by Kavaleer
Also a Finnish-Norwegian concept called Little Wild Worlds was an animated nature documentary, showing real behaviours of baby animals, and there was a Korean show about a cute little gardener mole called Rabby, which showed how to grow real plants. (There were many broadcasting company representatives at the latter one's pitching, and it got deals made from all of them. "It's Rabby's golden harvest day", said one producer from a Korean broadcasting company.)

Rabby, by PniSystem & From EAST(SKR)
A show called Max & Maestro had a 10-year-old boy who was into soccer and rap music become interested in classical music. The story had famous musician Daniel Barenboim as one of its main characters, and Barenboim himself had provided all the piano music for the show.
 
Some shows were a bit preachy in tone, I have to admit, but at the other end, there were shows that were just very full of super cute little kids or animal characters dancing and jumping around super enthusiastically, with sugary music. It's as if some of makers of the little kids' shows have never been around small children, or they don't remember what it was like to be a small child. 

Lili, by Dansk Tegnefilm and Ladybird Films
This was not the case with the series Lili, which depicted quite realistically - with ironic undertones - what 3-year-olds are really like. The Lili books are already popular and famous, so I guess that the animated show will have no problems lifting off. 

The Ogglies, by Wunderwerk
The same goes for the German show called The Ogglies, where there also are several popular books and apps published in many languages already. The Ogglies' log line was "A family of space alien Pippi Långstrumps are living in a local dump, eating trash and having fun". Also a show I wish to see when it's ready. 

Blaise, by KG Productions
One show for young adults called Blaise consisted of 30 3-minute web episodes, and the humor was quite harsh but very funny at the same time. Blaise was based on some popular books for teenagers. A show called Dickie was aimed at over 14-year-olds, and it had a simple main character who always screwed things up. Dickie was based on the popular Dutch comic series Boerke, and at the presentation, they even handed out small booklets of the comics. 

Dickie or Boerke, a comic by Pieter de Poortere
At a few pitchings the audience got little gifts, such as bags, leaflets and fun stuff such as sketch books (I got one from an Italian show called Bestiacce) or large picture books (some guy gave me one called Blue Carrot). It’s not a bad way to make your show remembered, providing that the content of your concept itself really is good. It would be kinda sad for a producer to see their promotion material spread all over the event center, as no-one would want to pick it up or take it home.

Bestiacce, by Studio Bozzetto
It seemed to me that if a production company already has acquired rights to some well-known property, even to an older series made in the 1970s or ‘80s, it’s easier to get an animated series based on that funded, than make up a new series from scratch. Many or most of the projects presented had a full transmedia palette as well, with well-thought-out apps, books, games and websites, and of course merchandizing such as dolls, towels, school equipment and backpacks. If a series was for instance 26 x 11 minutes for television, it often had a 52 x 1 minute web series as a companion, as well.

The distributors I talked with said that right now, there is a demand for new, comedy-filled series for school children in the age groups 7-9 and 9-11. One lady told me that there may be a come-back for the longer, 22-minute per episode series, as well, although most of the series that were presented had 11-minutes, 13-minutes or 7-minutes episodes. Of course, producing a show with 26 episodes of 22 minutes is quite demanding, as writing longer episodes often takes more time in re-writes, and the animating itself is also not exactly cheap. It remains to be seen how much emerging technologies, such as using motion capture for both 3D and 2D, will change the animation landscape.

There are other big animation events in Europe during the year besides Cartoon Forum, such as Cartoon Movie, where animated feature films in development are presented, or the prestigious MIFA in Annecy, in the middle of June. MIFA is a very large happening, I’ve been told, with lots of movie screenings, seminars, key notes and a film market, but some producers are saying that it’s become too big and noisy a place to make any real negotiations anymore. Even Cartoon Forum now had over 900 participants, which made some of the popular pitchings and evening events quite crowded.

MIFA, at Annecy
  
A student can participate MIFA in Annecy for a low price, or even for free if willing to work for the festival, and I’ve been thinking that Annecy might be a good event to go with a group of students. Only its timing is not ideal for the Finnish university year, where most students are working in June and July. Cartoon Forum may be better time-wise. When the new animation minor starts next year, it would make sense to go to some of these events with students, the way we go to other places such as the Graz EYA Awards in October and the Malmö Nordic Game Conference. Provided of course that enough of our media students would be interested in going. At least I think it would be a good experience for a student to see that there is a lot of animation done outside of the video games world, and that producing animated series and movies is quite a large business in the media world.
 

-- Text by Carita Forsgren, 2015 --