TAMK Interactive Media student Riikka Uhmavaara took part in a logo competition for the European Commission, the E-mark U-Trust. And guess what: she came in second! In addition to that, she got a job offer from the European Commission. Not bad at all.

Here's a video of the award ceremony.

Congratulations to Riikka!

Kinetic Stories

Jani Ilomäki, student of our Degree Programme in Film and Television, is the winner of the Blue Sea Film Festival Golden Baltic Herring Award last weekend.

His film "Awakening" also won the first prize in the student film competition of the festival. The jury statement was: “The story-telling was poetic, entertaining and concise. The story poetically illustrated one of the more profound and personal moments in the development of a child.”

The synopsis of the film is: "A boy sees a girl. A girl sees a boy"

In addition his also his films Juurtuneet (In a Rut) and Ajatuksia kuolevaisuudesta (Thoughts about dying) were invited to the festival.

Also next weekend will be very busy for Jani, he's one of the key organisators of the Reikäreuna Film Festival, 5-8 September 2013, Orivesi

Congratulation and good luck, Jani!

Read more:
Blue Sea Film Festival
Our previous posts on Blue Sea FF

Tampere Film Festival Youth Jury Award went to Thoughts About Dying (Ajatuksia kuolevaisuudesta, 2012) by Jani Ilomäki. Congratulations!

The Mass of Men directed by Gabriel Gauchet (2012), a fiction from United Kingdom, won the Grand Prix at Tampere Film Festival International Competition.
See all winners


About Thoughts about Dying:
Boy wonders about death.

Eight-year-old Antti is told that his dog should put to sleep. Antti will have his first facing with death, and he begins to think what death means.

The film is director’s (Jani Ilomäki), cinematographer’s (Mikko Parttimaa), producer’s (Julia Elomäki) and production designer’s (Salla Lehtikangas) diploma work in Tampere University of Applied Sciences 2012.

Read more on the film official web site (bilingual Finnish/English)

The 7th annual international ubiquitous media competition, NUMA2013 (Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards 2013), seeks for novel ways to combine ubiquitous computing to media.

The interactive plant interface, Botanicus Interacticus, won NUMA2012

We are looking for disruptive artistic visions as well as clever near-to-market solutions off the beaten tracks! This includes any range of innovative ubimedia, pervasive, or ambient products and services. NUMA2013 is a highly interdisciplinary competition and we invite equally Designers, Computer Scientists, Artists, Economists and Engineers to take a stand on the following questions with their entries:

• What is the particular aesthetic experience opened up by the rise of ubiquitous and ambient media?
• What constitutes the specific intelligence that drives future media environments?
• How will location- and context-aware media services change our social life?
• How will our future lives look like in the era of ubiquitous computation, and how can society benefit from these advanced technologies?

The ambient audio navigation service Oh Music, Where Art Thou won the second price 2012

The total award sum for the NUMA2013 is 6 000€. The sum can be awarded to one entry, divided between several entries or not awarded at all if the award criteria set by the jury are not fulfilled.
Valid competition entries include:

• Pervasive and ubiquitous games
• Ambient installations
• Artistic works related to ubiquitous media and computation
• Business models and management strategies
• Ambient and ubiquitous media technology
• Ubiquitous and ambient media services, devices, and environments
• Context aware, sensing, and interfaces for ubiquitous computation
• Ergonomics, human-computer interaction designs, and product prototypes
• Software, hardware and middle-ware framework demonstrations
• Ambient television
• Any other inspiring work in the broad context of ubiquitous media

The winning artwork

Niilo enjoying a game of Bad Piggies at Rovio

The video room was cozy (and a great place for gaming!)

Cake! A lot of cake!

When everybody had had enough cake we headed to the factory area. There we were given special clothes to be allowed to go inside the production areas of the factory. And we got to wear the greatest red caps the entire day! We walked through the history exhibition, which was actually very interesting! Do visit there if you get the chance. We got to see chocolates being made, huge machines cooling chocolates, a recently malfunctioned Geisha machine (so much filling. Everywhere. I am glad I am not the one cleaning that up!) and of course got to decorate our own chocolate bars. Everybody had a wonderful time, thanks to our great guides.

All the winners posing in fashionable attire

My awesome self-decorated chocolate bars

A picture with all our Angry Birds & candy booty!

It was a wonderful day, and I think both Rovio and Fazer did a great job with the arrangements. I thank especially Satu Räsänen from Fazer for making sure everything worked out as well as it did. And I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for the Media programme, it has taught me a lot about creating digital art!

In December 2012, twenty-eight (28) proposals from twelve (12) schools were received for a corporate identity design competition, launched by The International Association of Film and Television Schools (CILECT), in search of a new visual identity and to project an image that evokes the new spirit of CILECT in the new millennium.

This design competition was initiated to be participated among students from educational institutions from around the world whom are full member school of CILECT. Being a member of this organisation, students of TAMK Media Programme were also invited to participate. The CILECT Executive Council reviewed and shortlisted six (6) applications as outright candidates for the winning prize of €1500, and students from TAMK proudly grabbed 3 spots out of them.

One of the students, Joanne NH Wong has emerged to claim the winning prize with her corporate identity design submission, based on the art direction of simplicity, parallel creativity and internationality.

"It is a pleasure to claim the winner spot and the handsome prize, after spending efforts in quite short time frame to accomplish the submission before deadline. Credit also goes to fellow mate, Josef Pacal, who was there working together and helped with some good design advice. I'd like to express appreciation of TAMK's networks that provides great channels and information to students such as posting this design competition. Indeed an excellent Christmas gift this year. Thank you!" - Joanne NH Wong

Example of new CILECT newsletter design with the new logo identity

About CILECT:
CILECT is the association of the world’s major film and television schools. Its goals are to provide a means for the exchange of ideas among member schools, and to help them understand the future of education for creative personnel in film, television, and related media. It is dedicated to the creation, development and maintenance of regional and international co-operation among its member schools, and to the encouragement of film and television training in the developing world. In the year 2012, CILECT had grown to include 159 institutions from 60 countries on five continents. www.cilect.org
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Joanne NH Wong is a TAMK International Media Programme student.
Read more stories by and about IMPs, the Degree Programme in Media students
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Our senior lecturer in fine art Minna Suoniemi is the 2012 Palokärki Award winner with her experimental piece "Little Red Riding Hood and Wolf"

The jury of the The 117th annual exhibition of the Artists' Association of Finland has selected the winner of the Palokärki price from among the 57 artists selected to exhibit in Artist 2012. The price sum is €4000.

Also four graduates of the School of Art and Media are invited to the exhibition, Hannamari Matikainen, Katri Mononen, Jukka Silokunnas and Timo Wright.

Artist 2012 exhibition
December 1 - January 6 / Kunsthalle Helsinki / Nervanderinkatu 3
Open Tue, Thu, Fri 11–18; Wed 11-20; Sat-Sun 11-17; Mon closed
Admission € 8 / € 5,5 Under 18s - no charge

About Little Red Riding Hood and Wolf
Original title / Punahilkka ja susi
Little girl dressed in black stands in the forest and howls. The slowed down sound resembles the voice of some large animal. The little red riding hood and the big bad wolf meet in the same character.
Type / experimental
Genre / body image and culture, female point of view, human relations, portrait, violence,
More:
Preview and detailed information

Minna Suoniemi
Artist 2012 exhibition

Jarno Vesala is the 29th Young Artist of the Year. He graduated in 2004 from the Fine Arts Programme of TAMK School of Art and Media. He held his first private exhibition in 2003 in Tampere and has also participated in collective exhibitions ever since.

Jarno Vesala with wife Katri Mononen (also TAMK fine art graduate) and child. Photo: Antti Haapio

The national Young Artist of the Year event was initiated by the Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1984. The purpose of the selection of the artist and the exhibition process is to present young, talented artists and to pay attention to new Finnish art and its phenomena.

The Young Artist of the Year receives a grant of about 20 000 EUR and the opportunity to hold an exhibition at the Tampere Art Museum. The artist has to be under 35-years old.

The Young Artist of the Year event is organized by the City of Tampere and the Tampere Art Museum.

The previous Young Artist of the Year graduate of our Degree Programme in Fine Arts was Tülay Schakir, Young Artist of the Year 2001.

Tampere Art Museum
Jarno Vesala

Jarno Vesala on our blog:
Young Artist exhibition 2009
Our exhibition in Miscolc 2009

The Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Award (NUMA) Winner Workshop and NUMA Awards Ceremony were important events of MindTrek 2012

During the 3-hour workshop the best-ranked ubimedia masterpieces - the finalists and projects awarded with honorable mentions were introduced. The audience could see how the winners actually work and how they were made.

Numa Chairs Ville Luotonen and Artur Lugmayr together with Honorary Chair Tim Merritt  handed out the prices. Other NUMA core team members are Jury Chair Björn Stockleben and  Chair Cai Melakoski photo ©MindTrek

The winners
The first price (€3000) went to
Botanicus Interacticus - Disney Research, Pittsburgh

Jonas Loh installing the plant before introducing Botanicus Interacticus at the workshop

Ever thought interactive devices could be simply grown in the future? If not, maybe the interactive plant interface, Botanicus Interacticus, will make you reconsider. Using multi-frequency electrical pulses, this technology is capable of sensing the location and intensity of touching on any kind of plant (size permitting). This establishes a surprisingly powerful interface between the organic and the digital world and allows for a literally natural integration of media into the environment. This groundbreaking approach broadens the scope of ubimedia in an exciting way.

The second price (€2000) went to
Oh Music, Where Art Thou? - User System Interaction Programme, Eindhoven University of Technology

Matthijs Zwinderman introduced the OMWAT

Lost in a strange place in an unfamiliar city? This ambient audio navigation service is an innovative ready-to-market solution that relieves you from exposing your expensive phone and enables you to move about like a native. You will enjoy having your eyes free for looking around or interacting with friends, while a clever manipulation of stereo channels leads you the way using your favourite music. Mobile devices make services available virtually anywhere, but still tend to distract us from our surroundings. The jury values that the solution solves this dilemma in a simple and elegant way.

The third price (€1000) was won by
Joggobot - Exertion Games Lab, RMIT University Melbourne

The NUMA workshop was interactive. On left Wouter Walmink from Joggobot with TAMK media students Yonathan Wolowelsky simulating the Jogger and Joel Forsman the Robot

There are numerous new popular running applications for mobile devices, but even the best of them cannot replace the motivation caused by the physical presence of a running mate. The flying running companion Joggobot comes surprisingly close to a social running experience. This project shows the potential of ubimedia when it actually manifests in the playful behavior of physical objects instead of being rendered onto small screens.

The honorable mentions 
Honorable mentions were given to:

Nimesha Ranasinghe and the taste synthesizer

 “Digital taste synthesizer” by the CUTE-Center of National University of Singapore
is according to the jury a visionary project aiming to conquer the sense of taste for ubimedia.

Floating About

“Floating about” by Hochschule Darmstadt, a social location-based game that uses mobile projection devices to render an alternate reality directly on objects in the environment.
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Interactive Shadows was made by our Media students Amir Abdi & Johanna Peltola and TAMK Business Informations Systems student Siru-Kristiina Kuivanen

TAMK Media Programme is one of the key organisers of NUMA. This year our students also participated in the competition itself with two projects. We are very proud of our students - although they didn't win a price in this tough competition their Demola project "Interactive Shadows" was selected to the short list and became thus one of the projects the NUMA jury considered worth a price.

About NUMA
The Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards is an annual competition with a total prize sum of 6.000 euros in 2012. Numa is open to all kinds of artists, practitioners and researchers. The competition was part of the international MindTrek 2012 conference held for the 16th time in Tampere, Finland during October 3rd – 5th.

The competition is organized collaboratively by MindTrek ry, Tampere Region Centre of Expertise in Ubiquitous Computing, Entertainment & Media Management Lab. (EMMi Lab.) of Tampere University of Technology, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Nokia Oyj and the Ambient Media Association (AMEA). The competition is funded by Nokia Oyj and the Tampere Region Centre of Expertise in Ubiquitous Computing.

www.mindtrek.org
www.numa.fi
Read more about the ubimedia competition on our blog
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About MindTrek 2012 on our blog:

• At MindTrek: Skoog Music Workshop 
• Meet the best of Ubimedia at MindTrek 
• Welcome to MindTrek Lounge! 
• MindTrek - what when where!?! 
• Busy and happy: run Video Art workshop, prepare MindTrek 
• The Skoog music workshop 
• The MindTek 2012 diary 
• Mindtrek 2012: “Create”-tive marketing workshop 
• Another successful 24 hours in Tampere 
• The MindTrek Lounge

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UBIQUITUOUS MEDIA LIVE!
NUMA2012 Winner Workshop
Wed 3.10. @ New Factory 2pm to 5pm
New Factory (Väinö Linnan aukio 15)
Finlayson, Tampere
Free admission

The NUMA Winner Workshop brings the topmost of NUMA2012 entries to life on Wednesday New Factory!

During this 3-hour workshop the best-ranked ubimedia masterpieces - the Finalists & Honorable Mentions - will be introduced to the audience. See how the winners actually work, hear more from the authors and be inspired!

Winner Workshop is open for everybody (no entrance fee) and targeted to all those who are interested in state-of-the-art of ubimedia domain.


Botanicus Interacticus - Disney Research, Pittsburgh

Ever thought interactive devices could be simply grown in the future? If not, maybe the interactive plant interface, Botanicus Interacticus, will make you reconsider. Using multi-frequency electrical pulses, this technology is capable of sensing the location and intensity of touching on any kind of plant (size permitting). This establishes a surprisingly powerful interface between the organic and the digital world and allows for a literally natural integration of media into the environment. This groundbreaking approach broadens the scope of ubimedia in an exciting way.

Read more »

European Youth Award is closed, but the Styrian Special Award: Poster competition is open until September 30!

Express your thoughts and creativity and encourage people to generate debate and vision for the Millennium Developments Goals (MDGs)!

The Designing MDGs poster competition aims to challenge young people and confront their work with the real world. Creative talents can enter a poster related to one of the following topics:

Read more »

My Little Window is a successful "A girl meets a boy" fiction film made by our Film&Television students, now winner of Baltic Herring Award of the Blue Sea Film Festival 2012 arranged in Rauma.

My Little Window (Eräänlainen Rakkaustarina)

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NUMA is one of our most important annual global activities, organised together with our academic & industry partners. NUMA2012 nominees are selected, the winner is revealed at MindTrek October 4th. Here's the press release:

Ubimedia comprises technology embedded in its surroundings that enhances our ability to sense and communicate with our environment. The Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards competition (NUMA2012) addresses digital media makers with different backgrounds. It gives them the opportunity to present their visions on the future of ubiquitous media to the unique audience of the annual MindTrek conference in Tampere in October.

Read more »

European Youth Award is closed, but the Styrian Special Award: Poster competition is open until September 15!

Express your thoughts and creativity and encourage people to generate debate and vision for the Millennium Developments Goals (MDGs)!

Read more »

Submit now:  http://www.numa.fi/

The call for entries is now open until August 6th The 6th international Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards competition, NUMA2012, seeks for novel ways to combine ubiquitous computing to media. We are looking for disruptive artistic visions as well as clever near-to-market solutions off the beaten tracks! This includes any range of innovative ubimedia, pervasive, or ambient products and services.

NUMA2011 Award Ceremony: NUMA chairs Artur Lugmayr and Björn Stockleben, 1st prize winner Kening Zhu, 3rd prize winner Wilken Holle and competition chair Ville Luotonen

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The call for entries is open until July 15thThe 6th Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Awards competition, NUMA2012, seeks for novel ways to combine ubiquitous computing to media. We are looking for disruptive artistic visions as well as clever near-to-market solutions off the beaten tracks! This includes any range of innovative ubimedia, pervasive, or ambient products and services. 

NUMA2011 Award Ceremony: NUMA chairs Artur Lugmayr and Björn Stockleben, 1st prize winner Kening Zhu, 3rd prize winner Wilken Holle and competition chair Ville Luotonen

Read more »

Story: Julius Tuomisto
World Summit Award winners 2011 event in Cairo

The trophies were handed over by H.E. Mohamed Salem, Minister of CIT, Yasser El Kady, CEO ITIDA, Ossama Kamal, CEO Tradefairs International, and Peter A. Bruck, Chairman of the WSA Board. Julius Tuomisto in the centre, just about to grab hold on his trophy.

The World Summit Award (WSA) is a global activity to select and promote the world's best e-Content and most innovative ICT applications. It offers a worldwide platform for all who value the creative use of ICTs and who are committed to making today’s information society more inclusive.
WSA was initiated by Austria in 2003 in the framework of the United Nations' World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and is organised by a global partner network, coordinated by the International Center for New Media. WSA partners come from governments, private sector and civil society in over 160 UN member states.

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Story and pics: Heidi Mäenpää
On Thursday afternoon the first ever Demola Graduation Event began. In the event the Demola project teams pitched the ideas they had been developing since last autumn. The teams consisted of students from all of the three universities of Tampere: TAMK, TUT and UTA.

Teams eagerly waiting for the pitching to begin

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Tampere Art Factory workshop project successful around EuropeThe  15th Videomedeja Festival  was arranged December 16-18 2011 in Novi Sad, Serbia.

The jury was unanimous awarding "24 hours in Tampere, an interactive documentary" with the Bogdanka Poznanović award - for the best media installation due to participatory potential of the work. The Sphinx award – for the best video/film went to "A Finnish Fable" by Niina Suominen.

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