Tuesday, 25 October 2016

The Platinum project - workshop in Hong Kong

We had an exciting workshop in Hong Kong with the students from Polytechnic University. During the first day we explored the beautiful Chinese garden of Nan Liang and got to see how the local nature feels like compared to Finland's familiar pine forests. 
Thanks to the humid and warm environment the plants were green and bright. The most distinct difference for me, was the smell.

Here are some of my favourite pictures I took:
Bridge, trees and water. Together they make a nice picture.
My favourite Bonsai tree.

Some might find small bonsai trees unnatural and trapped, but I think they are cute and all have different story hidden behind them.

Bright flowers were easy to find in the garden.


In a Finnish forest the smell is fresh and distant, but in this garden it was strong but also soothing. If you closed your eyes and ears and only smelled the garden, you could forget the huge city around you.
Old water mill had a nice atmosphere around it.
We can see the city all around the garden.

On Wednesday we arrived to Dragon's Back. It was nice hiking trail close to our hostel. The weather was quite good. It wasn't too hot and didn't rain so we were lucky. The weather forecast said there could be a typhoon but thankfully it came after we had left Hong Kong.

Before we could start our climb, we had to walk through this peaceful forest path. After the forest we climbed up and down the "Dragon's back". The view was worth all the hard work.
Forest path.
We had to open pokemon Go. ;) All Dragon's Back hiking trail's gyms were full of Dragonates. That was well done.
The view from the top of the Dragon's Back was beautiful even with the cloudy weather.

For me, the greatest part on this trip was to meet new and old friends, and to see how different our cities are. Nature is amazing where ever you go, but it's also so unique. 
Our goal is to find ways how to connect nature with virtual reality games and help people to relax that way. 
This trip expanded my view how different nature can be, and how it affects everyone in various ways.

The theme for this Workshop was Virtual reality and many of us invested it in our game concepts. I can't wait to see what we have produced by next year.

Thank you all from this amazing workshop! :)

Text & Pictures by: Eve Kyllönen

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Sunday, 26 April 2015

Cool Week in Hong Kong 20.-24.4.2015


View over Hong Kong, from the PolyU Innovation Tower
Hong Kong skyline, near the Space Museum
Between the 20th and 24th of April, two of our Tamk Media and Arts lecturers - Howell Istance and I, Carita Forsgren - went to visit Hong Kong. (Yes, the city, not the Finnish hardware and various items store by the same name.) We were there by the generous invitation of the University of Tampere, Centre for Practice as Research inTheatre. Thank you also for being such nice travel companions, Riku Roihankorpi and Maria Salomaa! What a pity that Jaakko Lenni-Taattola was not able to join us, due to attending another conference.

 Here's what the CPRP has published in their blog.

Howell Istance, Riku Roihankorpi and Maria Salomaa: our first evening in Hong Kong

Riku tries out a student installation work at the
Innovation Tower, HK PolyU
Maria and Howell at the
Happy Valley horse races
So, what did we do in Hong Kong, except going to the Happy Valley horseraces, the Nan Lian gardens & Chi Lin Nunnery, street shopping at the Ladies' Market and other places, hiking on the Dragon's Back and seeing interesting museums? (It was Maria and Howell who went to hike the Dragon's Back, and Riku and I who rather hiked in the History and Space Museums.)
Chi Lin Nunnery

Local meat shop
Well, we did manage to get some work done, no small thanks to Hanna Wirman and her colleagues at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University,PolyU Design.
One of the entrances to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Jockey Club Innovation Tower at the HK PolyU, where we had the workshop
Hanna Wirman

Maria, Howell and Hanna, as we were drinking coffee
and tea at the HK Polytechnic University
"Dr Hanna Wirman teaches and coordinates the Game Development stream of MSc in Multimedia & Entertainment Technology and supervises game design projects, often with a focus on social responsibility and innovation. She leads educational game research projects working closely with the local community and NGOs in Hong Kong."
Entrance to the Innovation Tower

One of the student installations

We had some dim sum at the staff restaurant
(and learnt real quickly how to use chopsticks)
Among the interesting people we met were also Ida Kathrine Jørgensen (Hong Kong PolyU), Olli Leino (City University of Hong Kong), Simon Niedenthal (Malmo University), Kaneda Yasuhiro, and many others.
Simon and Yasuhiro

Riku, Maria and Simon
Here's where we met Olli Leino


Virtual cave installation

Mocap lab that Olli showed us
From our meetings grew an idea; it's too early yet to start explaining it here, but we all were pretty excited about the possibilities for mutual collaboration towards one goal. I - and all of us - hope that the seed we planted will grow into a fine tree that stretches its limbs between the continents. Ah, maybe I've already revealed too much... But stay tuned - there will be interesting opportunities for students to do fun projects and workshops!

Hong Kong skyline, seen from the Star Ferry,
as we went back to Kowloon to our hotel


Text & images: Carita Forsgren 2015

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