TAF – How can universities give students a kick to go global?

The international seminar "How Universities give students a kick to go global?" was kicked off in Demola by Jukka Siltanen and Taru Söderlund. Jukka invited the audience to ponder: "What can I learn?" and "How is it important to me personally?"

As Jukka pointed out, most importantly, TAF seminar is a day to celebrate TAMK students and their achievements! The speakers spoke of art and internationalism from different perspectives.

Andrea Zapata Girau showed a trailer of her up-coming Flamenco Movie, and Pekka Saari spoke about his film Memory of tomorrow, especially about combining the production with postproduction. Pekka Niskanen told the audience of the exhibition his students are having first at Werstas in Tampere and then in Dortmund. He also shared his experiences in the international art world. Then Robert Niva and Martti Sirkkola demonstrated their 3D animation project, in which they had learned the entire process of doing a 3D animation by doing it together, in a group, instead of relying on traditional lecture-based education. They explained the importance of using the wisdom of crowds and social media application in learning and producing art.


After the break it was time for Jukka Siltanen to take the stage again. Jukka talked about Hub Tampere and entrepreneurship. Hub Tampere is all about joint entrepreneurship and sharing both skills, ideas and resources. Hub Tampere has already had some excellent success, and Jukka sounded very optimistic about its future. The Proacademy students presented their projects: a Tampere guidebook for exchange students, a football tournament and its afterparty. Then producer Timo Vierimaa, spoke about his film, the "Steam of Life" ("Miesten vuoro") and how he succeeded in making his film truly international. According to Vierimaa, the keys to success are good presentation and communication skills along with patience.

The final speaker of the event was Juho Hartikainen from Score game development club, who explained how the Score game club came to be. Hartikainen emphasised the fact that the students who have the enthusism and drive to do new, innovative things, should be supported and encouraged. The students should feel like they are working for the school instead of just in the school. Siltanen, Vierimaa, Niva and Sirkkola as well as the highly interesting Proacademy projects, all highlighted the fact that so much of today's learning takes place outside the traditional classroom environment. This type of learning must be supported and nurtured, for it is the key to national and international success.


Andrea Zapata Girau final thesis work at TAMK

Links:
http://www.memoryoftomorrow.com
http://tamk-artmedia.blogspot.com/2010/04/promoting-changes-exhibition-to-inter.html
http://3danimationproject.wordpress.com
http://hubtampere.wordpress.com
http://www.proakatemia.fi
http://score.igda.fi/

Welcome to Tampere Art Factory

The third edition of Tampere Art Factory Festival (TAF) started today at the old Finlayson cotton mill in the heart of Tampere, Finland. TAF is above all a demonstration of the skills and talent of the graduates of the School of Art and Media at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, and their friends.

TAF is several fine art exhibitions, animation and film shows, interactive media, installations and performances. The fifty international guests of the International Week which started on Monday will also participate in TAF. Several works of the week workshops hosted by international lecturers will be seen at TAF.

Tampere Art Factory May 7-9 at Finlayson 

TAF today, Friday:

9.30-12.00 Seminar: How can Universities Give Students a Kick to go Global? (Demola)
12-17 Films, Interactive Movies, Animations, Visuvaara final thesis exhibition  of  visual design students (School of Art and Media)
12-16 Timo Wright's Long Sunday photo exhibition (Ikuinen Gallery)
12-18 Open Studio: MEGAGAGAA (Nottbeck gallery)
13-16 Demos at Demola
13-19 Graduation work films at Vooninkisali
16-18 I Love  Photography exhibition opening, School of Art and Media, 3rd floor
19-21 Promoting Changes Fine Art exhibition, Labour Museum Werstas
21-02 TAF party at Klubi

Open doors 13-16:

• Demola
• HUB Tampere
• Creative Tampere
• Mediamuseum Rupriikki
• Proakademy

Korean Waves photographic exhibition at TAF

From Alice in wonderland by Kang Seulgi

Korean Wave
Photography Exhibition
May 8 - 30
TR1 Exhibition Centre
Väinö Linnan aukio 13, Finlayson, Tampere
Open: Tue-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat-Sun  11am-6pm (Mon closed)
On Fridays free admission

One of the partner delegations visiting TAMK School of Art and Media International Week is the group of professors and students coming from the Chung-Ang University, the Korean top university for photography.

The guests bring with them the Korean Wave photography exhibition. The exhibition has already been shown last year at Month of Photography in Bratislava, Slovakia and will be seen later this year at Galerie Lampingstrasse, Bielefeld, Germany

Professor Walter Bergmoser, curator of the exhibition:

"Korean Wave is usually connected to popculture and soap-operas. Althought the
expression “Korean wave” might not be known very well in the western part of the world, it had and still has a strong influence in whole Asia like Japan, China and South East Asia.

Nowadays it becomes more and more known to the rest of the world. It has even spreat
further to countries like South America, Russia, Hungary atc. It started in the late 1990s and improved the country‘s image considerably. The impact was so strong that it even caused some backlashes, some countries had difficulties to accept the popularity of the “korean wave”.

Though “Korean Wave” may not so strongly be connected to fine-arts, I see a potential of the same impact in the Korean photography of the new generation as in its original field. The images in this exhibition are made by young photographers from the Chung-ang University, the Korean top university for photography.

The artists are showing us their guilts, fears and hopes in a very personal way. But they also explore the contemporary Korea in a genuine combination of western influence
and Korean identity. Confucianism with its boundaries of inner world and outer shame,
the “losing face” and filial piety are still strong in the Korean society, whereas the technical standards are far ahead from us in daily life."

The artists:

Hong Bonggi
Kang Dayoung
Kang Seulgi
Kim Jihye
Kim Minjeong
Kwon Jihyun
Park Serry
Park Siyeon 

The Exhibition is a part of  TAMPERE ART FACTORY (TAF)

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TAMK students in Shanghai World Expo

Five students of Mechanical and Production Engineering, who are specialising in Industrial Engineering and Management, travel to work in the Shanghai World Expo. The World Expo will be open from the 1st of May until the 31st of October 2010.

The students are Tuomas Oikkonen, Tuomo Liukku, Jarno Lammenaho, Ville-Veikko Virolainen and Rami Iskanius.

The students will work in building services engineering repair and maintenance tasks in the Finnish Pavilion. These include the maintenance and night duties regarding the building’s security devices, communication devices, waste management and logistics.
The Expo area is five kilometres long, and about 100 million visitors are expected to visit the Expo, so there is a lot to do.

”It seems like a big challenge to go, but the biggest challenges are also the most important ones, careerwise. The future usually favours the bold. When thinking about our futures, we feel this opportunity opens up a lot of new doors in the working life, and elsewhere. The atmosphere in the team is really high and enthusiastic”, commented Iskanius.

The students were selected for the World Expo through a vast application process, and the final interviews for the applicants were carried out by the Finnish Commissioner General for Expo 2010 Pertti Huitu.

Hands-On practical training in Ethiopia

We had a chance to do our practical training in a country known for its long history, great coffee and 13 months of sunshine. An NGO called Sustainable Future (Kestävä tulevaisuus ry., KeTu ) in co-operation with TAMK’s R&D gave us opportunity to visit Ethiopia.

Project partners work in co-operation with a local partner NGO, Lem Ethiopia, enabling sustainable energy solutions and improving waste & sanitation as well as self-sufficiency in the city of Bahir Dar.

Bahir Dar is a city by Lake Tana, largest lake in Ethiopia and also the source of the Blue Nile. Ethiopia is located in the African horn and is a home for over 80 million people. About 80 % of the people in Ethiopia live in the rural areas and get their living from agriculture. At the same time only about 18 %of the households have access to proper sanitation facilities and about 31 % have access to safe water.

Our mission was to teach about hygiene and sanitation in local schools in Bahir Dar. We visited five schools and did a few hour training about personal hygiene and motivated students with awakening pictures and examples. It was a great experience and we had an amazing time teaching those eager and respecting students about hygiene. There are a lot of cultural challenges to be won, but one step at a time they can maintain a better health and demand better sanitation facilities.

At the same time we implemented a study about using urine as a fertilizer when growing cabbage. The plan was to implement a demonstration field and show the benefits of using urine in order to get a bigger yield. Unfortunately the land needed was provided by the government, but still faced challenges in order to be able to start up the real work. Therefore we implemented the study in a rather small-scale and in private in our own front yard. Did not quite serve as a demonstration, but we left some evidence to our local partners that urine is worth promoting as a free, safe and natural fertilizer.

The 2-month training taught us a lot. We were happy that we could exchange knowledge with the locals. All in all this was an once-in-a-lifetime possibility which will stay with us for the rests of our lives.

Text & photos: TAMK’s environmental engineering students Suvi Pielismaa and Salla Jokela

More about the project, project manager at TAMK's R&D: aino-maija.kyykoski(AT)tamk.fi
More about Sustainable Future NGO/ Kestävä Tulevaisuus ry: www.ketury.org
More about Lem Ethiopia : www.lem.org.et