Media students created future media culture in Liepaja

Our delegation of ten students and two lecturers has returned from the second two week Media Culture 2020 workshop held in Liepaja, Latvia. The first workshop was in Tampere in April.

Media Culture 2020 is an Erasmus Intensive Programme. The project demonstrates what 21th century converged and interactive European Media Culture could be. MC2020 breaks classroom and campus walls by creating open virtual learning environments where students from different countries and fields can explore and learn together.

You can find all projects done by the students, presentations by the lecturers and daily reports from both Tampere and Liepaja workshops on the project blog http://mediaculture2020.blogspot.fi/

The 50 participants in Liepaja and 40 in Tampere were art, film, media and business students from Liepaja University, Utrecht School of Arts, University of Vic, University of Lincoln and TAMK.



The project was started on-line by preparing the projects in teams and participa-
ting in on-line lectures. On the big picture the Dutch team at the Ubiquitous
Media lecture given by Björn Stockleben (third small pic fron left) in one of the
five Google Hangout plenaries.




The main form of activity was team work, but ...




...there was also lectures and votes...




...and intensive debates.




Each team hosted their national cultural evening. Here team Latvia
members introduce traditional Latvian masks




Every day the teams presented the assignments and progress of their
projects to receive feedback




Freetime at last at the weekend. Exploring the old Russian fort in Karosta



On the second but last evening all seven teams presented their
projects to the international audience of the iWeek Festival in Liepaja
(Photo: Graham Cooper)




The last day was about finalising all the work and a long feedback plenary.
René Lansink (Utrech School of the Arts) assessing students projects
with Graham Cooper (Lincoln University)




Incredible how fast two weeks can pass. TAMK students saying
thanks and bye at Riga airport.

New Factory Open finalized the Demola season

The event called New Factory Open gathered several hundred people yesterday to see the best Demola projects from Finland and abroad, the New Factory start-ups and the speakers from different innovation sectors. The day climaxed with a pitching competition of three Demola teams that were selected to the finals out of all Demola teams the day before. The winner of the best Demola team award was chosen by an international jury.

A bunch of TAMK students have been working in Demola projects this season and TAMK was strongly presented also in the teams that made their way to the final competition.

The winners of the best Demola team award, including also two TAMK media students:
Rosanna Salminen and Erika Sangah Kim.

One of the three teams in the final competition was working on a project called "Visualize it!" for Yle, the national broadcasting company. The international TAMK group members, Joanne NH Wong, Lubos Rezler and Martin Kleinberns were happy for being a part of Demola community. After the last pitching, only one thing needs to be done with the project: to present their concept for Yle representatives in the headquarters in Helsinki.

The succesful Visualize it! team created a concept called Uncle Onni for Yle to attract young people. 

TAMK exchange student Martin Kleinberns giving a pitch

The event attracted lot of people to see what's going on in the innovation scene

 Changseok Kang ,TAMK exchange student in Chemical Engineering, and  Réka Hajdu-Rahkama,
TAMK degree student in Environmental Engineering, were happy to present their Demola project.

This was the end of Demola Spring Season, but applying for Demola Summer starts at week 24. If you, TAMK degree or exchange student, are interested to work in a multidisciplinary team to create innovative solutions for real-world needs, check out the Demola page for more information.

Text and photos: Kaisa Merilahti, International Services

Admission 2013: Media Programme pre-task available

Next application period for our four Bachelor's programmes run in English - Environmental Engineering  International Business, Media and  Nursing - starts on January 7. Applicants for media have to prepare and send a pre-task in addition to the regular application. The pre-task is now online.
(The story originally posted on TAMK Art&Media Blog)
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Available seats are now 30 (+10) and Music Production  is a new option!

• In 2009 they planned a global tenth anniversary celebration of mankind’s presence in Mars.
• In 2010 they created a concept for a digital sports game.
• In 2011 they designed a campaign to fight overweight and obesity.
• In 2012 they arranged a global 24 hour party before the disastrous asteroid hit Earth.
• In 2013 they will be the first to report from the newly found Atlantis!

They are applicants of IMP, our international media programme.

This year there will be more free seats and more options, the Music Production education in Virrat will merge with Media Programme in Tampere.

There will be 30 seats available for new students instead of the 20 until now. After the merger and the new curriculum the areas of study of IMP will be: Event Production, Game Design, Motion Graphics, Music Production, Music Business, Sound Design, Visual Design, Web Design.

FIND the pretask here

Application Period Jamuary 7 to February 12
Here please find the time table and the resources to do the application:

• TAMK application web pages are complete, see www.tamk.fi/jointapplication
• November 30: December 1st: The pre-task to be submitted with the application will be published
• December: The national joint application web site will open at https://www.admissions.fi/
• December: Our new curriculum featuring Music Production will be launched
• January 7th application period kick off
• February 12th application closed
• Early March: invitations to Entrance Exam sent
• April 9 and 10 Entrance Exam
• The final results of the student selection will be sent to the applicants by post on May 28th at the earliest.

Read more about the Media Programme
Read about the activities of IMPs, the Media students
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Examined Tartu Art College Theses evaluation: We have much to learn

Our active partner Tartu Art College invited me to participate in the committee evaluating their New Media theses - an honorable challenge which I accepted with pride and pleasure. During one very long day and a half I have seen 15 videos, games, animations, interactive installations and performances and had very intense and in-depth debates with the six other members of the committee. Brilliant days, because I learned so much from the students, their supervisors and evaluators and the evaluation committee members.

The Graduate Show Lend 2012 is open in two locations: at the Market Hall
and in Gallery Nooruus (Youth), the gallery of the Art College.

There was a lot of value for me in this trip, but two things impressed me outstandingly:

First: the university shows clearly their reverence of the graduates: The rector reads all theses and is member of the evaluation committee, the vice rector is the sectetary, respected Estonian professionals are invited to the evaluation committee. The graduates are treated with highest esteem and are the central heroes of the process.

In addition to theses works of Department of Media and Advertisement Design, the theses
of which I assessed, Tartu Art College departments are Furniture, Leather Design, Paintings,
Photography, Sculpture and Textile.

Second: the students are mature and professional; they have prepared very well and able to motivate their decisions with dignity also when the critique is sharp. Simultaniously they are humble and take the advice of the more experienced with respect.

Uku Pira's thesis was the installation "Memory loss" dealing with
electronic waste. The screen  (not seen on photo) was a grave-
yard of abandoned computers. A brilliant Performance I'll never
forget. Uku interviewed by TAC Rector Vallo Nuust

The first TAMK international Media Programme students will graduate next spring. So happy I made this trip, I got so many brilliant ideas to implement.

Game Design is a rising field also in Tartu, three Theses were games. Pictured
Mari Kukk and her iPad Game Funky Fauna

Read more about our cooperation with Tartu

Tartu Art College on Facebook
Tartu Art College home

One of the things we share with Tartu Art College is the Interactive Film
professor Chris Hales, here in discussion with the authors Eduard and Oscar
Wilde in front of the pub where we (Chris and me) followed the UEFA Eurocup
game France vs, England on Monday.

Story and pics: Cai Melakoski
Head, TAMK Degree Programme in Media
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Trivia: Tartu is the Finnish Twin City of the City of Tampere in Estonia
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TAMK logo animations

TAMK Information Services ordered and Animation and Visual Design Workshop created animations
with the theme of Tamk's logo. The Information Services decided to reward three of those. First price
goes to Anna-Kaisa and Albert who may now start their summerly hiking with a brand new Tamk back bag.
Sabrina is hiding behind the second price while Alexandra is holding her third price in her hand.

Congrats to Anna-Kaisa, Albert, Sabrina and Alexandra.

Click on the links to see the videos:

Anna-Kaisa's and Albert's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yCSGQwaPO8

Sabrina's video: http://vimeo.com/42413754

Alexandra's video: https://vimeo.com/37911838

 

 

Art&Media International Week attracted 70 guests

Tampere Art Factory International Week 2012 attracted a record of 70 international visitors: 30 academic and other staff members from 22 institutes of higher education, 25 students from three universities and five staff members of three enterprises. The International Week featured nine workshops lead by our guests, four seminars and one show of our student works & International Week workshop results, six exhibitions, one networking sauna event, visits to Demola and (Angry Bird) Rovio, one reception and one evening party, countless project and partnership meetings.

Group photo in front of Marttilan pirtti. Noora Järventaus from
TAMK International Services hosted the Networking Sauna evening

The guests came from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Spain and the UK. In addition many of our international degree and exchange students participated in the events, so over all 30+ countries were represented.

Workshops were a vital part of the week

The International week was quite well documented, here you have links to blog posts showing a rich collection of photographs from the International Week events:

• TAF Workshops and seminars - what, when, where?
• Our International Week kicked off
• TAF International Week Day 2
• Producing with the audience workshop (By Heidi Mäenpää)
• TAF International Week seminars, day 3
• TAF International Week seminars, day 4
• TAF International Week special programme 

On the seminars teachers and professionals exchanged fresh ideas.
Yuwei Lin (University of Salford) on right presenting

Also our guests reported frequently on blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Here links to posts about International Week on Yuwei Lin's (Salford University) blog:

• Erasmus exchange
• Researching the Openness
• Day 3 at the TAF International Week 2012
• Space and Creativity 
• Visit to Rovio’s Tampere Studio

The hosts, our degree programmes in Film&Television, Fine Arts and Media want to thank all international guests, who really made the International Week happen. Special thanks goes to the week coordinator Sohvi Sirkesalo and project assistant Emilija Vasiljeva, who organised everything.

International Week page at TAF home
On Facebook
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Art&Media International Week kicked off today

The first fifteen out of 70 TAF International Week participants came this morning to Finlayson Campus, and the first workshops started their work.
Tampere Art Factory (TAF) international week will run until Friday, when the actual Tampere Art Factory Festival will begin.

Pictured above at the end of the tour of our premises you can find Andrzej Syska (University of Arts in Poznan, Poland), Mieke Laansma (Stenden University, Netherlands), Sheila Robinson (Gatlin International, UK), Amy Sampson and Steph Comley (University College Falmouth, UK), Yu-Wei Lin(University of Salford, UK), Danica Mast and Joey van der Bie (The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands).

Max Neupert (Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany) started his four day workshop Audiovisual Real-time Programming for Artists, Cyrille Bloemers and Johan Rijpma (Utrecht School of the Arts, Netherlands) their two day workshop Producing with the audience and Jan Pier Brands and Hugo Engwerda(Hanzehogeschool Groningen, Netherlands) their two day Conditional Pop Culture Designing.

New guest and new workshops tomorrow, we will learn a lot!

Read more:
The workshop schedules
Workshop teachers and contents
The seminars
TAF International Week 

Ice Screen Project 2012 opening @ Finlayson

ISP 2012 :: Teaser Trailer from hermaxx on Vimeo.


It seems that in our fast-changing, crowded with new technologies world, everything is so common that there is nothing to amaze us. But the idea of a unique project organized by TAMK is a challenge. During one week of cutting and lifting ice blocks from a frozen lake in Lapland and assembling them to huge-sized custom-shaped ice screens which are being projected on, students are given the opportunity not only to work with ice in terms of large-scale sculpturing but also to explore new ways and possibilities of interactive visual installments.
Project is an opportunity for creative students to implement their visual creations on the prepared ice blocks. The format of those creations can differ from a picture on an ice block to the interactive video installation. 
Ice screen project – is a unique opportunity to expand the perception of ice by adding innovations. It transforms nature to a space where people are involved into visual world and touch the sense of new experience.
With the help of newest media devices we present the Ice screen project exhibition 2012. 

We invite You to the exhibition opening at
Spede (2nd floor), TAMK Finlayson campus
on Thursday 4p.m

Media Programme application pre-task online!

• In 2009 they planned a global tenth anniversary celebration of mankind’s presence in Mars.
• In 2010 they created a concept for a digital sports game.
• In 2011 they designed a campaign to fight overweight and obesity.
• In 2012 they will arrange a global 24 hour party before the disastrous astroid hits Earth.

They are applicants of IMP, our international interactive media programme.

Application period for the international degree programmes of Finnish UAS is January 9 to February 14 2012.
For the Degree Programme in Media it is not enough that applicants fill in the online form, they also have to complete and send by the deadline a pre-task with two assignments.

The 60 eligible applicants having most points will be invited to the entrance exam 17th or 18th April, and finally 20 of them will start their Bachelor of Culture and Arts studies at Finlayson Campus right in the centre of Tampere in August.

The focus of the four year programme is in interactive media content design and production. The students learn about current digital media issues and they specialise in visual design, interaction design or project management.
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Download the pre-task
All details about the application process
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Media Programme home
Media Programme on Facebook
#tamkmedia on Twitter
Read about studies and free time activities of IMPs
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Mexican girl in love with Finland

Culture, people, music, education, art, innovative design and sustainability issues.

Finland is a dramatic change for me, I’m from Mexico and I’m in Tampere as an exchange student in TAMK Media programme for this semester.

The Mexican lifestyle is totally different; the food, education, culture, people, design, arts and weather, that means a huge experience for me in a good way because I’m enjoying being here.

At the beginning was a little hard for me because the Mexican people are warmer than in Finland but I realized that is part of the Finnish culture so it isn’t a problem now, because after you meet Finnish people they introduce Finnish lifestyle to you, for example the sauna, summerhouse, traditional dishes, nature, hobbies and at the same time I have the opportunity to introduce them my own culture.

I think the order in the country is admirably, everything is in the right place and of course the education, music, arts, design and sustainability issues are amazing. Talking about the education, I think a big advantage from the way of government is the opportunity to offer free education and student support because in Mexico it doesn’t exist, our parents have to pay all the education and expenses we need for studying, as a result not all the Mexican people have the possibility to study.

On the other hand, I’m surprised with the Demola projects because offer the opportunity to acquire knowledge and experience in different technological fields to the students furthermore you could get paid for that.

The architecture and design are unique with an elegant style and always considering being friendly with the environment. About the environment and sustainability I love the use of bikes, the machines to recover the bottles and cans and all the green products with innovate design, in other words the Finnish culture shows the awareness of the environment and I really like this issue because in this way is easy recycling and be awareness for everyone.

The winter is coming and I’m glad to experience the Finnish winter because the weather is colder than in my city, which is the highest city in Mexico and the weather during the winter is around -5º C. but we don’t have snow, so hopefully I’ll be prepare with the suitable clothes for enjoy this season.

I could spend much time writing about my impressions and experiences in Finland but I don’t want to bore you. In a simple way I like the Finnish lifestyle, I have found good Finnish friends and definitely if I had to choose again the country for my exchange would be Finland without doubt. Mexico is maybe the opposite in many ways but I’ll be happy when I come back after this amazing experience.


Finally you are welcome to Mexico to experience all the differences by your own!

by Karen Ivette Plata Reyes

Originally posted on http://tamk-artmedia.blogspot.com
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Lucky Media students experience GDC Europe and GamesCom

This years Game Developer Conference Europe and GamesCom guest lists included three students from our very own Degree programme in Media.  By winning the, Nokia sponsored, Demola organised mobile concept competition (read story ) we were able to choose any conference in Europe to visit!  Our choice was GDC Europe 2011 and the affiliated GamesCom trade event that were held during the same week in Cologne, Germany.  It was easy to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, and take part in both kinds of event on the same trip. With us travelled Bernard Garvey from Demola who seemed to enjoy our company.  For GamesCom Nokia were unable to finance our visit because of it officially being a separate event so TAMK very generously sponsored the extra nights needed to visit the trade fair.

There were the most people in the booth area during the pauses in GDC

GDC Europe is known and respected world wide as a large event in the gaming industry.  This year it included many lectures, parties and of course networking.  There were lectures from Monday to Wednesday on subjects ranging from business and marketing to game design, programming, visual arts and production.  We were of course able to choose which lectures we went to and most of the time plumped for those that seemed the most interesting.  Parties took place every night too.  From which you had to choose the best as well.  Networking was easier at parties because the feeling was relaxed and you were able to talk about more than just work.  At the end of the day my handbag was always full of business cards!

The humoristic lecturer told us about game design

It was fun to see that despite being at such a large event we were also able to meet other students.  We came in contact with, among others, German and Swedish students.  It was also brilliant to get to know people from outside Finland that are actually studying in the same area.  By sharing experiences and ideas you no doubt learn best.  On the other hand we also got to know some Finns from the games industry, which is handy when we come to think about internships.  GamesCom also had representatives from various Universities and that increased the possibilities for exchange studies.

Nintendo was pretty popular because their new 3DS console

We also succeeded in mingling with one of the biggest forces in the industry:ArenaNet!  The firm was presenting a demo of their new game, Guild Wars 2.  We were even able to test the game on Wednesday before the event even began as trade visitors and press had their own preview of GamesCom.  At the end of the week the gigantic halls we full to the brim with enthusiastic gamers.  Having been invited to the NCSoft party we got the opportunity to meet the actual producers from ArenaNet.  We got to know, among others, famous concept artists Kekai Kotaki and Daniel Dociu - a real once in a life time opportunity.  One of our group member's dreams came true when these legends came up with a surprising and unusual idea.  The next day at gamescom, on stage, Kekai was to draw a Guild Wars 2 tattoo onto none other than Anna's shoulder.  Of course you didn't need to ask Anna twice and she snapped up the opportunity what with being such a huge fan of the game.

Anna was very happy with her new tattoo

The journey was no doubt one that none of the group will forget! We are more than pleased with what we have learnt and found the whole experience really inspiring.  In the future we will no doubt be looking for even more promising opportunities, like this, to explore.

Story: Emma Kiiski
Translation Douglas Symon
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The three awarded students, Emma Kiiski, Douglas Symon and Anna Narinen are students of Degree Programme in Media
Read more stories from/about IMPs, the Media students
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TAMK at Assembly, Summer 2011

TAMK participated in the biggest game party in the country with few enthusiastic students from both Teiskontie and Finlayson. We got our stuff in the Hartwall arena and had a stand for everyone to come to ask about TAMK and what we are studying and look what we have been doing (game projects etc). For me personally this was the first time in Assembly so everything was new and exciting! Assembly is a great way to connect with students from other schools and some interesting people from the industry. It’s also an event to share knowledge, experiences, ideas, new technology and most importantly; having fun with all this!

Leaving from TAMK

The sea of computer screens in the arena looked wonderful in the evening when the lights were turned off and many of the gamers continued playing the whole night. Fortunately there was also a possibility to take a few hours sleep on the hallway to gather some energy. There was a band playing in the main stage before midnight and before that some very interesting game developing compo videos were shown in the big screen. Everyone in the event could vote for their favorite games in the compo. Some school projects had been shown as well as hobbyist game demos. It was really interesting to see that a university of applied sciences in Kajaani (KAJAK) was really actively presenting their projects and they had something to be proud about. It’s a shame there were no games in the compo from TAMK but let’s see if next year brings any new good games to be showed in Assembly!

TAMK's awesome stand

There were many interesting seminars about new online game development. For example Mozilla was presented in browser-based developing. It’s already quite amazing what you can create with only the browser’s 2D (Canvas) and 3D (WebGL) tools.
There was a presentation from Supercell (a game company) where they presented new and light game technology with a quite old tool Flash. The game looked pretty good and was light to run with the browser. In amount the seminars were really interesting and inspiring. It wasn’t all about game development; some of the topics covered for example game music. There was a lot to choose from for everyone.

The event has offered graphic contests and game tournaments which are a fun way to spend time in between of playing in the middle of the sea of computers.

Angry Birds - live version

At some point a former students from TAMK’s international business programme came to talk to us. He works now in Rovio with Angry Birds and was really positive about TAMK students to get to work over there too. That would be a really good chance for internship. It was nice to notice that TAMK is a good school to jump from into the industry.

I left in the Saturday evening so I wasn’t able to join the fun on Sunday. But next year I will for sure participate in the event and promote TAMK and our awesome game projects! It was a really great trip and taught me a lot; I hope the others enjoyed too!

Story: Emma Kiiski
The author is student of Degree Programme in Media
Read more stories from/about IMPs, the Media students
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Assembly Summer 2011
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