The works in the exhibition are products of the Sormina project. Sormina is a new electronic in-strument for creating sound art and moving images. The Sormina project is part of Juhani Räisänen’s doctoral dissertation for the Aalto University School of Arts and Design. The public examination of the dissertation will take place in the beginning of November 2011.

In the videos, color fields are moving and changing into each other. The space is filled by red and green until they make room for black and blue that are flowing in. Every now and then the solid color fields become friable and dim. The sounds are from the same landscape, and sometimes they are missing altogether. (Source: Muu gallery)

MUU gallery
Open Tue-Fri 12-5pm, Sat-Sun 12-4pm
Tel +358-(0)9-625 972
muugalleria(at)muu.fi

Department of Media welcomes Professor Sammye Johnson, who will spend the Fall 2011 semester in School of Art and Design. She has received a Fulbright Award from the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Professor Johnson will be teaching a graduate course based on her book, The Magazine from Cover to Cover. She will also work with graduate students to develop professional magazine projects and research dissertations focusing on magazine theories, methods, and applications.

Professor Johnson will collaborate with Maija Töyry, professor of magazine journalism in the media department at Aalto University School of Art and Design on a project titled “Audience Construction in International Magazines.”

Sammye Johnson is a professor in the Department of Communication at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where she holds the Carlos Augustus de Lozano Chair in Journalism. Prior to joining the faculty at Trinity, Johnson was an award-winning magazine editor and writer for more than a decade. She continues to freelance; since 1985 she has published more than 350 articles in a variety of magazines and newspapers and received 19 writing awards. Johnson’s research focuses on magazine content and history, particularly the depiction of women on the covers and editorial pages of such magazines as Time, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Sassy, Glamour, and Vogue. Her work has been published in the top refereed journals in the journalism and mass communication field, including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Journal of Magazine and New Media Research, and Journalism Studies. She has contributed 14 chapters to books about magazine publishing and presented more than 50 refereed research presentations at national and international conferences. (Source: Trinity University)

Theory course for doctoral students and advanced MA students. There is still place for some participants:

Fundamental questions of media aesthetics

The notion of medium constitutes a challenge for media research and philosophy as well as for artistic thinking. Medium is not simply a tool or format. Nor is it just an abstract mediation or a material mediator. At the same, the notion of medium encompasses all these aspects. Mediality is a theme that urges us to think of mediation and media in regard to the senses, technics and signification.

Samuel Weber’s writings deal with the theme of mediality in a multi-faceted way. Often the strating points of his analyses is made up by questions raised by thinkers such as Hölderlin, Kafka, Heidegger, Benjamin or Derrida. One central aspect of Weber’s media theoretical writings concerns the structure of time and space. The notion of virtuality constitutes another central topic for him. Third crucial notion that Weber ponders is ‘theatricality’. In this course, these notions, among others, will be studied in light of Samuel Webers writings.

The course functions as a preparation for the three-day -research seminar with Samuel Weber in week 50. All those who actively take part of this course are welcome to participate to Weber’s seminar.

Course status: Optional course for MA and doctoral students
Teacher in charge: Mika Elo, doctor of arts (together with Miika Luoto, lic. phil.)
Period: Autumn 2011
Time table: Session I: 23.9. 10-17; Session II: 28.10. 10-17; Session III: 15.11. 10-17
Learning outcomes: Philosophical insights concerning challenges of media theory
Content: Course consists of three whole-day sessions. Each of  them is a mixture of lecutres and text seminars. The focus in on fundamental questions of media aesthetics and on Samuel Weber’s writings.
Language of instruction: English
Grading scale: OK / –
Workload: 2-4 points

Further information and registration: mika.elo@aalto.fi

Dear network participants,

We are fast approaching the final activities in our Nordic research network. At the end of this week, a good number of us will have been in Stockholm to participate in the third seminar at KTH (http://ubiquity.nu/?p=170), and immediately afterwards the editorial group behind the third journal issue to be published (http://ubiquity.nu/?p=204) will set to work on their call for papers and the proposals arriving from those of you interested in contributing.

In November we will hold our final seminar (http://ubiquity.nu/?p=169), and this will form the basis of the publication of our final book-length anthology (http://ubiquity.nu/?p=205). We have a very strong set of confirmed speakers, and an equally promising set of very early expressions of interest to participate from at least twenty of you. This already appears the right kind of platform for a very interesting final publication project. This mail thus also to inform you that the call for papers is the same for the November seminar and the book publication. Proposals in the form of abstracts via email are welcome prior to September 1. So, please have a look at our website and let us hear from you within the next two weeks or so if you wish to contribute to the seminar, the book, or both!

Sincerely,

Jay David Bolter
Lily Diaz
Maria Engberg
Lars Nyre
Lin Prøitz
Morten Søndergaard
Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen
Ulrik Ekman

by Prof. Sarah Pink

As part of the integration activities, in the Department of Media, the Doctor of Arts Seminar at Media Lab is pleased to offer a general lecture and workshop on the topic of visual and sensory ethnography. Prof. Sarah Pink, from the University of Loughboro in the UK will lead the activities. Dr. Marja Seliger will be the faculty person throughout the course.

Objectives:

1.     To present the idea of Visual Ethnography as a route to knowledge

2.     To present the method of The Moving Camera

3.     To invite participants to engage in a research task that involves them to use the method of the Moving Camera

4.     To invite participants to present the images they have produced as part of the research task and reflective commentary on their use of the method, and to generate discussion through this

5.     To present examples of uses of the Moving Camera in applied research and to generate discussion about the potential of this method in design and arts research

Learning outcomes:

1.     An introductory overview understanding of Visual Ethnography

2.     An understanding of the method of the Moving Camera

3.     Knowledge of uses of moving camera methods in existing research

4.     Experience of applying the Moving Camera method to a research task and insights gained through this and through discussion of the task with the group

5.     A basis from which to consider the potentials of the application of the Moving Camera method in design and arts research.

Number of credits: 1 ECTS

Audience: The workshop is targeted to Doctor of Arts students. Students from the Department of Media (Graphic Design, New Media, and Photography) will be given priority. There is a maximum enrolment of 14 students. Students are expected to participate in ALL the activities of the course, including the general lecture and final presentations and discussion.

Monday afternoon:

Session 1 (Open lecture): Visual Ethnography as a Route to Knowledge (Sept. 19, 13:00-15:00, lecture room 4319)

This lecture introduces the idea of Visual Ethnography. I first set out the methodological principles that inform doing visual ethnography. I then focus on some of the ways that the visual is part of the ethnographic context such as: as part of a local and global ‘visual cultures’; as multisensory material artefact and digital text; as representation; and as a process of exploration whereby researcher and participant co-produce knowledge by using existing images or by making images together; and as part of a scholarly way of knowing and presenting work to other scholars and wider publics. The lecture will last for approximately one hour and will be followed by an opportunity to ask questions

Tuesday morning:  Session 2 (Workshop): The Moving Camera (Sept. 20, 10:00-12:30, lecture room 4319)

This workshop will explore how the Moving Camera method might be engaged as a way of (audio)visually exploring the environments and experiences of our everyday lives.

1.     Introducing ourselves and our research projects and objectives.

2.     Presentation of the method of the Moving Camera, which might involve walking, or otherwise moving through the environment with video or with a stills camera. This presentation will take the form of an informal lecture during which participants will be welcome to ask questions and develop discussion

3.     Presentation of the research task. Before Wednesday’s session participants will be invited to undertake a short research task. This will involve using a camera to explore the experience of an environment, artefact or practice in movement. The next day participants will be asked to present short reflexive narratives to represent and discuss what they have learnt from this research experience, using the images recorded.

4.     Discussion of and questions about the research task.

Tuesday afternoon: participants undertake the research task independently.

Note: There will not be any instruction on technical matters related to photography or video. It is expected that each of the students can independently produce their own audio-visual materials. Students will be responsible for securing access to a server where they can upload their materials in order to show them as part of the workshop activities. Students will also be responsible for also backing up their materials into suitable media such as a memory stick or DVD so that, in the event that there is a problem with the server, they can still be accessed by the faculty in a timely manner for class discussion. If you are a student at Media Lab and you need to make these arrangements, please speak with Mr. Ilpo Kari in the library.

In order to receive the credit for participation, you need to be sure that you sign in the attendance sheet every day. Dr. Marja Seliger will be responsible for keeping attendance.

Wednesday: Session 3 (Workshop): Building Insights. (Sept. 21, 10:30-12:30,  lecture room 4319)

In this workshop we will present and discuss the results of the research task produced by participants. As we go along we will seek to develop a series of insights about how doing visual ethnography in movement can offer us routes to knowledge about the environments, ‘things’ and practices that we are seeking to research.

The session will conclude with a short presentation and discussion of the potential of such techniques in applied research. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on how such methods might inform the making of interventions in design and arts contexts.

Sign up:
heikki.nuutinen@aalto.fi

Recommended reading and on-line resources:

Coover, R. (2008) Outside / Inside: Virtual Panoramas of Independence National Historical Park, available online at http://www.unknownterritories.org/APS.html.

Ingold, T. (2010a). Ways of mind-walking: reading, writing, painting. Visual Studies, 25(1), 15-23
> Available now in Arabia Campus Library, ask Sarah Pink file!

Ingold, T. (2010b), Footprints through the weather-world: walking, breathing, knowing. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16: S121–S139.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2010.01613.x/abstract

Irving, A. (2007), Ethnography, art, and death. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 13: 185–208.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2007.00420.x/abstract

O’Neill, M. and P. Hubbard (2010) ‘Walking, Sensing, Belonging: Ethno-Mimesis As Performative Praxis.Visual Studies 25(1):46-58
> Available now in Arabia Campus Library, ask Sarah Pink file!

Pink, S. (2007) Doing Visual Ethnography: images, media and representation in research London: Sage.
Available at Media Lab Library!

Pink, S. (2007) ‘Walking with Video’ in Visual Studies 22(3).
> Available now in Arabia Campus Library, ask Sarah Pink file!

Pink, S. (2008) ‘An Urban Tour’ in Ethnography, 9(2).
http://eth.sagepub.com/content/9/2/175

Pink, S. (2009) Doing Sensory Ethnography, London: Sage Pink, forthcoming
Available at Media Lab Library!

About Sarah Pink: Dr. Pink is Professor in the department of Social Sciences at the University of Loughboro in the UK. She is a widely respected authority in visual and sensory ethnography and the author of several books on the topic. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ss/staff/staff_biog/pink.html