Monthly Archives: October 2016

Join the webcast for SHOW ME THE MONEY seminar

Hello from the Department of Media!

We are offering a webcast from the seminar SHOW ME THE MONEY – The New Economy for Visual Artists and Designers in Global Village tomorrow Thursday 27th of October, starting soon after 9 AM.

Webcast will be online during the seminar lectures, keynotes and discussion.

Join the webcast at: bit.ly/showmethemoneywebcast

Discuss and follow the event on social media: #showmethemoney2016

Learn more: https://blogs.aalto.fi/mediatutkimus/2016/09/23/save-the-date-show-me-the-money-the-new-economy-for-visual-artist-and-designers-in-the-global-village-seminar/

Enjoy!

Photography Doctor of Arts Seminar, 27 Oct 2016

Welcome to the Doctor of Arts Seminar for Photography

Thursday 27 October 2016, at 9.00–15.00
Arabia, 9th Floor Photography premises

Schedule:

9-10 Liisa Söderlund: väitöskirjan sisällysluettelon esittely
10-12 Tarja Trygg: Väitöskirjan nykyvaiheen esittely
12-13 lounastauko
13-14 Pia Sivenius: ACRIS-tietokannan esittely. TÄMÄ ON PAKOLLINEN KAIKILLE VALOKUVAN JATKO-OPISKELIJOILLE, SILLÄ RESEDA ON JO SULJETTU JA TIEDOT KOOTAAN TÄSTÄ LÄHTIEN ACRIS-TIETOKANTAAN. YKSITYISOPETUSTA EI ANNETA.
14-15 Acriksen käytön harjoittelua, omien tietojen päivitystä. OMA LÄPPÄRI MUKAAN!

Welcome!

Dissertation in field of media: MA Samir Bhowmik

You are cordially invited to the Defence of Doctoral Dissertation of MA Samir Bhowmik:

Deep Time of the Museum.
The Materiality of Media Infrastructures.

2nd of December 2016, 12.00–14.00
Media Factory Auditorium
3rd floor, Hämeentie 135 A
00560, Helsinki, FI
(Enter the building from Arabiakeskus’ doors, stairs on the right after the coffee shop, go one floor up and take left. Media Factory is opposite to the Aalto bookstore.)

The dissertation aims to address the ecological impact of museums and digital heritage. It suggests a design framework towards sustainability.

Opponent: PhD Susanna Pettersson, Ateneum Art Museum
Custos: professor Lily Diáz, Aalto University Department of Media.

Discussion will be held in English.

ABSTRACT

The museum has a ‘material bias’. Beyond the materiality of artifacts, vitrines and dioramas, media technologies for digitization, collections and representation play an ever expanding role today in the fostering of cultural heritage. An enormous amount of media systems and infrastructures are required to maintain and support emerging museum spaces and practices. Composed of a complex and historical body of media devices, most of these are an assortment of black-boxed proprietary hardware and software technologies. Energy footprints have expanded and embodied energy remains undocumented. Behind every act of digitization and mediation lies a chain of data centers, rare earth mining, silicon chip manufacturing and dystopian toxic lakes. The life-span of this media infrastructure is limited and obsolescence drives a perpetual upgrading, resulting in colossal digital rubbish and toxic waste. What is the environmental burden carried by museums? What is the material and energetic footprint of digital heritage? How can the cultural assets of memory institutions be sustained? Through a multi-disciplinary and critical approach to museum infrastructures the dissertation aims to address the ecological impact of museums and digital heritage. First, via an extensive excavation of the museum as a media infrastructure the study seeks to understand the materiality of digital heritage as based in the growing entanglements of media devices, energy and material resources. The study then presents two experimental design interventions within and beyond the museum walls. These were implemented to explore novel ecological media infrastructures and operative methods. Finally, combining these with concepts found from the excavation, a design framework is synthesized that provides guidelines for museums and their user communities toward shaping an ecological institution.

Find the event on Facebook.

WELCOME!

Invitation: Convergence of Artistic Media, University of Helsinki, November 1-2, 2016

Welcome to attend the conference

Convergence of Artistic Media

at The University of Helsinki, November 1–2, 2016

Register by 31 October.

Convergence between arts has been taking place for centuries, and it is one of the most productive features of culture today. Some of the most exciting works of our cultural history are the results of the intermingling and cross-fertilization of different art forms and genres. At times the original works might even recede to the background: Kafka’s or Proust’s literary themes are today often more familiar through comics or films than their original novels and stories.

At this conference we will explore convergence between different artistic media – both old and new. As regards new media, Henry Jenkins has proposed that convergence relates to the way diverse media interact via new digital platforms enabling audiences to act both as creators and as distributors of content. We want to pay attention both to concrete aesthetic and technical processes of convergence as well as the more philosophical and cultural differences that convergence contributes to. How does the narration of the original work of art change in the process of convergence? And what happens when a work of art from an ancient era is adapted to a contemporary artistic form?

Through these questions we will focus on convergence as a way of celebrating the arts in the 21st century. In this year, marking the 250th anniversary of Lessing’s Laocoon, we also want to go back to the prime examples of works which continue to inspire the artistic imagination in the form of verbal, acoustic and visual media.


Programme:

 

Tuesday, November 1st,  2016

University Main Building, Small Festive Hall (Pieni juhlasali), Fabianinkatu 33

10.15                          Leena Eilittä: Welcome
10.30-11.45                Luis Emilio Bruni (University of Aalborg): Artistic Convergence and the Migration of Narratives in Time
11.45                           Coffee
12.00-13.30                 Parallel sessions:

1. Session (Chair: Luis Emilio Bruni), Hall 7, University Main Building

Bo Pettersson (University of Helsinki): Humans Miming Insects Miming Humans: The Insect Play by the Čapeks and Its Adaptations in Light of Lessing’s Aesthetic Theory
Beatrice Seligardi (University of Parma): Working Girls and Cinematic Tableaux: The Intermedial Convergence of Filmic Techniques into Literature and Photography
Catherine Makhumula (Stellenbosch and Linnaeus University): Post-Modern Orature? The Convergence of the Arts and Media Forms in African Theater and Performance

2. Session (Chair: Lieven Ameel), Hall 14, University Main Building

Kirsi Manninen (Aalto University): Digital Drawing on Virtual Paper – Pixels Controlled by Costume Designer’s Hand
Lena Séraphin (Aalto University): Another Alphabet – From Parallel Words to Reciprocated Writing
Katriina Heljakka (University of Turku) and Pirita Ihamäki (Satakunta University of Applied Sciences): “N 61° 29.330 E 021° 47.580” Sigrid-Secrets: Gamifying Art Experiences through Geocaching

13.30-14.30 Lunch

14.30-16.00

3. Session (Chair: Lily Diaz), Hall XV, University Main Building

Alejandro Pedregal (Aalto University): The Drama of the Great Financial Crisis – Film Adaptations and Representations of Greed and Economic Collapse
Jouko Aaltonen (Aalto University): Convergence between Documentary and Fiction
Anna Boswell (University of Auckland): The Convergent Eco-Logics of Green Porno

16.15-17.45                Plenary lecture, Small Festive Hall (Pieni juhlasali)     
Irina O. Rajewsky (Free University of Berlin): Intermediality and Transmediality: Unbraiding Converged Theories

18.00-20.00                 Rector’s Reception, University Main Building, Reading Room (“Lehtienlukusali”)

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

University Main Building, Small Festive Hall (Pieni juhlasali)

10.15-11.30                 Plenary lecture
John Richardson: Multimodality in Arts Research and Techniques of Ecological Close Reading
11.30-12.00                 Coffee
12.00-13.30                 Parallel sessions:

4. Session (Chair: John Richardson), Hall 7, University Main Building

Kai Lassfolk and Mikko Ojanen (University of Helsinki): The Collective Musical and Multimedia Instruments by Erkki Kurenniemi
Sanna Qvick (University of Turku): Echoes of Detachment and Displacement in the Finnish Children Fairytale Film Pelicanman
Sanna Iitti (Independent Scholar): Robert Schumann’s Opera Genoveva as a DVD Production

5. Session (Chair: Leena Eilittä), Hall 12, University Main Building

Kate Costello (University of Oxford): Gao Xingjian’s Aesthetic of Suggestion: From Stream of Consciousness to Liubai
Jonas Mirbeth (Free University of Berlin): “Just a whisk of pity a cloud in peace and silence.” On the Notion of Political Aesthetics in John Cage’s Literary Work with James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake
Juha-Pekka Kilpiö (University of Jyväskylä): Transmediating the Third Meaning? Kinekphrasis in Contemporary Finnish Poetry

13.30-15.00                 Lunch

15.00-17.00                 Parallel sessions:

6. Session (Chair: Henry Bacon), Hall 7, University Main Building

Gianluigi Rossini (University of L’Aquila): “How are you listening, my old friend?” Mr. Robot, Transmedia Dispersion and Stylistic Coherence in Contemporary TV Series
Anna-Leena Harinen (University of Eastern Finland): Problematizing Relationships between Adaptations and Their “Source Text”: The Case of Game of Thrones
Hanne Juntunen (University of Tampere): Adapting the Unadaptable: The Visual Narrative of Watchmen on the Page and on the Big Screen
Bianca Thiem (University of Bayreuth): Adaptations as Carriers of Cultural Narratives: Visualizing The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald 1925-Luhrmann 2013)

7. Session (Chair:Laura Wahlfors), Hall 12, University Main Building

Eija Niskanen (University of Helsinki): TBA
David Havas (Academy of Performing Arts & National Film Archive in Prague): Poetic Escapism: Prague in Czechoslovak Comics and Urban Legends
Brenda J. Robles (ELO Film School, Helsinki): Shakespearian Mode in an Original Screenplay: A Research Plan for an Artistically Oriented Study

17.00               Closing words, Hall 7, University Main Building

19.00               Conference Dinner (Lappi Restaurant)


Programme updates here.

Please register here.

NOTE: Students and faculty from the organizing universities (University of Helsinki, University of Tampere, Aalto University and University of the Arts Helsinki) are welcome to attend the conference program and the Rector’s reception free of charge. Student participation does not include materials and coffees. Please see registration (link above) for attendance!

Register by 31 October.

http://www.uta.fi/ltl/en/transmediality2016/index.html

BOOK LAUNCH PARTY: ”Digital Photography and Everyday Life. Empirical Studies on material visual practices.”

Welcome to the launch of ”Digital Photography and Everyday Life. Empirical Studies on material visual practices” co-edited by Edgar Gómez Cruz (DERC, RMIT, Australia) and Asko Lehmuskallio (COMET, University of Tampere, Finland).

26th of October 2016, from 19:00 to 20:00
Location: the Finnish Museum of Photography

The book explores the role that digital photography plays within everyday life. With contributors from ten different countries and backgrounds in a range of academic disciplines – including anthropology, media studies and visual culture – this collection takes a uniquely broad perspective on photography by situating the image-making process in wider discussions on the materiality and visuality of photographic practices and explores these through empirical case studies.

By focusing on material visual practices, the book presents a comprehensive overview of some of the main challenges digital photography is bringing to everyday life. It explores how the digitization of photography has a wide-reaching impact on the use of the medium, as well as on the kinds of images that can be produced and the ways in which camera technology is developed. The exploration goes beyond mere images to think about cameras, mediations and technologies as key elements in the development of visual digital cultures.

Digital Photography and Everyday Life will be of great interest to students and scholars of Photography, Contemporary Art, Visual Culture and Media Studies, as well as those studying Communication, Cultural Anthropology, and Science and Technology Studies.

Speakers:

– Edgar Gómez Cruz (Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT Australia)
– Karin Becker (Prof. emerita, Dept of Media Studies, Stockholm University)
– Anssi Männistö (School of Communication, Media and Theatre, University of Tampere)
– Mikko Villi (Dept of Communication, University of Jyväskylä)
– Asko Lehmuskallio (School of Communication, Media and Theatre, University of Tampere)

Programme:

– Welcome (Elina Heikka, Finnish Museum of Photography)
– Short introduction by editors (Edgar Gómez Cruz & Asko Lehmuskallio)
– The book within a practice theoretical paradigm in visual studies (Karin Becker)
– Discussion

INVITATION: BookLaunchPDF.

FACEBOOK EVENT: Here.

Diaphanes symposium: BLIND SPOT, 21 OCT 2016

Diaphanes:
BLIND SPOT SYMPOSIUM
21st October 2016
Exhibition Laboratory
Merimiehenkatu 36, Helsinki

Diaphanes is an interdisciplinary network aimed at connecting researchers from diverse disciplines with an interest in visuality.

The Blind Spot symposium, the first event organised by Diaphanes, serves as a forum for discussing and developing ideas of visual research. The visually inflected title refers to the fact that aims, notions, and questions shared in multidisciplinary research settings often mark decisive differences in approach as well. When addressed well, blind spots of these kinds can, however, function as generators of genuinely new insights with relevance across discipline boundaries.


DOWNLOAD PROGRAMME: BLIND SPOT

CALL FOR PAPERS: Photographies journal: Critical Issues in Photography Today

International Conference – Call for Papers

Photographies journal: Critical Issues in Photography Today

Thursday 18 May & Friday 19 May, 2017
Venue: University of Westminster (Central London), UK

On the occasion of our tenth anniversary, photographies journal is holding a conference aiming to bring together thinkers and photographers in discussion on photography today. We invite papers to revisit our original agenda in the light of photography now:

photographies seeks to construct a new agenda for theorising photography as a heterogeneous medium that is changing in an ever more dynamic relation to all aspects of contemporary culture. photographies aims to further develop the history and theory of photography, considering new frameworks for thinking and addressing questions arising from the present context of technological, economic, political and cultural change.

We further invite you to make submissions that address:

  •   photography as a heterogeneous ‘medium’
  •   new frameworks for thinking photographic practices and industries of photography,
  •   examine contemporary uses and currencies of the photographic image within local/global contexts
  •   identify and developing (emergent) critical debates and practices
  •   reflect on critical theoretical issues in relation to photography education.

 

Each day will include discussions by members of the journal’s advisory board.

Conference Conveners:
Professor David Bate, University of Westminster
Professor Liz Wells, Plymouth University

Conference Administration
University of Westminster & Plymouth University

Papers

The call for 20-30 minute papers is now open.
We encourage photo researchers to submit a practice and/or research based abstract of no more than 350 words that relate to:

  •   New debates and developments in photographytheory;
  •   Speculative ideas and currencies in photography;
  •   Geographies of representation: borders, space, place and migration, movement, dislocation, memory;
  •   The legacy of photography theories (e.g. poststructuralism, Marxist theories) for photography writing and practice;
  •   The politics of representation as related to the fluidities of image circulation;
  •   Theory, criticism and photography education;
  •   Ways of teaching photography from global and contemporary perspectives;
  •   The rapid growth of photography books, journals, magazines, blogs and social media based criticism and practices

Practice-led creative-critical papers and innovative (2/3person) panelproposals are welcome.

Proposals should be sent to elizabeth.chapman-lane@plymouth.ac.uk
Deadline: 14th November 2016

All proposals will be peer reviewed.
We aim to let you know by mid-January whether your paper or presentation has been accepted. Proposals should include the following:

Title of paper or presentation Abstract (max 350 words)
Visual material (if practice-led – max 12 jpegs)
Your name
Institutional status (if applicable) and 20 word bio
Contact address and email

Full details of further deadlines, conference fees, speakers and associated events will be posted on: www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpho20#.V5nVlv72amQ

Please submit proposals to elizabeth.chapman-lane@plymouth.ac.uk, Plymouth University

DOWNLOAD: Call for Papers-photographies.

Visual Communication Design Doctor of Arts Seminar, 20 October presentations: Paulo Dziobczenski and Teemu Korpilahti

Welcome to Visual Communication Design Doctor of Arts Seminar
Thursday the 20th of October, at 15.00–17.00
Otaniemi, Miestentie 3, Room 430

We have two presentations:
Paulo Dziobczenski (DA student from Design Department):
“What is Sought from Graphic Designers?”
A First Thematic Analysis of Job Offers for Graphic Design Position in the United Kingdom

Teemu Korpilahti: “Visual Language: The Use of Icons in Graphical interfaces.”
http://www.iconresearch.net

“How do you like me now?” Using movies to investigate the socially biased brain. Doctor of Arts at Media Lab Seminar presentation by Mamdooh Afdile.

OPEN CALL: Renewable Futures Conference 2017 – Economia

OPEN CALL:

RENEWABLE FUTURES CONFERENCE 2017 – ECONOMIA
The 2nd Edition of Art and Science Conference series in Europe and the Baltic Sea Region

January 20 – 22, 2017, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Venue: Baltan Laboratories / Natlab, former physics lab of Philips.

Renewable Futures is a new conference series that aims to invent new avenues for more sustainable and imaginative future developments. The first conference edition took place in Riga (LV) exploring the transformative potential of art. The second Renewables Futures conference will take place in Eindhoven, aiming to push the boundaries of our thinking about the economy. The conference will be a part of Economia festival organized by Baltan Laboratories in Natlab, former physics lab of Philips.

Economia festival is a three-day event during which we collectively explore new ideas and thinking about our economy. The event is a laboratory for ideas, a place where we can step out of the existing frame. We will use unexpected and playful approaches looking at the
essentials of economy, thus establishing a fresh point of view on the economic system and our society.

* Background: about Economia

In the eighties economy transformed more and more into a so called hard science. Economy reduced its various approaches of our complex and unpredictable economic behavior, to one comprehensive theory known as the neoclassical or neoliberal model. This model captured economic behavior in mathematical formulas. It had the beauty of simplicity, the predictability of a formula and sounded too logical not to be true.

Like most powerful technologies dating from after the Second World War, economy has influenced the world of our ideas, how we define ourselves, and how we organize our society. Just as the discovery of DNA forced us to look differently at life, and the developments in ICT made our world smaller in unprecedented ways, the neoliberal model caused a huge shift from common interest to individual interest, and from a long term view to a short term view. It is striking how little imagination this hard economic approach generates. Economy has no equivalent of multiple universes, singularity or space-travelling. No strange life forms in the depths of the ocean or on other planets, no artificial or eternal life. Economy is astoundingly prosaic and, rather than to explore and push the boundaries of its own domain, it seems to move inward, in precisely the opposite direction.

Since the outbreak of the financial crises in 2007/2008, uncertainty about the effectiveness and validity of the neoliberal model has grown considerably. Economy, as a social technology in its present form, provides no solution to issues of climate change and social inequality. It cannot help us organize social alliances, public interests or develop long-term prospects. Its results no longer appeal. The added value of efficiency and productivity are outweighed by the numerous disadvantages of reducing all values to market value.

Although critique on the neo-liberal model grows, no new answers or alternatives have been proposed yet. In the search for new economic insights and alternatives to the current model, why not start by treating economy like any other technology? Playing with it, hacking it, using input from other disciplines, unleashing science fiction on it, approach it in an artistic manner. In short, taking ownership so that we can reshape and rework economy as we see fit. Because however meaningful, criticizing the current model won’t rid us of it. And we aim to do precisely that.

The aim of the festival and conference is to approach economy in new ways and look at our economic system and society with the detached view of the visitor, researcher, gamer, alien and artist. We want to reclaim economy as a social/cultural structure that we created, ridding us of the idea of economy as an inevitable law of nature.

More information about the festival: http://www.thinkeconomia.nl

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OPEN CALL FOR PAPERS AND ARTWORKS

We welcome presentations by academic researchers, designers, artists, scientists, students, social entrepreneurs, visionaries and other creative thinkers and practitioners to submit their proposals with regards to the following themes:

* Economy as evolution:
Economy is about development and evolution. Societies develop and the direction they take is determined partly by the type of economic relationships they develop. Parallels are often drawn between these developments in culture and those in nature.

* Economy as a game:
Economy is about rules and laws. Just like other types of relationships in the edifice of a society, an existing system of economic relationships adheres to certain laws and regulations. Gaming is about learning the laws and rules of a game so that you can play it better and better.

* Economy as a fiction:
Economy is about ideas and faith. Credit has existed right from the start of societies, in the form of trust that A would pay B. Just as today, you would do a task for future reward in whatever form. Every form of economic relationship is an idea, or to put it better perhaps a prejudice. Which means it can change.

* Economy as a market:
Economy is about supply and demand. The greatest and most misunderstood cliché. Demand and supply is a way to describe life. Each influences the other in an unpredictable and complex ways.

* Economy as magic:
Economy is both tangible and invisible. We are familiar with two forms of trade, goods and money. The one that you can handle and the other that exists only in the form of ones and zeros. The latter seems like pure magic. It is with good reason that some of these ‘financial wizards’ call themselves ‘Master of the universe’.

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CONFERENCE PROPOSALS

Proposals should explore at least one of the 5 proposed themes, which are at the heart of this conference. Selected speakers are invited to present their papers as part of the conference and are encouraged to engage within lively discussions amongst peers, experts, and the general
audience.

Proposals should consist of:
1) Abstract: 250 words
2) Short biography: 100 words

THE DEADLINE EXTENDED – October 15, 2016.
Notification for acceptance will be sent before 15 of November.

Submit your proposal to: http://openconf.rixc.lv/

More information about the Conference Call:
http://thinkeconomia.com/pdf/openCallEconomia.pdf

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ARTWORK PROPOSALS

Proposals for developing or showcasing art projects (installations, performances, video based work, etc.) should contain:
1) a description of the art project (max 1 A4), including at least 2 photos/visual materia and/or a link to the website referring to previously developed works.

Selection of artworks will be based on quality, feasibility and the connection to the overall theme.

THE DEADLINE EXTENDED – October 15, 2016.
Notification for acceptance will be sent before 15 November.

Please send your artwork proposals to Olga Mink:
info@baltanlaboratories.org,
With the subject: Artwork proposal Renewable Futures: Economia 2017.

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Festival curators: Wiepko Oosterhuis, Olga Mink

Conference chairs: Rasa Smite / RIXC, Olga Mink / Baltan Laboratories, and Wiepko Oosterhuis.

* Conference International Scientific Board:

– Katja Kwastek. Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
– Armin Medosch. Professor of theory of art and media, Singidunum University, Belgrade.
– Gediminas Urbonas. Associate Professor and Director at MIT program in art, culture and technology, MIT Boston.
– Misko Suvakovic. Professor of Aesthetics and Theory of Art, Belgrade University.
– Jussi Parikka, Professor in Technological Culture & Aesthetics, University of Southampton.
– Dieter Daniels, Professor of Art History and Media Theory, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig.
– Douglas Kahn, Professor of Media and Innovation, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
– Lev Manovich, Professor of Computer Science, City University of New York.
– Laura Beloff, Associate Professor and Head of Section, IT University Copenhagen.
– Prof. Lily DIAZ-KOMMONEN / Head of Research Department of Media, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland
– Prof. Kristin BERGAUST / Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway

* Conference Local Organizational Board:

– Katja Kwastek. Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
– Daniëlle Arets, lector Strategic Creativity, Design Academy Eindhoven.
– Annie Fletcher, Chief curator exhibitions Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
– Dan Diojdescu (MBA). Teacher economy at Avans School of International Studies (ASIS).
– Ingrid van der Wacht, independent project manager and concept developer
– Alain Heureux, Your Own Lab and The Egg Brussels
– CeesJan Mol, Venturespring

* Contact: info@baltanlaboratories.org, rixc@rixc.lv

* Organizers: Baltan Laboratories in collaboration with RIXC and Renewable Future European network, supported by Creative Europe.

http://baltanlaboratories.org

http://renewablefutures.net