Monthly Archives: September 2021

EXHIBITION: ‘Sarajevo Roses and Clouds of June’ – Third Space, Helsinki – From 4th – 10th October 2021

Samra Šabanović and Sheung Yiu, as the duo I was there but you didn’t see me*, are having a week-long pop-up screening of their video work on mass protest photography at Third Space starting from next Monday 4th of October. The exhibition is part of Third Space open call selected projects for the year 2021 with the theme ” Vulnerability, collaboration, exchanges”, supported by Taike. The opening will be on Thursday, October 7th, from 17:00 – 20:00.

Exhibition period: 4th – 10th October 2021 from 14:00 – 18:00. Welcome!

*** To visit the exhibition please wear a face mask and consider the safety distance ***

INFO

“Unless we stop indulging in metaphors and start to recognise the politics of visibility and invisibility within the power structure, ‘photography’s future will be much like its past. It will largely continue to illustrate, without condemning, how the powerful dominate the less powerful.’” (Excerpt from video)

Photography has always been a game of hide-and-seek — what to make visible and invisible — but at times of wars and mass protests, these decisions have real consequences. Humans and images are now entangled in the network, each controlling the life and death of the other. Visibility is not just a picture; visibility is lethal.

Amid global protests to support the Black Lives Matter movement, some have called for photojournalists to blur out protesters’ faces to protect their identities. The encrypted communications app Signal released a feature to blur faces in photos. Software developer Noah Conk created an iPhone shortcut that does the same thing and erases their metadata. Some photojournalists oppose blurring and insist that the key issue is consent. That argument misjudges the lethality of visibility, especially in the context of overt and expansive state surveillance. On the other side of the world, Hong Kong pedestrians are filming the arrest of the protestors on their smartphones as they shout their names and ID number, in the hope that their families and lawyers know which police station to look for them and in the fear that they won’t see the sun again — visibility as a means to protect.

“Sarajevo Roses and Clouds of June” (2020) is a 22-minute video essay on images and their relation to peace. Reflecting on personal experience and photographic practices in general, the video essay contemplates the role of photography in the recent waves of mass protests and social activism. The title is a reference to the memorials of the Bosnian War and the months-long protest in Hong Kong that began in June 2019. The video essay, made during the pandemic in 2020, is composed entirely of video footage found on popular free stock websites. In five chapters, the essay delves into the ever-complex politics of visibility and invisibility, offering a critical examination of how photography may or may not contribute to peace in the age of mass surveillance enabled by hyper-connectivity and the omnipresence of cameras.

“Sarajevo Roses and Clouds of June” (2020) is the third chapter of I was there but you didn’t see me*

BIO
I was there but you didn’t see me* is a series of research-based public interventions on photographic images curated by Samra Šabanović and Sheung Yiu. These interventions use images as starting points of inquiry about their indisputable impacts on philosophy, history, literature, technology, science and visual culture. Through prolonged looking and peripheral vision, the duo revisits images (or the lack of them) and situates them in new discourses that extends beyond visual arts. This involves doing double-takes on images seriously and regularly, writing footnotes on and around photographs to rediscover ‘what was there’ and ‘what was not seen’ at first glance.

LINKS

More about Third Space

DOCTOR OF ARTS IN NEW MEDIA & VCD SEMINARS – Autumn 2021 Schedules

This Autumn semester the Doctor of Arts in New Media seminars will be held jointly with the Visual Communications Design seminars as online events. The Seminars will be led by Professor Masood Masoodian as Professor Lily Díaz-Kommonen is on a partial leave.

The meeting dates for Autumn will be held from 15:15-18:00 on the following dates.

  • 21 October
  • 18 November
  • 16 December

In addition, there will be a special, non-mandatory session on 30 September, from 16:00-17:00, which will serve the function of re-connecting and updating, and give new doctoral students an opportunity to introduce themselves. During this session participants can also discuss how they have been coping in the changing situation with the pandemic.

 

AALTO CREATIVITY SYMPOSIUM 2021, Vaasa, September 10th – 11th

AALTO CREATIVITY SYMPOSIUM 2021
Photo by Julia Weckman. Campus art.

Photo: Julia Weckman.

Aalto Creativity Symposium is a meeting point for scholars and practitioners, which will take place at Vaasa this coming Friday and Saturday, September 10th – 11th, both on-site and online.

Do you become more creative if you study creativity?

This creativity symposium discusses creativity and creativity theories and invites you who wants to understand more about the science of creativity, whether you are a student, scientist, teacher, entrepreneur, a leader in an organization, an artist, work in the field of psychology or else interested in creativity.

Creativity is a competence needed in times of change. We use our inherent creativity when solving problems, working in teams, or creating art or new products or strategies. Creativity theories submerge under the surface and make our tacit knowledge of creativity visible.

International keynote speakers and national presenters talk about various aspects of creativity: imagination, chaos, the creative process, and more. The topics are not domain specific but aim to shed light on the fundamental principles of creativity. Read more about keynote and featured speakers here.

The symposium is organized by a Team in The Department of Film, Television and Scenography ELO

in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture:

  • Elisabeth Morney (chair)
  • Kirsi Reinola
  • Hannah Kaihovirta, Associate professor, University of Helsinki
  • Tuula Leinonen
  • Kirsi Manninen
  • Marjaana Rantama

REGISTRATION

Register here.

Online registration is free for Aalto people! For non-Aalto participants the online registration fee is €40.

On-site participation €80. On-site registration fee includes coffee, tea, fruit, and snacks. Self-pay lunch in the restaurant (pre-orders will be sent to participants). Please note that due to pandemic restrictions the number of on-site participants is limited, and thus the on-site registration might already be full.

VENUE

On-site venue is located in Sulva (15 km from Vaasa). Online in Zoom (link will be sent to registered participants).

International and national participants are warmly welcome! The sessions will be recorded and can be viewed by participants for two weeks after the event.

PROGRAM AND SCHEDULE

FRIDAY – September 10th

13:00 – Lunch & registration

14:30 – Welcome & Definition and Aspects of Creativity (Elisabeth Morney, chair)

14:40 – Radical Creativity – What is it? The strategy of Aalto University (Tuomas Auvinen, Dean of School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University)

15:00 – Keynote: Intelligence, Creativity and Skill (Bonnie Cramond, Professor Emerita, University of Georgia, USA)

16:00 – Break (coffee)

16:20 – Imagination as a Source for Creativity (Hannah Kaihovirta, Docent, Senior researcher, University of Helsinki)

16:45 – Creative Thinking: Idea, Process and End Result (Riikka Mäkikoskela, Head of Radical Creativity, Aalto University)

17:10 – Improvisational Theater, Flow and Group Dynamic (Mikael Rejström, Actor & Creative Director, Stella Polaris)

17:30 – Marketing in an Equitable World (Dee Fretwell, Instructor, School of Business, Southern Oregon University, USA)

17:50 – Break (coffee)

18:00 – Keynote: Chaos, Complexity, and Creativity (Ruth Richards, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Saybrook University, California, USA)

19:00 – Closing words for the day

19:15 – Symposium dinner

SATURDAY – September 11th

9:30 – Welcome to symposium day two (Hannah Kaihovirta)

9:40 – Quality, Taste and the Creative Product (Elisabeth Morney, Aalto University)

10:00 – The Movement between Intuition and Evidence in the Creative Design Process (Kirsi Manninen, Aalto University)

10:20 – Break (coffee)

10:30 – Limitation as a Creative Resource (Kirsi Reinola, Aalto University)

10:50 – Ethical Aspects of Creativity (Marjaana Rantama, Aalto University)

11:10 – Break

11:20 – What is Creativity? Perceptions of primary school children in Malta. (Dr. Margaret Mangion, Senior lecturer, University of Malta, The Edward de Bono Institute for Creative Thinking and Innovation, Malta)

11:40 – The Role of Creativity in Interdisciplinary Work Groups in Higher Education Context (Dr. Daniela Bauer, Nuremberg Tech, LEONARDO – Centre for Creativity and Innovation, Germany)

12:00 – Lunch

13:00 – Keynote: Assessment of Creativity (Bonnie Cramond, Professor Emerita, University of Georgia, USA)

14:00 – Break (coffee)

14:15 – Round table: Do you become more creative by studying creativity? (Elisabeth Morney (chair), Bonnie Cramond, Hannah Kaihovirta, Riikka Mäkikoskela)

14:50 – Wrap up, final words

15:00 – End