Author Archives: Philippe La Grassa

About Philippe La Grassa

Philippe La Grassa Research Assistant Media Lab, Department of Media Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture

Defence of Doctoral Thesis in the Field of New Media, MA Neha Sayed

MA Neha Sayed will defend the thesis “The Changing Meaning of an Urban Place” on Friday 17 June 2022 at 14:00 in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Art and Media at Otakaari 1, lecture hall A1 (Otaniementie 14, Espoo) and online in Zoom (please click here to join). The event language is English.

Doctoral Candidate: MA Neha Sayed
Opponent: Professor Brendon Clark, Umeå University, Sweden
Custos: Professor Lily Díaz-Kommonen, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Art and Media

The audience is kindly asked to enter the lecture hall or join Zoom no later than 14:00.

Information at Aalto University web page: English │Finnish

The doctoral thesis is available and publicly displayed 10 days before the event here.

Doctoral theses in the School of Arts, Design and Architecture available here.

ABSTRACT

The meaning of an urban place for a traditional trading community on Ṭapāl Nākā develops in response to the development policies enforced by the government’s planning department. The government policies are enforced through artefacts such as maps and reports. The analysis of these artefacts reveals their purpose to control the development. Their operational role also assigns a certain meaning to the place. These policies are adapted to by the community as a post-implementation response. Their concerns are expressed through mobilising trade networks to emphasise the trade practices and property ownership patterns. The ethnographic data of networks and spaces analysed using the collective cultural memory framework of Assmann(1995) reveals the meaning of Ṭapāl Nākā generated by the community. The government is now implementing smart technologies to enforce their regulatory control, strengthening their meaning of Ṭapāl Nākā. The community is already well-versed with technologies such as surveillance cameras connected to smartphones. The Internet of Things (IoT) technology can reinforce the voice of the community addressing their concerns related to development. This is shown by an exemplary design concept for traffic management to be implemented by the community. This design concept which improvises upon the way the community already manages traffic indicates the possibility of enhancing the community’s meaning of place. The research contribution lies in presenting an approach to study the meaning of place for design intervention and exploring the role that IoT technology may play in the changing meaning of place. It also contributes to the IoT paradigm by indicating a pro-community approach for technological development. The research contributes to the urban planning discipline by revealing the disparity in the meaning of a place. More immediately, the project contributes to New Media research by highlighting the role of media studies in the developing understanding of IoT.

THE DOCTORAL CANDIDATE

MA Neha Sayed

Neha Sayed started her PhD in the Department of Media in 2016. In her doctoral research she investigated the role IoT can play in the changing meaning of an urban place. She conducted a two-year-long field work with a trading community in India to establish the change such a ubiquitous technology can play in traditional community networks. The research was conducted using ethnographic methods such as narrative-ethnography to understand the communitie’s relationship with technology. She also did geospatial mapping in GIS to understand the urban fabric which has a complex transformative nature responding to urban planning.

She graduated as an architect from the university of Mumbai in 2000. Since then, she has done a combination of architectural practice, teaching and research in Navi Mumbai. Her masters in Experience Design from Konstfack, Sweden, added a new dimension of design research based in User Centered Design to her skill-set. In her career she has remained focused on the role and identity of media in the changing times of last twenty years.

Contact information: email

FOURTH NEW MEDIA DOCTORAL SEMINAR of SPRING 2022 – Thursday, 12 May, 16:30 – 18:30

WELCOME TO THE FOURTH NEW MEDIA DOCTORAL SEMINAR OF THE SPRING SEMESTER!

The seminar will take place on Zoom, Thursday 12 May, starting at 16:30 and ending at 18:30 (UTC/GMT+3, Helsinki, EEST). Mediated by Professor Lily Díaz-Kommonen, we have an interesting presentation by Kirsi Manninen about her work “Using ‘A Digital Pocket Atelier’ For Creative Teamwork — What Are the Impacts and Meaning of Digital Screen Sketching On the Professional Competence of Costume Designers?”

Zoom link: Please click here to join the seminar!

PRESENTATION

“Using ‘A Digital Pocket Atelier’ For Creative Teamwork — What Are the Impacts and Meaning of Digital Screen Sketching On the Professional Competence of Costume Designers?”
by Kirsi Manninen

ABSTRACT

Over the past decades, costume designers have begun to combine traditional hand-drawing and digital sketching techniques in a costume design procedure. In addition to computer-aided costume design and traditional hand-drawing, costume designers have recently switched to advancing more and more different tablets and mobile devices while designing costumes for the characters. This thesis builds an understanding about costume sketching and considers how the particular competency of a costume designer — digital costume sketching — affects a designer’s subjective knowledge of one’s own skills as well as their ability to perform the tasks required for the design process and collaborative teamwork. The role of sketching techniques and digital sketchbooks has so far received too little attention from a research perspective. The participants in this study were recruited from costume designers who utilized a tablet device as a portable ‘pocket atelier’ and created costume sketches on the screen of the tablet. This thesis presents ideas and theories on the effects of digital costume design methods in the field of performing arts, as sketching tools and methods play a crucial role in the visual presentation of costume sketches and communicating with them.

This practice-based research relies on ethnomethodology and is interested in the routines of sketching and the outcomes and meanings of specific design activity. In this study, the source of knowledge is based on thinking through drawing and on the interpretation of physical and digital costume sketches. The purpose of this thesis is to find answers to the research question: what are the impacts and meanings of digital costume sketching on the professional competence of costume designers?

Qualitative methods offer an effective way to use a practice as a source of data by illuminating retrospective accounts related to sketching techniques. In this thesis, I have approached and participated in my research topic openly from many perspectives. The key method in this dissertation has been that by making things progress. For this reason, I have avoided over-planning both in the conduct of research and in the preparation of written outputs. I tried to do matters one thing at a time and see how the research that has already been done leads to new subjects.

The material for this study is collected through a literature review, samples from digital character creation courses (students), the researcher’s own autoethnographic data and through semi-structured interviews. Participants in semi-structured interviews consist of eight professional costume designers between the ages of 20 and 60, drawn from the fields of theatre, film and other performing arts from across Finland. The aim of the data collection is to obtain answers to research questions. The focus of my research is to examine the nature of costume sketching methods and the significance of the research topic from the point of view of the practical working life of costume designers.

Regarding the research question, it was found that the positive feedback as well as the better management of the use of sketching tools, time and space had a positive effect on the whole costume design process. Overall, the results indicate that there was an association between digital costume sketching methods and the professional competence of the designer. Taken together, these results suggest that the digital transformation changed the costume designers’ vision of their expertise to better meet the needs of the organization they worked with.

Keywords: costume design, digital costume sketching, screen sketching, tablet device, competence

BIO

Image showing DA candidate and Scenographer Kirsi Manninen and some of her self-portrait works

DA Candidate Kirsi Manninen

Kirsi Manninen, MA, is a Helsinki-based costume designer, teacher of digital character creation and doctoral candidate at Aalto University. The topic of her research is: Digital Transformation and Professional Competence in Costume Design. Her professional credits include designing costumes for more than one hundred productions for television, theatre, and film. She is one of the pioneers in the development of digital sketching methods for costume designers. She has taught and lectured digital character creation in several institutions in Finland and abroad: Aalto University School of Art and Design, London College of Fashion: UAL, University of Arts London, University of Lapland, Prague Quadrennial (the world’s largest exhibition of theatre architecture) and (Teme, LP) Union for the Theatre, Film and Television Designers and TV1, Finnish Public Broadcaster Yle. In 2020, she was awarded an Artist of the Year in Helsinki.

ORCiD

Webpage

Contact

HYBRID EVENT: MIT Media Lab x Aalto Media Lab – Friday 29 April 2022

MIT MEDIA LAB < interfaces > AALTO MEDIA LAB

MIT Media Lab< interfaces > Aalto Media Lab is an informal mingling event between the Media labbers in Helsinki and Cambridge. Here you will be welcome to share your ongoing research and projects, and learn about each other’s work both live and in Zoom breakout rooms.

You will be able to gain insight from your distinct perspectives and talk about your ideas. It might be useful to prepare a one slide presentation about who you are and about your interests in the field of new media.

The hybrid event will happen on the 29th of April at 12:00 (UTC-5) Cambridge / at 19:00 (UTC+2) Helsinki on-site in each of the Media Labs and the bridge over Zoom.

Please register for the event if you wish to attend in-person or online before 28 April.

Facebook event

THIRD NEW MEDIA DOCTORAL SEMINAR of SPRING 2022 – Thursday, 28 April, 16:30 – 18:30

WELCOME TO THE THIRD NEW MEDIA DOCTORAL SEMINAR OF THE SPRING SEMESTER!

The seminar will take place in Zoom on Thursday, 28 April, starting at 16:30 and ending at 18:30 (UTC/GMT+2, Helsinki, EEST). Mediated by Professor Lily Díaz-Kommonen, we have an interesting presentation by Mamdooh Afdile about his work ‘Toward implicit cinema. A search for a Numinous filmic experience.‘

Before the presentation we will also have a guest talk titled ‘Composing the Performance’ by Professor Kent Olofsson who is a collaborator in Mahdooh Afdile’s recent work ‘Implicit Cinema’. Kent Olofsson is a Professor of performing arts for the research area Concept and Composition at the Stockholm University of the Arts.

In his presentation, Professor Olofsson will discuss how he has been exploring musical composition as a dramaturgical device in the creation of performing arts. He will use examples from his works in theatre, dance, radio plays and opera to demonstrate the artistic processes that aim to integrate the elements in performances into polyphonic theatre experiences. He will also discuss artistic methods in the collaborations with performers, scenographers, playwrights, and directors. His methods challenge traditional hierarchies and working structures, which change and expand working roles in productions.

Zoom link: Please click here to join the seminar!

PRESENTATION

‘Toward implicit cinema. A search for a Numinous filmic experience.’
by Mamdooh Afdile

ABSTRACT

Predicting how cinematic experiences will evolve in the future is a challenging task, arguably because the fundamental question of why we watch movies is still not clear. A number of theories were proposed to answer this question, yet the debate is still ongoing. In this brief presentation I will propose my answer to this question based on novel results from unpublished data providing an insight on the leading motivation for watching fictional movies. Furthermore, I will also present preliminary results from my current artistic research “Implicit cinema”, that builds upon these findings. Implicit cinema is a meditative and reflexive audiovisual experience inspired by Carl Jung’s Active Imagination method. This audiovisual experience aims to give an alternative to the hyperstimulative media we are currently surrounded with, by engaging in a self-reflecting experience, facilitated by projective viewing mode.

BIOS

Image of New Media Doctor of Arts candidate Mamdooh Afdile.

New Media DA candidate Mamdooh Afdile.

Mamdooh Afdile is a filmmaker and researcher interested in interdisciplinary approach to filmmaking and production by integrating neuroscientific and psychological perspectives to audiovisual art practice. In 2019 Afdile developed PMSM; a method for investigating the subconscious brain with movies, in collaboration with neuroscientists at the brain and mind lab in Aalto. In his latest publication in 2021 he introduced the Scientific Hypothesis Approach to filmmaking practice, which was showcased in his short film “Helsinki Accord”. Currently Afdile is an Assistant Professor in the film and media department at Stockholm University of the Arts.

Kent Olofsson is a composer and an artist in the field of performing arts with an extensive artistic output that spans a broad range of genres, ensemble types, art forms and contexts including music for orchestra, chamber music, electronic music, contemporary theatre, dance performances, opera, radiophonic art, and rock music. In recent years his artistic work and research has been particularly focused on exploring musical composition as dramaturgical strategies in interdisciplinary and intermedial theatre performances. In his thesis Composing the Performance: An exploration of musical composition as a dramaturgical strategy in contemporary intermedial theatre from 2018 he discusses artistic and collaborative processes in performances that are situated in the intersection between contemporary theatre, new music, radio plays and performance art. Recent works and productions include the highly acclaimed Independence Day and In Search of Lost Time (a staging of Proust’s novel), two intermedial stage works created in collaboration with actor, writer and director Nina Jeppsson. Olofsson is a Professor of performing arts for the research area Concept and Composition at the Stockholm University of the Arts.

Defence of Doctoral Thesis in the Field of New Media, MA Ilan Manouach

MA Ilan Manouach will defend the thesis ‘Estranging Comics – Towards a novel comics praxeology’ on 22 April at 12:00 in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Art and Media.

The defense is organized as a hybrid event and will be held both live at Väre, lecture hall F101 (Otaniementie 14, Espoo) and in Zoom (please click here for link).

Doctoral Candidate: MA Ilan Manouach
Opponent: Dr. Jan Baetens, KU Leuven, Belgium
Custos: Dr. Bassam El Baroni, Assistant Professor in Curating and Mediating Art at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University.

Information at Aalto University web page: English │Finnish

The doctoral thesis is available and publicly displayed 10 days before the event here.

Shapereader by Ilan Manouach.

ABSTRACT

The industry-wide adoption of digital and network technologies has produced long-lasting and unevenly distributed effects in all the sectors of the comics industry. The globalization of markets and services has profoundly reshaped comics labor. Its effects are economic (the precarization of craftsmanship traditions), social (the rise of entrepreneurial fan culture and the consolidation of increasingly diversified communities with novel forms of amateur and semi-professional activity), technical (the introduction of digital tools for the distribution, the archival and retrieval of media artefacts) and aesthetic (the gradual integration in the production pipeline of AI and synthetic media). As is demonstrated by the recent emergence of radical forms of experimentation documented in the Conceptual Comics media collections of Ubuweb and Monoskop, comic artists are often able to leverage the dependencies of the ever-growing network infrastructure of the comics industry. Nevertheless, these disruptions foreground an epistemic crisis in the understanding of contemporary comics, both in academia and in more traditionally established professional spheres.

This thesis embraces an attitude of productive estrangement towards the medium’s forms, material qualities and operations, and constructs comics as a “contemporary object”. According to philosopher Anne-Françoise Schmid, a contemporary object is an extra-disciplinary entity that is massively distributed in space and time. Understanding such an object depends on the increasingly aggregate nature of knowledge production and dissemination in the computational age. Both in theory, with a series of papers in peer-review journals, and in artistic practice, by way of published comics and commissioned curatorial projects, this thesis examines the mutations of the comics ecology as an expansion of the scope of knowledge. It embraces the cumulative impact of digital transformation and articulates a novel comics praxeology predicated on two conditions. First, the thesis appeals for a systematic exploration of comics outside of narrow media purviews, the implicitly disciplinary conceptions, and the dominant historical perspectives in Comics Studies. It aims to develop a conception that embraces a rigorous application of a non-hegemonic interdisciplinarity in comics research. Second, and most importantly, the thesis argues for the expansion of operational agency on the part of comics professionals. This agency is described as a heightened contextual appreciation of the industry’s infrastructural backend, an awareness of its imbricated institutions and a diversification of the professional toolbox. I argue that a novel comics praxeology is a necessary attribute in order to embrace future, speculative, unclaimed or hitherto impossible forms in comics expression.

THE DOCTORAL CANDIDATE

MA Ilan Manouach

Ilan Manouach is a researcher, a musician and a multidisciplinary artist with a specific interest in conceptual and post-digital comics. His research examines how this century’s frontier technologies such as AI, financial technologies and globalized logistics reshape the comics industry. He is mostly known for Shapereader, a system for tactile storytelling specifically designed for blind and partially sighted readers/makers of comics. He is the founder of Echo Chamber, a Brussels-based non-profit organization with the mission to produce, fundraise, document and archive radical and speculative artistic practices in contemporary comics. The topics of his research and artistic practice include conceptual comics, post-internet publishing, and synthetic media and AI. On the side, Ilan works as a pirate/librarian for the Conceptual Comics Collections at Ubuweb and Monoskop, is an appointed expert in experimental comics for the Belgian government for its national public funding program (CCAP) and works as a strategy consultant for the Onassis Foundation and its visibility through its newly funded publishing activity.

Contact information: email / +30694169008

SECOND NEW MEDIA DOCTORAL SEMINAR of SPRING 2022 – Thursday, 24 March, 16:30 – 18:30

WELCOME TO THE SECOND NEW MEDIA DOCTORAL SEMINAR OF THE SPRING SEMESTER 2022!

The seminar will take place in Zoom on Thursday, 24 March, starting at 16:30 and ending at 18:30 (UTC/GMT+2, Helsinki, EEST). Mediated by Professor Lily Díaz-Kommonen, we have an interesting presentation by Ningfeng Zhang about his work ‘From “Roll Up Our Sleeves to Work Hard” to “Lie Flat”: Mediated Discourse Analysis of How Memetic Engagement Exerts its Potential in Shaping Collective Memory in China’s Social Media‘.

Zoom link: Please click here to join the seminar!

PRESENTATION

‘From “Roll Up Our Sleeves to Work Hard” to “Lie Flat”: Mediated Discourse Analysis of How Memetic Engagement Exerts its Potential in Shaping Collective Memory in China’s Social Media‘
by Ningfeng Zhang

ABSTRACT

The

This study focuses on the modal and discursive capability of online discursive repertoire as a “memetic engagement” in the potential shaping process of collective memory in China’s social media. The case study involved in this research concerns an ongoing online socio-cultural phenomenon called the “Lying flat movement”, and its essence can be considered as a form of memetic social action to challenge the existing, institutionalized glorification and aestheticization of a kind of chaotic social competition process that curls inward instead of outward, ensnaring its participants within an endless cycle of meaningless self-flagellation. This hustle working culture is disguised with the term “Spirit of Hardwork”, which was originally brought forth by the founder of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Tse-Tung in the 1950s.

The material consists of 11,555 comments collected from Chinese social media platforms, namely “Sina Weibo” and “Toutiao”. The former is China’s leading microblogging platform, and the latter is seen as one of China’s leading news and information platform that uses its algorithm models to generate a tailored feed list based on both popularity and personal interest of contents for each user.

Mediated discourse analysis (MDA) was applied to understand the form, content, and stances of the total 11,555 comments in a holistic way as a discursive repertoire, a memetic engagement inheriting a series of intermedial affordances that function as mnemonic shaping potentials in collective recollection.

Through this study, the author aims to expand and deepen the understanding of online memetic engagement as (1) a multimodal “hupomnemata” with formal capabilities in memory shaping; (2) an ideological cluster with narrative capabilities in memory shaping; and (3) a social action stemming from the entanglement of “discourse in place”, “interaction order”, and “historical body”.

BIO

New Media DA candidate Ningfeng Zhang

Ningfeng Zhang is a doctoral candidate currently working as a new media researcher with Prof. Dr. Lily Díaz -Kommonen. His research interest focuses on the social, cultural, and political relevance and the generation mechanism of internet memes in the context of the Chinese media environment, exploring the mechanism of how internet memes, as a form of visual rhetoric, a propaganda entity, a phenomenological studying subject, a discursive hypomnemata, as well as a facet of citizen journalism, generate, mutate and proliferate in a highly homogeneous media environment.

FIRST NEW MEDIA DOCTORAL SEMINAR of 2022 – Thursday, 24 February, 16:30 – 18:30

WELCOME TO THE FIRST NEW MEDIA DOCTORAL SEMINAR OF 2022!

We kindly welcome you to attend the first New Media Doctoral Seminar of the Spring semester! The seminar will take place in Zoom today starting at 16:30 and ending at 18:30 (UTC/GMT+2, Helsinki, EEST). Neha Sayed will be presenting her work ‘The changing meaning of an urban place’. The seminar is mediated by Professor Lily Díaz-Kommonen.

Zoom link: Please click here to join the seminar!

PRESENTATION

‘The changing meaning of an urban place.‘
by Neha Sayed

ABSTRACT

The meaning of an urban place for a traditional trading community on Ṭapāl Nākā develops in response to the development policies enforced by the government’s planning department. The government policies are enforced through artefacts such as maps and reports. The analysis of these artefacts reveals their purpose to control the development. Their operational role also assigns a certain meaning to the place. These policies are adapted to by the community as a post-implementation response. Their concerns are expressed through mobilising trade networks to emphasise the trade practices and property ownership patterns. The ethnographic data of networks and space analysed using the collective cultural memory framework of Assmann (1995) reveals the meaning of Ṭapāl Nākā generated by the community. The government is now implementing smart technologies to enforce their regulatory control, strengthening their meaning of Ṭapāl Nākā. The community is already well versed with technologies such as surveillance cameras connected to smart phones. The IoT technology can reinforce the voice of the community addressing their concerns related to development. This is shown by an exemplary design concept for traffic management to be implemented by the community. This design concept which improvises the way the community already manages traffic indicates the possibility of enhancing the community’s meaning of place.

The research contribution lies in presenting an approach to study the meaning of place for design intervention and exploring the role IoT technology may play in the changing meaning of place. It also contributes to the IoT paradigm by indicating a pro-community approach for technological development. The research contributes to the urban planning discipline by revealing the disparity in the meaning of a place. More immediately, the project contributes to new media research by indicating the role of media studies in the developing understanding of IoT.

BIO

New Media DA candidate, Neha Sayed

Neha Sayed is basically an architect from Mumbai. She has done her MFA in Experience Design from Konstfack, Sweden. Before pursuing her PhD at the Department of Media, she has a done a combination of architectural practice, teaching and design research.

She started her tenure as a doctoral student in January 2016. Part of ‘Systems of Representations Research Group’, she is advised and supervised by Professor Lily Diaz-Kommonen. Her research is focused on assessing impact of sensor driven technologies on urban precincts. As part of her doctoral research, she conducted her fieldwork in a traditional port town on the west coast of India by adopting a multidisciplinary approach.

LAST NEW MEDIA AND VCD JOINT DOCTORAL SEMINAR OF THE YEAR – Thursday, 16 December 2021

WELCOME TO THE LAST JOINT DOCTORAL SEMINAR OF 2021!

The last joint seminar for this year will take place on Thursday, 16 December, and will be held virtually on Zoom starting from 15:15 (UTC/GMT+3, Helsinki. Please see link below).

Mediated by Professor Masood Masoodian, we have a very interesting presentations by New Media DA candidate Dr. Eunice Sari.

Zoom link: Click here to join the seminar!

PRESENTATION

‘Toward Digital Transformation in Education in Indonesia’
by Dr. Eunice Sari

ABSTRACT

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck the world, most schools could not operate like normal and a lot of stakeholders were deeply affected including students, teachers, parents, and governments. The emergency mode has pushed every stakeholder to go beyond their comfort zone, to ensure appropriate education can still run and we do not rob the students’ rights for education. This talk will highlight several insights gained toward digital transformation in education in Indonesia from three personal case studies (2020-2021). These insights will be discussed also in light of the works done by the author in a similar area in the past.

BIO

New Media DA candidate, Dr. Eunice Sari.

Eunice Sari is a UX Design Researcher with more than 18 years of experience serving corporate clients around the world. She is also the CEO and Co-Founder of UX Indonesia and Customer Insight Pty Ltd (Australia), leading service design projects and initiatives in empowering digital transformation for global organizations. As a Designer and Researcher, she loves working in the field, building empathy with people she designs for.

Book Launch: ‘GROUND TRUTH’ by Sheung Yiu

Image of the book by 'Ground Truth' by Sheung Yiu

SEASONAL BOOK LAUNCHES PRESENTS: ‘GROUND TRUTH’

A book by Sheung Yiu

Book launch this Saturday, November 27th, 16:00 @ Art Gallery Kosminen, Helsinki

Sheung Yiu is launching his book ‘GROUND TRUTH’ this Saturday at art gallery Kosminen, Helsinki, at 16:00 (4pm). Please feel free to join the casual celebration and meeting around the local community TTBookshelf books and friends!

Event Name: Seasonal Book Launches, The Temporary Bookshelf
When: Saturday 27.11 17-20:00
Where: Kosminen, Pursimiehenkatu 13,00150 Helsinki

Kosminen
Instagram + @sheungyiuphoto , #sheungyiu #theeriskayconnection
The Eriskay Connection

‘GROUND TRUTH’

What is the relation between what we see and what is there? Ground Truth observes the evolution of visual technology in conversation with our perception and surroundings. The more technology develops, the more abstract seeing becomes.

Equipped with the phenomenal power of computation, photography and hyperspectral imaging, a group of scientists set out to approach the boundaries of satellite imaging in the forests of Finland. Using meticulous on-site measurements of physical structures and spectral properties of trees, ‘ground truth’ data are experimental results to verify the performance of predicting models. Their quest is to develop an improved interpretation model of satellite data for remote sensing research, which allows us to distinguish various features of the surface beyond what is shown optically in satellite imagery.

In Ground Truth Sheung Yiu (HK/FI) interweaves archival imagery, documentary photography, experimental data, and artistic work, to acquaint the reader with the mathematical models that provide us the tools to ‘resurrect’ trees from a two-dimensional image. Ground Truth highlights the complexity of seeing in the age of algorithms. What do we see when we are not around? What can we see when there is nothing there?

Concept and photography: Sheung Yiu
Essay: Miina Rautiainen, Daniel Schraik, Aarne Hovi and Petri Forsström, Sheung Yiu
Design: Emery Norton

170 × 240 mm | 176 p
EN | softcover
ISBN: 978-94-92051-74-5
€ 25.00

ABOUT SHEUNG YIU

Sheung Yiu is a Hong-Kong-born image-based artist and doctoral researcher based in Helsinki. His research interest concerns the increasing complexity and agency of computational photography in contemporary digital culture. He seeks to expand its ontology by formulating the connections between photography theories and new forms of realism, object-oriented ontology, and network thinking. Engaging with artistic practice and multi-disciplinary collaboration as a mode of research, his works examine the poetics and politics of computational photography, such as computer vision, computer graphics and remote sensing. Yiu’s work takes the form of photography, videos, photo-objects, exhibition installations and bookmaking.

More info: www.sheungyiu.com

ABOUT THE ERISKAY CONNECTION

The Eriskay Connection is a Dutch studio for book design and an independent publisher. We focus on contemporary storytelling at the intersection of photography, research, and writing. In close collaboration with authors, we make books as autonomous bodies of work that provide us with new and necessary insights into the world around us. The key for us is to convey the essence of their work through high quality editing, design, and production. Our editions are mainly offset printed and bound in The Netherlands and we strive to work with local producers and sustainable materials as much as possible.

More info: https://www.eriskayconnection.com

Defence of Doctoral Thesis in the Field of Visual Communication Design, MA Ulla Björklund

MA Ulla Björklund will defend her thesis “Changing the Old and Designing the New. Contradictions in Visual Communication Design” on Friday, 19 November 2021 at 12:00 in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Media.

The defense is organized as a hybrid event, and will be held live at lecture Y203 B-hall at Otakaari 1, Espoo, and online in Zoom (please click here for link).

Doctoral Candidate: MA Ulla Björklund
Opponent: Professor José Allard, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Custos: Prof. Teemu Leinonen, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Media

Information at Aalto University web page: English │Finnish

The doctoral thesis is available and publicly displayed 10 days before the event here.

ABSTRACT

This study looks at change in visual communication design from two points of view. Firstly, it locates the underlying need for change that motivates the collaboration with visual communication designers. Secondly, it recognizes how the actual design work is changing. The purpose is to better understand the work of visual communication designers and the challenges that are present in the design processes.

The main contribution of the study is the methodology for studying change. This means the way concepts from cultural historical activity theory are used to study visual communication design. Further, the two ethnographic case studies, a visual update of a publication and the visual communication design of think tank Demos Helsinki, describe visual communication design work, which is not yet documented. The case studies have historical value in creating knowledge of the profession.

The main results of the study show a historical contradiction present in visual communication design: How to use craft skills in collaborative processes and concept development? The designers’ skills include knowledge that is focused on the making of visualizations that is not easily verbalized or shared. Meanwhile, in order for the design process to be collaborative there needs to be tools for working together. While craft type of knowledge is useful, it is not easy to include others into the design process, even if it would be relevant for the end result.

The information gained from the study helps us to understand how the context of the designer influences the design process. Further, the study gives conceptual tools to locate where in the design process the collaboration between the designer and the other participants of the design process need support, in order for the collaboration to be better.

In conclusion, changes in the design context affect the need for design. Understanding the changes taking place in the context of the design work can help the designer to understand what is expected from the design and improve the collaboration with clients.

THE DOCTORAL CANDIDATE

Image of doctoral candidate, MA Ulla Björklun

MA Ulla Björklund.

Ulla Björklund has an MA in graphic design from the University of Art and Design and has studied graphic design at the Institute of Design, Lahti Polytechnic. She has spent four years studying activity theory at CRADLE (Center of Research on Activity Development and Learning) at Helsinki University. Her special interests are ethnography and the design process.

Contact information: email / +358 40 830 4578