Category Archives: Science

Call for Participation: Open Fields Conference and RIXC Festival Exhibition

Call for Participation: Open Fields Conference and RIXC Festival Exhibition

Call for Open Fields Conference abstracts and Exhibition proposals

DEADLINE Extended: June 20, 2016

FgVtCiHz6ocd1PeOAPPLY NOW!
http://festivalconf.rixc.lv

OPEN FIELDS Conference and Exhibition
in the framework of RIXC Art Science Festival 2016
Riga, September 29 – October 1, 2016
Venue:The National Library of Latvia

Open Fields is the title of this year’s international conference taking place in the framework of the annual RIXC Art Science festival in Riga. It brings together international scholars and artists, working at the intersection of arts, humanities and science. Open Fields will focus on artistic research, the changing role of arts, its transformative potential, and relation to the sciences. This call for participation invites contributions and conference paper proposals by scholars, artists, artists-researchers, art and media theorists, data designers and critical engineers, as well as doctoral students, and scientists from different Fields – biology, ecology, environment, digital technologies, renewable energy, etc., who are engaged in experiencing the transformative potential of arts.

For the exhibition and conference, we are looking for research that is located in the contested territory between academic knowledge production and independent creative practices. Open Fields will be investigating the use of data visualizations and other mappings of the contemporary. It will look into areas such as open commons, the future of social interaction, data representation and visualisation, critical design, sustainable infrastructures, eco-aesthetics, techno-ecologies, bio-hacking and other techniques of a transformative potential. No Field is excluded, yet there should always be a connection with art; it is highly likely that art works and conference papers will touch on several Fields, not one. It is such an enhanced understanding of transdisciplinarity that drives this undertaking.

Research Questions: How art and other creative practices can meaningfully contribute to the environmental, technological and scientific challenges of our time? What kind of new knowledge can be created through artistic practice that collaborates with science, technology and other disciplines? And how to deal with contemporary aesthetics, which has undergone dramatic changes during the past decades and keeps changing again as influenced by current post-media situation, data visualization and other contemporary conditions?

The Conference also will feature “Playing Fields” session on contemporary taxonomy, maintaining a connection between the exhibition and the conference. It also will include “Open Fields – Book Review” (PechaKucha) session, providing an opportunity for the speakers to present their new books for other participants and the audience.

* Conference keynote speakers:

Christiane PAUL / New School / Whitney Museum / New York
Jussi PARIKKA / Winchester School of Art / University of Southampton / UK
and others – tbc.

* Exhibition: The Open Fields conference will be complemented by the exhibition taking place in the new Exhibition Hall of the National Library of Latvia. Partly curated, partly peer-reviewed, the Exhibition will represent works by artists, artists-researchers and data designers, who are challenging the notion of art and contemporary aesthetics by moving across, bringing together and converging different knowledge, various media and diverse Fields, as well as using scientific, cultural and social data as new artistic medium, and interpreting them in a new and meaningful ways.
The Exhibition will be open from September 29 – November 6, 2016.

* Proceeding: The papers will be published in conference proceeding, which will come out in the Acoustic Space, peer-reviewed journal & book series. The call for full paper submissions will be announced during the conference.
http://acousticspacejournal.com

Conference Chair: Dr. Rasa SMITE / RIXC / Art Research Lab, Liepaja University, Latvia
Festival and Exhibition curators: Dr. Raitis SMITS, Ainars KAMOLINS, Dr. Rasa SMITE
Playing Fields session will be organized and moderated by Armin MEDOSCH / Austria

DEADLINE FOR CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS:

June 20, 2016

We welcome proposals by scholars, artists, artists-scholars, designers, PhD researchers, curators, media theorists, art historians, science philosophers, cultural innovators, bio-hackers, critical engineers and data designers, as well as scientists from different Fields – biology, ecology, environment, digital technologies, renewable energy, and others, who are engaged in the transformative potential of arts.

Conference themes include:
* investigating contemporaneity, its representation and experience in and through artistic practice and art-science research
* data visualization, and its impact on art, science and contemporary aesthetics
* art and science – challenging new ways of knowledge creation and its representation
* changing weathers – networked responses to geophysical and geopolitical shifts across Europe and the globe
* eco-aesthetics – from sustainable architecture and critical design to techno-ecological art practices

Conference proposal should consist of:
* title and abstract (250 words),
* 5–6 keywords,
* and short author’s biography (160 words).

Please submit your proposals online:
http://festivalconf.rixc.lv

Notifications: June 22, 2016

DEADLINE FOR EXHIBITION PROPOSALS:

June 20, 2016

Partly curated, partly peer-reviewed, the Festival Exhibition welcomes proposals by artists, artists-researchers, artists-engineers, data designers, as well as practice-based doctoral students, who are challenging the notion of art and contemporary aesthetics by moving across, bringing together and converging different knowledge, various media and diverse Fields, as well as by those, who are using scientific, cultural and social data as new artistic medium, interpreting them in a new and meaningful ways.

Artwork submissions should include:
* description of idea and technical requirements (1–2 pages),
* short biography and/or portfolio,
* additional material (photos/video/links/etc.)

Please submit your artwork proposal via e-mail to the address:
rixc (at) rixc.org

Additional material, if the files are larger than 5MB, should be sent via wetransfer.com.

Notifications: June 30, 2016

* About Open Fields Conference

Following the last year’s successful launch of Renewable Futures (renewablefutures.net – the biannual travelling conference series) – this year RIXC with its European partners from Changing Weathers project, and other collaborating institutions and universities from the Baltic Sea region and Europe, are introducing Open Fields, aiming to develop it towards an annual Riga based gathering for the discussion on artistic reseach, the changing role of arts in societies, art’s transformative potential, and relations to sciences.

http://rixc.org/en/festival/

* The International Conference  Scientific Organizational board:
Dr. Lev MANOVICH / Software Studies Initiative / The Graduate Center, City University of New York, US
Dr. Armin MEDOSCH / Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia / Initiator of the Technopolitics working group in Vienna, Austria
PhD. Jussi PARIKKA / Winchester School of Art / University of Southampton / UK
PhD. Geoff COX / School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark
Prof. Kristin BERGAUST / Oslo and Akershus University, Norway
Asoc. prof. Laura BELOFF / IT University in Copenhagen, Denmark / Finnish Bioart Society, Helsinki, Finland
Dr. Lily DIAZ-KOMMONEN / Head of Research Department of Media, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland
Dr. Ursula Damm / Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany – tbc.
Dr. Andris TEIKMANIS / Vice-rector, the Art Academy of Latvia, Riga
Dr. Vytautas MICHELKEVICIUS / Nida Art Colony, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania
PhD. Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir / Art Education at the University of Akureyri, Iceland
Andrew Gryf PATERSON / Pixelache Helsinki / SERDE / Aalto University ARTS Media department, Helsinki, Finland
Regine DEBATTY / we-make-money-not-art.com, London, UK – tbc.
Dr. Piibe PIIRMA / Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia
Dr. Janis KLEPERIS / Hydrogen Laboratory, Solid State Physics Institute, Latvian University, Riga, Latvia
and others – tbc.

* The venue of the conference and exhibition: the new building of the National Library of Latvia (http://www.lnb.lv/en/about-library/nll-building).

* Organizer: RIXC Center for New Media Culture.

* Partners: Conference and Exhibition is organized by RIXC in collaboration with the Art Research Lab of Liepaja University, the Art Academy of Latvia and Changing Weathers – Creative Europe’s project partners (http://www.changingweathers.net/)

* Exhibition partner: the National Library of Latvia

* Contact: rixc (at) rixc.org,

Address: RIXC, Maskavas iela 4, Riga, LV-1050, Latvia

Phone: +371 67228478 (office), +371 26546776 (Rasa Smite)

* Support: EU Program Creative Europe, the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Riga City Council, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, and others.

Narrating the Marginal – Seminar: Call for short notes on Experiential Knowledge and Empowerment in Artistic Research

Rovaniemi, Finland. December 2016

Narrating the Marginal

Seminar: Call for short notes on Experiential Knowledge and Empowerment in Artistic Research

https://margintomargin.com/seminar/

9.12.2016: Asko ja Esko – sali, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi

Artists and makers negotiate and sustain their identities and existences through their practices in spite of the challenges they face. These narratives reveal how the qualities of life and work environments impact their art practices. Just as art-making offers ways to ‘work through’ particular life challenges, narratives offer ways to make sense of difficult circumstances. Narratives of empowerment and care come about through art practices, making and storytelling, offering women ways to cope with their realities and come to terms with the marginalities that they encounter.

Art is a medium that enables the shaping of identities of marginalised women, while it also serves as a tool to process relationships within the communities they live in. Female artists may move from one role to another, be it spouse, mother, researcher, professional, teacher, artist, maker or friend. As a result, they are continuously navigating identities and marginalities as a means to cope within their communities. This seminar will discuss how art and narratives function in social realms and what role stories play in socially sustaining artists and their making practices.

The seminar themes explore the uses of practice-based research, art process and their outcomes. Nimkulrat discusses the importance of documentation and reflection in practice-based research (2007). Practice-based, or practice-led research, is a widely used research approach in art, based on the idea that practice uniquely contributes information to research in ways that are not possible through other investigative approaches. Multiple concerns are raised around practice-based research, such as the process being predominantly dependent on subjective frameworks, thus not contributing to the generation of new knowledge (Koskinen, 2009). Yet, practice-based research has established its own path in design and the arts. A number of methodological enquiries have been published, bolstering the validity of practice-based research (Mäkelä and Routarinne, 2006; Nimkulrat and O’Riley, 2009; Mäkelä and Nimkulrat, 2011).

This seminar enquires:

  1. How do women artists define the marginal? What are their art-related coping mechanisms?
  2. How do women cope with fluid identities and how can they benefit from identity shaping processes in marginal conditions? How do they transfer themselves from one role to another? How do women artists visualise and communicate their identities within marginal conditions? Can new technologies and media enable the shaping of identities in marginal conditions?
  3. How do women artists discuss their roles within communities using art processes? Can art and its related processes empower communities? How does art contribute to interventions within communities?

The seminar presents keynote lectures from Professor Nithikul Nimkulrat from the Estonian Academy of Arts, Professor Jaana Erkkilä and Professor Eija Timonen from the University of Lapland.

Submission: Short notes of a maximum of 2000 words excluding references will be double blind reviewed and published digitally as part of the seminar proceedings. Email your short note to junior researcher Daria Akimenko (daria.s.akimenko@gmail.com) by August, 15, 2016.

***

Artistic workshop and Exhibition: Call for participation

5.-8.12.2016: University of Lapland | 21.12.2016 – 12.2.2017: ARKTIKUM, KATVE 1 and 2

The seminar will go along with an artistic workshop that will take place 5 – 8 December 2016 at the University of Lapland. (Although the 6th of December is Finnish Independence Day and a public holiday, participants are welcome to continue their contributions.)  The workshop will engage local female artists and makers of different disciplines in interventions, collaborative work and installations. The working themes and questions of the workshop are similar to those of the seminar.

The artistic outcomes will be exhibited at Arktikum, galleries Katve 1 and 2, as well as in selected public locations.

Preliminary timeline:

5.12.2016 9.00-16.00 Welcome, short introductions of projects and people, constructing projects

6.12.2016 Public holiday, participants may continue working

7.12.2016 9.00-16.00 Work on the projects

8.12. 2016 9.00-16.00 Work on the projects, general sharing, planing the exhibition

Participation: If you are interested in joining the workshop you are invited to submit your CV and an abstract of not more than 500 words outlining your project proposal and artistic media. The organising committee is looking for creative and inventive projects with no restrictions on project formulations. Email your CV and abstract to junior researcher Daria Akimenko (daria.s.akimenko@gmail.com) by August,15, 2016.

24.5.2016 Hosana Celeste Oliveira: Digital and physical assistive interfaces for arts – From the diffusion to the inclusion

Dear all,

Mlab / Crucinble Studio visiting researcher Hosana Ceseste Oliveira will present her research group project Digital and physical assistive interfaces for arts: From the diffusion to the inclusion

on Tuesday the 24th May 2016 1-2 pm at Miestentie 3, room 429. Warmest welcome!

Digital and physical assistive interfaces for arts: From the diffusion to the inclusion

Hosana Celeste Oliveira

Visiting researcher at the Department of Media  / Crucible Studio and PhD Candidate at São Paulo State University, São Paulo, Brazil

In this presentation I introduce the activities carried out in my research group GIIP (São Paulo State University, Brazil), focusing on the project “Digital and physical assistive interfaces for arts: From the diffusion to the inclusion”. I will show some partial results and comment how my work at Crucible Studio/Media Lab contributes to the project. The project brings together the efforts of several researchers from Brazil and Spain, including myself as a PhD student. It aims to create low cost and free access assistive interfaces to teach and make art. For this purpose we are investigating communication solutions for cases of quadriplegia that are associated with speech disability. We foresee, however, that the interfaces will be scalable and applicable to other types of disabilities or even different uses purposes. The creation process of these interfaces is inspired by the case study of Dr. Ana Amália Tavares Barbosa, as well as her teaching method in art education. Dr. Barbosa is artist, art educator and postdoctoral researcher at GIIP and became the first quadriplegic to obtain a doctorate degree in Brazil.

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Call for papers: The Swedish Research Council’s symposium on artistic research 2016

The Swedish Research Council invites artistic researchers to submit abstracts or proposals for workshops/events at this year’s symposium on artistic research. The symposium takes place on November 29-30 at Linnaeus University’s faculty of humanities and art in Växjö. The theme of the symposium is Research Ethics and Artistic Freedom in Artistic Research.

For more information about the symposium and how to submit abstracts or proposals please visit our website:

http://www.vr.se/inenglish/newspress/newsarchive/news2016/callforpaperstheswedishresearchcouncilssymposiumonartisticresearch2016.5.689dca821542b90e69b8ad0f.html

Call for articles – Helsinki Photomedia publication

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Call for articles – Helsinki Photomedia publication

As announced at the conference, we will make a peer-reviewed anthology that documents the key aspects of the conference theme Photographic Agencies and Materialities in the form of high-quality articles. The publication will be an open-access electronic publication consisting of a selection of approximately 10 –15 articles. The editors are professor Merja Salo, lecturer Hanna Weselius and doctoral student Marko Karo (Aalto ARTS), professor Mika Elo (University of the Arts Helsinki), Janne Seppänen and Asko Lehmuskallio (University of Tampere).

The publisher of the anthology is Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. The anthology will be available in the Aaltodoc publication archive: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi and in the Aalto ARTS Books web bookshop: https://shop.aalto.fi.

The deadline for the articles is 5 June 2016.

Selection criteria:

  • scholarly quality
  • originality
  • relevance to the theme

We will only consider completed articles for publication. Abstracts and drafts will not be passed to peer-review.

The author is responsible for the copyrights concerning the image materials used in the article.

Submission guidelines:

Optimal length: 6000 words.

File format: .doc or .docx for the text, pdf for the images

(NOTE: please collect all images in a separate pdf files and mark the placing of the images in the text with [Image 1], [Image 2], etc.). Maximum file size is 3 M.

Referencing system: Oxford System (known also as the Documentary/ Note system), see below.

Please attach a short bio (approximately 50 words) to your article.

The submissions should be sent to Helinä Kuusela helina.kuusela@aalto.fi prior to 5 June 2016.

Pdf: HPM2016 call for articles

Guide to the referencing system:

Footnotes

The First Note for a Source

In the text:

Note identifiers should be placed at the end of a sentence, and follow any punctuation marks (but precede a dash). If you use a long quotation (more than three lines of text), the note identifier should be placed at the end of the quotation.

Lake points out that a division began in the latter half of the nineteenth century with the doctrine of ‘separate spheres’.1

At the foot of the page:

When you reference a source for the first time, you must provide all the necessary information to enable the reader to locate the source.

  1. You should provide bibliographic information (information about the source). This includes:
  • author(s) initial(s) and surname(s)
  • name of the article, book or journal
  • editors (if applicable)
  • publisher name and location
  • year published
  1. You should give exact page numbers if your reference is a direct quotation, a paraphrase, an idea, or is otherwise directly drawn from the source.

1 M Lake, ‘Intimate strangers’ in Making a Life: a People’s History of Australia Since 1788, V. Burgman and J. Lee (eds), Penguin, Victoria, 1988, p. 155.

Note Formatting

  • Titles of publications should be italicised.
  • Use minimal capitalisation for publication titles and for journal or book article titles.
  • Article titles should be enclosed between single quotation marks.
  • Use commas to separate each item of the citation and end with a full stop.

Second & Subsequent Notes

Second and subsequent references to the same source don’t need to be as detailed as the first note—they just need the minimum information to clearly indicate which text is being referred to.

With a single author provide all the necessary information in the first note. If you want to refer to the same source again, a simple method is to give the author’s name, the year of publication and the page number. For example:

1 I Reid, Higher Education or Education for Hire? Language and Values in Australian Universities, CQU Press, Rockhampton, 1996, p. 87.

2 …

3 Reid, p. 98.

If two or more works by the same author are referred to in the text, include the title:

1 E Gaskell, North and South, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1970, p. 228.

2 E Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1975, p. 53.

3 Gaskell, North and South, p. 222.

Subsequent references to articles are done in a similar way:

17 M Doyle, ‘Captain Mbaye Diagne’, Granta, vol. 48, August 1994, pp. 99-103.

18 …

19 Doyle, Granta, p. 101.

Citing Different Sources

List information in the following order:

Book

  1. author(s) initial(s) and surname(s)
  2. title of book (italicised)
  3. publisher
  4. place of publication
  5. year of publication
  6. page number(s)

1 M Henninger, Don’t Just Surf: Effective Research Strategies for the Net, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1997, p. 91.

Article/Chapter in a Book Collection

  1. author(s) initial(s) and surname(s)
  2. title of article (single quotation marks)
  3. title of book (italicised)
  4. editor of book
  5. publisher
  6. place of publication
  7. year of publication
  8. page number(s)

2 M Blaxter, ‘Social class and health inequalities’ in Equalities and Inequalities in Health,

C Carter & J Peel (eds), Academic Press, London, 1976, pp. 6-7.

Journal Article

  1. author(s) initial(s) and surname(s)
  2. title of article (single quotation marks)
  3. title of journal (italicised)
  4. volume number
  5. issue number
  6. month of publication
  7. year of publication
  8. page number(s)

3 M. Doyle, ‘Captain Mbaye Diagne’, Granta, vol. 48, August 1994, pp. 99-103.

Electronic Source

A Website

  1. author
  2. name & place of sponsor of site
  3. date site was created or updated
  4. date of viewing
  5. URL

Electronic Mail Lists, Usenet Groups & Bulletin Boards

  1. author
  2. author’s identifying details (eg.email address)
  3. description of posting
  4. name of list owner
  5. date of posting
  6. date of viewing
  7. URL

A Document within a website

  1. author/editor
  2. title
  3. name of sponsor of site
  4. last date site updated
  5. date of viewing
  6. URL

Emails

These are cited the same as for personal communications

4 N Curthoys, ‘Future directions for rhetoric – invention and ethos in public critique’, in Australian Humanities Review. March-April 2001, viewed on 11 April 2001, <htttp://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-April- 2001/curthoys.html>.

Bibliography

Book

Reid, I Higher Education or Education for Hire? Language and Values in Australian Universities. CQUPress, Rockhampton, 1996.

Journal Article

Doyle, M ‘Captain Mbaye Diagne’. Granta, vol. 48, August 1994, pp. 99-103.

Web Document

Curthoys, N, ‘Future directions for rhetoric – invention and ethos in public critique’, in Australian Humanities Review, March-April 2001, viewed on 11 April 2001 <htttp://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-April-2001/curthoys.html>.

 

Publishing of the Thesis Design book by Marja Seliger

29th of October 2015 at Aalto ARTS Books new bookstore Hämeentie 135 A

Seliger, Marja &  Hahn, Young-ae: Thesis Design. Research Meets Practice in Art and Design Master’s Theses 

thesis_design_julkkarit__Marja2_29.10.15-1Professor Marja Seliger

The aim of a Master’s thesis is to demonstrate a candidate’s proficiency, knowledge and skills learned in the field of study. In art and design universities the skills have traditionally meant design expertise, artistic excellence and uniqueness demonstrated through an artwork or a design product. Today also research skills are required and an ability to verbalize and conceptualize design processes and artistic outcomes, their societal and art-philosophical connections.

This book exemplifies three types of Master’s theses – theoretical, artistic and production-based theses – and their various epistemologies, strategies of inquiry and methodologies. The categories are based on a literature review and a survey of recently published Master’s theses at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

The book is aimed especially for Master’s students to help them in designing and defining a thesis topic and a research approach in the fields of art, design and architecture to help them defining a thesis topic and selecting the research approach. The publication offers examples of how research meets art and design practices in Master’s education, promoting new approaches to design fields and research.

thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-20 thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-19 thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-18 thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-17 thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-14 thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-13thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-4 thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-10 thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-9 thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-8 thesis_design_julkkarit__pienet_29.10.15-6

Thesis Design in Aalto ARTS Books:  https://shop.aalto.fi/p/831-thesis-design/

Photographs (c) Helinä Kuusela

DOM Doctor of Arts seminar Thu 3 Dec 2015

DOM Doctor of Arts seminar

on Thursday  3 December 2015 at 15 – 19.15  in Miestentie 3, room 430

15.00-17.00 Heidi Uppa: Food as a Media: Design experiments to develop food understanding and experiences (in Finland and Russia)
17:00 – 17:45  Marikki Hakola: Semeion. Virtual Action Space and Cinematic Interaction.
17:45 – 18:30  Tania Rodriguez-Kaarto: Fostering Agency in Second Language Learning: Designing the Finnish case
18:30 – 19:15  Ferhat Sen: Designing Digital Applications For Cultural Heritage

15.00 – 17.00 Heidi Uppa (graphic design research) begins presenting conference papers written for her DA research “Food as a Media: Design experiments to develop food understanding and experiences (in Finland and Russia).” Heidi brings up an important question to discuss: Whether to write a monograph or an article dissertation?

17:00 – 17:45  Marikki Hakola: Semeion. Virtual Action Space and Cinematic Interaction.

I am carrying out my postgraduate studies at the Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Media aiming at the doctoral dissertation. The title of my research is “Semeion. Virtual Action Space and Cinematic Interaction.” My doctoral thesis will include a monograph dissertation and a series of four media art works. My job description as a media artist of the four works includes concept design, script writing, film directing and film editing.

The framework for the theoretical study is media semiotics and pragmatism. Questions of consciousness and experience are essential motives of the study. The main goal is to develop a usable theoretical foundation for the concepts and practical models of the cinematic interaction in a virtual action space. The interest is in various forms of film montage and cinematic structure, and their constructive role in expressing and processing cinematic signs, meaning and interpretation.

The main goal of my research is to further develop the theory of interactive cinematic experience and to build up a common foundation for the theory and practical applications. The objective is to identify and test the usable models and methods of interactive experience design, as well as to highlight the developed models that hopefully will help in more broadly both future professional designers and students on the field of cinematic interactive design.

17:45 – 18:30  Tania Rodriguez-Kaarto: Fostering Agency in Second Language Learning: Designing the Finnish case

A deeper understanding of cultural knowledge and the learner agency are crucial for mid-level second language (L2) learners, to better their social and job competency, with continuing and independent study beyond the basic training. In Finland, however, such an advanced level of language training and supports are not provided, and many learners are stuck in the plateau stage.

This paper integrates the authors’ findings from the literature review, a student workshop, and an expert (teacher) panel, to identify the mid-level Finnish learners’ areas of weaknesses and their overcoming strategies. To resolve their unmet needs, the authors propose a set of L2 learning principles based on van Lier’s ecological approach, and recommended features for future learning systems. Following the principles, a system is envisioned to provide activity based curricula with personalized, multi-sensory materials and collaborative activities. The four learning modules (observation, writing, speech-interaction, and reading) and a vocabulary-phrase bank support posting and sharing data from the real world, to facilitate interactions between learners, teachers and Finnish citizens.

18:30 – 19:15  Ferhat Sen: Designing Digital Applications For Cultural Heritage

The advance in computer and information technology has opened up new ways for utilization of culturally and historically valuable materials. The massive digitization of cultural heritage elements is followed by the research on how to make those digital materials accessible and more usable. The results have shown examples of a wide range starting from online museums and digital libraries to onsite interactive installations.
Digitization alone seems adequate for preservation purposes. Whereas utilizing the digitized materials for user experience and making those artifacts engaging, useful, usable, or educative requires some research and development practice. This research and development practice involves various disciplines, such as art history, archaeology, interaction design and computer science.

Within the design and cultural heritage context, this research will be addressing the following questions:

  • How to design interactive digital cultural heritage artifacts by considering the specific qualities of the original artifact.
  • How can a cultural artifact itself be an input for the design of its digital version. What insights can a cultural artifact offer for the interface and interaction design of its digital representation.
  • What is the role and contribution of interface and interaction design for creating digital representations of cultural heritage in relation to interpretation, knowledge creation and dissemination.The main hypothesis is that the cultural artifact itself should inform and/or inspire the design of its digital application. This research focuses on the relationship between the original artefact and the design of its digital counterpart. A number of case studies will be presented covering the design and the development of user-centered digital applications for cultural heritage elements by using participatory and collaborative design approaches and artifact analysis methods.In this research, the contribution to knowledge will be demonstrated through creative outcomes in the form of designs, digital products and a written dissertation. I intend to create new knowledge about the theory, the design and the development of digital interactive online and onsite applications that are representations of cultural heritage artifacts. This will be achieved through a number of productions that are practical applications of the framework and the concepts discussed in the dissertation.

Archiving the new media 23-25 Nov 2015

Maximum obsolescence or digital permanence?

ARCHIVING THE NEW MEDIA

Media Lab doctor of arts seminar

23-25 November 2015, Aalto Media Factory, Hämeentie 135, 00560 Helsinki

The seminar is open to Doctor of Arts and advanced Master of Arts students at Aalto University. Please sign up by 16th Nov 2015.
Prof. Lily Diaz

 

Keynote speakers

Raitis Smits Artist, curator and researcher on new media culture and networked arts, founder of E-Lab – electronic arts laboratory and RIXC – artist collective and new media cultural center in Riga

Jukka Savolainen, Director of Design Museum Helsinki

Perttu Rastas: “Archive media now, not when it’s obsolete!”

Founder of AV-arkki, the Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art, Senior Planning Officer in the Collections Department, Finnish National Gallery

Ora Lassila , Semantic Web expert, technology architect at Pegasystems

Minna Tarkka, researcher, producer, critic and educator of media arts and design, director and co-founder of m-cult co-founded m-cult, centre for new media culture in Helsinki

Raimo Lång, Yleisradio

Head of Content Developement and Skills Training

 

Raimo is in charge of program/concept developement in TV, radio, web and transmedia. Additionally he leads the developement of professional training in feature journalism, docs, reality, drama and transmedia creation.

Summary of topic

To archive means to set aside for preservation and an archive is a storage site where materials deemed worthy of remembrance are kept. The objective of this seminar/workshop is to examine major points related to the preservation of new media art and practices. We will focus on the phenomenon of maximum obsolescence that currently permeates the new media and our digital world with the objective to investigate the possibility of digital permanence.

Ours could be labelled as the era of the “new-new”. Constant and relentless change has become a way of life. A non-stop stream of new artefacts rapidly supersedes the cultural matter created within one generation. In this context, our objective during the three days of the seminar/workshop will be to ponder about this current state of existence in our Information Society.

Among the topics we would like to focus, from a new media perspective that includes both the technical and the theoretical are: What is change? How does it affect our own practices as cultural producers? Is change now a permanent condition of being in our digital culture? What drives it? Are there proactive ways – or strategies that could be devised – which could lead us to some kind of digital permanence? How does this continuous change affect both the creation of new media art and design works as well as their collection? How does this in turn affect our cultural memory?

 

Methods of work

We will have keynote presentations as well as work time in groups. In order to participate, you need to bring a project or aspects of a topic that you will present and work with during the three days.

Learning outcomes

Participants will identify key landmarks and strategies that enable them to create their own Map for Change that they can continue to develop for their own practices.

Participating

The seminar is open to Doctor of Arts and advanced Master of Arts students at Aalto University. Please send a 300 word abstract of your project or topic with your contact information and coordinates to Helinä Kuusela (helina.kuusela@aalto.fi) no later than 19th Nov 2015.

 

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Symposium: New Media Research in Taiwan 7.9.2015 in Media Lab

Please join us for a small symposium on New Media Research in Taiwan.
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Our special guest speaker, Prof. Wendy Lai, the director of transArt NCTU and her colleagues will give a series of talks to share their researches and the current New Media Researches in Taiwan, a sci-tech island.
Four talks will take place in Room 420, 4th Floor, Media Lab(Miestentie 3, Otaniemi Campus) 7.9.2015 from 10:00 to 15.00.
 
You are all very welcome!
Please contact the Coordinator, doctoral candidate, Chen hung.chen@aalto.fi if you have questions.
Introduction of the presentations:
TITLE
Dance-technology: Uncertainty Based on Deterministic System
TIME
10.30-10.45
SPEAKER
Dr. Chi-Min HSIEH, Assistant Professor/ transArt NCTU team, Institute of Applied Arts, National Chiao Tung University, email: chimin.hsieh@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
In this talk, we will present a branch research project in dance-technology, focusing on “uncertainty based on deterministic system”, i.e. quasi-chaos. We distinguish the fundamental differences in comparison with Merce Cunningham’s “chance operation based on dice and I-Ching”. Secondly, we will share our on-going performance “Impermenance”. The work is a combination of dancing, interactive technology, and visual arts, which integrates powerful body languages and skillfully designed group dances with elegantly flowing images produced by fluids simulation and complex changes of communities imitated by flocks simulation. It explores the “permanence” and “impermanence” of life through the observation of various flow phenomena in the nature as well as intricately changing interpersonal relationships—either be it crazy love, dependence, competing, betraying or vacillating. Lastly, we will discuss the dichotomy of “usual” and “unusual.” While the usual represents what is accumulating slowly in everyday life, the unusual reflects the yearning for escaping from the present moment. Whichever can be considered another mode of being of “impermanence.”
 
chimin.hsieh
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TITLE
Social Design & Media Maker Project
TIME
11.00-11.15
SPEAKER
Dr. Chun-Cheng Hsu, Associate professor/ transArt NCTU team, Department of Communication and Technology, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan chuncheng@mail.nctu.edu.tw
TITLE
Optical Fibers with Micro Physical Sensors in Art and Design
TIME
14.05-14.20
SPEAKERS
Dr. Wen-Shu Lai, Associate Professor/Director of transArt NCTU team Institute of Applied Arts, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan wndylai@gmail.com
Dr. Hsi-Pin Ma, Associate Professor/NTHU EE Cognitive Applications R&D Group. Department of Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan hp@ee.nthu.edu.tw
ABSTRACT
This research is to explore the innovative applications of optical fibers with the ECG/RESP sensor technology in art as well as its emerging aesthetics derived from the application. An optical fiber is capable of transmitting messages. Through integrating optical fibers with the ECG/RESP sensor technology, we constructed an interactive clock titled ‘Clock Inside Out’. The physical data from the audience’s breathing and heartbeats are transformed into a stream of light by real-time signal processing and represent the second hand of the clock. The ‘Clock Inside Out’ not only reflects the existence of the audience, but also coexists with the audience in reality. Therefore, both a natural sensory world and temporality can be experienced at the same time. Besides the analysis of the work, we also discuss the aesthetic questions arising from it. Lastly, a conclusion of the new meanings of the ‘Clock Inside Out’ from the phenomenological point of view is drawn.   
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TITLE
Botanic Workshop: Summon the Discourse
TIME
14.35-14.50
SPEAKER
Dr. Yueh-Tuan Li, Institute of Applied Arts / transArt NCTU team
ABSTRACT
The workshop: “Botanic Workshop: Summon the Discourse” was hosted by the transArt NCTU team in July 2015. Three artists are invited to lead the students from brainstorming to final presentations. The main goal of the workshop is to rethink the definition of plants, including whether plants have consciousness and the ability to communicate, whether plants should be considered to have rights as human beings do. With that in mind, students are expected to respond to the following questions in their final presentation: What kind of ‘plants’ will exist in the current world that would appear half-human and half-plant? And how will humans interact with them? Why will these ‘plants’ appear? How will they look like? What will they do? What is their relationship with human? What is their relationship with this world? The final presentations are therefore the team-effort artworks that would invite people to communicate with the plants.
yuehtuan

Invitation: Aalto Digi Breakfast on Digital Cultural Heritage 19.5.2015

 

Aaltofest

Dear recipient,

welcome to the Aalto Digi Breakfast on “Digital Cultural Heritage”!

May 19, 2015, at 8:00-9:30 o’clock, at Open Innovation House (OIH), Otaniementie 19, Espoo

Please register no later than 11 May at

http://www.aalto.fi/en/research/platforms/digi/cultural_heritage/digital_cultural_heritage_registration/

and forward this invitation to your colleagues, too. Details at

http://www.aalto.fi/en/research/platforms/digi/cultural_heritage

Today our topic is how to make the collections held by libraries, archives, museums and audiovisual archives available online, and how this is a win-win for culture and research.

Programme:

8:00 Breakfast is served
8:15 Opening by professor Lily Diaz
8:25 Presentations:

  • Professor Eero Hyvönen: Publishing Cultural Heritage on the Semantic Web as Linked Open Data – Tools, Services, and Applications of the Semantic Computing Research Group (SeCo)
  • Jukka Savolainen: Digital media in the museum – a tool for visitor engagement or material for collections
  • Hannu Häkkinen: Digital Cultural Heritage and the Picture Collections of the National Board of Antiquities: objectives and challenges
  • Heli Kautonen: Access improved – Finnish culture for creative industries in Finna

9:25 Wrap-up and next steps at Aalto

Digitalization of the cultural heritage of humanity is one of the pressing issues in the Information Society. As the keepers of the nation’s heritage, heritage institutions such as archives, libraries and museums are implicated not only in the safeguarding of the patrimony that tells history of the people, but also in how that history is narrated. In our contemporary world that mission has been rendered into a task that translates to more that being repositories of artefacts. Nowadays museums for example, are expected to provide a wide array of services, from the ubiquitous guided tours, to more challenging activities including sessions in which visually challenged patrons can handle 3D forms, such as sculptures, to activities in which young audiences might learn about ‘sonification’ techniques to render accessible visual works of art, to workshops where immigrants and first-generation citizens search to find a way to reflect themselves into the fabric of the nation. During this session we will hear from experts who are involved in this important work.

Today’s event is also part of Aalto Festival http://www.aaltofestival.fi/2015/en/

Aalto Festival showcases the talents of Aalto University students, graduates and faculty. The festival is a collection of over 30 events, exhibitions, and seminars, and takes place in Helsinki and Espoo 18–31 May 2015.

In the Digi Breakfasts, Aalto university’s key digi themes are discussed within the Aalto community and with outside stakeholders. The events are open for everyone and they are arranged by Aalto Digi Platform which is Aalto’s new means of collaboration in the field of ICT and digitalisation, to maximize Aalto’s internal synergies in a non-exclusive manner, and to increase Aalto’s external visibility.

Aalto University is the leading university in Finland in the field of digitalization in the number of students, professors, publications or funding. In the field of ICT, Aalto belongs to the best 1% of all universities worldwide. http://aalto.fi/digiplatform

More information from: ella.bingham@aalto.fi and yrjo.neuvo@aalto.fi (Digi Platform), lily.diaz@aalto.fi (Digital Cultural Heritage), mauri.airila@aalto.fi (Aalto’s Platforms).

Welcome!

Mauri Airila

Professor, Assoc. VP

Aalto University

Invitation_pdf