Welcome to the Aalto Digi Breakfast on “Designing for Future Life – Strategies for multidisciplinary design for digital communication, entertainment and education”!

5 June at 8:00-9:30 at Aalto Design Factory, Betonimiehenkuja 5C, Otaniemi, Espoo. Breakfast served at 7:45 o’clock.

Please register no later than Monday 2 June at https://www.webropolsurveys.com/S/317623B163D8DD2B.par and forward this invitation to your interested colleagues, too.

This is a discussion event including speakers such as Lasse Seppänen (CEO of PlayRaven), Forrest Oliphant (Partner at NoFlo team, CA), Teemu Leinonen (Professor at Aalto ARTS), Philip Dean (Professor at Aalto ARTS, chairman of the event), and several others. Details of the event at http://www.aalto.fi/en/research/platforms/digi/designing_for_future_life/

The Digi Breakfasts are arranged by the 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. See the list of forthcoming events at http://www.aalto.fi/en/research/platforms/digi/news

About the speakers and their presentations

Lasse Seppänen, CEO of PlayRaven, represents the entertainment sector of our agenda. PlayRaven http://www.playraven.com is an innovative strategy games studio which was recently one of the successes at SLUSH, gaining 1.7m€ for their game product development, see more at http://m.iltalehti.fi/digi/2014012217961101_du.shtml (in Finnish).  Lasse is an alumni of Aalto’s Media Lab and a veteran game industry executive best known as Remedy’s Executive Producer on Alan Wake.
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/lasse-sepp%C3%A4nen/0/13/833

Forrest Oliphant is an interactive designer and a graduate of the Media LabHelsinki, Aalto ARTS. In his MA thesis project Forrest developed a hackable web app framework and a flow-based programming environment for children (and other artists). His Meemoo framework was found from the GitHub by the NoFlo-team developing flow-based programming helping software developers to organize large application, especially when modifying large data sets. Currently Forrest is a partner in the NoFlo team. In September 2013 the NoFlo project was successfully funded and raised more than 100 000 USD from more than 1000 backers. The NoFlo team is located in California, Berlin and Helsinki. http://www.forresto.com/

Professor Teemu Leinonen, Vice Dean of Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture, will introduce the theme of future of learning in digital society. Teemu’s field of research is New Media, especially related to applications, solutions and services of e-learning, collaborative learning, collaborative group work and creative work. https://people.aalto.fi/index.html?profilepage=isfor#!teemu_leinonen

Members of the Arki research group at Aalto’s Media Lab will introduce some key themes from their ‘digitisation of (everyday) life’ projects. The focus of Arki is in the co-evolution of digital media technology and the practices of everyday life, with a design perspective. http://medialab.aalto.fi/research/research-groups/arki-research-group/

Philip Dean is Professor of New Media Management and Head of the Department of Media at Aalto University’s School of Arts, Design & Architecture, and also Director of Aalto Media Factory. Philip will chair the event.
https://people.aalto.fi/index.html#philip_dean

About the Digi platform

Digitalization is having a tremendous effect in today’s and tomorrow’s industries, economics and society at large. Digitalization is a key strong area at Aalto University: ICT, media, computation and modelling have been identified as areas of strong expertise in Aalto’s RAE 2009 evaluation. There are about 80 professors at Aalto directly focused on ICT and media, and another 80 are in fields strongly related to digitalization. Topics include, but are not limited to: computer science, media, computational sciences, networks, communications, signal processing, automation, mechatronics, games, information and service economy, and so on. Joining forces across Aalto we can achieve a significant impact in several fields.
See more at http://www.aalto.fi/en/research/platforms/digi/

More information from: ella.bingham@aalto.fi, samuel.kaski@aalto.fi (Digi Platform), philip.dean@aalto.fi (Designing for future life), mauri.airila@aalto.fi (Aalto’s Platforms).
Welcome!

Mauri Airila
Professor, Assoc. VP

24.04.2014 / 12:00 – 15:00
Location: Aalto University, Otaniemi campus, Otakaari 1, E-hall.

MA Joanna Saad-Sulonen defended her dissertation Combining Participations: Expanding the Locus of Participatory E-planning by Combining Participatory Approaches in the Design of Digital Technology and in Urban Planning. Professor Susanne Bødker, Institute of Computer Science, Aarhus University, acted as the Opponent. Professor Lily Diaz will acted as the Custos.

Combining Participations is a trans-disciplinary work on participatory e-planning, which the author re-conceptualises as comprising different types of participation that take place in urban planning, as well as in the design of digital technology. The different types of participation can occur simultaneously in different combinations and affect one another.
 
At a time when the increasing rate of both urbanisation and digitisation around the globe is bringing urban planning and digital technology closer to one another, it is important to move beyond buzzwords such a ‘smart cities’ and ‘living labs’. This thesis provides novel tools, such as the matrix of multiple participations and the Expanded Participatory Design approach, which make it possible to explore a more genuinely democratic vision of cities and technologies and to devise ways of realising such vision.

VTM Mia Muurimäki esittää tarkastettavaksi väitöskirjansa Nykytaiteen politiikka museokontekstissa, Aalto ARTS, torstaina 12.12.2013 klo 12.oo, luentosali 822.
Vastaväittäjinä toimivat professori  Raine Koskimaa Jyväskylän yliopistosta ja dosentti, YTT Sari Karttunen Kulttuuripoliittisen tutkimuksen edistämissäätiö Cuporesta. Kustoksena toimii professori  Lily Diaz.

Tutkimus käsittelee nykytaidekokemuksen poliittisuutta julkisrahoitteisessa museossa. Tapahtumapaikkana on Valtion taidemuseon Nykytaiteen museo Kiasma ja sen kolme vuosina 2007 ja 2011 pidettyä näyttelyä. Lähtöajatuksena oli, että nykytaiteen poliittisuus ei ole taideobjektien pysyvä ominaisuus vaan niiden kokemisen ulottuvuus. Ääneenajattelumenetelmän ja teemahaastattelujen avulla pyrittiin mahdollisimman lähelle katsojan kokemusta.

Aineiston lähiluvun jälkeen tutkimuksessa tartuttiin Chantal Mouffen, Jacques Rancièren ja Niklas Luhmannin politiikan teorioihin, joiden avulla ihmisten puhumasta aineistosta tuotettiin monikerroksinen kuvaus nykytaiteen poliittisuudesta. Tuloksena syntyi politiikan malli, jolla on yhtäläisyyksiä Bruno Latourin ajatteluun. Mallia hyödyntäen arvioitiin erilaisia museomaailman yleisöjen osallistamiseen ja digitaalistumisprosessiehin liittyviä konsepteja. Tavoitteena oli löytää parhaita keinoja demokraattisen kansalaisyhteiskunnan turvaamiseen ja samalla museoinstituution yhteiskunnallisen vaikuttavuuden parantamiseen.

Digijulkaisemisen uusia tuulia. Seminaari Aalto ARTSissa (Hämeentie 135C) 10.12.2013 klo 13–16.

Ilmaisessa TOIMI-seminaarissa pureudutaan digitaalisen julkaisemisen uusiin mahdollisuuksiin, sosiaalisen median hyödyntämiseen ja mallilukijamatriisiin sisällön kehittämisen välineenä.

Ohjelma
• 13.00–13.15 TOIMI-hankkeen esittely, Merja Helle, Aalto ARTS
• 13.15–14.00 Digitaalisen julkaisemisen uusia tuulia,
Harri Heikkilä, Aalto ARTS
• 14.00–14.15 Kahvi
• 14.15–15.00 Mallilukija eri julkaisualustoilla, Merja Helle, Aalto ARTS, Hanna Myyrä, ESS ja Erkki Hujanen, Kaleva
• 15.00–15.45 Miten printtimedia voi hyödyntää sosiaalista
mediaa? Maria Ruuska, Aalto ARTS ja Julia Thurén, A-lehdet
• 15.45–16.00 Mediakonseptien uudistamisen koulutus alkaa, Merja Helle
TOIMI-hankkeessa ovat tänä vuonna mukana Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, Kaleva ja Tekniikan Maailma. Se on Journalistiliiton ja Viestinnän Keskusliiton yhteishanke, jota TEKES rahoittaa. TOIMIn tavoitteena on tuottaa uutta tietoa ja toimintamalleja media-alalle. Hanketta vetää tutkimuspäällikkö, FT Merja Helle Aalto-yliopistosta. Vuonna 2014 mukaan otetaan uusia mediaorganisaatioita Mediakonseptien kehittämiskoulutukseen.
Pyydämme ilmoittautumaan seminaariin sähköpostitse
maria.ruuska@aalto.fi kahvitarjoilua varten 5. joulukuuta mennessä.

Dear Colleague,

As the invited guest editors for the International Journal of Cinema we would personally like to draw your attention to the call for multidisciplinary papers on Cinema and the Body.

http://journal-cinema.org/submissions-2/the-film-and-the-body/

Cinema and the Body

The editors welcome a broad range of essays in the following areas:

• The brain in films and films in the brain: scientific representations of the body and neurocinematics
• Practice-based research of the cinematic body from the point of view of performer and/or author
• New technologies for portraying the body in cinema (e.g., virtual avatars)
• The body as an interface to cinema (e.g. enactive cinema)
• The bodily representation of gender, race, and the physically challenged in cinema
• The body and performativity: the body as image and sound in cinema, body movement and kinesics

Submission date: Jan 15, 2014

Dr. Kaisu Koski is an artist-researcher who has expertise revolving around performativity and cinema, and scientific-medical representations of the body through moving image. Furthermore, she promotes cinema as a research method, arts-based means comparable, but significantly different from, anthropological/ethnographic film. In such a research context the ethical issues and the questions about raw data versus artistic dramatization of it, for instance, become important. Other interesting issues in her practice  are the artist-researcher’s own body in the image vs. the research participant’s body, and the qualities in the onscreen performance.

Dr. Pia Tikka is a director-cinematographer with expertise in neurocinematics, a novel paradigm of neuroscience that studies human cognition by the means of functional neuroimaging. Within this framework she has special interest in unraveling the brain basis of the filmmakers’ expertise. Tikka’s concept “enactive cinema” (2008) together with the embodied mind approach (Varela et al. 1991), further suggests opening up the discussion to the domain of the implicit emotion-driven interaction loop between the viewer-participant’s psychophysiological response and the cinematic narrative.

For further inquiries, please, contact Rita Capucho or Cláudia Ferreira at internationaljournalofcinema@gmail.com

Looking forward to receiving your proposal.

Dr. Kaisu Koski
Dr. Pia Tikka

Pia Tikka
Dr. Researcher, Filmmaker
NeuroCine@
aivoAALTO research project
Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
– Dept. of Film, Television and Scenography
Finland mobile phone  +358 50 347 7432
e-mail: pia.tikka@gmail.com
www.neurocine.net
www.oblomovies.com

Science advisor Tiina Forsman and Communication officer Vesa Varpula from Academy of Finland will visit at the departments of Media on Wednesday 11th of December, lecture room 857.

More information soon!

Welcome!

Dear all,

please find attached a call for abstracts for a PhD course to be held March 25 in Helsinki right before the Helsinki Photomedia research conference (http://helsinkiphotomedia.aalto.fi).

The PhD course is titled “Photographic Powers: What is the Role of Images?” and provides doctoral students a venue to discuss their work in progress with a variety of scholars who work on questions concerning photography.

The deadline for 300 -word abstracts is January 5, 2014. The abstracts should be sent to asko.lehmuskallio@uta.fi.

For more information, please see the attached pdf-file.
PhDCourse-PhotographicPowers

The doctoral course is organized by the Nordic Network for Digital Visuality (NNDV) (http://research.jmk.su.se/nndv), the University of Tampere School of Communication, Media and Theatre (CMT) (https://www.uta.fi/cmt/en/index.html), and Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Media (http://media.aalto.fi/en/).

Media Lab – MA/DA program in New Media invites to

LUNCH TALK:
Co-designing DIY Film Distribution and Funding – Nasty Old People case
Erling Björgvinsson
Friday 8.11 / 12:00 Room 541

On 10 October 2009 the independently financed film Nasty Old People became the first feature film to be distributed for free under a Creative Commons license through the P2P file-sharing service The Pirate Bay. In conjunction with the release a viral marketing strategy and donation campaign was launched. The launch, the campaign and the donation came about because of a collaboration between Tangram film, The Pirate Bay and university researchers and students. Within the span of five days the film had been downloaded 14 000 times, translated into thirteen languages by volunteers, raised 50 000 SEK, blogged about around the western world, and a few weeks later covered in established media channels. The media exposure at The Pirate Bay and in the blogosphere lead to screening at small theaters across Europe. A year later the Swedish public service television (SVT) aired it, which together with the donation lead to that a bank loan of 100 000 Swedish kronor could be paid.

In the talk I will discuss and critically debate media infrastructuring (Karasti 2010, Star 1996) of new publics and arenas for everyday politics where sociomaterial values are negotiated and are tried out. The issue will be addressed in relation to three experiments conducted within a research led new media research milieu that has explored how experiments on future practices can be conducted as an on-going collaborative infrastructuring process where prototypical communication practices enabled by new media are tried out.

You are welcome to bring your lunch with you to the session 🙂

——————————————————————–

Erling Björgvinsson (PhD) is an assistant professor at the School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University. He has managed a lab that focused on collaborative cultural production through design-lead and art-lead research where academics, professionals, and citizens co-produce – productions that at times address cultural commons. His research area is in design and art methodology and specifically on collabora­tive and participatory design-lead research.

Clarity or Rigour?

This seminar will consider creative experimentation with academic expression, such as research writing. The examples will demonstrate that while the recommendations of typical writing guides are useful, their emphasis on standardisation is also limiting. The presentation will contrast the advice of such prescriptive documents with non-compliant examples of narrative practice in qualitative research, pointing out productive alternatives.

To tell you something about my way of thinking and to show some references, please read my article before the seminar:

http://www.academia.edu/455074/Transparency_or_Drama_Extending_the_Range_of_Academic_Writing_in_Architecture_and_Design

Dr Stanislav Roudavski
The University of Melbourne
Senior Lecturer in Digital Architectural Design

Elseware Collective; ExLab
Founding Partner

personal: stanislavroudavski.net
collaborative: elsewarecollective.com, exlab.org
publications: unimelb.academia.edu/StanislavRoudavski/Papers
tutorials: vimeo.com/exlab

tel: +61 (3) 8344 3360
skype: stanislav_roudavski

Department of Media, Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The Media Culture and Theory will give opportunity to students to develop theoretical frameworks to explore the fundamental domains relevant to the ongoing debates regarding media and the new media. Within the interdisciplinary characteristic of the field, the course will explore several related topics; Audience and community, Culture, Interpretation, Learning, Materiality, Memory and Physical Interaction. The seminar will deal with these topics through the areas of intersection between different dimensions of human agency and new technological/social practices in art and design context. We are interested in highlighting and discussing differences between modalities (sound vs. image); representation (video vs. graphics).

The course will begin with introducing the critical theory of Culture in media and later on will continue exploring how the new media’s practices have contributed to expanding the concept of Memory. The physical Interaction will focus on the physicality of the body, positioning the body at the center of interaction as the active component for creating meaning and aesthetics of the experience. At the same time, Materiality will be taking into account the use of Data in different domains, including applications to audiovisual practices. Recent developments and the use of enhanced technologies will be starting point for the discussions in Learning module. While social developments and the changing role of the audience will be introduced further in Audience and Community lectures, the identity and representation policy in media practices will be examined in detail during the Interpretation module. At end of the course, students will learn to carry out a broader perspective of these fields, by developing their own critical perspective to theory and practice that is grounded in both earlier conceptions of media as well as in new and critical notions of the new media.

MODULES

There are 6 modules that cover the following topics: Memory, Physical Interaction, Culture, Materiality & Data, Interpretation, Audience and Community. Each module consists of 3 sessions and includes the following:

1. A lecture on the selected theme by the responsible faculty person

2. A lecture by an invited presenter selected by the faculty person

3. A student-led discussion session.

SESSIONS

Beginning at 13:00 – 15:00, each session will last 2 hours and will be organized in the following manner:

1. In the first module session there is a lecture 45 minutes, with a break, followed by 45-minute discussion.

2. In the second session there will be an invited lecturer. There is a 45 minutes lecture, followed by discussion.

3. In the third and last session students make their own presentations about the topics that have been dealt with in the previous two sessions.

SESSION DATES

Throughout the academic year 2013-2014, the course will meet on the following dates:

Autumn 2013
October 3, 10, 17
November 3, 7, 14, 28
December 5, 12

Spring 2014
January 16, 23, 30
February 13, 20, 27
March 13, 20, 27
April 10, 17, 24
May 15

REQUIREMENTS

Students should strive to attend all module presentation. (80% attendance is the minimum in order to receive credits.) Each student must select a domain/module in which he or she focuses on and at the end must present and submit an essay. The essay should be a minimum of 3500 words.

CREDITS:
6-8 Credits.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Students will survey important literature about media and new media theory.
2. They will acquire a basic foundation about media and new media theory that enables them to further develop their own critical thinking.
3. Additionally, participants will further develop their presentation and writing skills.
GRADING
– Attendance 3 credits
– Short presentations: 2 credits
– Essay: 1-3 credits
COORDINATION:

Media Lab, Graphic Design and Photography will work together to realize the course. Lily Díaz, Marja Seliger and Koray Tahiroglu are the responsible parties for coordination.

Module 1:

Date, time & place: October 3, 13:00-15:00, Room 344

Topic: About Memory, Prof. Lily Díaz

Among the difficult tasks for those interested in preserving a record of society’s heritage is that one of bridging the gap of time past and the present. Confronting the dark abyss as we enter into the mouth of the cave, peering to the other side, through the tiny crack in the wall, or opening the lid of the sarcophagus sealed, thousands of years ago. This is a gap that assumes many shapes and forms in our consciousness… And then there is the stark reality of our biological reality or as, as Henri Bergson aptly recognized, “Practically, we perceive only the past, the pure present being the invisible progress of the past gnawing into the future.”  (Matter and Memory, p. 204.)

Recording what eventually becomes history itself, or the keeping of memory, is an activity that befalls the whole of the species, from bard and poet, to chronicler, to historian. And the plethora of examples throughout the ages which are vestige of such activity and which immediately surfaces is so vast that it could not be possibly named. In many cases the remnants are witness to interaction between culture and technology and the role that this has played in our subsistence.

Still, a point of inflection began to emerge at the turn of the 20^th Century when digital media technology in the form of social media tools became a ubiquitous presence in our daily lives. In my presentation I will seek to survey and compare a variety of these artifacts and relate them to terms such as infrastructure. For this session of the seminar I would like us to ponder on the question of What role might these instruments play in the activities of the contemporary chronicler? How can new media theory assist us in understanding this new landscape?

Date, time & place: October 10, 13:00-15:00, Room 822

Topic: Memento a film by Christopher Nolan: “A man is determined to find justice after the loss of a loved one, even though he is incapable of fully remembering the crime, in this offbeat thriller.” Rotten Tomatoes, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/memento/. (Accessed Sept. 26, 2013.)

Group viewing and discussion. Reading: Joseph Levine’s, “Leonard’s System: Why doesn’t it Work? or John Sutton’s, “The Feel of the World: Exograms, Habits, and the Confusion of Types of Memory” in Kania, Andrew, Memento, London and New York: Routledge, Taylor Francis, 2009. This Philosophers on Film collection of essays can be found as an e-book online. You can find the link in Arsca database (http://arsca.linneanet.fi).

October 17, 13:00-15:00, Room 541

Student presentations.