Tag Archives: Research

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

Illustration Image depicting a woman practicing self-regulating, organisational and work-related skills included with key-words. by Kirsi Manning

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.

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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

Image related to Mamdooh Afdile's presentation.

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.

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
Image of New Media DA candidate, Dr. Eunice Sari.

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.

 

FIRST NEW MEDIA AND VCD JOINT DOCTORAL SEMINAR OF THE SEMESTER – Thursday, 21 October 2021

WELCOME TO THE FIRST JOINT DOCTORAL SEMINAR OF THE AUTUMN!

This first joint seminar for this academic year will take place on Thursday, 21 October, 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 will be starting strong with two very interesting presentations by VCD DA candidates Nicola Cerioli and Dohee Lee.

Zoom link: Click here to join the seminar!

PRESENTATIONS

‘Understanding complexity to improve the visualisation of complex datasets’
by Nicola Cerioli

ABSTRACT

In the context of information design, the term “complexity” is often used without a clear definition. This implies a lost opportunity to frame the design problem and structure the design process in a way that is conscious of complexity. My research aims at building a coherent design framework to work with complex datasets in the domain of information design and data visualization. Firstly, a definition of complexity is proposed; drawing from the work of Murray Gell-Mann, and hybridizing his definition with semiotic theory. This will open up different design possibilities on three different, although interconnected, levels: the nature of the represented data, the interface, and the mental model of the user. By adopting this new perspective, several tools and paradigms from philosophy, cognitive psychology, mathematics, and computer science will become available as support to the design process. The object of this research is to explore the different possibilities that a comprehensive understanding of complexity can bring to the information design and the data visualization design process.

BIO

Nicola Cerioli is a doctoral candidate in the Aalto Visual Communication Design group. He is interested in the visualization of complex data, to further the understanding of multifaceted phenomena. For this purpose, he studies the synergies of design methodologies, mathematical methods, and philosophical frameworks.He is collaborating as a project researcher in the FINNGEN project, exploring new methods to visualise molecular biology and health care data.

Image of VCD DA candidate Nicola Cerioli

VCD DA candidate Nicola Cerioli

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“A systematic co-creative approach to evaluating arts and health interventions for creative well-being of older adults”
by Dohee Lee

ABSTRACT

Although older adults’ engagements in arts and design-based interventions have shown positive outcomes in terms of their health and well-being, evaluations of such interventions have rarely taken into account various elements that they consider important in contributing to their creative well-being and quality of life. We will present a narrative interview-based study we have conducted in Korea and Finland with multiple stakeholders, investigating ageing-friendly co-creative approaches to evaluation of arts and design-based interventions for health and well-being. By considering a range of factors – such as artistic and aesthetic values, ethical concerns, and evaluation measures – we propose an evaluation framework that would enable multiple stakeholders – including older adult participants, arts and health practitioners and facilitators, and arts organizations and agencies – to monitor, support and inspire each other systematically through better partnerships in resolving transdisciplinary challenges in such interventions. In particular, we focus on the potential of late-life creativity in supporting older adults in becoming more active participants in such processes, by utilising the knowledge they have accumulated through their own ageing. The aim of the framework is to take a cyclic approach to fostering collaborative co-creative relationships that seek alternative solutions, while dealing with the complexity of implementing arts and design-based interventions.

BIO

Dohee Lee is a doctoral candidate in the Aalto Visual Communication Design group. She has a MA in Material Futures with international working experiences in different communities in collective forms. She believes in the combination of design narratives and social aspects that she has been doing qualitative social design research and project coordination in various geographical, ecological, cultural, and social contexts. Her research aims at developing design strategies for social integration and social well-being of older adults through arts & design practices.