Monday, April 29, 2013

Day ten: team presentations and certificates

The tenth and last subject based day witnessed the five team presentations, a feedback session and the handing out of the certificates to the students.

The team presentations will be soon published on this blog. Each team has created two (or so) concepts representing European media culture in year 2020. The student teams of the next workshop in Liepaja next autumn will choose concept they will make a demo of.

Two external specialists gave their insightful input in the presentation sessions, Raivo Kelomees, Head of Department, Estonian Academy of  Arts and Yuwei Lin, Programme Leader in Computer & Video Games, University of Salford.

The pictures of this post by Artūrs Kalvāns
Team 5 theme/topic was "The power (and challenges) of shared knowledge"
Team 1, Offline/online used means of drama to
illustrate their concept
Team 2 worked on the theme/topic Hyperreal - hyperfake
"Connecting cultures" was the challenge for team 4
The concept of team 3 materialised the statement Non-narrativity is the
new 'storytelling'

Some teams made also a marketing analysis of their concept
Team Spain awarded with certificates
And finally: a group photo

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Day nine: finalising team work and enjoying art

The contents of the last but least day was obvious: the five teams worked hard to finalise their concepts and to prepare for the presentations.
Also the pre-workshop teams had a short time-slot to polish their documents to be published soon.

It's alive. Photo: Joanne NH Wong
TAMK School of Art, Music and Media - running in parallel with MC2020 - offered some artistic attractions and inspiration to the members of our project. The interactive creature of the It's alive workshop was one example.
Himona mouse trap. Photo: Joanne NH Wong
There was a guided tour to the Degree Show of TAMK Fine Art Programme Himona
At Intac opening
Many MC2020 members also participated in the opening of the Intac exhibition. International Art Collaborations is an ongoing initiative currently involving art/photography programs at: OCAD U in Toronto, Canada, TAMK in Tampere, Finland, Chung-Ang U in Seoul, South Korea.
The project resembles MC2020: the exhibitions are prepared in collaboration with other partners on-line. The exhibitions are then shown in each partner city.
Read more...
Intac shows photographs and videos

Friday, April 26, 2013

Day eight: Useful presentations, hard working students and angry birds

Day eight started with presentations for guidance and inspiration and continued with team work. There was a optional field trip to Rovio, the Angry Bird company and a session at Demola, the internationally awarded platform for innovation and higher education - enterprise cooperation.
After Dinner the MC2020 Party took place in Pormestarin Sauna (Mayers sauna).

Alejandra Aramayo (Vic University) gave very good
advice about business and entrepreneurship
Èric Estany Canal and Salvador Gómez showed how to do a business plan
Anna Trapenciere (Liepaja University) introduced her artistic
practice with context of media art and the internet of things
Cyrille Bloemers (HKU) gave his presentation about
exploring the fringes of film, video, and animation in an
 interactive way to all five teams separately
About to enter Rovio. Acting director of Rovio Tampere Mikko Karvonen
gave a insightful presentation of the game scene from Rovio's point of view
Martin Kleinberns
.
Demola is the joint innovation and project platform of universities and companies in Tampere, and the visit to Demola was one of the highlights of the workshop.
Facilitator Janne Eskola first introduced Demola followed by our exchange student Martin Kleinberns (Stenden Hogeschool Leeuwarden) who presented the Demola project he is working with. Rosanna Salminen, media degree student of TAMK introduced her interesting project with Nokia.
http://tampere.demola.fi/

After the Demola presentations there was time for snacks and discussions
with the Demola students




Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Day seven: Work work work!

The seventh subject based day featured a plenary meeting and the rest of the day team work in five teams.






Day Six: Field trips to Mediapolis and Himmelblau


Working day six started with team work, but soon it was time for the first field trip to YLE TV2 studios in Tohloppi, a 15 minutes bus ride from central square Keskustori.
Minna Tiihonen

We got first coffee and chocolate in the auditorium, where YLE Head of Mediapolis Minna Tiihonen told about the new strategies of YLE, the Finnish national broadcasting company. Openness and cooperation are two of the keywords, and Mediapolis is a demonstration of those.

Mediapolis is next year starting around the TV2 studios, TAMK School of Art and Media will move there and so will many media companies. Mediapolis will be the new media centre of Finland, where content meets technology and students the professionals.
The wonders of the virtual studio. Jaakko Valaskivi in the background

Head of Mediapolis constuction Jaakko Valaskivi then told us about the cutting edge audiovisual technology YLE had invested in, and during the walk trough of the studios and edits we saw everything with our own eyes.

About Mediapolis

Himmelblau
After a short and late lunch break we visited Himmelblau Printmaking Studio, Finland’s leading professional printmaking workroom. Our host was Janne Laine, one of the first ever graduates of Tampere School of Art and Media in 1994.

This is the process of printmaking. Janne Laine in the foreground

Janne Laine showed the process of printmaking in the workshop, then we went to Himmelblau Gallery, displaying the exhibition by Janne Laine, "The other side".
Himmelblau home

Spanish nightIn the evening the Vic University delegation produced and hosted a Spanish - or should I rather say a Catalan - night. It was awesome, and the Latvian champions of course again won the competition.

Delicious!
Learning Macarena!


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Day Five: Scenarios and ubimedia


After a beautiful weekend with swimming in the hole in the ice and climbing to Pyynikki ridge, an awesome British night and excursion to Helsinki for some participants, Monday witnessed the fifth subject based working day with enthusiastic students and lecturers.

Monday featured the second part of the concept design workshop, team work, a guest lecture about ubiquitous media and the Dutch evening.

Team 5 preparing their scenario pitch. The user experience was demonstrated
trough a theatrical piece 
Team 2 in action
Head of  the global Ubiquitous Media Award jury Björn
Stockleben analysed the development and prospects of
Ubiquitous/Pervasive/Ambient Media
Dutch night under construction
Preparing the Dutch night
Learning Dutch culture - egg walking

More about Nokia Ubiquitous MindTrek Award: http://www.numa.fi/

Sunday, April 21, 2013

British Night: Welcome to 'The Red Lion' Pub Quiz…

British evening took the form of pub food, a quiz, and of course... alcoholic beverages!

British-Latvian cooperation fighting the evil forces of TAMK display technology...
Quizzes are usually team-based and this evening was no different with the students placed into their country groups to compete for a special prize to take back to their institution. More on this later.

Before the quiz commenced however, the food arrived which consisted of British favourites including fish & chips, cucumber sandwiches, jam sandwiches, jam roll, cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks… all your party favourites in one place!

A wide selection of British party grub...
A rush for the food...
While we were enjoying our British fare, Ben Atkinson entertained and enlightened the crowd with a concise history of Britain. Good job.
 
Then the big moment… the Quiz! The preparation was meticulous including specially designed answer sheets and a multimedia presentation. The questions were appropriate with a nicely designed increasing level of difficulty categorised into rounds including: sport, celebrity pictures, general knowledge. There were even special bonus rounds of "what's in the drink" - a 'guess the ingredients' round of some of Britain's best loved cocktails.

Sara "models" the specially prepared answer sheets
Multimedia being used for what it was intended... eventually
Bring on the drinks... the British team distribute the 'cocktails' for the bonus round
All teams perfumed valiantly… with the exception of Lenno (and the rest of the non-British lecturers) who somehow managed to confuse Simon Cowell (incidentally; the most recognised face in the world) with the Sex Pistols! However, there can be only one winner and it was Dutch Team 1 (we had to split them because there was loads of them).

Jack Darnell hands the winning team their gorgeous Union Jack dog which they have to love & treasure
Well done to the Dutch who will hopefully give their prize a good home and keep us all posted on his adventures in Holland… err I mean the Netherlands! 

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Saturday: Excursion & free time activities

On the saturday, students and lecturers had possibility to enjoy finns traditional sauna at Kaupinoja which is situated by lake Näsijärvi and see Tamprere from the Pynikki Observation Tower which is 26 meters high.


Only the bravest went in the cold water of lake Näsijärvi, some of them - even
more than twice. 
The students and their lecturers at Kaupinoja, after the sauna.

This is the Pynikki Observation tower. Downstairs there is a cafe which is famous
for it's doughnuts ('munkki' in Finnish), which are baked on
the spot using a secret recipe.
 The red granite observation tower, built in 1929, stands 26 metres high and offers
 a spectacular view over the whole Tampere, the observation deck being
over 180 metres from sea level.

Day four: Hard work and awesome art

The fourth subject based day started with a mini-workshop given by Cai Melakoski dealing with collaborative on-line learning and working.
Afternoon started with two presentations by MC2020 lecturers and team work. In the evening MC2020 participants were invited to the vernissage of TAMK Fine Art Degree Show.

Andris Vētra gave a presentation about VJing
James Field talked about converging media
The five teams worked again
From the Interactive Media workshop show: Film directed by throwing balloons!
At the Fine Art show
At the Fine Art Degree Show
Head of TAMK Fine Art Juha Suonpää in discussion with MC2020
professor Lenno Verhoog about the Degree Show. (It is awesome)