1. Finnish Environmental Art Award of the Year 2009 2. Pixelist, Bilgi University, Istanbul (Turkey) 3. Presentation of Pixelache at Yatta for Pekka Halonen Academy students, Helsinki (Finland) 4. Alternative Economy Cultures - examples and experience, NOASS Art Centre, Riga (Latvia) 5. Eclipse Happening, Kiasma Theatre and Ursa Observatory, Helsinki (Finland) 6. Presentation of Pixelache at Bochum International Video Festival, Bochum (Germany) 7. Art+Communication festival, Riga (Latvia) 8. Kick-off lecture for Helsinki School of Economic's TAIVEX Senior Management prog. 9. Polkuja Seminar, TAIk, Helsinki (Finland) 10. Organised Networks Training Programme, RIXC, Riga (Latvia)
Ympäristötaiteen säätiö (Environmental Art Foundation) has chosen Vihreä Pilvi / Nuage Vert and Maailman onnellisin puu (The World's Happiest Tree) by Kaija Papu and Aino Louhi as the environmental artworks of the year 2008. The annual award has been given out since year 1994 with the purpose to highlight new methods and concepts in environmental art, to increase general knowledge about environmental art and to support and thank the people and organisations who are developing the field.
Nuage Vert is an artwork by HeHe (Helen Evans & Heiko Hansen) produced in collaboration with Pixelache and Helsingin Energia.
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Aura Seikkula, Andrew Gryf Paterson and Ahmet Atif Akin (TR) initiated PixelIST in Istanbul. Antti Ahonen and other members of Association for Experimental electronics gave a workshop as a part of the event and Nathalie Aubret gave a presentation about Pixelache Network.
New node in the Pixelache network, PixelIST focused on knowledge production for its first edition. It was organised as a collaboration between Pixelache Helsinki and Bilgi University Visual Communication Design Department.
The event manifested as a pedagogical 3-4 day platform, involving participants from the Pixelache Network (Helsinki, Malmö, Budapest, Berlin, London), and performances from local cultural practitioners from Ankara & Istanbul, including up 30-40 VCD students as participants.
The focus was on the transfer, exchange of knowledge in the process, the localisation of imported knowledge and the value of locally-produced vs. network-produced knowledge, asking: “how do we produce and share knowledge?”.
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Nathalie Aubret gave a presentation on Pixelache at the concept agency Yatta, for students from Pekka Halonen Academy as part of their course on media culture. Tuomo Tammenpää also gave a presentation about his practice and about the activities of Yatta.
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Andrew Gryf Paterson presented to the newly formed Association of Non-Governmental Contemporary Culture Organisations (LKNVOA).
The guest speaker, artist-organiser Andrew Paterson, has recently completed a 6 month production process of the Alternative Economy Cultures (alt.econ.cult) programme, which took place during the Pixelache Festival in Helsinki, 2-5 April 2009. Paterson brought together leading international and Finnish thinkers, cultural practitioners and activists, to present alternative economic visions.
The seminar aimed to tackle not just the financial, but the social, cultural, institutional, human, material, emotional and intellectual forms of capital. Not just about individual gain, boosting, balancing or bail-outs, but common good, peer-to-peer, shared wealth and appropriate reward for effort involved.
The programme aimed to focus on practice as well as theory. Especially unusual in the Nordic cultural festival context, the event was funded by a 'bottom-up' mix of institutional and peer-funding, where the support grew over time, rather than being determined in advance. For example, funding via small personal donations, cultural organisations, government ministries, non-profit political think-tanks, activist media and business companies. The organiser also pioneered (for Finnish cultural events) an online volunteer donation system instead of seminar tickets.
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The “Eclipse Happening” was the “finissage” event of the “Expedition to the Total Eclipse” exhibition on view at Kiasma Mediatheque until June 7th, and of the Pixelache season before the summer break. It consisted of presentations by Tapio Markkanen, profesor of astronomy and Agnes Meyer-Brandis, German media artist. Later the event continued with the Moon Walk workshop in Kiasma Theatre, and with an urban expedition, culminating in the evening with an eclipse event in Kaivopuisto around the URSA observatory. Organised by Capsula, Pixelache and HIAP.
Petri Ruikka gave a presentation on Pixelache at the 19. International Video festival Bochum.
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Nathalie Aubret gave a presentation about Vihreä Pilvi / Nuage Vert (artwork by Hehe / Helen Evans & Heiko Hansen, produced in collaboration with Pixelache and Helsingin Energia) and the new initiative to commission public artworks related to energy consumption (also a collaboration between Pixelache and Helsingin Energia).
Art+Communication is International festival for new media culture. The 11th edition of “Art+Communication” festival investigated the notion of 'sustainable development' from various perspectives – artistic, scientific, cultural, technological, social, architectural, and environmental.
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Giving perspectives on the challenges of international new media productions, Jussi Ängeslevä used Interactivos, PixelAche and Ars Electronica as use cases for how to interface with local communities and grass roots collaborations alongside high-end productions with excellent results.
Nathalie Aubret gave a presentation about Vihreä Pilvi / Nuage Vert (artwork by Hehe / Helen Evans & Heiko Hansen, produced in collaboration with Pixelache and Helsingin Energia) and the new initiative to commission public artworks related to energy consumption (also a collaboration between Pixelache and Helsingin Energia).
The Polkuja seminar was organised as a collaboration between the University of Art & Design Helsinki and the University of Lapland, focusing on sustainable art education.
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Andrew Gryf Paterson facilitated, and Juha Huuskonen participated in Organised Networks Training Programme in Cultural Network Management.
By addressing issues of cultural sustainability with focus on networking, the Training Programme for cultural network management entitled “Organized Networks” took place in Riga, December 3 – 5, 2009, gathering together representatives from more then 20 cultural organisations, new media centers and networks from Baltic, Nordic and other European regions, as well as Caucasus countries.
The Training Programme is co-organised by the RIXC, the Center for new media culture (Latvia) and partners from Finland (Pixelache festival, MARIN Association), Norway (Piksel, iolab, Atelier Nord), Iceland (Lorna), Sweden (Kultivator, C-Studio/Interactive Institute, New Media Meeting), Denmark (FieldWork, WindFestiva/Energy Academy), Lithuania (KCCC), Latvia (Association for Cultural NGOs), the Netherlands (Baltan Laboratories), Armenia (ACCEA/NPAK) and Georgia (Center for Contemporary Art – Tbilisi, GeoAir).
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1. Clip Kino: Suomi Post-mortem, Helsinki (Finland) 2. SCANZ Residency Project, New Plymouth (New Zealand) 3. Climate Hack workshop, Berlin (Germany) 4. Transmediale 2009 Award, Berlin (Germany) 5. Move and Play exhibition at The Finnish Science Center Heureka, Vantaa (Finland) 6. Säde -prize for the video design of the Unknown Soldier in the Finnish National Theatre 7. Mental Finland - crossdiciplinary multimedia driven stageplay by Kristian Smeds at Brussels (Belgium) 8. KoKoMYS open electronics workshop, Turku (Finland) 9. Guest Host Dinner, Art Space Sydney (Australia) 10. KoKoMYS open electronics workshop, Turku (Finland) 11. Nordic Culture Point Art and Culture Expert Committee meeting, Nuuk (Greenland) 12. Prix Ars Electronica Jury for the 2009 Festival 13. Transversalia Seminar, Art Centre El Laboral, Gijón (Spain) 14. Private Universes Exhibition, Helsinki (Finland) 15. MoA09 - Masters of Arts Festival, Helinki (Finland) 16. KoKoMYS Lutherie Numerique, Pure Data-workshop, Turku (Finland) 17. Presentation at the Tama Arts University in Tokyo (Japan) 18. Bochum International Videofestival, Bochum (Germany) 19. Interaction design workshop and symposium in Hongik University, Seoul (Korea) 20. Biorama II, Digital Research Unit, Huddersfield (UK) 21. GOSH! - Grounding Open Source Hardware, Banff Centre (Canada) 22. Interactivos workshop in San Sebastian, Spain 23. Clip Kino Hyvinkää, Hyvinkään Taidemuseo, Hyvinkää (Finland) 24. "Response" at URB09 Festival in Kiasma Theatre, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (Finland) 25. Art & Renewable Technologies Symposium, Aizpute (Latvia) 26. Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, at Helsingin Juhlaviikot, Finlandia House, Helsinki, Finland 27. Launch of the project "Expedition to the Baltic Sea" by Capsula and Suomen biotaiteen seura 28. Kulkulupa-KoKoMYS open studio presentation, Turku (Finland) 29. AVEK award 30. 'Engagements | Environments | Ecologies' workshop at Pori School of Art and Media TaiK, Pori (Finland) 31. Megapolis2024, Vanhan Yliopistotalo, Helsinki (Finland) 32. Art Fair Suomi, Helsinki (Finland) 33. 'Digital Media Culture' course at Metropolia University of Applied Science, Helsinki (Finland) 34. Lecture at Art School Taidekoulu Maa, Helsinki (Finland) 35. Alternative Party, Helsinki (Finland) 36. Global Eco-Forum, Barcelona (Spain) 37. MIM-project launch, Ganuti Gildi Saal, Tallinn (Estonia) 38. KoKoMYS open Arduino workshop, Turku (Finland) 39. The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) Jury Meeting 40. Kick-off lecture for Helsinki School of Economic's TAIVEX Senior Management programme (Finland) 41. November International Festival of Experimental Intermedia in Lisbon (Portugal) 42. Clip Kino Event. Helsinki (Finland) 43. Piksel Festival, Bergen (Norway) 44. Concert of Defunensemble & The Association of Experimental Electronics, Sibelius Academy, Helsinki (Finland) 45. CARE artist residency seminar, Tampere (Finland) 46. Oman tilan organisointi Seminar, Kuvataideakatemia, Helsinki (Finland) 47. Zoolar Eclipse exhibition in Espai Dos, Terrassa (Spain) 48. Lift@home seminar, IMAL, Brussels (Belgium) 49. 2º International Congress ARTECHMEDIA, Barcelona (Spain)
Below is a summary of Piknik Frequency members individual activities in 2009. Piknik Frequency 2009 members are:
Andrew Gryf Paterson organised a media literacy youth workshop with members for Nuorten Ääni for DocPoint Festival.
'Media-environmental awareness' applies to include the social ecology of one's interests, desires, and attentions in one's peer-group and community. This is 'direct action' media literacy: What media is online? Who is watching it? What does it mean to them, and indeed to you? Where does the video clip come from? How was it produced and distributed? Has it inspired copies, remixes or derivatives?
The outcome public screening of clips, and seminar, contributes to the Suomi Post-mortem project in the DocPoint 2009 Festival, with aims to explore different aspects of the Finnish youth's online video environment.
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Andrew Gryf Paterson participated in the 2 Week SCANZ Residency, with a contribution to the Education for Sustainability programme.
The residency project was made in collaboration with Puke Ariki, as part of their Education for Sustainability programme, inviting several local high-school students to join the research process.
In the first week Andrew conducted conversational-interviews with key Puke Ariki staff to give insights into the social, historical and environmental relations connected with Pukekura Park. Simultaneously, he researched similar aspects of the former and future online platforms of Puke Ariki. In the second week he had conversations with persons who bridge these ambitions and care for both spaces.
Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand (SCANZ) is New Zealand’s premier art and technology event and involves a symposium, artist residency, and public exhibition. It occurs every two years, and has typically involved a mix of Aotearoa New Zealand and international artists, producers, theorists and curators many of whom are leading practitioners.
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Juha Huuskonen, Tuomo Tammenpää, Miska Knapek and Aleksi Pihkanen participated in Climate Hack workshop during Transmediale 2009 festival in Berlin. Their participation was made possible with the support of AVEK.
The workshop also featured several members of Kitchen Budapest (Christopher Baker, Simon Forgács, Marton Juhasz, Eszter Ozsvald, Adam Somlai-Fischer, Eszter Bircsak, Andras Szalai, Melinda Sipos), Massimo Banzi & John Nussey from Tinker.it and Bengt Sjölen / Sweden.
Workshop description:
Climate Hack is a workshop for emerging researchers, designers and artists dedicated to reframing the international political climate using means well-outside the traditional political rhetoric. Using both old and new technologies, live internet data streams and a diverse collection of hacking skills, workshop participants produced a series of projects for public exhibition during the finals days of the Transmediale festival in Berlin, Germany.
Driven by the often-absurd nature of politics and the collective creativity often generated from equally absurd artistic mediums, the workshop rallied around the task of hacking Cotton Candy machines. Custom and hacked electronics, connected to live political news and weather feeds, informed and animated the project. The result was a set of dynamic and playful art objects designed to invert our perception of “everyday politics”.
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Transmediale 2009 Award jury members were Annick Bureaud (Paris), Bronac Ferran (London), Juha Huuskonen (Helsinki), Pooja Sood (New Delhi) and Christoph Tannert (Berlin).
About transmediale:
Transmediale is an international festival for contemporary art and digital culture. Located in Berlin, it presents advanced artistic positions reflecting on the socio-cultural impact of new technologies. It seeks out artistic practices that not only respond to scientific or technical developments, but that try to shape the way in which we think about and experience these technologies. transmediale understands media technologies as cultural techniques which need to be embraced in order to comprehend, critique, and shape our contemporary society.
The festival includes exhibitions, competitions, conferences, film and video programmes, live performances and a publication series called 'transmediale parcours'. Moreover it cooperates with club transmediale (CTM), which deals with electronic music and club culture.
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Petri Ruikka worked as a head designer for an experimental game installation with camera-based interface. A new version of the installation was created for the exhibition “Move and Play”.
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Ville Hyvönen was awarded Säde -prize for his innovative video design in Väinö Linna - Kristian Smeds stageplay “the Unknown Soldier - Tuntematon Sotilas” playing at the Finnish National Theatre.
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Ville Hyvönen co-produced and and made video design for Kristian Smeds's “Mental Finland” - crossdiciplinary multimedia driven stage play at the Royal Flemish National Theatre of Belgium (KVS). During 2009 production visited also Helsinki, Vilnius, Strassbourg and Linz.
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Mikko Laajola and other members of KoKoMYS collective organised an open workshop on electronics and circuitbending with Harri Vähänissi (Koelse) in Galleria Titanik, Turku. Participants were able to build an Atari Punk Console, Weird Sound Generator or do circuit bending.
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Andrew Gryf Paterson organised and presented in a dinner-event about hosting in participatory arts projects.
Artspace Studio Resident Andrew Paterson, in collaboration with Lucas Ihlein brought together a group of artists, writers and curators for a one-night presentation, discussion and dinner focusing on socially engaged residencies.
Paterson reflected on his residency experiences and shared projects that have developed his thoughts around the concept of the ‘Guest-Host’. This included his self-defined ‘writer in residence’ at Happihuone Cultural Greenhouse, Helsinki and as a resident storyteller in the arts/ education/ activist project Pedagogical Factory, Chicago. Group discussions included the following topics: What makes a socially engaged art residency successful? What personal, organizational skills and resources are necessary to support them? What type of exchange and benefits are generated? When does the project end? What is sustained or left behind? Guests were asked to bring an anecdote or story of their own or of a peer’s experience of being a guest or host that related to these questions. Conversation expanded beyond these areas as the evening progressed.
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Mikko Laajola and other members of KoKoMYS collective organised an open workshop on DIY sound effects in TVO, Turku. Participants were able to build an Atari Punk Console, Ring Modulator and Bazz Fuss.
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The members of Nordic Culture Point's Art and Culture Expert Committee for 2008-2010 were Juha Huuskonen (Finland), Knut Oterholm (Norway), Jørgen Nordqvist (Denmark), Inge Olsvig Brandt (Greenland), Anna Sundblom (Åland), Andrea Heindriksdóttir (Faroe Island), Rani Kasapi (Sweden) and Hávar Sigurjónsson (Iceland).
The Art and Culture Programme gives support to projects in all fields of art and culture. The programme is divided into two modules:
1. Production-based activities and communication: The module is meant for projects that centre on productions or creative processes or create a meeting place for artists and the public. The key word is innovation, which means the development and testing of new ideas, concepts and processes. 2. Capacity development, criticism and sharing of knowledge: The module is meant for projects that centre on discourse and critical discussion among professionals and sharing of knowledge. These can involve, for example, seminars and courses. The annual framework budget for the Art and Culture Programme for 2009 is approximately 2,3 million EUR.
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The annual Ars Electronica festival is one of the most important media art events. As a part of the festival, a competition (where Nuage Vert was awarded last year) attracts thousands of applications. Jussi Ängeslevä took part in the Interactive Art jury.
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Ulla Taipale gave a one-day seminar for Spanish secondary school art teachers in El Laboral Art Centre. The seminar was a part of project iniciated by spanish artist Clara Boj called Transversalia - art/science/technology/new art practices that looks for new strategies for transversal education through contemporary art. Taipale talked about the “Exploration of our immediate environment through natural phenomena and arts.”
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Jon Irigoyen curated and organized the exhibition “Private Universes”
The exhibition “Private Universes” - through the work of artists composed of video installations, performances, photographs and paintings - intends to show how the home becomes an extension of the individual. As it becomes the place where man builds his identity, recognizing in the treatment which is established with the space that welcomes him and makes him become himself. Hence the fact of the exhibition being realized in a private apartment. In addition to causing a reflection about the exhibition spaces and the different possibilities of them, the aim is to show the symbiotic relationships between the private space that we call home and the individual.
Artists involved: Oliver Whitehead, Juhana Moisander, Panagiotis Palomenos, Johanna Lecklin, Janna Kokko, Annette Arlander
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Juha Huuskonen was the invited curator for MoA09, the annual spring show of Taik - University of Art and Design Helsinki. The exhibition featured 81 graduating masters from 15 different degree programmes.
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Mikko Laajola and other members of KoKoMYS collective organised an open workshop on PureData with Raphael Ilias (FR) in Naphouse, Turku. Participants were introduced to sound processing in PureData programming enviroment.
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Tama Arts university is one of the leading Arts universities in Japan, with an active media art community. Jussi Ängeslevä gave a presentation for the industrial design and media art students, talking amongst other things of the works by PixelAche exhibitors Julius von Bismarck and Jens Wunderling, who both have become very succesful.
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Petri Ruikka was a member of the VJ competition jury.
From 18th to 20th June 2009 the international Videofestival Bochum took place for the 19th time.
Every year it invites artists, fans of video art and curious visitors to the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. By now the Videofestival has established itself as an international platform for video art. The programme is made up of videos of different styles: documentary, narrative or experimental. Video installations, discussions and lectures complete the programme.
The festival also presents its own unique VJ contest.
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Jussi Ängeslevä ran a workshop to the students at Hongik University's Product design, interior design and digital media design students. Looking at “Playful media in public space”. After the workshop, Jussi also gave a talk at a Design symposium, showcasing recent works in digital media, including many PixelAche alumni.
Ulla Taipale give a presentation about Capsula´s “Curated Expeditions” concept at the second edition of Biorama.
The one-day event focuses on new directions in art, science and technology by bringing together artists who explore notions of life, science and digital realities. Biorama II explored a rich contextual and conceptual background against which to investigate some of the outer (or inner) limits of terrestrial biology and strategies for life. Framing itself as a platform for exploring these and related imaginaries – via literary luminaries, various heretics and other visionaries of the underworld and the potential of life (immanent, alien, emergent and other) Biorama2 staged a series of discussions, workshops and expeditions which will serve to examine how organisms living independently of sunlight develop a sensory and informatic relationship with their strange environments.
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Tuomo Tammenpää participated in the GOSH! summit and workshop.
The Grounding Open Source Hardware (GOSH!) Workshop and Summit at The Banff Centre serves to bring together the many and disparate makers, producers, theorizers and promoters of physical objects that come to life under open and distributed models, and to facilitate the emerging dialogue on both artist-driven and socially conscious open source hardware.
The Workshop and Summit offer a unique opportunity to bring “down to earth” the normally virtual and on-line networks of open source hardware collaboration. Bringing together these cultural producers in one place for an extended period of collaboration, exchange and dialogue, GOSH! places a critical focus on the possibilities for social transformation and the expansive cultural and artistic possibilities of open source hardware practice.
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Interactivos workshop is an annual gathering of artists and designers to work intensively over a short period of time with a team of collaborators to realise interactive artworks in different locations around the world. The community being very close to PixelAche, Jussi Ängeslevä served as an external advisor to the workshop participants, as well as gave a lecture of interactive artworks.
http://www.arteleku.net/program/interactivos-09-arteleku.-mixed-episodes-in-hybrid-bases
Interactivos workshop is an annual gathering of artists and designers to work intensively over a short period of time with a team of collaborators to realise interactive artworks in different locations around the world. The community being very close to PixelAche, Jussi Ängeslevä served as an external advisor to the workshop participants, as well as gave a lecture of interactive artworks.
Andrew Gryf Paterson curated and presented a Clip Kino event as part of Teemu Mäki's curated 'Todellisuuden Taju' exhibition at Hyvinkään Taidemuseo.
How do we actually live? What really happens? How ought we live? What is our lifestyle's price and future, for us and others? What is a good life? The answers are not necessarily found in the clips themselves.. But in the process of sharing.. Confronting other person's choices, interests, life-ways and perceptions of the one's own and shared environment.
“Hyvinkää on 'poikkeuksellisen tavallinen' suomalainen pikkukaupunki” (Hyvinkää is an 'abnormally normal' Finnish town) This Clip Kino event is an opportunity to delve audio-visually into what might be 'abnormally normal' to watch online. There are lots of strange, everyday, amazing, boring and bizarre video clips there. Depending upon the age, culture, wealth (of time and of money), access, class, profession that you are, you may have varying experience and knowledge about this.
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Petri Ruikka participated in a collaborative creative process to create a performance combining urban dance and video design. Petri was responsible for the spatial video installation.
“Response” examines the possibilities to combine the movement of dance with the movement of image. The piece reached its final form through an open process where each artist of the working group had equal chances to influence the molding of the whole. The piece looks at the relation between an individual and a group and the dynamics of the interaction between these.
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Ulla Taipale and Andrew Paterson participated in Art & Renewable Technologies Symposium.
Symposium description:
The 4-day symposium gathering together artists, activists, technologists, scientists and researchers, to share their ideas and explorations which deal with renewable energy resources, alternative ecological use of technologies, and other sustainability related issues.
The symposium took place in artists residency center SERDE in Aizpute, a small town in Kurzeme region of Latvia. SERDE is located in old wooden historical building that also will be used as a specific case for which alternative and ecological approach in developing sustainable systems and renewable energy technologies can be explored and applied.
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Petri Ruikka created visualizations for the Helsinki Philharmonics concert conducted by John Storgårds. The concert included in addition to Holst's The Planets suite contemporary compositions from a variety of composers including Colin Matthews, Brett Dean, Matthias Pintscher, Kaija Saariaho, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Kimmo Hakola.
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The open call for projects for the Capsula's second Curated Expedition; “Expedition to the Baltic Sea” started on 1st October and finalizes on 21st December 2009. The call is aimed at Finland and Estonian based artists and creators. “Curated Expeditions” is dedicated to observing and experiencing fascinating earthly phenomena through artistic investigation. “Expedition to the Baltic Sea” is part of the Turku European Capital of Culture 2011 programme and it is curated by Ulla Taipale.
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Mikko Laajola and other members of KoKoMYS collective presented their methods of working and displayed DIY electronic instruments and projects in open studio event on their part in event Kulkulupa2009. Kulkulupa is an event organised by artists and artist associations. The event allows people to see various artist studios and meet artists at their work.
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The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture has given the AVEK award to artist-curator Juha Huuskonen. The award for media art and currently worth EUR 15,000, was given at the season opening of AVEK in Media Centre Lume. The AVEK award was presented for the sixth time.
The jury highlighted Huuskonen’s creative producing, seen in his roles as an artist, curator, producer and programmer in the media art scene. His role as a social moderator and creator of the Finnish media art’s production culture network was mentioned in the jury’s statement. The jury also states that the AVEK award presented to Juha Huuskonen is “an acknowledgement of his teams, his organisation and of the communal guts with which the events and artwork of the last decade have been produced.”
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Andrew Gryf Paterson taught and facilitated a course for MA Visual Culture students at Pori School of Art and Media TaiK.
This course focuses on environments, ecologies and systems (EEE) in project/ process design and management. We take an expanded understanding of the term 'environmental awareness', to include social, cultural, urban, natural and media/technological and informatic influences; and understand 'platform ecosystems' as projects imagined by initiators to be sustainable, outgoing and ongoing developments, or to have a specific lifespan, inter- and co-dependent with other developments. It could be called an 'environmental matrix' analysis.
Within this interpretative framework, case-study projects are introduced to a trans-disciplinary group of students, to conceptually expand, develop, unpack and adjust the influences, relationships and development of each given project. Invited producers will speak of their experience organising art, technology, community and urban planning projects with an environmental theme.
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Andrew Gryf Paterson participated in the Megapolis2024 programme organised by Dodo ry. with the collaborative game project 'Siirtolapuutarhapelit'.
Allotment Games (Siirtolapuutarhapelit) is a trans-national project combining print-production, urban farming issues and participatory art processes. A collection of artist-producers and graphic illustrator friends in Warsaw (Wojtek Mejor, Natalia Kulka) and Helsinki (Lotta Kauppi, Simo Haanpää, Andrew Paterson) combine their skills and work to produce a reprint of the popular tile-based boardgame Carcassonne. They aim to address the theme and strategies of allotment gardening, following adaptive methods originating in fan-based game 'skinning' and 'mod' (modification) culture.
The game was introduced as a tool to raise the topic of strategy and interpersonal issues related to gaining and maintaining an allotment site. It made its public debut as a prototype played at Megapolis2024 symposium (theme: Food).
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Antti Ahonen and the Association of Experimental Electronics performed at the Art Fair Suomi event in Cable Factory
Artists' Association MUU and the Union of Artist Photographers organised ART FAIR SUOMI 09, their fifth joint sales exhibition of contemporary art, at the Cable Factory.
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Andrew Gryf Paterson taught an obligatory course at Metropolia University of Applied Science.
This lecture series, repeated for 2nd year, will explore how artists, activists, corporations and non-profit organisations use/have used online and digital networks to encourage people to actively participate in collective action, and in particular, in the world around them. 8 sessions of theory and case-examples, short discussion exercises, screenings of lecture or documentation clips will contribute ideas to the process. Students have the option to collectively elect topics from a breadth of contemporary digital media forms (participatory platforms, online sharing, crowdsourcing, syndication, internet, games, communications, virtual environments, intellectual property issues, networks, peer production etc.), and will learn about their features good and bad, where they developed from historically, their politics, economics, and labour issues.
As part of the learning process, each student will research and conceptually develop an 'imaginary platform' during the course, considering how they might employ these forms to encourage and inspire others to get involved in activity beyond themselves. 1-to-1 Tutorials will take place at beginning, middle and before presentation to assist the self-identified research.
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Jon Irigoyen gave an “artist talk” at the art school “Maa”, focusing on art and the differences between Helsinki and Barcelona cultural contexts.
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Antti Ahonen and the Association of Experimental Electronics built an installation for the Alternative Party event
The Alternative Party started as a demoparty in 1998 and has evolved in to a digital culture festival which combines in a unique way technology and art - but also science and business.
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Ulla Taipale moderated a round table about “art, thought and green citizenship” by brazilian researcher Raquel Rennó and spanish artist MªCarmen Mahedero at the 2º Global Eco-Forum. This event brings together internationally known environmental experts from various sectors (private, public and civil) and countries, to present their visions for a more sustainable and responsible world.
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Antti Ahonen gave a presentation about Pixelache and the Association of Experimental Electronics in the context of the MIM-project launch event in Ganuti Gildi Saal, Tallinn.
The MIM project initiated by Maike Londand Taavat Jansen aims to provide alternatives to traditional thinking of how theaters operate and prove that low-tech eco-thinking in theatre does not automatically simply substandard production quality. The main goal of the project is to create a staged theatrical performance that brings the usage of fossil fuels and other resources to absolute minimum. The Association of Experimental Electronics is one of the co-organisers of this project.
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Mikko Laajola and other members of KoKoMYS collective organised an open workshop on Arduino with Jari Suominen (FI) and Matti Luhtala (FI) in Varia, Turku. Participants were introduced to Arduino physical computing platform.
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Juha Huuskonen, Gunalan Nadarajan (Singapore), Rob van Kranenburg (Belgium), Monica Narula (India) were members of expert committee for ASEF New Media Programme for 2010.
About the ASEF New Media programme:
The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) presents its new scheme, the Asia-Europe Cultural Partnership Initiative: New Media (AECPI: New Media) as part of its plans to further enhance multilateral connections between Asia and Europe by developing and stimulating strategic initiatives with partners from the new media sector. ASEF will offer support ranging from 5,000EUR to 15,000EUR to organisations such as festivals, research institutes, associations for partnership initiatives occurring from 1 Jan to 31 Dec 2010, with a clear Asia-Europe focus. ASEF aims to support partnership initiatives which will bring about more opportunities for networking, understanding and cooperation between the two regions amidst new challenges that the sector faces today. This will help further ASEF’s role as a key advocate for Asia-Europe dialogue and collaboration in the field of new media.
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Giving perspectives on the challenges of international new media productions, Jussi Ängeslevä used Interactivos, PixelAche and Ars Electronica as use cases for how to interface with local communities and grass roots collaborations alongside high-end productions with excellent results.
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Curating a selection of works from his students to the exhibition at the festival, Jussi Ängeslevä also ran a one day workshop about “Computational ways of Seeing” to the local media art and design community. Additionally he presented this kind of thinking as a part of the festival's symposium.
Jon Irigoyen curated a Clip Kino event around the theme of Cyberpunk.
Clip Kino events are self-organised screening events of short video clips & documentaries found online.
In this “Cyberpunk” projection were presented an array of information, soundtracks and images that are related to this literary trend that emerged in the '80s. Some of the many interpretations of this trend were also included.
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Tuomo Tammenpää participated in Piskel 2009. Tuomo and some other people who met in the GOSH! summit in the summer, continued to work on the complex issue of an open hardware repository and gave a presentation of the project.
Piksel is an annual event for artists and developers working with free and open source software, hardware and art. Part workshop, part festival, it is organised in Bergen, Norway, and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of free and open source software.
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Antti Ahonen and the Association of Experimental Electronics played a concert with Defunensemble at the Sibelius Academy, and participated in the related panel about Live electronics in contemporary music.
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Juha Huuskonen, Irmeli Kokko (HIAP) and Paula Toppila (IHME productions) were the invited speakers for CARE Tampere (Contemporary Artists Residency Exchange Program) seminar. The purpose of the seminar was to gather practical ideas for a new artist residence programme in Tampere region.
Andrew Gryf Paterson presented at Oman tilan organisointi Seminar about Art and Urban Space.
Orgazing space for art -seminar December 1st between 13-17pm deals with city as a space for interventions and social processes. The seminar language is finnish and english. The invited guests are the artist-duo Patrik Söderlund ja Visa Suonpää: artist-organiser/reseracher Andrew Paterson and Johanna Hyrkäs, architect.
The idea is to discuss the different aspects of city as a public space and art as an altering agent in it. What kind of meanings the notion of public space for art and artists and for citizens? What kind of interfaces are there between art-production, institutional art-world and citizen activism? What happens in these interfaces? What kind of meaning and position public space has for citizenship. What are the basis for discussing artistic production of social space in the 2010th?
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Presentation by Ulla Taipale of Curated Expeditions -project in the opening of Zoolar Eclipse by catalonian artist Mireia C. Saladrigues.
Tuomo Tammenpää participated in the Lift@home seminar.
The seminar entitled “Are you ready for the Internet of Things?” was hosted at IMAL and co-organised by Council and Tinker.it It critically approached the phenomena of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID.
About Lift@home
Today's conferences are not conferences. They are communities of people who share the same interests and values. At Lift we have considerably extended our community over the past years, launching a conference in Korea and one in France. Lifters are all around the globe, living in different locations, sharing a common envy to meet, brainstorm, share and explore. We decided to encourage and promote community based meet-ups around the world.
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Ulla Taipale participated a congress and give a talk about the work of Capsula.
The main objective of the II International Conference is to debate and articulate proposals that will instigate the implementation and awareness of new media and the development of networks that will drive the alliance between Art, Science, Innovation, Technology and Institutions as a vehicle for integration and social development.