Events

International Symposium of Interior Architecture and Spatial Use SISU takes place in Tallinn, Estonia. Highlight of the Estonian interior architecture calendar since 2014, SISU Symposium is organised by the Estonian Association of Interior Architects, with the concept and programme for each SISU Symposium developed by a curatorial team. This year, the curatorial team consists of members of the Interior Architecture Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts EKA led by Professor Hannes Praks.

Focus and format

This year, the focus of SISU will be on the physical presence of our craft. The symposium will investigate strategies for spatial intervention, making and production through educational practices that combine direct engagement and participation in the creation of physical space. We will look at the tactile-sensorial experience a space can provide, we will explore material design through the lense of interior architecture and we’ll be inspired by the words of a long-time professor of interior architecture department of EKA, Estonian interior architect and designer Vello Asi (1927-2016), who said that space should always be designed from inside out.

From 12 to 14 June 2019, we invite interior architects and students of the field as well as professionals and students from neighbouring fields – architects, designers, etc – to join us for a three-day exploration of the interior architecture and spatial design process at the Põhjala Factory on Marati St, Tallinn. We will start with an empty space and will together – in the form of workshops and lectures – build up SISU Symposium 2019. The working format of SISU 2019 will be split 50:50 between workshops and lectures.

Location

SISU 2019 will be set up at the Põhjala Factory located on the Kopli peninsula of Tallinn – a 15 minute tram ride from the centre of the city. At present, this former ship-building area is weighing its options for the future, with many of the choices to be made being spatial, thus making Põhjala an excellent partner and location for our three-day investigation into the current space-making strategies interior architects employ. The spacious, inspiring quarters of Põhjala will also allow us to not only speak of practices, but also show, engage, make and produce space, showcasing interior architecture educational practices.

Presenters, performers and workshop tutors

Veiko Liis (Tallinn)
b210 architects and Pavle Stamenovic (Tallinn / Belgrade)
Laura Linsi and Roland Reemaa (Tallinn / London)
Daniel Zamarbide (Geneva / Lisbon)
Prof Masayo Ave (Berlin)
Jimi Tenor & Trashchestra (Helsinki)
Karsten Födinger (Karlsruhe)
Kärt Ojavee (Tallinn)
Elena Khurtova ja Marie Ilse Bourlanges (Amsterdam)
Eik Hermann (Tallinn)
Damon Taylor (London)
and many more

Practicalities

The working language of the symposium is English.
SISU is free of charge and open to everyone interested in the topic, but we require participants to register for SISU workshops – registration will open in the beginning of May!

SISU 2019 supporters

The Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Ministry of Culture of Estonia.

Additional information

Project Manager Silja Kukk silja@esl.ee
Curatorial team contact Andrea Tamm andrea.tamm@artun.ee

Date:6–8 May 2019 at 10.00 – 15.30

Venue:Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7, room A402 (6-7 May), A301 (8 May)

Lecturer:Nithikul Nimkulrat

Practice-based research[1]has been adopted by creative practitioners in various art and design disciplines for over three decades. Its basic proposition is that “not only is practice embedded in the research process but research questions arise from the process of practice, the answers to which are directed toward enlightening and enhancing practice” (Candy and Edmonds 2018, p. 63). An emphasis on the contribution of research outcomes from practice-based research is that new knowledge is generated to inform creative practice and such knowledge may at times only be obtainable by means of practice.

Whilst artifacts created from within a research project is viewed as an integral part of the practice-based research process, they are expected to be placed in context through written theses and/or disseminated in published papers. By the necessity of written theses in academic research, reflection and documentation of the creative process and the overall research process is unavoidable (Nimkulart 2007).

This seminar aims to assist art and design students in situating their creative artifacts in research (Nimkulrat 2013) and in designing and structing their research conduct that involves their own practice as a research method based on their research questions initially set. This is not to understand practice as research. Practice is not research but can play a significant role in research.

The seminar will focus on the following research components:

1. Research question– Why would art and design practice be necessary for answering it?
2. Research process– How is it constructed based on the research question? Where is art and design practice located within the research process? How is documentation performed throughout the processes? How does reflection drive the process further and transform the research question initially set?
3. Artifacts– Do they answer or support the written thesis to answer the research question?

In addition, the seminar will highlight how documentation functions as a research tool for capturing the practitioner-researcher’s reflection in- and on- action (Mäkelä and Nimkulrat 2018).

Requirement

To participate in the seminar, please send an abstract (250 words) that describes their PhD project and includes a few photos of artifacts and their processes, if any, to elika.kiilo@artun.eeby 1 May 2019. Please note that a primary research question must be clearly stated in the abstract.

In preparation for the seminar, participants will be asked to read

Candy, L. and Edmonds E. (2018). Practice-Based Research in the Creative Arts: Foundations and Futures from the Front Line. Leonardo 51(1), 63–69. https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_01471

Mäkelä, M., & Nimkulrat, N. (2018). Documentation as Practice-Led Research Tools for Reflection on Experiential Knowledge. FORMakademisk 11(2).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.1818

Nimkulrat, N. (2007). The Role of Documentation in Practice-Led Research. Journal of Research Practice, 3(1), Article M6. http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/article/view/58/83

Nimkulrat, N. (2009). Paperness: Expressive Material in Textile Art from an Artist’s Viewpoint (pp. 34–38). Helsinki, Finland: University of Art and Design Helsinki. https://nithikul.com/PDF/Paperness.pdf

Nimkulrat, N. (2013). Situating Creative Artifacts in Art and Design Research. FORMakademisk, 6(2), Article 4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7577/formakademisk.657

Registration

The seminar is open to PhD students. Registration is open until 30.04.2019.

Registration form

Nithikul Nimkulrat is a practitioner-researcher who intertwines research with textile practice, focusing on experiential knowledge in craft processes in the context of design research. Prior to her current appointment as a Tenured Associate Professor at OCAD University in Canada in December 2018, Nithikul has worked at Estonian Academy of Arts, Loughborough University, and Aalto University, where she earned a doctorate in 2009. Nithikul is an elected council member of the Design Research Society (DRS), the convenor of the DRS Special Interest Group on Experiential Knowledge (EKSIG), and the leader of the Cumulus Association’s Fashion and Textile Working Group.

[1]The term “practice-based research” is chosen over “artistic research” and “practice-led research” to be used in the workshop in order to give practice a general role in scholarly research. For differentiation in meaning of different terms, see Nimkulrat (2009, pp. 34–38) and Candy and Edmonds (2018, pp. 64–65).

This event is organised by the Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts, supported by the ASTRA project of the Estonian Academy of Arts – EKA LOOVKÄRG (European Union, European Regional Development Fund).

Date: June 4, 6, 7 at 10.00 to 17.00

Venue: Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7, room A202

Lecturer: Benjamin Lignel

Artist, writer and curator Benjamin Lignel will conduct a 3-day seminar in June, focusing on the challenges and opportunities inherent to artistic research. We will be thinking through the temporalities of making, documenting, and argumenting, and the different sort of “proof” they invoke; we will attempt a 21st century autopsy of the author-function and look at subject-positions with the help of Italo Calvino, Joan Scott and Audre Lord; we will play at presenting an object (textual or physical) for public scrutiny with a view to understanding what “stewardship of ideas” might imply.

Students who sign up for the seminar will be required to read 3 texts in advance:

Audre Lord, the Use of Anger, Women responding to Racism (1981)

Joan Scott, The Evidence of Experience (1991)

Ulrike Müller, Herstory Inventory (2011)

You will also be required to write, in conversational/diaristic mode, how you first met an idea that subequently guided your current research (max. 500 words).

Registration

The seminar is open to PhD and MA students.

Registration form

Registration is open until 28.05.2019.

This event is organised by the Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts, supported by the ASTRA project of the Estonian Academy of Arts – EKA LOOVKÄRG (European Union, European Regional Development Fund).

Thu, 28.03 – Sat, 30.03

Light and sound installations

The light and sound installations made by the students of EKA under the umbrella title “Time as Light” provide access to the lighted spaces uniting scenarios of the past and future. The students’ installations were created under the guidance of sculptor Elo Liiv. In addition to the scenic sunsets, in Noblessner one can enjoy a wonderful show of light and shadows at dawn during TMW.

Students: Silvia Ilves, Henri Kaarel Luht, Merilin Põldsam, Kati Masonry, Elis Rumma, Rebeka Vaino, Eliise Saar, Klarika Mäeots-Uustal, Mati Uust, Elisabeth Juusu, Joonas Timmi, Moonika Mällo, Johanna Põldemaa, Annika Ülejõe, Karl Kristian Kits.

There is opportunity to meet students and artists at the opening of the exhibition on March 28 at 21:00. The light installations remain open only on three nights, and on Sunday, Noblessner’s port city is all the same.

Join us for the opening on Friday, March 29, at 6 PM, with a special performance by the EKA Choir at 6:15 PM.

We are all born with a knowing pain in our soul, and this innate understanding is loneliness: a deep ache for another to fill the cavity we cannot otherwise fill, sincere desperation that seamlessly moves from the emotional and psychological to the physical.  It is an agonizing progression: painful in the utter dissection of the self with each invitation and rejection, each a beautiful and grounded humiliation where we no longer even recognize ourselves as we wholly long for someone to alleviate the paralyzing fear of dying alone.

When the other, it seems, is and has always been absent, the suffocation of loneliness becomes far more than a feeling – it becomes an insanity of our own making.  We are driven mad by an endless and relentless pursuit for a chosen other with a bittersweet and intoxicating need that is simultaneously exciting and devastating, loving and heartbreaking.  And it is this longing, this intense and unforgiving emotion, that will slowly and decidedly kill us.

Erinn M. Cox is a jewellery artist from the United States, currently residing in Tallinn, Estonia.   She holds a BFA in sculpture and photography from Florida State University, an MFA in sculpture and installation from the Memphis College of Art and is currently pursuing an MA degree in Jewellery at the Estonian Academy of Arts.  Erinn is a published writer on contemporary art and design, an adjunct professor of Fine Arts and Art History, and is the founder and writer for the online journal Louise & Maurice (www.louiseandmaurice.com) 

For more about the artist, visit www.erinnmcox.com

Erinn will give a personal tour of the exhibition on Tuesday, April 16 at 5:30 pm.

Join us for the opening of the exhibition “Phantom Graphics” on March 22nd at 5 PM at EKA Billboard Gallery. The gallery is located outside on the building wall on Kotzebue street.

The exhibition is the result of Mirjam Reili’s workshop with EKA first-year graphic design students. A week-long investigation into vision and perception, where students at EKA explore how images construct ocular illusions, and how these could be presented.

Mirjam Reili is an Estonian graphic designer based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Research combined with drawing and puns often determines the outcome of her self-initiated and commissioned work. Mirjam has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts and Rietveld Academie Department of Graphic Design and is currently a participant of Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem.

Participants: Kristi Jaago, Marje Kask, Martin Kipper, Eliisabet Kuslap, Ellen Loitmaa, Ilja Moltšanov, Cristopher Rogotovski, Klara Magdalena Rozpondek, Sonia Ruus, Pavel Salmin, Birgita Siim, Natasha Sotti, Mirjam Varik, Agnes Isabelle Veeno, Ingel-Kristen Veevo, Aaro Veiderpass, Johannes Veike

The exhibition is opened until April 18th.

February 15 and 16, at 6–8PM in EKA Gallery

Kaspar Aus: “On two days I will pass on what I know about body, mind and movement. We listen, catch up and let life through ourselves. For example just like you could place one small seed cell into a human anus and from there grows the plant through and out of us. That the body becomes non-existent and the manifestation of everything that is.”

To get involved, you need comfortable clothes, shoes for running and dancing around, an effort to be opened and together. You do not need to have any specific skills in dance and body movement beforehand. There are a changing room and a shower. Everyone is welcome regardless of previous experience. Free of charge!

About the artist: kasparaus.wixsite.com/artist

Public lecture by Raine Vasquez will be held today(17.01) at 5pm in room nr A301

In an informal conversation Raine Vasquez will discuss his complicated and frustrated relationship with art, his exodus into philosophy, and his continued work at the Museum of Impossible Forms and other art-centric organizations. He will discuss some points of his forthcoming “anti-art” manifesto, contemplate arts’ role as a technology of late-capitalism, and whether it really has the power to disrupt that it is so often claimed to possess. He will wonder about the ethics of continuing to make art, and speak about disappointment, hopelessness, and self-exile.

http://www.raine–vasquez.com

The EKA Design Showcase presents the results of collaborations between the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Design and various enterprises and will take place on 15 January at 13.00 in the EKA main auditorium (A101). Concepts, prototypes and final results for innovative products and services will be presented, featuring new developments in the space, transport and package delivery industry and other fields. All enterprises, EKA’s present and future cooperation partners, and enthusiasts of innovative design are kindly invited to attend the event! The presentations will be given in English. At the end of the design day, the winner of the Abakhan Creative Award will be announced.

Timetable and registration.

The event will be opened with a presentation by Ott Vatter, Deputy Director of the e-Residency programme, who will introduce the project that is being carried out in cooperation with EKA interaction designers and focuses on improving the user experience of the e-residency service.

The core of the day is made up of twelve presentations on cooperation projects that the EKA Faculty of Design and the EKA and TalTech Design & Technology Futures joint programme have been working on over the last two years. One of the showcased projects is in collaboration with the Swiss Space Center and it offers solutions for making living conditions during long space missions more human-friendly. How can astronauts avoid mental health problems on long missions during which their 24h rhythm has been turned upside down? What are new ways of engaging in sports in space for training in weightlessness? According to Janno Nõu, one of the project leaders and a teaching staff member at TalTech, the space centre is very satisfied with the innovative solutions the project has provided, as they give a completely different approach to the space industry. The technology for the lunar outpost will be developed based on the astronauts’ needs, which is one of the key elements during longer space missions. The high point of the project will come in Switzerland this summer when the project will present engineered technical solutions.

The EKA Design Showcase will also feature a new type of rental vehicle that leaves more space for people and makes the growth of major urban areas more sustainable. Together with Cleveron, which was named Company of the Year at the 2018 Estonian Entrepreneurship Awards, a drone-attached package delivery module was developed that allows for aerial delivery system, as well as other creative solutions for various enterprises. According to EKA Collaboration Coordinator Ingela Heinaste, approximately 200 collaboration projects with various enterprises and institutions have been carried out in the 10 years of the EKA Research and Development Office. “Using a specific problem statement as the starting point, we play out innovative solutions, many of which are later realised. We create products and services under the supervision of teaching staff members who are internationally renowned specialists in their field. We design future visions, develop never-before-seen solutions and test new technologies,” said Heinaste who highly recommends that companies contact her to discuss collaboration opportunities.

At 16.30 after the presentations, the winner of the Abakhan Creative Award will be announced followed by the exhibition of nominees.

We would like to thank EKA’s collaboration partners: Swiss Space Center, Santa Monica Networks AS, Cleveron AS, Emergency Response Centre, Good Deed Foundation, Atlas Partners OÜ, Welement AS, Taltech.

Event takes place as EU Industry Days 2019 event and under the umbrella of Cumulus.

Additional information:

Ingela Heinaste
Collaboration Coordinator
ingela.heinaste@artun.ee
Tel 521 9187

Mart Vainre
Communications Specialist
mart.vainre@artun.ee
Tel 626 7111