Category: Departments

On Thursday, 18th October at 5pm in room A302 will take place Canadian artist Tor Lukasik-Foss’s artist talk.

Tor Lukasik-Foss(1967) is a visual artist, performer and writer from Canada, whose works examine the mechanics of public space and social anxiety. Over the last decade he has focused on a series of sculptural performance chambers and shadow boxes loosely assembled under the moniker “unlikely concerts”, which simultaneously fuse public and private spaces together. Side by side with his visual art practices he performs and writes songs under the pseudonym ‘tiny bill cody’ and has released collections of original songwriting over the last two decades. Tor Lukasik-Foss is currently in a four-week residency at Tallin Art Hall, organized by the Estonian Artists Association as part of the Hamilton Arts Council European artist exchange.

At the artist talk on Thursday Tor Lukasik-Foss will present his art practice, talk about the work he has been doing at the residency here in Tallinn and discuss social anxiety and its affect on sculpture and performance.

Artist talk will be held in English.

www.torlukasikoss.ca

Date:November 7-8, 2018

Venue: Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7

Lecturer: Thomas Markussen

Research through design is about understanding how processes of designing and creating artworks can serve as the primary method of inquiry into questions relevant for art and design. Originally, the method was described by Christopher Frayling (1993) and Bruce Archer (1995), and since then many different suggestions for what the characteristics of research through design have been presented. This 2-day seminar offers PhD students visual sketching techniques and methodological tools that can be used to clarify how they practice research through design. Based on readings and the students’ position papers, we will be using visual models and diagrams to map out the role played by designerly and artistic experiments in the students’ own projects? Questions that will be addressed are: How can experiments in art and design serve as means for inquiry? How do we account for knowledge produced by these experiments? Each day will be framed by a talk that will set up a conceptual space for collective work.

Thomas Markussen is associate professor and co-founder of the Social Design Research Unit, at the University of Southern Denmark. In his work, Markussen focuses on how design can be used as a political and critical aesthetic practice, notably in the fields of social design, design activism and design fiction. He is one of the contributors to the recently published book Practice-based Design Research, edited by Laurene Vaughan, and has previously been head of phd education at Kolding School of Design. His other publications include journal articles such as “The disruptive aesthetics of design activism: enacting design between art and politics” (Design Issues); “Disentangling the ‘social’ in social design’s engagement with the public realm” (CoDesign); and “The politics of design activism – from impure politics to parapolitics” appearing in Routledge’s forthcoming book Design and Dissent.

Registration

Theseminar is open to PhD and MA students and researchers with ongoing research projects. Registration is open until 26.10.

Requirements

Particpants must submit a position paper (max 1 page) that describe their PhD project. The paper should provide understanding of the aim of the project, primary research questions, methods and the students training and background. Please send your paper to elika.kiilo@artun.eeby 30.10

As preparation for the seminar, participants will be asked to read:

Bang., A-L; Ludvigsen, M; Krogh P-G & Markussen, T. (2012):The Role of Hypothesis in Constructive Design Research. The Art of Research Conference, Aalto University, Helsinki.

Krogh, P-G; Markussen, T & Bang, A-L (2015): ICord’15 – International Conference on Research into Design, Springer Verlag.

The text will be made available upon registration.

Students can earn 2 credit points (ECTS) for participation.

Preliminary Program

Wednesday, Nov 7

13:00-14:00Introduction to Research through Design – a murky concept or expanding methodology?, talk by Thomas Markussen

Break

14:15-15:30 Group work – understanding the basic elements of research through design PhD projects

Break

15:45-16:30 PhD Poster exhibition

Thursday, Nov 8

9:30-10:30Ways of drifting – 5 methods for experimenting in research through design, talk by Thomas Markussen

Break

10:45-11:45 Group work on the role of designerly and artistic experiments in research through design PhD projects

Lunch

12:30:-13:15 Group work on the role of designerly and artistic experiments in research through design PhD projects

13:15-14:30 Collective sharing and presenting

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).

The next lecturer of the Open Lecture Series this autumn semester will be Levente Polyak, stepping on the stage of the new EKA building (auditorium A501) on the 18th of October at 6.30 pm to talk about funding the cooperative city.

Levente’s lecture is titled “Funding the Cooperative City: Community Finance and the Economy of Civic Spaces”. In recent years, cultural, social, community and educational spaces have become laboratories of new forms of living, working, learning and collective exchange. However, these civic spaces face many difficulties in establishing stable economic structures, or lack financial buffers to secure their long-term operations and relative autonomy. The research and advocacy project Funding the Cooperative City has explored how citizen initiatives, cooperatives, non-profit companies, community land trusts, crowdfunding platforms, ethical banks and anti-speculation foundations step out of the regular dynamisms of real estate development and arrange new mechanisms to access, purchase, renovate or construct buildings for communities. The research has brought together a variety of actors, practices, models, mechanisms and opinions that address these difficulties. Funding the Cooperative City builds on their experiences to help and inspire civic space initiatives in accessing community capital, building stable financial models, strengthening local economies by keeping profits in neighbourhoods and ensuring spaces against public oppression or the extraction economy.

Levente Polyak is an urban planner, researcher, community advocate and policy adviser. After studying architecture at Budapest University of Technology, urbanism at the Institut d’Urbanisme de Paris and sociology at ELTE Budapest, and EHESS Paris, he was a visiting lecturer at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, the Budapest University of Technology and TU Wien. He was also a visiting fellow at Columbia University and the École nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-Malaquais and holds a PhD in Sociology from the Central European University. He has worked on urban regeneration projects for the New York Department of City Planning, the Délégation à la Politique de la Ville et à l’Intégration in Paris, and the Assessorato della Rigenerazione Urbana in Rome.

In 2012-13, he was an adviser to the Head of Urban Planning in Budapest and contributing editor of the Budapest 2030 Urban Development Strategy. He is the editor of Cooperative City, co-founder of Eutropian Research & Action (Vienna-Rome) and member of the KÉK – Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre (Budapest). While in Budapest, he was leading KÉK’s Lakatlan programme to help NGOs and social enterprises access space and economic sustainability, and in Rome he initiated the URBACT network Temporary Use as a Tool for Urban Regeneration. As an expert of the URBACT and Urban Innovative Actions programmes, he has been coordinating international knowledge exchange networks between municipalities in various countries of Europe. Specialised on urban regeneration, cultural development, community participation, civic economy, social innovation and local resilience: in these themes, he has been supporting public administrations and NGOs of various sizes and geographic locations across Europe in creating spatial development projects and new governance models.

Currently he is serving as a consultant to the Citizens’ Dialogue series of the European Investment Bank and the Committee of the Regions. His recent books include Vacant City: Experiments in Inclusive Urban Regeneration (2015), Civil Város: Lakatlan ingatlanok a közösségek szolgálatában (2016) and Funding the Cooperative City: Community Finance and the Economy of Civic Spaces (2017).

The architecture and urban design department of the Estonian Academy of Arts has been curating the Open Lectures on Architecture series since 2012 – each year, a dozen architects, urbanists, both practicing as well as academics, introduce their work and field of research to the audience in Tallinn. All lectures are in English, free and open to all interested.

The series is funded by the Estonian Cultural Endowment. Levente Polyak’s lecture is part of the Future Architecture program which introduces and celebrates innovation, experimentation and the ideas of a generation that will design the architecture and build Europe’s cities in the years to come. See: http://futurearchitectureplatform.org.

Curators: Sille Pihlak, Johan Tali

www.avatudloengud.ee

https://www.facebook.com/EKAarhitektuur/

More info:

Pille Epner

E-post: arhitektuur@artun.ee

Tel. +372 642 0071

Venue: Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7, room A501
Contact: raivo.kelomees@artun.ee

The conference The Collaborative Turn in Art: The Research Process in Artistic Practice deals with artistic research, in particular the expanded understanding of this term and the questions raised by collaborative creative practices.

The term and approach “artistic research” has been in active international use since the beginning of 2000. The first doctoral artistic research theses in the ‘Art and Design’ programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts were defended in 2011.

The term “creativity” tends to be connected with activity and practice that does not necessarily need previous knowledge, being derived from inspirational and non-rational processes. On the other hand, “research” is traditionally a form of ‘scientific activity’, a rational exploration of knowledge, which is based on previous information and wisdom. Today’s expanded understanding of the term “artistic research/practice” illustrates, however, that this situation has changed.

Collaborative research in science is standard practice, and collective work in design/production is common in the field of design. In contemporary visual art, however, collaborative creation has been traditionally rare, although fundamental changes can now be observed: artists are working in interdisciplinary teams, they commission parts of their projects from specialist fabricators, and the artworks are made at the crossroads of interrelating mediums, technologies and localities. The previously individualistic, introvert and heroic artist is replaced by the competent communicator, project manager or researcher, who is socially fluent in interaction with fabricators and the art audience.

The goal of the conference is to present and discuss the themes presented above and to sketch an up-to-date map of current research-based and collaborative creative practices in fine art.

Invited speakers: Malin Arnell, Varvara Guljajeva, Chris Hales, Andi Hektor, Taavet Jansen, Marianne Jõgi, Jan Kaila, Raul Keller, Arne Maasik, Tuula Närhinen, Piibe Piirma, Taavi Talve, Pia Tikka, Julijonas Urbonas; and others.

Conference organizers: Raivo Kelomees (EAA), Chris Hales (Liepaja University), Faculty of Fine Arts.

Conference programme

Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7, room A501

Day 1

Friday, October 19, 2018

9.30 Coffee

10.00 Welcome words by prof. Epp Lankots, Vice Rector for Research, Estonian Academy of Arts

10.10 Introduction and moderation: Raivo Kelomees (EAA)

10.25 Pia Tikka. Neurocinematics & Art-Science Collaboration

10.50 Piibe Piirma. Inter- and Transdisciplinarity in Artistic Research

11.15 Chris Hales. From Tacit Knowledge to Academic Knowledge

11.35 Arne Maasik. On Geometry in Architecture of Louis Kahn

12.00 Lunch break

13.00 Taavi Talve. Paldiski Project, Case Study

13.30 Raul Keller. Process

14.00 Andi Hektor. What is a Research Paper?

14.30 BREAK (a tour in the building)

15.30 Tuula Närhinen. Phenomenotechnics in Visual Art Practice – a hands-on approach

16.00 Julijonas Urbonas. Gravitational Aesthetics and Exodisciplinary Art

16.30 Questions and discussion

Day 2

Saturday, October 20, 2018

Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7, room A501

10.00 Morning coffee

10.20 Summary of the previous day and moderation: Chris Hales

10.30 Varvara Guljajeva. From Interaction to Postparticipation: The Disappearing Role of the Active Participant

11.00 Malin Arnell. The Word for Research is Action – engaging a live dissertation.

11.30 Jan Kaila. 20 Years of Artistic Research – what has been lost and what has been found? (45 min)

12.20 Questions and discussion

12.30 Lunch break (45 min)

13.15 Chris Hales. Creating and Running a Practice-led Doctorate in Latvia, 2009 – 2018

13.35 Marianne Jõgi. Spatio-temporal self-similarity in the creative process

14.00 Taavet Jansen. NEUROTHEATER as an interdisciplinary collaboration form: example from New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theatre

14.30 Break (15 min)

14.45 Doctoral students presentations ca 15 min each

14.45 Tze Yeung Ho

15.00 Rait Rosin

15.15 Hirohisa Koike

15.30 Conclusion

18.00 and later. Options in the city:

• NU Performance Festival: avaõhtu / opening night

Koht/location: Sveta Baar (Telliskivi 62, Tallinn)

• VI Artishok Biennial

From 20 to 28 October, the passenger terminal of the Baltic railway station in Tallinn will host the VI Artishok Biennial (VI AB) which will use the format of a fashion exhibition. Starts 18.00

/Summary of speakers’ biographies and presentations see below/

Short bios:

Malin Arnell (SE) PhD, interdisciplinary artist, researcher and educator is a frequent collaborator with other artists, activists and writers. http://www.malinarnell.org/

Varvara Guljajeva (EE) MA, is an artist and a researcher. Varvara is a PhD candidate at Estonian Academy of Arts. http://www.varvarag.info/

Taavet Jansen (EE) has been working on the field of performing art for more than 20 year – as a dancer, choreographer, director, sound-designer, light-designer, video-designer, interactivity programmer etc. http://taavetjansen.mimproject.org/

Marianne Jõgi (EE) MA, is an artist based in Tallinn. She graduated from the Georg Ots Music School where she majored in music theory. She holds an MA in sculpture and installation from the Estonian Academy of Arts. http://www.mariannejogi.com/

Jan Kaila (FI) DFA, Dean of the Academy of Fine Arts/Art University Helsinki. He was one of the founding members of the European Artistic Research Network in 2004 and in 2010 he was nominated as a member of the executive board of the Society of Artistic Research. Between 2011-2013 he was a member of ELIA´s executive board. https://www.uniarts.fi/en/jan-kaila-0

Chris Hales (GB) PhD, is a long-time specialist of the interactive moving image, as artist-practitioner, educator (Bachelors, Masters, Doctoral) and researcher. http://smartlab-ie.com/faculty/dr-chris-hales/

Andi Hektor (EE) PhD, is a Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Tallinn. https://www.etis.ee/CV/Andi_Hektor/est?lang=ENG

Raul Keller (EE) MA, is a professor and head of the New Media chair at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Based in Tallinn. http://raul.kuuratsanikud.ee/index.php/en/

Arne Maasik (EE) is a photographer and artist with an education in architecture. http://arnemaasik.org/

Tuula Närhinen (FI) PhD, is a visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland. http://www.tuulanarhinen.net/

Piibe Piirma (EE) PhD, is an artist and researcher based in Tallinn. http://www.piibepiirma.com/

Taavi Talve (EE) earned MA from the Estonian Academy of Arts (2008). Member of the artist collective Johnson and Johnson (2005). Docent of Sculpture and Installation department at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Pia Tikka (FI) PhD, is a professional filmmaker and EU Mobilitas Research Professor at the Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School (BFM) and MEDIT Centre of Excellence, Tallinn University. http://enactivevirtuality.tlu.ee

Julijonas Urbonas (LT) is an artist, designer, researcher, engineer, Vice-Rector for Art at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in Vilnius, and PhD student in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art, London. http://julijonasurbonas.lt/

Raivo Kelomees (EE) PhD, is an artist, critic and new media researcher, holding a Senior Researcher position at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Lives and works in Tallinn. www.kelomees.net

Summary of speakers’ biographies and presentations:

Malin Arnell

The Word for Research is Action – engaging a live dissertation

Avhandling / Av_handling (Dissertation / Through_action)* was articulated / manifested over the course of 72 hours, situating itself within and proceeding from KTH R1 Experimental Performance Space, a decommissioned nuclear reactor hall 25 meters below ground on the campus of Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), May 27-29, 2016. The opponents and the examining committee were invited to become part for 42 hours; so was the audience—as agentially intra-acting components.

http://dissertationthroughaction.space/

* The English word dissertation translated to Swedish makes “avhandling.” When you break the word into its composite parts (“av” and “handling”), “av” can be translated to of, by, for, from, with. I chose to translate it to “through,” because I have pursued my research through the actions of my practice. “Handling” can be translated to action, document, or deed. I chose “action” to emphasize the continually unfurling and shifting nature of this research, and to echo Hannah Arendt, who maintained that actions have no end.

Biography:

Interdisciplinary artist, researcher and educator Malin Arnell, PhD, is a frequent collaborator with other artists, activists and writers. Through these collaborative practices, Malin works with key issues for participating in (social) domains by emphasising the porous intimacy between environments and actions. In doing so, Malin focuses on the experiences around/in/through/of the body (my body, their body, our body) by incorporating the affectivity between relationalities, territories, and power.

Longer bio: http://www.malinarnell.org/bio/bio/

Varvara Guljajeva

From Interaction to Postparticipation: The Disappearing Role of the Active Participant

The presentation introduces my practice-based dissertation which analyses and contextualises passive audience interaction, in the form of post-participation. The research explores the paradoxical situation in interactive art, where the artworks that demonstrate no direct audience interaction are addressed as interactive ones. It is argued that the concept of post-participation helps to address the shift from an active to a passive spectator in the complex age of dataveillance—an age where humans are continuously tracked, traced, monitored, and surveilled without their consent.

Biography:

Varvara Guljajeva is an artist and a researcher and currently a PhD candidate at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has been invited as a visiting researcher to IAMAS (Ogaki, Japan),  LJMU (Liverpool, UK), and Interface Cultures (Linz University of Art and Design).

Varvara unites with Mar Canet in the form of the artist duo Varvara & Mar. The duo has been exhibiting in international shows since 2009. Their works have been shown at MAD in New York, FACT in Liverpool, Santa Monica in Barcelona, Barbican in London, Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, Ars Electronica museum in Linz, ZKM in Karlsruhe, etc. The duo’s work is frequently inspired by the digital age and in their practice they confront social change and the impact of the technological era.

http://www.varvarag.info

Taavet Jansen

NEUROTHEATER as a interdisciplinary collaboration form: an example from the New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theatre

In my short presentation, I will talk about the TLU summer school “Experimental Interaction Design: physiological computing technologies for performative arts ” held in ITMO University in St.Petersburg: how artists and scientists met in this one-week laboratory; what were the main concepts we discussed; how was the whole process held; and what are the final thoughts.

Biography:

Taavet Jansen has been working in the field of performance art for more than 20 years—as a dancer, choreographer, director, sound-designer, light-designer, video-designer, interactivity programmer etc. Studied Art and Science at Den Haag Art Academy and Dance and New Technologies at the Amsterdam Theatre school. Taavet is one of the founders of the technological art network MIMproject, and head of the performing arts department at TÜ Viljandi Cultural Academy.

http://taavetjansen.mimproject.org/

http://www.mimproject.org/

Marianne Jõgi

Spatio-temporal self-similarity in the creative process

Neurological evidence suggests a specialisation of the cerebral hemispheres when processing temporal and spatial information from the sound field. Further studies have revealed optimal geometric principles as well as digital technologies for creating sustainable sound fields. The presentation will focus on links between the concepts of physiological and cultural sustainability.

Biography:

Marianne Jõgi (b.1983 in Tallinn, Estonia) is an artist based in Tallinn. She graduated from the Georg Ots Music School where she majored in music theory. She holds an MA in sculpture and installation from the Estonian Academy of Arts. Her postgraduate research and practice involves investigations at the intersection of architectural acoustics and art, with the aim of integrating sensory environmental technologies with spatial forms. She has been exhibiting work since 2005. In 2013, Jõgi was awarded the Young Artist Award (Estonia) for her installation Inaudibles.

http://www.mariannejogi.com/

Jan Kaila

20 Years of Artistic Research – what has been lost and what has been found?

I will talk about the situation within Artistic Research (AR) in 2005 or so, in comparison with how it looks today. My questions are: Do arts need fundamental research (like in the sciences)? Is the PhD in the arts educating “better” artists or is it educating researchers that  have a completely different context than for example MA-students? Is AR a new player in the “hierarchy of the art world ? if it is – what are the consequences?

Biography:

Jan Kaila (born 1957) studied at the Doctoral Studies Program at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts from 1997 to 2002. The subject of his doctorate, completed in 2002, was Photographicality and Representation in Contemporary Art.

Kaila worked in the 1980s and 1990s as a teacher and lecturer in several Nordic photography schools, including the University of Art and Design Helsinki and the School of Photography at Gothenburg University. In 2001, he was elected Professor of Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and, in 2004, he was appointed Professor of Artistic Research at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. In 2008, he was elected Vice Rector of the Academy.

Kaila was one of the founding members of the European Artistic Research Network in 2004 and in 2010 he was nominated as a member of the executive board of the Society of Artistic Research. Between 2011-2013 he was a member of ELIA´s executive board.

Kaila has worked as an evaluator of fine art educations and artistic research in Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Austria and Ireland and he has lectured about research in United States, France, Germany, Hungary and Latvia.

Since 1980, Kaila has held one-man exhibitions and participated in group shows in many Nordic and Central European countries, Russia, the United States, Japan, South Korea and China. Kaila has also worked as a curator and has published writings about visual art and photography.

Since 2014 Kaila worked as Scientific Advisor of Artistic Research at the Swedish Research Council and as a Senior Researcher at the Art University Helsinki being in charge of the by Swedish Research Council funded project Poetic Archaeology. In 2018 Kaila started working as the Dean of the Academy of Fine Arts/Art University Helsinki.

https://www.uniarts.fi/en/jan-kaila-0

Chris Hales

From Tacit Knowledge & Collaborative Practice to Academic Knowledge & Individual Practice

This short talk will present a personal journey starting from the enthusiasm of making interactive artworks in an intuitive manner to the drudgery of a more informed and methodologic approach for doctoral purposes. The willing collaborator transforms into an individualistic academic researcher. Let’s discuss!

Creating and Running a Practice-led Doctorate in Latvia, 2009—2018

A short presentation about how a new doctoral course was developed at Liepaja University, the first practice-led arts degree in Latvia. Some conclusions will be drawn from the experiences and outcomes of creating the course and actually delivering it.

Biography:

Long-time specialist of the interactive moving image, as artist-practitioner, educator (Bachelors, Masters, Doctoral) and researcher. PhD in 2006: ‘Rethinking the Interactive Movie’. Currently working independently and as a visiting lecturer in various educational institutions. Associate Professor (Docent) at the Liepaja University ‘New Media Art’ programme and Director of Studies of its doctoral course. Exhibitions of interactive film installations date from ARTEC’95 in Japan, to ZKM’s Future Cinema (2003), the Prague Triennale of 2008, the X111 Media Forum in Moscow in 2012 and most recently the premiere of You·Who? at the Madeira Film Festival 2018.

Andi Hektor

What is a Research Paper?

What is a research paper? A research paper is an academic work that is published in an academic journal and follows a rather standardised structure, e.g. IMRAD (introduction, methods, results, and discussion). The paper has usually multiple authors with (or without) special roles. A new trend is that the data presented by a paper should follow FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) principles. But what is the content of a paper? Is it some new knowledge and data? In the talk I will point out similarities between a research paper and a story, a work of art and an arbiter of fashion.

Andi Hektor

is a Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Tallinn.

https://www.etis.ee/CV/Andi_Hektor/est?lang=ENG

Raul Keller

Process is a piece which documents a technological and somewhat mediaarcheological approach to a process of physically inscribing sound into material, of homebrewed vinyl/plastic scribing with the emphasis on the emerging artefacts and outcomes of the process. It begins with a research into online DIY cultures and history of lofi sound reproduction on X-ray film sheets and continues into revisiting/revamping the historical professional devices. Perhaps the process will evolve into new and alternative physical reproduction devices that are technologically set back from the current state-of-the-art by decades but are lead by a different mindset.

Bio
Since end of 90s has been engaged in a multitude of contemporary art practices, focusing on site-specific sound installation, performance, improvisation, DIY culture, video- and radiophonic art. Sonic performances and radio art with LokaalRaadio (with Katrin Essenson, Hello Upan). Member of Eesti Elekter, experimental electronics performance group (Kerikmäe, Leemets, Lond, Tikas, Tikas). Free impro noise duo Post Horn (with Hello Upan). Performed as Paul Cole with his group The Great Outdoors in burlesque americana rock genre. Founding member of MKDK, A Dynamic Collective of Music and Arts. Founder of radio art festival Radiaator (with Katrin Essenson). Member of artist collective MIMproject. Works commissioned / performances in Great Britain, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Iceland, Brazil, India, Poland, Russia and The Baltic States. Since 2014 professor and head of New Media chair in the Estonian Academy of Arts. Residing in Tallinn, Estonia.

http://raul.kuuratsanikud.ee/index.php/en/biocv-eng

Arne Maasik

On Geometry in the Architecture of Louis Kahn

The Louis Kahn project: Louis Kahn (1901-1974) is considered one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, and he has a direct link with Estonia—Kahn lived in Kuressaare until he was five years old and visited his home island again in 1928, when he was a young architect. The Louis Kahn Estonia Foundation, the art historian Heie Treier and Estonia’s most recognized architectural photographer Arne Maasik have looked at the striking similarities between the architecture of Louis Kahn and the sacral architecture found on Saaremaa. In his lecture Arne Maasik will give a brief overview of his journeys to Kahn-related locations in the US, India, Bangladesh and Saaremaa, Estonia.

Arne Maasik is a photographer and artist with an education in architecture.  He has participated in long-term projects involving large-scale research and had numerous solo exhibitions at home and abroad. Arne Maasik’s work is characterised by an awareness of metaphysical undercurrents and muted poetry. As an artist his focus is on metropolises as well as their outskirts, old houses and scrublands, as well as other peripheral living environments that become animated and alive in his photos.

He has worked as a faculty member in the Photography Department of the Tartu Higher Art School, Estonian Academy of Arts. Contributed to many architectural and art publications in Estonia and abroad. Member of the Estonian Artists’ Association since 2003.

http://arnemaasik.org/

Tuula Närhinen

Phenomenotechnique in Visual Art Practice 

My projects examine the inherent visual potential in naturally occurring events. I have constructed visual interfaces that enable us to move beyond the explicit and to grasp the unfurling of a world invisible to the naked eye. Empiric and experimental methods are at the core of the inquiry. This talk focuses on tracings and (photo)graphic recordings. I consider the role of various inscribing apparatuses in a process that allows natural phenomena to manifest themselves. The installations showcase the DIY instruments implicated, encouraging the spectator to participate in the re-presentation of an event.

Biography:

Tuula Närhinen is a visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland.

Her works explore the pictorial agency of natural phenomena such as water and wind. Re-adapting instruments derived from natural sciences, Närhinen has developed methods for letting trees trace the shape of wind on their branches and found techniques that the enable the waves of the sea to inscribe themselves on paper.

Närhinen holds a Doctorate of Fine Arts (DFA) from the University of the Arts Helsinki. She is a graduate of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts (MFA), and the Helsinki University of Technology (M.Sc. in Architecture). Find her at www.tuulanarhinen.net

Piibe Piirma

Inter- and Transdisciplinarity in Artistic Research

Interdisciplinarity as the combining of academic disciplines into a single study is a concept increasingly used in all instances where the finding of something new and unique and the crossing of boundaries between fields is considered important. This concept in more general terms is linked to the 20th century but its historical roots lie within Greek philosophy. In short, the interdisciplinary approach is related to the aim to create more perfect knowledge because in order to resolve important problems, staying within specific disciplines in a traditional or conventional manner is not enough.

Collaboration between art and science permits highly specific characteristics to be discovered that do not fit into the boundaries of conventional scientific research or the practice-based study of an artist. In what way is it important and novel both in terms of the focus on disciplines as well as the greater inclusion than before – in terms of collaboration in which the lines of thought of the scientific, societal, political, ethical and aesthetic world views are in harmony? The diversity of lines of thought and potential solutions, as well as the fact that engaging in science can involve many intuitive ideas and – until now – uninvolved groups of society leads us to analyse the term of transdisciplinarity.

Biography:

Piibe Piirma is media artist, curator and teacher based in Tallinn, Estonia. She has worked as designer and visual artist since 2002 and curated several new media art exhibitions since 2006. Piibe’s latest activities were related with PhD studies at Estonian Academy of Arts since 2009. She graduated on 2015, the title of her thesis was “Hybrid Practice. Art and Science in Artistic Research”. In her research she were focusing on her artistic experience by collaborating different Science labs in Estonia – TUT Centre of Biorobotics, TUT Department of Chemistry, UT Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, TUT Institute of Marine Systems etc.

http://www.piibepiirma.com/

Taavi Talve

Paldiski Project, Case Study

The Paldiski Project. This case study focuses on communal art practices in Paldiski by the artist group Johnson and Johnson in terms of artistic collaboration and collectively elaborated meaning.

Biography:

Born 1970, Tartu. Earned MA from the Estonian Academy of Arts (2008). Member of the artist collective Johnson and Johnson (2005). Docent of Sculpture and Installation department at the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Pia Tikka 

Neurocinematics & Art-Science Collaboration 

I will discuss the first hand knowledge gained from several collaborative projects in which I have worked as a consulting film expert, and my own neurocinematic projects in which I have functioned as the principal investigator. I will highlight the diversity of issues one faces in collaborations between artists and scientists. Especially interesting will be to reflect conceptual, technological and methodological differences between arts and sciences. The discussion will range from conceptual to technological issues, however the focus will be on challenges such as finding shared language, working methods, best division of labor and responsibilities and authorship.

Biography:

Dr. Pia Tikka is a professional filmmaker and EU Mobilitas Research Professor at the Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School (BFM) and MEDIT Centre of Excellence, Tallinn University. She has directed fiction films “Daughters of Yemanjá”, “Sand Bride”, and the Möbius Prix Nordic winning cinematic installation “Obsession”. As the leader of the research groups NeuroCine and Enactive Cinema, she has published on the topics of neurocinematics and enactive media, and written the book “Enactive Cinema: Simulatorium Eisensteinense.” She has been honoured with titles of Adjunct Professor of New Narrative Media at the University of Lapland and Fellow of Life in the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image. Currently her ENACTIVE VIRTUALITY research group studies the viewer’s experience of co-presence emerging in facial encounters with an enactive screen character. http://enactivevirtuality.tlu.ee

Julijonas Urbonas

Gravitational Aesthetics and Exodisciplinary Art

For almost a decade, working between amusement park design, space medicine, choreography, sci-fi and robotics, the artist Julijonas Urbonas has been developing various creative tools of negotiating gravity: from a killer rollercoaster to an artificial planet made up entirely of human bodies. In these projects he coins the term gravitational aesthetics, an artistic approach exploiting the means of manipulating gravity to create experiences that push the body and imagination to its extremes. In this lecture he will introduce his creative methodology by surveying a selection of his projects.

Biography:

Julijonas Urbonas is an artist, designer, researcher and engineer. He is Vice-Rector for Art at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in Vilnius, and a PhD student in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art, London.

Before embarking on an artistic career, since childhood, Julijonas worked in amusement park development. In 2004, he became the head of an amusement park in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and ran it for three years. Having worked in this field — also as a designer and engineer — he became fascinated with what in his research he calls ‘gravitational aesthetics.’ This experience is unavailable elsewhere, and he became intrigued by this under-developed topic. Since then the topic has been at the core of his artistic research, intermingling such fields as critical design, speculative engineering, social sci-fi, performative architecture, choreographic heuristics, medicine, theatre and dance.

His work has been exhibited internationally and received many awards, including the Award of Distinction in Interactive Art, Prix Ars Electronica 2010. His projects can be found in private and museum collections such as the permanent collection of the Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM).

http://julijonasurbonas.lt/

Raivo Kelomees 

PhD (art history), artist, critic and new media researcher. Presently working as senior researcher at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn. He studied psychology, art history, and design at Tartu University and the Academy of Arts in Tallinn. He has published articles in the main Estonian cultural and art magazines and newspapers since 1985. His works include the book “Surrealism” (Kunst Publishers, 1993) and an article collection “Screen as a Membrane” (Tartu Art College proceedings, 2007), “Social Games in Art Space” (EAA, 2013). His Doctoral thesis was “Postmateriality in Art. Indeterministic Art Practices and Non-Material Art” (Dissertationes Academiae Artium Estoniae 3, 2009).

In recent years he has been participating on conferences dedicated to new media, digital humanities, theatre and visual art in São Paulo, Manizales, Plymouth, Krems, Riga, Shanghai, Göteborg, Hong Kong, Dubai and other places.

www.kelomees.net

The participation in the conference is free of charge.

Registration

Registration form.

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).

EDITED ON 9 Oct: THIS EVENT IS FULLY BOOKED;

The space of Home: intrapsychic, interpersonal and socio-political dimensions

The sense of home and belonging to a home is one of the most fundamental realities of human beings. What are the complexities that constitute the multifaceted phenomenon and image of home? How do these complexities affect people who have lost their intimate space involuntarily? How can we assist such people when they experience the painful effects of such involuntary dislocation? These are some of the questions that this seminar will address, in a maximum possible interactional exchange with the participants.

Based on Professor Papadopoulos’s own extensive work in the field of involuntary dislocation, which includes not only research and training but also clinical work and activism, this seminar aims to address the complexities, dilemmas and traps that are engendered whenever we deal with any themes related to the image of home in the context of phenomena of involuntary dislocation.

Renos K. Papadopoulos, Ph.D. is Professor of Analytical Psychology, Director of the ‘Centre for Trauma, Asylum and Refugees’, and member of the ‘Human Rights Centre’ and ‘Transitional Justice Network’, all at the University of Essex and with an honorary appointment at the Tavistock Clinic. He is a clinical psychologist, systemic family therapist and Jungian psychoanalyst, also involved in the training and supervision of these three specialists. As consultant to the United Nations and other organizations, he has been working with refugees, tortured persons and other survivors of political violence and disasters in many countries. Recently he was given Awards by the European Family Therapy Association for his ‘Outstanding contribution to the field of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice’ and by the University of Essex for the ‘Best International Impact Research Project’. He lectures and offers specialist trainings internationally and his writings have been published in 15 languages.

NB! For attending to the seminar is necessary to read in advance following material:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1k6kZfANZ5F261HUiORAm0yGQcuYdXRSz?usp=sharing

NB! Registration is required, spaces are limited! Follow this link to register: https://seminarium1.eventbrite.com
password: seminarium

Shahar Marcus(1971) is an Israeli based artist who primary works in the medium of performance and video art. He is an active artist for over a devade and has exhibited at various art institutions, both in Israel and around the world, including: Tate Modern, The Israel Museum, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Charlottenburg, Copenhagen Kunsthalle, Moscow Biennale, Poxan Biennale, Moscow Musuem of Modenr Art and other art venuse in Poland, Italy, Germany, Georgia, Japan, USA and Turkey.

http://shaharmarcus.com/

Avi Milgrom (1978) is an artist and a lecturer. His work often addresses the intersection of art and technology – either by the use of digitally processed images and videos, or by applying electrical and mechanical apparatuses to the artwork itself. His work has been exhibited in internationally established galleries all over the world.

http://www.avimilgrom.com/

Find room A200, and come explore the results of the chair design studio that our interior architecture and architecture students take during their first year at EKA.

These are the same chairs that we exhibited at the Helsinki Design Week a few weeks back, and the pop-up exhibition is going to be open only until Friday, so hurry!

Tutors: Ilkka Suppanen and Martin Relander

Join us for the opening of the Young Sculptor Award 2018 exhibition “Prediction and Preservation” on October 3 at 6 pm. This is the first show at the gallery’s new location in the Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7.

The exhibition focuses on the present, or maybe even different quests for the present. The present should be a place where the decisions about the past and the future are born. Therefore, the present itself is the most uncharted and unstable space-time. The future may seem like it has been before—a conventional, predictable and unchanging product of imagination and fiction. The real world is the place where unforeseen events are happening. It presents ethical problems that are more vexing than reminisces of the past or projections for the future. Welcome to the present moment, where the instruments are real space and active time units!

Artists who work with space and object fix their minds on the time dimension and the temporary; they ask how and what we perceive in our current space, and how it will be seen as it changes into the past. How the environment designs the future? How can we design ourselves for being present in the present? How values are created by things that happened or were perceived to happen in this space? Can the space become outdated or postponed?

The 2018 Young Sculptor Award show is the seventh in this series. The main goal of the show and its award is to highlight young sculptors and installation artists, support their creative production and open it to a wider public. Works are accepted to the show through open call for the sculpture and installation students, works have to be produced during the ongoing academic year. The grand prix and the second and third prize are awarded by an international jury. The awards are travels to important art events around the world.

Participating artists: Darja Krasnopevtseva, Izabella Neff, Johannes Luik, Katrin Enni, LAURi, Nele Tiidelepp, Olesja Semenkova, Richard Engel, Valetto Alexandre

Exhibition is organised by installation and sculpture department of the Estonian Academy of Arts. Tutors: Taavi Talve, Taavi Piibemann, Kirke Kangro, Art Allmägi. Technical assistance: Sander Haugas. Graphic design: Stuudio Stuudio.

Exhibition is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Opening on Friday, September 28 at 6pm

Curators’ tour will take place on September 29 at 5pm (in English)

Curators: Laura Põld, Kati Saarits

Artists: Mona Aghababaee, Katja Beckman, Leesi Erm, Nadia Hebson, Anna Mari Liivrand, Eva Mustonen, Leo Rohlin, Kaisa Sööt ja Koit Randmäe, Mall Tomberg, Helle Videvik

Graphic design: Aadam Kaarma & Sandra Kosorotova

For the first time the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) will host an exhibition presenting works by classic Estonian applied artists in dialogue with material-sensitive and process-based works by a younger generation of artists. one-on-one. on skills brings together tradition-rooted applied art and the increasingly material-centred contemporary art practices. The core of the exhibition is comprised of accomplished works from four classic Estonian applied art figures – Leo Rohlin, Leesi Erm, Helle Videvik and Mall Tomberg. Mona Aghababaee (IR), Katja Beckman (SE), Nadia Hebson (GB), Anna Mari Liivrand (EE), Eva Mustonen (EE), Kaisa Sööt and Koit Randmäe (EE) help explore the skill-based creative methods that have changed, persisted or reappeared in time.

The exhibition reflects on topics such as the possibility of self-contained form in a contemporary art exhibition, craftsmanship in material-based technologies, and the differences in the self positioning of artists working in time-consuming handicraft techniques in the immediate past and contemporary art field. The exhibition brings up questions like how can we best evaluate the part of the work of artists working in manual media that is articulated as tacit knowledge – natural or intuited knowledge? How best can we convey knowledge about skill? What is skill made up of?

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, which will be presented on November 4.

Supporters and cooperation partners: Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia, British Council Estonia, Estonian Artists’ Association, Akzo Nobel Baltics AS, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design.