Category: Departments

Dates: 6-8 August 2018

Location: Estonian Academy of Arts – Estonia pst 7 / Teatri väljak 1, room 440A

Volume: 24 academic hours, 1 ECTS

Number of participants: max 22

Cost: FREE (Please note that this course is meant for higher education students only)

Registration deadline: 6th of May

In addition to the general required materials, candidates are expected to submit a letter of motivation explaining why they are applying (max A4).

The Contemporary Art Field in Estonia short course is meant for international art history or curatorship students who are who are studying contemporary Estonian or Baltic art, are interested in the contemporary Estonian art world and in working with Estonian artists, curators or art historians, plan to enrol at the Estonian Academy of Arts and are looking for an overview of how the local art landscape operates. The workshop will be led by Academy of Arts teaching staff member, head of the Centre for General Theory Subjects and freelance art critic Maarin Ektermann.

The short course provides an overview of how contemporary art scene in Estonia functions – the most important organizations, the movers and shakers, the currently important and active artists from different disciplines, and the types of events being held. The causal factors behind the art scene are also explored, starting from the restoration of independence, Estonian art in the context of the regional and broader international art scene, and much more.

Topics to be discussed:

• Trends in contemporary art (social criticism, new painting, installation – architectural approach – public space, photography, graphic design, applied arts, etc.). Examples of artists and their work.
• The functioning of the art scene – who is active (what types of professions are feasible in Estonia), how are they funded (Ministry of Culture, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, creative industries, the law that requires a 1% art budget for public buildings, private capital, the art market, artists and work), general diagnostics – bottlenecks and success stories. The development of the art scene since the 1990s, illustrated by keywords.
• Central institutions and platforms (public and private capital-based). What is characteristic for, e.g. galleries, town galleries in county seats, creative industries centres, etc.? Other examples: artists’ residencies, culture factories, Tallinn Art Hall, Tartu Art Museum, Temnikova and Kasela Gallery, Centre of Contemporary Art Estonia, Artists Union.
• Formats and locations of various events. Concentration of art scene mainly in Tallinn and Tartu – what’s going on elsewhere?

More information and link to registration form: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/the-contemporary-art-field-in-estonia/

Dates:  6-11 August 2018

Volume: 6 days, 3 ECTS

Location:  Estonian Academy of Arts

Number of participants: max 22

Cost: FREE (Please note that this course is meant for higher education students only)

Registration deadline:  6th of May

Students applying for a slot in this workshop are asked to submit a CV and cover letter describing why they wish to participate and whether they have any old article of clothing to bring with them to Estonia. The cover letter should also reveal why they are interested in restoring textiles and haute couture.

Aim of the course:

• bring a disappearing specialized manual skill to Estonia and teach it to Estonian and international students
• restore articles of clothing in the collection of some Estonian museum and thereby contribute to the preservation of an exhibit item with historical value.

Course content:

The course provides practical and theoretical knowledge of how to restore old clothing – selection of fabrics, stitches and seams, treatment of the material, how different materials age, how to care for and restore different fabrics. In the course of the workshop, students will learn about the internal structure of haute couture clothing, allowing them to later create period-specific silhouettes or re-interpretations of them – pattern solutions for textiles, materials. The course will provide knowledge and skills that can be used to get closer to the secrets of high fashion. All of the participants in the course will be able to restore a part of dresses brought in by the lecturer.

The course teaches handicraft skills that have become a rarity, something highly sought-after among professionals. ˇFewer and fewer people practise these skills in a world dominated by modern fashions. Today clothing made 40, 50, even 100 years ago are held in high regard, as they involved the use of original patterns, hand stitching, high-quality tailoring. To this point, the creation of such clothing have remained shrouded in arcane mystery – they seem easy to imitate at first glance but it is impossible to achieve the right effect without knowing what is going on “under the dress.”

The course is mainly meant for fashion design, theatre design, restoration and design students.

More information and link to registration form: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/the-anatomy-of-couture/

Dates:  20-25 August 2018

Volume: 6 days, 3 ECTS

Location:  Viljandi, Estonia

Number of participants: max 22

Cost: FREE (Please note that this course is meant for higher education students only)

Registration deadline:  6th of May

In addition to the general admissions requirements, candidates are expected to submit a letter of intent describing their interest in attending the workshop, and a PDF portfolio including documentation of at least one project relevant to the use and/or attributes of wood.

This 6-day workshop Wood and Design in the lush woodlands of Viljandi, Estonia, focuses on the design aesthetics, ecology, and sustainability of wood. Exploring the material properties of wood through its use in design, the workshop invites participants to build a set of functional wooden objects for outdoor living with the simplest of means. Participants will utilise wood, as a naturally-occurring renewable material, in two forms: solid slab and left-over scraps from local lumber mills. The workshop is therefore not only community-inspired, with materials sourced or found locally, but also meets the ever-growing need to reclaime and recycle waste wood.

Level:

2nd and 3rd year BA students and MA students in Interior Architecture, Furniture Design, or the equivalent.

More information and link to registration: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/wood-and-design/

Dates:  6-10 August 2018

Volume: 40 hours, 3 ECTS

Location:  Tallinn, Estonia

Number of participants: max 20

Cost: FREE (Please note that this course is meant for higher education students only)

Registration deadline:  6th of May

Aimed at design students; no programming skills necessary.

In addition to the general required materials, candidates are expected to submit a letter of motivation explaining why they are applying  and outlining their experience with Interaction Design so far (max A4). Students are expected to bring their own sketchbooks, markers and laptops.

Over the course of a week you will learn about the foundations, history and possible futures of interaction design within a studio environment. This 5-day hands-on workshop provides a solid foundational knowledge of user experience (UX) design  for new practitioners, as well as an in-depth exploration of interaction design for experienced designers. The course gives participants space and guidance to delve deeply into theoretical and practical aspects of interaction design by investigating contemporary issues and proposing design solutions.

Through a series of lectures, films, historic case studies and studio practice, participants will explore the nature and aesthetics of interaction design in the digital and physical space, in individual and group studio practice from ideation and the iterative design process to presentations and critique.

Learning outcomes:

• Learn about design foundations, theory, history and practice
• Understand how to look at problems from social, technological, economic and cultural perspectives
• Practice design research and synthesis
• Learn how to be creative in the digital realm
• Improve your ability to present your design concepts
• Practice working individually and in small teams

More information and link to registration form: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/interaction-design-tomorrow/

Supervised by Paul Paper

Dates:  16-17 August 2018

Volume: 12 hours + 14 independent work hours, 1 ECTS

Location:  Tallinn, Estonia

Number of participants: max 20

Cost: 290 €

Registration deadline:  6th of May

This short course will explore how visual recognition and AI-related technologies are changing the discourse of photography, challenging the traditional boundaries of the medium. Empowered by machine learning, visual recognition systems are entering the sphere of everyday life. From student dorms equipped with facial recognition in China to privately-owned surveillance systems in the US and UK, the technology is being rapidly deployed in a global rise of biometrics. What this transformation – and the resultant streams of endless machine-made images – offers is some innovative ways to think about the practice of image-making.

The course will provide students with the historical background of facial recognition and an opportunity to test and discuss some of the new technological features, as well as ask why and in what ways do these developments matter? Specific attention will be given to some of the problematic aspects of biometric surveillance and various ways artists are using new systems to produce meanings that challenge the dominant political discourse.

This course is meant for photography and visual arts students and those interested in the current technological developments in image-making, as well as their political, social and cultural implications.

Topics to be discussed:

– Visual recognition technology, apps and programmes using it and current development.

– Politics of (technological) vision and machine seeing.

– The historical context of 19^th century facial recognition discourse, as well as current research.

– The idea of pre-crime prevention and problematic aspects of biometric surveillance: prejudices in-built in the current systems of facial recognition and the “right to remain anonymous”.

– Artistic series that use – and comment on – current technology and ways of resisting visual identification.

More information and link to registration: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/photography-and-image-making/

Supervised by Jaanus Sakkis

Dates:  16-18 August 2018

Volume: 18 hours + 12 independent work hours, 1 ECTS

Location:  Tallinn, Estonia

Number of participants: max 20

Cost: 490 €
Price includes breakfasts, lunches, refreshments throughout, course materials, certificate of completion.

The course is aimed at graphic/web designers with 2+ years experience (page layout, colour, typography, visual communication).

Registration deadline:  6th of May

In addition to the general required materials, candidates are expected to submit a letter of motivation explaining why they are applying and what is their experience with User Experience and Branding so far(max A4). Participants are expected to bring their own sketchbooks, markers and laptops.

In this course, we will focus on brand-building in the context of the user experience (UX). If you look at the most popular brands in the digital field – Instagram, Uber, Dropbox etc – they are all built on a user experience design.

“Today, a brand is the holistic sum of customers’ experiences, composed of visual, tonal and behavioral brand components, many of which are shaped by interaction design.”
(Kate Kaplan /Nielsen Norman Group)

Great designers justify every decision in their design process in the interests of the best possible final product. If you need to justify your ideas and methods, you need to know the answers or solutions and that requires challenging yourself and asking the right questions. Our main topic will be understanding the user – what the user sees and how they feel when interacting with your product or service. How to make yourself as visual as possible? How to see these blind spots? These are places where we can lose our customers because we can’t understand why they don’t see how things are working.

We will also talk about how to ask questions. Questions are the main tools for the designers. If we don’t collect any data from our users, we make assumptions about what they like and want. When we make those assumptions, we begin to design for ourselves, not our users. We shouldn’t forget we are not our users.

In our lecture, we will talk about how UX is the future of branding. We’ll start from the beginning and talk about the main principles and differences in branding and UX.

*As designers, we know both user experience and branding are fighting a common enemy – people are confusing it with the visual elements alone. People might say they’re building a brand but they’re actually working on a logo design. As famously put by Marty Neumeier: “The brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what they say it is.”

During this 3-day session, you will learn:

• History and background of UX
• Introduction to the UX Fundamentals
• Learn to sketch smarter – wireframes and prototypes
• Visual design principles
• How to take “You” out of the user
• How to make your content make sense
• Watching users – listen and observe
• Understand the true idea of branding and why people buy brands
• Define a real value of your product
• Real-world tips and tricks
• A clear understanding of the principles and benefits of good UX and how to apply it to your design.

More information and link to registration: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/how-to-develop-ux/

Supervised by Jaanus Sakkis

Dates:  16-18 August 2018

Volume: 18 hours + 12 independent work hours, 1 ECTS

Location:  Tallinn, Estonia

Number of participants: max 20

Cost: 490 €
Price includes breakfasts, lunches, refreshments throughout, course materials, certificate of completion.

The course is aimed at graphic/web designers with 2+ years experience (page layout, colour, typography, visual communication).

Registration deadline:  6th of May

In addition to the general required materials, candidates are expected to submit a letter of motivation explaining why they are applying and what is their experience with User Experience and Branding so far(max A4). Participants are expected to bring their own sketchbooks, markers and laptops.

In this course, we will focus on brand-building in the context of the user experience (UX). If you look at the most popular brands in the digital field – Instagram, Uber, Dropbox etc – they are all built on a user experience design.

“Today, a brand is the holistic sum of customers’ experiences, composed of visual, tonal and behavioral brand components, many of which are shaped by interaction design.”
(Kate Kaplan /Nielsen Norman Group)

Great designers justify every decision in their design process in the interests of the best possible final product. If you need to justify your ideas and methods, you need to know the answers or solutions and that requires challenging yourself and asking the right questions. Our main topic will be understanding the user – what the user sees and how they feel when interacting with your product or service. How to make yourself as visual as possible? How to see these blind spots? These are places where we can lose our customers because we can’t understand why they don’t see how things are working.

We will also talk about how to ask questions. Questions are the main tools for the designers. If we don’t collect any data from our users, we make assumptions about what they like and want. When we make those assumptions, we begin to design for ourselves, not our users. We shouldn’t forget we are not our users.

In our lecture, we will talk about how UX is the future of branding. We’ll start from the beginning and talk about the main principles and differences in branding and UX.

*As designers, we know both user experience and branding are fighting a common enemy – people are confusing it with the visual elements alone. People might say they’re building a brand but they’re actually working on a logo design. As famously put by Marty Neumeier: “The brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what they say it is.”

During this 3-day session, you will learn:

• History and background of UX
• Introduction to the UX Fundamentals
• Learn to sketch smarter – wireframes and prototypes
• Visual design principles
• How to take “You” out of the user
• How to make your content make sense
• Watching users – listen and observe
• Understand the true idea of branding and why people buy brands
• Define a real value of your product
• Real-world tips and tricks
• A clear understanding of the principles and benefits of good UX and how to apply it to your design.

More information and link to registration: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/how-to-develop-ux/

Dates:  6-10 August 2018

Volume: 40 hours, 3 ECTS

Location:  Tallinn, Estonia

Number of participants: max 20

Cost: FREE (Please note that this course is meant for higher education students only)

Registration deadline:  6th of May

Aimed at design students; no programming skills necessary.

In addition to the general required materials, candidates are expected to submit a letter of motivation explaining why they are applying  and outlining their experience with Interaction Design so far (max A4). Students are expected to bring their own sketchbooks, markers and laptops.

Over the course of a week you will learn about the foundations, history and possible futures of interaction design within a studio environment. This 5-day hands-on workshop provides a solid foundational knowledge of user experience (UX) design  for new practitioners, as well as an in-depth exploration of interaction design for experienced designers. The course gives participants space and guidance to delve deeply into theoretical and practical aspects of interaction design by investigating contemporary issues and proposing design solutions.

Through a series of lectures, films, historic case studies and studio practice, participants will explore the nature and aesthetics of interaction design in the digital and physical space, in individual and group studio practice from ideation and the iterative design process to presentations and critique.

Learning outcomes:

• Learn about design foundations, theory, history and practice
• Understand how to look at problems from social, technological, economic and cultural perspectives
• Practice design research and synthesis
• Learn how to be creative in the digital realm
• Improve your ability to present your design concepts
• Practice working individually and in small teams

More information and link to registration: https://www.artun.ee/summeracademy/interaction-design-tomorrow/

Call for applications: International Summer Academy
Application deadline: May 6, 2018 / Register here!

The Open Academy of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EAA) is very excited to launch the second Tallinn Summer Academy of Art, Design and Architecture!

The courses will take place in August 2018 and focus on innovative, solution-seeking, salient topics: cooperation between the natural environment and humans in nature, mapping roads and traffic to improve the efficacy of investments into public space, Estonian artistic life in the regional and international context, bringing a fading specific skill to Estonia for restoring clothing exhibited at local museums, applying back-to-nature, sustainable and environmentally conscious ethos in high-level design and electronics and linking art and technology in Clay 3D printing. The teaching staff of the Summer Academy includes leading educators, researchers and artists from the EAA and partner universities.

The 2018 Summer Academy courses include:

Clay 3D Printing
Numbers and Cognition in Urban Environment
The Contemporary Art Field in Estonia
Flooded Summer School
Short Photography and Image-making course
How to Develop User Experience (UX) as a Key Component of Branding
The Anatomy of Couture
Wood and Design
Interaction Design Tomorrow

The Tallinn Summer Academy of Art, Design and Architecture – Presence and Possibilities is funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Most of the courses are free and the teaching language is English.

For more information about the courses and to register, visit artun.ee/summeracademy or contact summeracademy@artun.ee.

On the impact of designers in different organisational structures.

In the second open seminar for IxD.ma, and the first ever for IxDA Tallinn, we invite Ine Marie Vassøy, a Service Design lead from Cisco, to talk about working as a designer in small agencies versus big companies.

Ine is a Service Designer from Norway. She has years of experience working with different agencies, designing services for sectors such as healthcare, telecoms, energy, and finance. She holds an MA in Interaction Design from the Umeå Institute of Design, and has held senior positions in several internationally renown agencies, including Designit in Norway, Fjord and Spotless in London. Currently she is working for Cisco Systems Inc., where she is designing services for the future of collaboration.

Interaction design (IxD) is a theme that has emerged to address the ongoing advancements in technology and the way it relates to people. At IxD.ma we keep a broad view on the field, and cover more areas than what is related to digital technology.

The event is free and open for everyone. Please RSVP on EventBrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-seminar-critical-design-tickets-43316677348