Public architecture lecture: Marcel Smets

On March 9 at 6 pm, Marcel Smets will give the first lecture of the lecture series – The modern landscape of infrastructure.

As primary public investments in our societies are devoted to infrastructure, we need to consider roads, canals, railways, trams, cycle paths, etc., not merely as means of transport but rather as prime urban/ public spaces. For this reason, the lecture intends to sketch out how infrastructure design initially transformed from an architectural to an engineering project, and to clarify why this evolution is reversed today. Reviewing significant projects worldwide of recently implemented projects in transport infrastructure, it advances four important paradigms that dominate the landscape of infrastructure design today: 1. hiding its presence; 2. beautifying its form; 3. appreciating it as vehicle for urban improvement; 4. deploying it as the driving force for urbanization.

On Friday, March 10, at 11:30 am, will be Marcel Smets’ book “Foundations of Urban Design” (2022) launch and an open seminar with 4th-year architecture and urban planning students on the 4th floor of the atrium (A400) in EKA.

Everyone is welcome!

Marcel Smets is an architect and urbanist and emeritus professor of urban design at the University of Leuven. As academic, he taught urban design at the University of Leuven (B) and Harvard GSD. As urbanist, he was the head designer for certain important conversions: the Leuven Railway Station area, the Isle of Nantes, three complex nodes of the Antwerp Ring coverage project – and he directed fundamental projects for Brussels, Rouen, Genoa, Oporto, Conegliano. As scholar he published many articles (Archis, Casabella, Lotus, Planning Perspectives, Storia Urbana, Topos, Urbanisme and Urbanistica Etc.) and books: most recently The Landscape of Contemporary Infrastructure (2010–2016, with K. Shannon) and Foundations of Urban Design (2022). As public servant, he acted as spatial Advisor for the City of Leuven (1995–2001) and as Flemish State Architect (2005–2010).

Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.

The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture. All lectures take place in the large auditorium of EKA, are in English, free of charge.

The lecture series is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.

Curated by Andres Ojari

www.avatudloengud.ee

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

Thomas Eschenbach, development director of Priedemann Facade-Lab GmbH, will hold an open architecture lecture on energy-efficient facades in the EKA hall on March 9 at 4:00 pm.

The presentation of an engineer with 25 years of experience in the facade industry “Active Cavity Transition (ACT) Facade – transparency made energy-efficient” deals with effective solutions for modern building facades in all aspects. The architectural features of the facades, space efficiency, energy load, construction efficiency, lighting and temperature effects, as well as renovation solutions that a modern architect faces when designing, are under consideration.

ACT technology combines the advantages of traditional heat-retaining facades made of aluminum profiles with modern lighting, air exchange and temperature solutions in a new system that reduces investments and costs.

Priedemann Fasade-LAB is a competence center that participates in the development of non-traditional technologies and, together with research institutions and professional associations, guides the future of facade construction in practice.

The lecture is intended for architecture students and professionals. The lecture takes place in the large auditorium of EKA, is in English, free of charge and open to all interested parties.

Dezeen is featuring our international collaborative project Algae for Design-led Transition Towards Blue Bio-economy and the exhibition Seaweed Ceremony.

Algae for Design-led Transition Towards Blue Bio-economy

“Over the years, the design and architecture faculties of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) have focused on local environments – from post-industrial landscapes to wild forests and the Baltic Sea.

“While focusing on process and experience-led methods in design education, EKA has been involved in the following ongoing project, including summer schools, fieldwork, laboratory experiments, exhibitions and published texts.

“The main objective of the joint projects is to realise the potential of what is emergent – to co-design alternative pathways for bio-economy development in the Nordic-Baltic region – while preserving the health and well-being of ecosystems.

Read more: 
https://www.dezeen.com/2023/02/27/estonian-academy-of-arts-algae-project-schoolshows/

Blue Bio-economy project is funded by Nordplus.

The Installation and Sculpture Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts presents: Young Sculptor Award Exhibition 2023

On March 1, the Young Sculptor Prize Exhibition (NSPN) taking place in the ARS Project Room includes the following nominees:

Josefine Green, Sophia Hallmann, Mara Kirchberg, Lisethe Maas, Rose Magee, Eke Ao Nettan, Sarah Noonan, Paula Oberndorfer, Didi van der Putte, Kertu-Liisa Sarap, Asmus Soodla, Sonja Sutt, Kail Timusk and Mattias Veller.

The purpose of the Young Sculptor Award and the accompanying exhibition is to highlight and recognize the professional activities of young artists working in sculpture and installation. On display is a selection of works completed by EKA students over the past year, from which a jury consisting of experts in turn selects the best. The winners will be announced at the opening of the exhibition on March 1.

The main organizer of the award exhibition, Taavi Talve: “At the award exhibition, you can see a wide range of different artistic practices, from interventions in the exhibition space that are almost imperceptible at first glance, to works that invite the viewer to actively interact with themselves. It must be recognized that making a choice from among works of a steadily increasing level is no longer an easy task, and we can only hope that all the remaining projects will also find their way to their audience in one way or another”.

Today, NSPN has become one of the most famous Estonian new art awards. Attention and victory at the exhibition have become a springboard to the central field of Estonian art.

The winner of 2022, Junny Yeung, Master of Contemporary Art at EKA, was also recognized with the EKA Young Artist Master’s Award in 2022. The NSPN 2021 laureate Sarah Nõmm received an important recognition in the form of the 2022 Eduard Wiiralt scholarship. Hanna Piksarv, Sten Saarits, Anna Mari Liivrand, Johannes Valdma, Rosa Violetta Grötsch, Johannes Luik, Siim Elmers and Sarah Nõmm have previously received the Young Sculptor Award.

Craft Studies @ Scan Magazine

Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA): Develop your field at Estonia’s world-leading arts academy
By Lena Hunter

Inside the Craft Studies Master’s programme

The Craft Studies course is spearheaded by the interdisciplinary artists Juss Heinsalu and Kärt Ojavee, whose own practices in ceramics, smart textiles and broader material exploration shape the uniquely inquisitive curriculum. Accepting some ten students per year, the course offers a framework for drafting individual material-based practice and advancing critical thinking.

“It’s a heavily studio-based approach, composed of one-on-one mentoring, collaborative and unconventional learning experiences. In the contemporary world, studio practice is not something fixed. Nomadic aspects have to be considered. The crucial footwork – collective field trips – takes us to the local bogs, wild woods and coastal boundaries here by the Baltic Sea, as well as on journeys further afield,” explains Heinsalu.

…

Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA): Develop your field at Estonia’s world-leading arts academy

Peer-reviewing of Art and Design PhD students Arife Dila Demir and Nesli Hazal Oktay will take place on Monday, February 20, at 10.00-15.30 (GMT+2) in the Estonian Academy of Arts, auditorium A501.
The peer review events will be in a hybrid format. Please find the Zoom link to participate HERE (Passcode: 054867).

Schedule
10.00–10.15 Coffee
10.15–10.30 Welcoming words
10.30–12.00 Arife Dila Demir’s Peer Review
Peer reviewers: Dr. Claudia Núñez-Pacheco & Dr. Michaela Honauer
12.00–14.00 Break for Lunch
14.00–15.30 Nesli Hazal Oktay’s Peer Review
Peer reviewers: Dr. Oscar Tomico & Dr. Verena Fuchsber

4th year PhD student Arife Dila Demir will present her third design case study titled Pain Creature.

Dila is working in the fields of interactive textiles, somaesthetics, soma design and embodied engagements. In her doctoral studies, she explores how interactive wearable textiles can facilitate the somaesthetic awareness (bodily sensory awareness) of bodily discomforts. She defines bodily discomforts as embodied events that disrupt the everyday flow of the bodies such as migraine, fibromyalgia, depression or chronic pain and in her project she specifically works with musculoskeletal chronic pain. In her third case study titled Pain Creature she explores how may soma extensions (interactive wearables that mediate sound-motion-touch interactions) be designed to address the changing needs of the bodies in chronic pain? In doing so, Dila designed Pain Creature informed by the different reflections of her chronic pain experience. The artifact consists of five components that represent the five qualities of chronic pain with different visual, sonic and touch expressions. In her third case study, she lived with Pain Creature interacting with it whenever she needed without any time restrictions. As a result, three notions emerged to be considered when designing for temporal bodily experiences. These are 1) moving through pains, 2) listening to pains and 3) thinking with pains. In her third peer review event, Dila will present the design and making process of Pain Creature as well as the results of her study.

Reviewers:
Dr. Claudia Nuñez-Pacheco, KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Dr. Michaela Honauer, Universiteit Twente, the Netherlands
Supervisors:
Dr. Nithikul Nimkulrat, OCAD University, Canada
Dr. Kristi Kuusk, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia

3rd year PhD student Nesli Hazal Oktay will present her second design case study titled Intimacy with Far-away Bodies.

Nesli is working in the fields of interaction design, intimacy, and embodied engagements. In her doctoral studies, she designs close-to-body engagements for people who are close by heart but physically apart. Our bodies can play a significant role in maintaining and nourishing intimacy. In remote connections, the bodies are geographically separated, so intimacy is experienced remotely without shared physicality of the bodies. In this light, Nesli’s explores in which ways close-to-body engagements extend the sense of intimacy in remote connections. More specifically in her second design case study titled Intimacy with Far-away Bodies, Nesli supports the access to the felt experiences of people who experience remote intimacy. She illustrates her design research exploration from her remote intimacy experiences that are grounded within her-sense making attempts as a daughter and a designer. Intimacy with Far-away Bodies unfolds in three phases: i) transforming agar, glycerin, and water into rings with her father; ii) wearing the ring in their everyday lives; and iii) stumbling upon data. Stumbling upon data is the result of eliciting their first-and-second person felt experiences of phases one (i) and two (ii) through photography, self-reporting and interview. In her second peer review event, Nesli will present the design process and findings of Intimacy with Far-away Bodies as well as the plans for her third case.

Reviewers:
Dr. Oscar Tomico, ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering, Spain & Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Dr. Verena Fuchsberger, University of Salzburg, Austria

Supervisors:
Dr. Kristi Kuusk, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia
Prof. Danielle Wilde, Umeå University, Sweden and University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

The Video Works Screening is a new programming initiative to bridge student artists from all EKA departments and create community-based social events. 

We value experimentation, works-in-progress, finished work, documentary, and animations. Any ideas that encourage new techniques and perspectives are welcomed. 

We are accepting films that are under 5 minutes in duration*. Deadline for submissions is no later than Wednesday, February 22. Submissions will not be juried and we hope all videos that fit within the submission guidelines will be screened. Screening time will be given to the earliest received submissions so please apply as soon as possible!

Link to application Open Call – Video Works Screening: Uus Rada Open Call Application: Video Works Screening

You can email us for more details or questions at uusrada@artun.ee or on our instagram @uusrada 

Group exhibition “CONTACT LINE” at Stockmann Gallery, 5th floor
16.02.–16.04.2023

Exhibition opening February 16, 6 p.m.

“CONTACT—LINE” is a group exhibition that combines the latest works of painting, ceramics, fashion and blacksmithing students of the Estonian Academy of Arts, as well as their artistic practices and techniques. On the gallery space on the fifth floor of Stockmann, students’ works that have not been widely exhibited before will visually come into contact with each other. The exhibition features works inspired by nature, the urban environment, as well as the memories and feelings of each artist.

Paint and canvas are materials with which one deals with feeling and interpreting one’s inner world and the world around one. The personal narratives, emotional experiences and states of mind that provided the material for the paintings leave enough room for interpretation for the viewer. Serene by nature, ceramic works and utensils give one of the oldest art forms a modern presentation opportunity. In the core of the Stockmann Gallery, you can find sets assembled from different collections of the fashion student who creates parallels with nature and the works of two metal artists add vigor to the exhibition.

Exhibition curators:
Cristopher Siniväli, Santa Zukker

EKA artists participating in the exhibition:
Karola Ainsar, Margus Elizarov, Maria Hindreko, Sander Karjus, Paavo Kuldkepp, Daria Kylm, Lilian Maasik, Rebecca Norman, Visa Eino Eduard Nurmi, Valerija Oja, Valeria Poljakova, Karl-Christoph Rebane, Maria Elise Remme, Marion Saarik, Siret Schutting, Cristopher Siniväli, Helena Tääker, Marta Vikentjeva, Anna-Liisa Villmann, Elisa Margot Winters, Santa Zukker

Thank you:
Stockmann, ceramics department, painting department and textile department of the Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhjala Brewery 

The works at the exhibition can also be purchased if desired. More detailed information can be requested by writing an email to taakerhelena@gmail.com