Category: Doctoral School

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).

The Estonian Academy of Arts, Curriculum of Art and Design’s PhD student Varvara Guljajeva will defend her thesis “From interaction to post-participation: the disappearing role of the active participant”(“Interaktsioonist osalusjärgsuseni: aktiivse osaleja kaduv roll”) on the 21st of December 2018 at 12.00 at Põhja pst 7 building, room A101.

Supervisors:dr Raivo Kelomees (Estonian Academy of Arts) and dr Pau Waelder (The Open University of Catalonia)

Pre-reviewers:prof dr Christa Sommerer (Interface Cultures, The University of Art and Design Linz) and prof dr Moises Mañas Carbonell (Faculty of Fine Arts, Polytechnic University of Valencia)

Opponent: prof dr Christa Sommerer (Interface Cultures, The University of Art and Design Linz)

The practice-based dissertation analyses and contextualises passive audience interaction through the lens of post-participation. Research explores the shift from active to passive participation in interactive art. By exploring interactive art history and the discourse of identity within the field, this dissertation investigates how artworks that demonstrate no audience involvement, but still incorporate an internal system interaction with a data source, are addressed. In other words, the research tracks down the interest shift from human-machine to system-to-system interaction, and explores the reasons behind this.

In this thesis, a differentiation is made between direct and indirect post-participation. Hence, the selected artworks are analysed from the perspective of concept, direct or indirect post-participation components, and realisation. In addition, related artworks by other artists are introduced and discussed under each subcategory of post-participation.

In the end, the dissertation contributes to the evolution of interactive art, by analysing and contextualising passive audience participation in the form of post-participation. Author argues 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 in which humans are continuously tracked, traced, monitored and surveilled without our consent.

Please find the PhD thesis here.

The defense will be in English.

Exhibition dates:

15.11.2018 12-18

16.11.2018 12-20

Sofia Hallik’s “Tangibility Matters” exhibition finissage takes place on Friday, November 16th, in the ARS Project Room at 18.00.

Peer-review event takes place in Nov 16th, at 14.00 in ARS Project Room (Pärnu mnt 154, Tallinn)

Supervisors: prof Kadri Mälk and dr Jaak Tomberg

Peer – reviewers: dr Kärt Ojavee and dr Raivo Kelomees

Works on display are made as a part of a PhD thesis, and consist of wearable objects that are a hybrid of hand work and digital production. While working on a jewellery, the author is in need of touch and tactility, while an object that is made using 3D printing appears as an empty form, which demands substance. In the world of tech, because the process of work using CAD or 3D printing excludes tangibility, the author is lacking physical contact with a work of art. That is exactly why in these series of works the artist razes in a way the digital tarnish from the surface of the printed object by implementing hand work and traditional jewellery techniques. In this way a 3D printed object gains emotional expressiveness.

The works presented during the exhibition originate from two contradictory principles: digital production and hand work, and embody the mutual closeness of human and the machine. In other words, while people approach the digital world, technology becomes more and more humane.

Sofia Hallik (1991) is a jewellery artist, designer and PhD student at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In her doctoral thesis “Hand vs. Machine: Three Methods of Jewellery Making” (supervisors prof. Kadri Mälk and Dr. Jaak Tomberg) Sofia focuses on innovative materials and digital technologies. What interests her the most is the way digital technology influences jewellery.

Special thanks to: Kadri Mälk, Jaak Tomberg, Oskar Narusberk, EAA Jewellery and Blacksmithing department, 3D Koda OÜ.

The exhibition was made possible with the support of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Date: November 19, 2018 at 14.00 – 17.30

Venue: Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7, room A502

Lecturer: Pia Sivenius

The idea of using psychoanalysis for artistic research seems tempting for artists in various fields, designers and architects. The aim of the seminar is to introduce the cornerstones of the theories of psychoanalysis and reflect on their uses in the field of arts. The seminar is open to PhD and MA students.

Pia Sivenius specialises in the French psychoanalysis theories. She has published numerous articles on the subject and translated the works of Lacan, Kristeva and Irigaray into the Finnish language. She is the long standing research coordinator in Aalto Arts (formerly University of Art and Design Helsinki) which gives her valuable insight into current artistic research.

Registration

Theseminar is open to PhD and MA students. Registration is open until16.11.

Registration form.

Program

14.00-15.30 seminar

15.30-16.00 break

16.00-17.30 seminar

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).

The next lecturer of the Open Lecture Series this autumn semester will be Jason Hilgefort, stepping on the stage of the large hall of the new EKA building on 4th of October at 6 pm to talk about the disruptive developments of dispersed infrastructure.

Jason’s lecture is titled “Dispersed Infrastructures for New Collective Urban Constellations”. Cities began as a simple collection of individuals sharing common elements. They have slowly evolved to include megageopolitical networks. These systems have been manifested by large, far reaching governmental and corporate built forms. With the emergence of dispersed infrastructural realities (mobiles, drones, etc), we stand at a disruptive moment – where the assumed reliance of human habitat upon top down forms is in question. A new form of interdependent individuality is possible.

Jason studied urban planning and design at The University of Cincinnati and architecture at The University of British Columbia – Vancouver. His work experience ranges from New York (Ehrenkrantz Eckstut and Kuhn), to Los Angeles (Behnisch Architekten) to Mumbai (Rahul Mehrotra). From 2000 to 2004 he worked with Sustainable Urbanist and innovator Peter Calthorpe. After joining Maxwan A+U in 2007, he was involved in the ongoing projects Moscow A101, Central District Rotterdam, and Barking Riverside in London. Also, Jason lead a series of Maxwan’s competition victories – in Helsinki, Basel, Kiev, Hannover, Ostrava, Magdeburg, and Kaunas. During that time won Europan 11 in Vienna. Since then he formed Land+Civilization Compositions for investigating issues ranging from daily objects, to infrastructures, to cultural research. He is also a contributor to uncube magazine with writing on ‘architecture and beyond’.

Land+Civilization Compositions is a Randstad (Netherlands) and Istanbul (Turkey) based office that works and collaborates on issues related to built form, with a portfolio scope from research to design. According to LCC we are living at a time when the connections between the professions, which are engaged in the shaping of built form, are getting stronger and the differences amongst them are blurring. Glocal economic context, and emerging social and environmental issues are leading the way to a new set of priorities. A new generation of ‘urban thinkers’ is emerging and ‘process’ is becoming more prominent than the ‘product’.

The architecture and urban planning 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. Jason Hilgefort’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
https://www.facebook.com/EKAarhitektuur/

More info:
Pille Epner
E-post: arhitektuur@artun.ee
Tel. +372 642 0071