Category: Faculty of Design

EMTA, EKA and BFM invite you to the Science Café!

On Tuesday, 28 April at 18:00, an evening of discussion will take place at Apollo Plaza bookshop, bringing together artistic researchers from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EMTA), the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) and the Baltic Film, Media and Arts School at Tallinn University (TLÜ BFM) to share the thinking behind their practice and research, and to explore the nature, methods and outcomes of artistic research.

This edition of the Science Café focuses on the theme “Artistic Research: Reality and Fiction”. The creative process involves imagination: the ability to envision things and bring new objects and worlds into being. The research process, including artistic research, involves argumentation, verification and the scrutiny of facts. How, then, can artistic research reconcile factuality with imagination and fantasy, which are, in essence, forms of fabrication, or the making and presenting of things in ways they ordinarily are not? This Science Café explores the connections between reality and fiction in artistic research through the interests and works of researchers from different fields.

The discussion will be held in English.

Moderator: Liis Nimik (TLU BFM)

Participants: Sveta Grigorjeva (EMTA), Jaak Sikk (EMTA), Jaana Päeva (EKA), Carlos Eduardo Lesmes Lopez (TLU BFM),

To participate, if possible, please sign up here: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSf07GGetTWMi2…/viewform

The event is free and open to all and takes place with the support of the Estonian Research Council’s science outreach programme.

Constellations in Metal: An Exploration of Baltic Typographic Identities.
Date: 24/04/2026
11.00 – 18.00
Room: A-501
Estonian Academy of Arts
Põhja puiestee 7
Tallinn 10412
or online.

Print culture has long been recognised as a driver of new identities (McLuhan 1962). In particular, print media have enabled the imagining of national communities, thereby shaping modern national consciousness (Anderson 2006). Typefaces, as cultural artefacts embedded in books, documents, and ephemera (Shaw 2017), are a tangible expression of this process. This theoretical framework is particularly evident in the Baltic context, seeing typography and identity intertwine throughout history and today. The conference explores this Baltic print and typographic heritage, including historic and contemporary examples. It builds on the initial findings of the Ministry of Culture Creative Research Grant (KUM-LU)Constellations in Type: Estonian Print Identity, 1918-1940, while extending the discussion to encompass perspectives from further regions.

Please register here: https://forms.gle/HkJ2z96vvVftYM9t9
The conference is also available online.

Please make it known in the form if you would like to attend online and we will send a link.

Speakers:

Aleksandra Samuļenkova
Paweł Schulz
Laimė Lukošiūnaitė
Lewis McGuffie
Julia Syrzistie
Danila Rygovskiy
Ivar Sakk

Conference program

10.30 Coffee and arrivals

11.00 Welcome and Introduction Danila.

11.30 Aleksandra Samuļenkova

12.15  Paweł Schulz

13.00 Lunch Break

14.00 Laimė Lukošiūnaitė

14.45 Lewis McGuffie

15.30 Coffee break

16.00 Julia Syrzistie

16.45 Ivar Sakk

18.00 Close

On Wednesday, the 18th of March, a series of written thesis presentations by the graduating students of Craft Studies will be held across different workshops at EKA. 

There are 8 texts as part of the components required for graduation, reflecting on a diverse range of topics and approaches relevant to students’ individual practices and the expanded field of design and craft, with links to making and to the relations of legwork, handwork, and headwork. In intimate reading sessions around the studios, graduates share fragments from their research and creative practice.

All texts were composed through research, writing and editing supervised by Else Lagerspetz, Lieven Lahaye and Taavi Hallimäe.

17:00 The silent hovering of forks by Lyly Letzer, Smithy, B106.4.

17:30 Fit olemise kunst: Kehaloomepraktika by Joanne-Heleene Sõrmus, Prototyping Lab, B204.

17:45 Hidden in Plain Sight by Marite Kuus-Hill, Graphic Design Department, C305.

18:00 That Which is Carried by the Spaces in Between by Mariam Mestvirishvili, Weaving Studio, D505.

18:15 Orienting Home: exploring the resonance of home in a post-colonial world by Sylvia Burgess, Jewellery Studio, B504.

18:30 Beyond Wearability: Accessories as Fluid Signs by Peixuan Lin, Accessory Studio, B510.

18:45 Held in Suspension: Ceramic Reproduction and The Lives of Found Objects by Maia Hellman, Ceramics Workshop, B602.

19:00 Moulds for the Wilderness: From the Borders to the Void by Odie Lap Chun Chow, Plaster Workshop, D602.1.

19:15 Gathering with food and refreshments, A200.

DANCING WITH THE STARS!
EKA Billboard Gallery 16.02.–14.06.2026
Open 24/7, free admission

The exhibition “Dancing with the Stars!” by the 1st year students of graphic design showcases the designed letters and the process of the class Typography I. During 14 weeks, several exercises and experimentations were carried out, drawing was done both by hand and on the computer, using things like stencils, feathers, rocks, nail polish or even keys.

While the first seven weeks were dedicated to experimentation and playing, the last seven focused on creating an entire alphabet and going through the whole letter design process. Vectorised letters were created which in turn were made into working font files during a week-long workshop.

Students: Johannes Adrik, Art Allik, Helen Forsel, Mia Klooren, Art Kruus, Adele Markova, Ischa Mestdagh, Jaako Lauri Puudist, Ann Aotäht Sarv, Mia Greta Sepp,Ariana Sigin, Linnea Süvari, Jakob Tüür, Karol Henrik Vana, Rei Helin Varres
Supervisor: Agnes Isabelle Veevo
Supervisor of the workshop: Patrick Zavadskis

The fonts can be downloaded for free from the SUVA Type Foundry website: suvatypefoundry.ee

SUVA Type Foundry makes the typefaces designed by EKA GD students public.

On January 13 at 16:00 in room A-501, Alison J. Clarke will give a public lecture titled “Design Anthropology: Its History and Its Discontents”. The lecture is part of the Faculty of Design’s public lecture series “Public Lectures in Design: Adjusting Perspectives,” curated by Stella Runnel and Taavi Hallimäe.

This talk explores the emergence of design anthropology as an approach that has gained popularity over the last two decades by melding social science and design practice. Clarke will argue the need to understand the phenomenon’s origins in the Cold War geopolitics of US expansionism, whereby it was applied as a political force to decolonized nations, in order to cast a critical eye over a contemporary practice that has come to operate as the invisible hand behind multiple facets of global life from health care provision, through to governance and data harnessing.

The public lectures are open to students, faculty, as well as anyone else interested in design!

​​Alison J. Clarke is a professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the director of Papanek Foundation. As a design historian and social anthropologist, Clarke’s research deals with the intersection of these disciplines, specifically in terms of their shared focus on the politics of material culture and social relations. Her most recent monograph Victor Papanek: Designer for the Real World (MIT Press, 2021) explores the controversial origins of social design, casting a critical perspective on the origins of a movement that has claimed to promote social justice through people-centred approaches. Her present book and research project Design Anthropology: Decolonizing and Recolonizing the Material World (MIT Press) explores the blurred historical boundaries between design practice and anthropology, and the social consequences of the uptake of this melding in the contemporary corporate sector. Clarke’s research has been supported by the Graham Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the Austrian Science Fund and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, among others.

EKA Graphic Design MA program invites prospective students to join the online info session on Thursday, January 29, 2026 at 17:00 EET (local Estonian time).

This will be an opportunity to hear more about the program, to meet and ask questions directly from the faculty.

The online info session will be hosted on Zoom, the link will be e-mailed to all registrants 2 hours before the start of the event.

Please register by Wednesday, 28 January 2026, 15:00h EET. A zoom-link will be e-mailed out to all registrants a few hours before the event starts.

Register HERE

Recording HERE

More information about the Graphic Design MA programme:

• https://eka-gd-ma.ee/
• https://www.artun.ee/ma-gd/
• https://www.instagram.com/ekagd_ma/

Admissions period starts on the 1st of February 2026 and application deadline is 2nd of March 2026 at 3pm EET (local Estonian time).

Admissions information here

EKA Interaction Design MA programme invites prospective Master’s students to join the online info session on Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 17:00 EET (local Estonian time).

You’ll have an opportunity to hear about the mission and philosophy of the programme, learn about student experiences and see their projects, take a virtual tour in our studios, and meet and ask questions directly from the faculty, students and alumni.

The info session will be hosted online over Zoom. If you would like to attend, please register online through the form below. A link to attend will be e-mailed shortly before the event begins.

Register HERE

Recording HERE

More information about the Interaction Design MA (IxD.ma) programme:

• https://www.ixd.ma
• https://www.artun.ee/ixd
• https://www.facebook.com/IxD.ma
• https://www.instagram.com/ixd.ma/

Admissions period starts on the 1st of February 2026 and application deadline is 2nd of March 2026 at 3pm EET (local Estonian time).

Admissions information here

EKA Craft Studies MA programme invites prospective master’s students to join the programme’s online info session on Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 17:00 EET (local Estonian time).

This will be a good opportunity to hear more about the curriculum, and to meet and ask questions from the people behind the programme.

The online info session will be hosted online over Zoom and the link will be e-mailed out to all registrants 2 hours before the start of the event.

If you would like to attend, please register online through the form below.

Register HERE

Recording HERE

More information about the Craft Studies MA programme: 

• https://www.artun.ee/en/curricula/craft-studies/overview/
• https://www.instagram.com/eka_craftstudies

Admissions period starts on the 1st of February 2026 and application deadline is 2nd of March 2026 at 3pm EET (local Estonian time).

Admissions information here

On December 2 at 16:00 in room A101, Andrea Caretto and Raffaella Spagna will give a public lecture titled “Bright Ecologies: Experiences, Forms, Materials”. The lecture is part of the Faculty of Design’s public lecture series “Public Lectures in Design: Adjusting Perspectives,” curated by Stella Runnel and Taavi Hallimäe.

The Italian artist duo Caretto/Spagna approach art as a space for radical openness, undisciplined inquiry, and deep engagement with the Things of the World: earth, seeds, people, stones, museums, rivers, quarries, trees, micro-organisms, and more. Through the activation of a constellation of objects – small sculptures, drawings, plants, found objects, etc – drawn from their personal archive, the artists will invite the audience on an interactive journey into their artistic research. 

The public lectures are open to students, faculty, as well as anyone else interested in design!

Andrea Caretto (Torino, 1970, Degree in Natural Sciences) and Raffaella Spagna (Rivoli, 1967, Degree in Architecture) have been working together since 2002, collaborating with public and private institutions in Italy and abroad. They live and work in Cambiano (TO).

Caretto and Spagna explore the complex web of relationships from which things emerge: the fluxes and cycles of matter and morphogenesis, the perception of the environment, the transformations of the landscape, the wild/cultivated relationship and the processes of domestication, the relationships between living/inhabiting/building. Their approach is based on an aptitude for “presence” and experience in the world, in close contact with matter in all its transformations and individualisations. An exercise of attention and care for things, understood as nodes in an interweave, which trains the ability to perceive everything that exists as a system of elements in continuous correspondence. They are among the founding members of the artists’ association Diogene in Torino, and Pianpicollo Selvatico ETS Foundation – center for research in the arts and the sciences, Levice (TO), and artistic consultants for Munlab Ecomuseo dell’Argilla in Cambiano (TO). They collaborate with the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences at the University of Torino and with Unidee Academy of Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella (IT).